In today's continuation of my never ending strange animal saga we have...Xenophora!
This is a genus of medium to large marine snails commonly as carrier shells.
These snails are best known for their really unique looks, a result of their habit to attaching stuff on their shells, like pebbles or other shells
Although the foreign objects are usually mollusk shells, pebbles, or small pieces of coral rock, in some instances a bottle cap has been attached by the snail to its shell. source and further reading
Just look at this fucker
And this one
They look like small sea tanks ready for combat if you ask me 😂
However, all those... add ons are not for combat! Probably..
They are either for camouflage or to prevent them from sinking, depending on the species and the depths it inhabits
It is not known to what extent an artistic sensibility plays a part in this behavior. The snails who live in shallower water (where there is enough light for them to be seen) probably use their collections for camouflage. The ones that live in the deeper, dark waters, such as X. pallidula, are believed to be motivated more by a desire to not to be sucked into the viscous muck in which they live.
Here's another cool looking individual, this one looks more like a fortress 😂
Apparently these fellas are quite rare and some species even got extinct recently so consider yourself lucky if you ever see one! And if it's still alive...just let it live to see another day _
If you love em like I do there are many on eBay for sale! Heh, mayybe I'll buy one or two..Hopefully it will be the real deal and not just another species with shit glued on it 😂😂
Anyways, cool little sea fuckers !
As always, feel free to visit the links down below for more info and more cool photos!
See you soon with more strange wonders from the animalia kingdom!
P.S. spamming Tagging @enginewitty cause he loves this shit
References & Further Reading
More Strange Animals
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