Biodiversity Commons^™

Conus: First Comprehensive Conservation Red List Assessment Of A Marine Gastropod Mollusc Genus, Howard Peters, Bethan C. O'Leary, Julie P. Hawkins, Kent E. Carpenter, Callum M. Roberts

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Marine molluscs represent an estimated 23% of all extant marine taxa, but research into their conservation status has so far failed to reflect this importance, with minimal inclusion on the authoritative Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We assessed the status of all 632 valid species of the tropical marine gastropod mollusc, Conus (cone snails), using Red List standards and procedures to lay the groundwork for future decadal monitoring, one of the first fully comprehensive global assessments of a marine taxon. Three-quarters (75.6%) of species were not currently considered at risk of extinction owing …