Conus crocatus Lamarck, 1810
Crocatus cone, 59mm

Conus crocatus is a rare species in the Marshalls. For a time in the 1960s and 1970s, occasional specimens could be found under rocks or buried in rubble on some of the rubble-topped pinnacles such as those at N and K9 buoys. Those seemed to vanish by the mid '80s. Over the last few years, we have seen a few living animals under rocks in about 30m of water at the bases of some of the large midlagoon pinnacles. Another tented cone, it is probably a mollusk eater.

The small individual below was found exposed on a rubble slope of Y-buoy pinnacle at night on 22 October 2016. The rubble was created in May 2015 when a cargo ship ran aground on this pinnacle, turning the living coral on top to pure white coral rubble. The rubble was recolonized with algae, then grazers and encrusting organisms, and finally their predators. While still looking something like a wasteland, there is once again life in the area crushed by the ship.

Created 4 July 2009
Updated 12 March 2020

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