Natalie Richards

field guide

November 4, 2015

Knobbed whelk

The knobbed whelk’s main habitat is shallow tidal estuaries. The domain is Eukaryotes, and the 

kingdom is animalia. Next, the phylum is mollusca, and class is gastropoda. The order is neogatropoda, 

and the family is melongenidae. Lastly, the genus is busycon, and the species is carica. The genus and 

the species are what make up the knobbed whelk’s scientific name. The knobbed whelk is 

ectothermic, a heterotroph, and has asymmetry, meaning it has no symmetry whatsoever. Some 

adaptations that this organism has is that the shell is so deep, that the organism inside can hide down 

inside, preventing it from getting eaten. That is a structural adaptation. A functional adaptation is that 

the organism inside can easily go in and out. Lastly,  the knobbed whelk has a very hard shell! 

Knobbed whelk’s eat clams, oysters, and other bivalves. (A bivalve is a shell the has two shells 

connected together!) An interesting fact about the knobbed whelk it that as an economic resource, 

knobbed whelks are fished for their meat and sold in the tourist trade as ornamentals.The whorled or 

spiral shell of the knobbed whelk has low knobs or spines on its shoulder, and the shell opening is 

located on the right side. Knobbed whelks color varies in shades from gray to white to tan. Thats all 

about knobbed whelks!