Money cowrie | |
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Live animal, with mantle visible | |
Five views of a shell of Monetaria moneta | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Mollusca |
Class: | Gastropoda |
Subclass: | Caenogastropoda |
Order: | Littorinimorpha |
Family: | Cypraeidae |
Genus: | Monetaria |
Species: | M. moneta
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Binomial name | |
Monetaria moneta | |
Synonyms[1][2] | |
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Monetaria moneta, common name the money cowrie, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.[1]
This species is called "money cowrie" because the shells were historically widely used in many Pacific and Indian Ocean countries as shell money before coinage was in common usage.
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