Charonia

Charonia is a genus of very large sea snails, commonly known as Triton's trumpets or Tritons. They are marine gastropod mollusks in the family Ranellidae.

Etymology

The common name "Triton's trumpet" is derived from the Greek god Triton, who was the son of Poseidon, god of the sea. The god Triton is often portrayed blowing a large seashell horn similar to this species; such trumpets are also still occasionally made in modern times.

Fossil records

This genus is known in the fossil records from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary (age range: from 94.3 to 0.012 million years ago). Fossils are found in the marine strata throughout the world.

Description

Species within the genus Charonia have large fusiform shells, usually whithish with brown or yellow markings.

The shell of the giant triton Charonia tritonis (Linnaeus, 1758), which lives in the Indo-Pacific faunal zone, can grow to over half a metre (20 inches) in length.

One slightly smaller (shell size 100–385 millimetres (3.9–15.2 in) but still very large species, Charonia variegata (Lamarck, 1816), lives in the western Atlantic, from North Carolina to Brazil.