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Frilled dogwinkle
Nucella lamellosa
47.9086, -122.527
Field Notes
Description:
A common snail in the Pacific Northwest. This snail is rather variable in colour, shape and surface texture. Some specimens are smooth, others rough and others have frilled lamellae (angular plates). Some of these features may be as a result of abrasion and wave action.
Habitat:
Dozens of these snails clustered together at the base of a large rock. Inter-tidal zone at low tide.
Notes:
This whelk is a predator, feeding largely on mussels and barnacles. The radula is used to scrape through the shell of the prey and the soft tissue is extracted. The whelk is itself eaten by crabs such as the red rock crab Cancer productus and the seastar Pisaster ochraceus. In the presence of the crabs, there is a tendency for the whelk's shell to grow thicker and be more robust, and thus less easy for the crab to crush.This may be as a result of chemicals released into the water by the crabs because the thickness of the whelk's shell seems unaffected by the presence of Carcinus maenas, a recently introduced invasive species of crab that also feeds on whelks. (Wikipedia)
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