The “Purple Dye Murex” is a common Mediterranean muricid famous for being the source of Tyrian purple or royal purple dye. The Tyrian purple is obtained from mucus secreted from the gastropod’s hypobranchial glands, which is clear at first but turns purple upon contact with air. The ancient Phoenicians used this dye as early as 1600BC, and as it was a very expensive dye the colour purple often became symbol of imperial families.

Distributed across Mediterranean and Northwest Africa, it is a carnivorous gastropod which inhabits sandy bottoms of shallow water. – Adapted from Chong Chen’s post

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