Woman unknowingly picks up ocean’s deadliest shell that ’leads to full paralysis in minutes'

It's always tempting when you're at the beach to pick up anything pretty and take it home as a memento, but it nearly proved deadly for a woman on TikTok recently.

As lovely as the ocean might be at times, it's also full of some pretty dangerous creatures, but naturally we're more scared of the likes of sharks or poisonous jellyfish.

But for those of us who have a very sensible fear of straying too far from the sand, which anyone who has ever watched Jaws should also have, it feels a lot safer to interact with anything you find while you're exploring the sand or sunbathing.

Although some awful creatures can also wash up sometimes, such as a 'harbinger of doom' which appeared on a Tasmanian beach last month, you're usually fairly safe as long as you don't led crabs nip your toes.

Certainly, the idea of a seemingly inanimate object like a shell doing any real damage seems ridiculous but if you are a big fan of Steve Irwin then you might have heard of a cone snail.

Becky Lee, a popular content creator on TikTok living in Japan, has an impressive collection of shells but seemingly had no idea about the mistake she was making as she videoed herself picking up what looked at first to be a beautiful black and white shell, but it turned out to actually be the highly venomous sea snail.

She posted the video of her picking up the mollusk with the caption: "She doesn't know it yet but she's about to pick up the world's deadliest shell that leads to full paralysis in minutes."

Fortunately, a follow-up video clarified that she hadn't been stung by the cone snail, which is also referred to as the 'cigarette snail' as its sting is so venomous that you have time to light a cigarette before succumbing to its effects.

Becky may well feel better to learn that she wasn't the first, and probably won't be the last, to be intrigued by this sea creature but I'm sure she will never forget her experience with the cone snail.

She's extremely lucky that the snail was in a good mood that day, as there is no reported antidote for its venom, but it did serve as a stark reminder that we shouldn't pick things up that we don't recognise, simply because they look nice.

Given some of the horrifying things that can be found in the ocean, it's worth steering well clear of anything you might find on a beach as even the innocent looking shells might well be home to something deadly.