[Lee Stewart]

These pretty, marble-shelled mollusks are equipped with a needle-like tooth that injects prey with venom. Cone snails launch this to latch onto a target, paralyzing their victim. Some use this brutal technique to feed on worms while others feed on fish, and it’s the latter – particularly the geography cone snail – that’s potent enough to kill humans. Found around the Caribbean, Hawaii, Florida and Indonesia, they’re also known as cigarette snails because the poison acts so quickly there’s just enough time to light up before you die.