Dog Whelk

The dog whelk, Nucella lapillus, first classified by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, is a predatory sea snail of the rock snail family Muricidae. Its shell varies considerably with wave exposure, generally showing a pointed spire, a short straight siphonal canal, and a deep anal canal, with the body whorl making up about three quarters of the shell's length and coloring ranging from whitish grey to orange, yellow, brown, and black, sometimes banded or tinted green, blue, or pink. It lives on rocky shores and in estuaries along European coasts and the northern Atlantic coast of North America, in waters between about 0 and 20 degrees Celsius, concentrated in the middle shore zone on solid rock, where it feeds mainly on mussels and acorn barnacles.