Branched murex

About this species

Chicoreus ramosus, common name the ramose murex or branched murex, is a species of predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae, the murex snails. It is considered an economically important species in the Indo-West Pacific, especially in India.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Chicoreus ramosus”, 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: 61 records
February: 55 records
March: 35 records
April: 40 records
May: 58 records
June: 48 records
July: 56 records
August: 63 records
September: 52 records
October: 55 records
November: 69 records
December: 54 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–30 m · Deepest record: 50 m

0–10 m: 9 records
10–20 m: 9 records
20–30 m: 8 records
30–40 m: 2 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–30 °C

14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 0 records
18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 1 records
22–24 °C: 4 records
24–26 °C: 36 records
26–28 °C: 41 records
28–30 °C: 55 records

Photos

(c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Leonel Roget, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Doreen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Piotr Lukasik, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Branched murex, Giant murex, Ramose murex, Ram's murex, branched murex, giant murex, ramose murex, ram's murex

Names in 2 more languages

German: Riesen-Murex, Riesenstachelschnecke
Japanese: テングガイ

Other scientific names: Chicoreus (Chicoreus) ramosus, Murex fortispinna, Murex frondosus, Murex inflatus, Murex ramosus, Purpura fusiformis, Purpura incarnata

Similar species

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).
355 open-data records from 1929 to 2012.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.