Indeed. Specifically, the so-called cone snails (of the genus Conus ) are very dangerous, apparently harmless tropical marine gastropods that dig their teeth like harpoons into their prey and inject them with paralyzing poisons made up of a potent mixture of one hundred to two hundred different neurotoxins . In addition, these predators have been shown to constantly change and refine their venoms to increasingly target the neuromuscular systems of their prey. Two evolutionary biologists at the University of Michigan (USA) recently demonstrated that the venom of these animals changes rapidly thanks to a rapid and continuous duplication of genes over the last eleven million years. This prevents their prey from becoming resistant over time.
The most lethal species is the geographer cone ( Conus geographus ) , native to the reefs of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Its poison has no antidote. Paradoxically, among its toxins, proteins have been found that, once isolated, have enormous analgesic potential, up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine.
