Knobbed Whelk
| Knobbed whelk | |
|---|---|
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| A live individual of Busycon carica at low tide at Bethany Beach, Delaware | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Gastropoda |
| (unranked): | clade Caenogastropoda clade Hypsogastropoda clade Neogastropoda |
| Superfamily: | Buccinoidea |
| Family: | Busyconidae |
| Genus: | Busycon |
| Species: | B. carica |
| Binomial name | |
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Busycon carica (Gmelin, 1791) |
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The knobbed whelk (Busycon carica) is a species of very large predatory sea snail, or in the USA, a whelk, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks.
The knobbed whelk is the second largest species of busycon whelk, ranging in size up to 12 in (305 mm).
Knobbed whelks are native to the North Atlantic coast of North America from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to northern Florida. This species is common along the Georgia coast. It is the state shell of New Jersey and Georgia.
The shell of most knobbed whelks is dextral, meaning that it is right-handed. If the shell is held in front of the viewer, with the spiral end up and the opening facing the viewer, the opening will be on the animal's right side. The shell is thick and strong and has six clockwise coils. The surface is sculpted with fine striations and there is a ring of knob-like projections protruding from the widest part of the coil. The color is ivory or pale gray, and the large aperture (the inside of the opening) is orange. The canal inside is wide and the entrance can be closed by a horny oval operculum.
The knobbed whelk lives subtidally and is migratory, alternating between deep and shallow water, depending on the time of year.
During the weather extremes of the summer and winter months, these sea snails live in deep water, at depths of up to 48 m. In the milder weather of the spring and fall they live in shallow water, on near-shore or intertidal mud flats and sand flats.
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Wikipedia