Giant triton

About this species

Charonia tritonis, common name the Triton's trumpet, the giant triton, the Pacific triton or pū is a species of very large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Charoniidae, the tritons. Reaching up to two feet in shell length this is one of the biggest mollusks in the coral reef.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Charonia tritonis”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 37 records
February: 30 records
March: 44 records
April: 35 records
May: 46 records
June: 38 records
July: 49 records
August: 49 records
September: 72 records
October: 81 records
November: 48 records
December: 32 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 8–16 m · Deepest record: 390 m

0–10 m: 12 records
10–20 m: 74 records
20–30 m: 1 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 21–30 °C

20–22 °C: 2 records
22–24 °C: 17 records
24–26 °C: 53 records
26–28 °C: 46 records
28–30 °C: 67 records

Photos

(c) Susan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Daniel Benák, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) cello caruso-turiello, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Giant triton, Pacific triton, Triton's trumpet, Triton's trumpet shell, Trumpet triton, Atlantic Trumpet Triton, giant triton, Giant Triton Snail, Giant Triton's Trumpet Snail, triton's trumpet, trumpet triton

Names in 6 more languages

German: Echtes Tritonshorn, Pazifisches Tritonshorn, Tritonschnecke, Tritonshorn
Spanish: Bucio
French: Toutoute, Triton géant, Triton géant, Triton, Conque
Japanese: ホラガイ
Thai: หอยสังข์แตร
Simplified Chinese: 大法螺

Other scientific names: Eutritonium tritonis, Murex tritonis, Septa tritonia, Triton imbricata, Triton marmoratum, Triton tritonis

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
265 open-data records from 1758 to 2024.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.