Lyncina leviathan

Lyncina leviathan is a species of tropical sea snail, a cowry, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.

Description
The shells of these cowries reach on average 60 mm of length, with a minimum size of 22 mm and a maximum size of 98 mm. The dorsum surface of these elongated, smooth and shiny shells is pink-salmon, crossed by darker bands. The base is whitish or pale pinkish or pale brown, with a long and wide aperture with several teeth. In the living cowries the mantle is brownish, almost transparent and well developed, with external antennae and several sensorial tree-shaped papillae. This species is superficially similar to Lyncina carneola.

Distribution
Lyncina leviathan is common throughout the tropical Indian (East Africa, Red Sea) and the central Pacific Oceans, in the sea along Thailand, Australia, Polynesia and Hawaii.

Habitat
They inhabit rocky intertidal areas and caves in very shallow water, but they can reach up to 40 m of depth.

Subspecies
Three subspecies are known:
 * Lyncina leviathan leviathan Schilder & Schilder, 1937 - leviathan cowry, endemic to Hawaii
 * Lyncina leviathan bouteti Burgess & Arnette, 1981 - Boutet's leviathan cowry, found throughout Polynesia
 * Lyncina leviathan titan Schilder & Schilder, 1962 - titanic cowry, found throughout the Indian and central Pacific Oceans