Voting period is over. Please don't add any new votes. Voting period ends on 10 Jan 2011 at 17:54:53 (UTC)
Original - This Indian Ocean species is considered to be sacred and is one of the Eight auspicious symbols in Hinduism and Buddhism. The live animal is notable for having gills and an operculum.
Reason
Commons FP giving comprehensive views of a shell. High res and satisfactory image quality imo. Note that there is currently a backlog of a further four Commons FPs by the same creator, also depicting various snail shells.
Comment. The image description says: "the pictured specimen is outstanding by its orange coloured aperture". Does this mean that this specimen is not typical for this species? Spikebrennan (talk) 14:22, 5 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Colourings and shapes of Turbinella pyrum are variable. There are several local races from different geographic regions, and the sea environment and condition of the sea bed also influences their shape and colour, as far as I understand. The variable appearance is further confused due to the brown markings on the exterior fading with age, so newer shells may have many and older shells may have none at all. Some types of Turbinella pyrum have brick-red apertures and others pure white, and there are shades in between. Based on this information, I would suggest that there is no reason not to consider this representative of the species. It may be that the type shown here is less predominant than shells of other colours, but I may be wrong and one could always ask the creator to clarify his comment. Maedin\talk19:28, 7 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
