Queen Conch

Aliger gigas, originally known as Strombus gigas and more recently as Lobatus gigas, commonly called the queen conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family of true conches, Strombidae. It is one of the largest molluscs native to the Caribbean Sea and the tropical northwestern Atlantic, reaching up to 35.2 centimetres in shell length, and is closely related to the goliath conch of Brazil and the rooster conch. It is herbivorous, feeding by browsing for plant and algal material in seagrass beds and scavenging decaying plant matter, and its large, solid, heavy shell carries knob-like spines on the shoulder and a flared, thick outer lip that develops only once the snail reaches reproductive age, the thickness of that lip indicating how old the conch is.