Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Clandestine cowrie
No photo available
Photo: H. Zell / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (view on Wikimedia Commons)Empty shell or beach specimen. Photographed in the Maldives. Shell photo (empty shell), not the living animal.

Clandestine cowrie

Palmadusta clandestina

Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 216883, checked 2026-10-31).

English
Clandestine cowrie
Scientific
Palmadusta clandestina
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Cowries
Family
Cypraeidae (cowries)
IUCN status
NE · Not EvaluatedNot Evaluated (NE)

Description

A small, pale cowrie with fine, faint brown lines and a creamy white base. It lives under rocks on shallow reefs.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=8); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=4, 2 observers).

Sources

Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.