Netted Dog Whelk

• It detects carrion several metres away thanks to its siphon, which works as a steerable smelling tube.
• It is one of the species in which imposex was documented — the masculinisation of females caused by tributyltin antifouling paint on ships' hulls.
• It is a specialised scavenger. It buries itself in the sand leaving only its siphon out, and when it smells a dead animal it emerges en masse: within seconds there can be dozens of them on the carcass.
• It has been widely used as a bioindicator of tributyltin pollution, because it develops imposex just as the common whelk does.
• Its shell, with a lattice of crossing spiral and axial cords, gives it the name netted dog whelk.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - external calcareous shell (mollusc)

Habitat and environment

Intertidal and shallow sandy and muddy bottoms

Sources consulted: Linneo (1758) · Barroso et al. (2002) · Marine Life Information Network · ScienceDirect (Hughes 1989) · Science Advances, How colonial animals evolve · Wikipedia, Zooid · anatomia de Gastropoda