When we picture the classic seashell, the one we held up to our ears as children to listen to the ocean – well, that seashell has a name: the Giant Tun!
Its name derives from Latin, and means barrel or helmet. Together with the Atlantic Triton’s Trumpet, it is one of the largest and most beautiful gastropods found in the Mediterranean. Given its considerable size, with its shell reaching a diameter of 13-20 cm, this mollusc certainly does not go unnoticed.
Although its thin shell is of a light brown color, the mollusc itself has a whitish body speckled with numerous irregular streaks of dark color, generally brown or blackish. The animal begins its active phase at twilight, preferring to pass the daylight hours buried in the sand of the seabed, often leaving only a slight lump in the sand to signal its presence. The Giant Tun is a large nocturnal predator and feeds mainly on bivalve molluscs, which it finds hidden in the sand. It is able to perforate its prey’s shells thanks to the corrosive acids secreted by the glands of its digestive system (aspartic acid and sulfuric acid).
Historical Curiosity
In ancient times, its shell was used as a container to decant or contain oil.
