page_title: Dog whelk
section_title: Shell description
hierarchical_section_title: Dog whelk / Shell description
caption_attribution_description: Nucella lapillus Linné, 1758 English: Dog Whelk; Length 2.8 cm; Originating from the Channel coast North of Caen, France; Shell of own collection, therefore not geocoded. Dorsal, lateral (right side), ventral, back, and front view. Deutsch: Nordische Steinchenschnecke; Länge 2,8 cm; Herkunft: Kanalküste nördlich Caen, Frankreich.
context_page_description: The dog whelk, dogwhelk, or Atlantic dogwinkle is a species of predatory sea snail, a carnivorous marine gastropod in the family Muricidae, the rock snails.
  Nucella lapillus was originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae as Buccinum lapillus.
  "Dog whelk" can also refer to the Nassariidae.
context_section_description: The dog whelk shell is small and rounded with a pointed spire and a short, straight siphonal canal (a groove on the underside of the shell) and a deep anal canal.  The overall shell shape varies quite widely according to the degree of exposure to wave action of the shore on which a particular population lives but the body whorl (the largest section of the shell where the majority of the visceral mass is located) is usually around 3/4 of the total length of the shell.  The aperture is usually crenulated in mature dog whelks, less often in juveniles.
  The shell surface can be fairly smooth interrupted only with growth lines, or when the snail is living in more sheltered areas the shell surface can be somewhat rough and lamellose. The surface is spirally corded. The outer lip is dentate and ridged within. The columella is smooth.
  The external shell colour is usually a whitish grey, but can be a wide variety of orange, yellow, brown, black, or banded with any combination of these colours. They can even, occasionally, be green, blue, or pink.
caption: Five views of a white shell of Nucella lapillus
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