© Joseph Dougherty. All rights reserved.  Murex pecten   Lightfoot,1786 Venus Comb Murex   The shell has over one hundred spines, arranged in three main rows of long spines with shorter, obliquely oriented spines between the longer ones. These provide protection from predation, and prevent the snail from sinking in the soft mud of the deep ocean bottom where it is found. Like many other murex snails, it feeds primarily on other mollusks.
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