From the slow-moving snail heading down the path in your yard to the Giant African Land Snails that people keep as pets (why?), there’s something iconic about the moisture-loving molluscs that can be found all across the world.

And whether you’re on land or in water, you can be sure there’s a species of snail somewhere nearby.

In fact, there are more than 40,000 species of snail across the world, with these gastropods ranging between the 0.48cm Angustopila psammion to the 75cm long Syrinx aruanus or Australian trumpet snail. In fact, this hefty beast can weigh up to 18kg; incredibly, that’s about the same average weight of a female Siberian Husky.

And while most of these shelled friends are benevolent, there are some species of snail that, for your own safety, you’d probably be better not to meet.

Unbelievably, it’s not even the big ones.

When a tourist at the Red Sea in Egypt posted a creature he spotted on Reddit recently, the lesson he learned about was a very clear one.

Not only had he come across a dangerous creature while snorkelling, but by naively picking it up he potentially put his own life in danger.

Unbeknownst to him of course, since he was alarmingly even considering taking the shell home, as he explained in his post alongside a photo of the snail in his hands:

“This is a picture from underwater GoPro taken a while ago. I thought I just found a very pretty seashell and was thinking about taking it home as a souvenir, but I noticed it’s still alive, feeling some weight and movement inside, so I decided to at least take some pictures of it.

Only months later I was told handling it like this might have been a very bad idea. Could you help me ID exactly what it was and what kind of danger I was really in? Was it realistically a threat to my life?”

And while his cavalier attitude toward nature was decried by many of the commenters on his post (let nature be nature, it’s not your possession to take home!) the clearest message throughout the replies was that this guy was lucky to have survived his encounter with this beautiful but harmless-looking snail:

“This is a textile cone snail, Conus textile. All cone snails are venomous and this species is one of those known to be dangerous to humans. Deaths are rare, about 30 are known to have occurred among all cone snail species, but likely underreported. So yeah, it was a bad idea to just pick it up, especially underwater where it was very likely alive. It could have killed you.”

Why are textile cone snails so dangerous?

Well, according to the experts at Aquarium of the Pacific, the textile cone snail is actually among the most venomous creatures on Earth. That’s because they have special teeth with which they capture and incapacitate their prey. Their harpoon-like teeth puncture the prey and inject toxic venom into the creature. This venom can paralyze or kill their prey. Why? Because snails move slowly, so they are never going to win in a chase.

But by paralyzing the prey for long enough to capture and devour them, the textile cone snail ensures that its meal does not get away. And, like many animals in nature, the wildly decorated shell should act as a warning to other creatures; this guy is venomous!

Unfortunately, like magpies, we humans have developed something of a proclivity toward collecting pretty things. And the shell of a textile cone snail definitely falls within that category. This is how most people end up getting stung (or, in rare cases, even killed) by the venom of a textile cone snail – by trying to collect it from the beach or ocean.

The clear message here: if you see a pretty animal (or an ugly one, for that matter) you can look, but don’t touch.

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