dog whelk

plural dog whelks · alternative dog-whelk · alternative dogwhelk

1. A carnivorous European mollusc, Nucella lapillus, found on rocky coasts.

   The dog-whelk is carnivorous; acorn barnacles and the mussel Mytilus edulis (p. 254) are the main prey species.

   2011, J. D. Fish, S. Fish, A Student's Guide to the Seashore, 3rd edition, page 231

   2 more examples

   1971 January 14, Graham Chedd, Peter Stubbs, Gerald Wick (section editors), Monitor: Starving dog whelks grow teeth in the estuary, New Scientist, Volume 49, Number 734, page 57, A recent study of shell-shape in the dog whelk Nucella lapillus along the Bristol Channel suggests - that in progressively less saline conditions the species lives in a colonising situation, where periodic food shortages, rather than physiological limitations, decimate populations and sometimes lead to local extinction.

   Evidently the dog whelks perceive the chemicals released by the crabs and their prey.[…]Dog whelks are believed to have evolved in the Pacific, and to have spread into the North Atlantic in the Pliocene, during a warm period when it was possible to pass along the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

   1996, Colin Little, John A. Kitching, The Biology of Rocky Shores, page 144

   Synonyms: Atlantic dogwinkle, purple