any marine gastropod mollusc of the mostly tropical family Cypraeidae, having a glossy brightly marked shell with an elongated opening
2.
the shell of any of these molluscs, esp the shell of Cypraea moneta (money cowry), used as money in parts of Africa and S Asia
Word origin
C17: from Hindi kaurī, from Sanskrit kaparda, of Dravidian origin; related to Tamil kōtu shell
Examples of 'cowries' in a sentence
cowries
We provide the first examination of barcoding performance in a comprehensively sampled, diverse group (cypraeid marine gastropods, or cowries).
Christopher P Meyer, Gustav Paulay 2005, 'DNA barcoding: error rates based on comprehensive sampling.', PLoS Biologyhttp://europepmc.org/articles/PMC1287506?pdf=render. Retrieved from PLOS CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Despite the general assumption that coevolution of mimicry involves speciation, egg-cowries with different hosts and colorations comprise the same lineages.
Juan A. Sánchez, Angela P. Fuentes-Pardo, Íde Ní Almhain, Néstor E. Ardila-Espitia,Jaime Cantera-Kintz, Manu Forero-Shelton 2016, 'The masquerade game: marine mimicry adaptation between egg-cowries and octocorals',PeerJhttps://peerj.com/articles/2051.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Consequently, we infer that there would be significant tradeoffs between mimicry and the pursuit of reproductive aggregations in egg-cowries.
Juan A. Sánchez, Angela P. Fuentes-Pardo, Íde Ní Almhain, Néstor E. Ardila-Espitia,Jaime Cantera-Kintz, Manu Forero-Shelton 2016, 'The masquerade game: marine mimicry adaptation between egg-cowries and octocorals',PeerJhttps://peerj.com/articles/2051.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)