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whelk
(redirected from Buccinum)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.03 sec.
whelk, large marine gastropod gastropod, member of the class Gastropoda, the largest and most successful class of mollusks (phylum Mollusca ), containing over 35,000 living species and 15,000 fossil forms.
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 snail found in temperate waters. The whelk is sometimes eaten, but when food is plentiful, fishermen frequently use it for bait. Whelks are scavengers and carnivores, equipped with an extensible proboscis, tipped with a filelike radula, with which they bore holes through the shells of crabs and lobsters, and a large, muscular foot with which they hold their victims. The thick-lipped, spiral shell has an uneven surface with many protuberances. The knobbed whelk, the largest species, ranging up to 16 in. (40.6 cm), and the channeled whelk, slightly smaller, are both found south of Cape Cod, Mass. In summer the strings of pale, disk-shaped egg cases are common along the shore. The whelk is sometimes mistakenly called conch conch (kŏngk, kŏnch, kôngk)
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. Whelks are classified in the phylum Mollusca Mollusca (məlŭs`kə)
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, class Gastropoda, order Neogastropoda.

whelk

Enlarge picture
Northern whelk (Buccinum undatum)
(credit: Ingmar Holmasen)
Any marine snail of the family Buccinidae, or a snail having a similar shell; found worldwide. Some whelks are called conchs. The sturdy shell of most species in the family is slender and has a wide opening in the first whorl. The animal feeds on other mollusks through its long proboscis; some species also kill fishes and crustaceans caught in commercial traps. Most are cold-water species; tropical species are smaller and more colourful. The common northern whelk (Buccinum undatum) has a stout pale shell about 3 in. (8 cm) long and is abundant in North Atlantic waters.


whelk1
any carnivorous marine gastropod mollusc of the family Buccinidae, of coastal waters and intertidal regions, having a strong snail-like shell

whelk2
a raised lesion on the skin; wheal

whelk [welk]
(invertebrate zoology)
A gastropod mollusk belonging to the order Neogastropoda; species are carnivorous but also scavenge.


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Imposex induction in laboratory reared juvenile Buccinum undatum by tributyltin (TBT).
 
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