Meaning of dog whelk | Babel Free

Definitions

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

Equivalents

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.”

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

CEFR level