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The Tiger Cowrie is an undeniably beautiful addition to any marine aquarium. Its heavy, egg-shaped shell is gorgeously patterned with lustrous spots and is as glossy and smooth as if it were deliberately polished. It’s no wonder then, that despite being little more than a large sea snail, the species is particularly familiar to reef-keeping aquarists, but then again, it’s been popular for a very long time…
 
The tiger cowrie was in fact one of the species originally described by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish physician and naturist who created the biological naming scheme of binomial nomenclature. Indeed the tiger cowrie is described in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae, and still bears its original name of Cypraea tigris.
 
But beyond its proud heritage as a taxonomic specimen, the cowrie has been coveted as a decorative object long before the 18th century. For example, despite the fact that it makes its home on the floor of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, far from the Mediterranean Sea, its shells have been unearthed at Pompeii, the ancient Roman city near Naples. Cowrie shells have even been found in Stone Age caves above the Indian Ocean dating back seventy-five thousand years ago and have long been a mark of wealth, with the Chinese using them as currency over three thousand years ago.
 
In some cultures, they are even regarded as a symbol of womanhood, fertility and birth. In Japan one of the names for a cowrie shell translates to ‘the easy delivery shell’ and Japanese women would traditionally hold them while giving birth, believing that they would help to ensure a safe and successful delivery.
 
However, the cowrie has become a victim of its own beauty. Once common, it is now much less abundant due to shell collecting and the ruin of its habitat by such destructive techniques as dynamite fishing, especially in shallower areas.