Mason Nistad~Knobbed Whelk

                           Mason Nistad

Knobbed Whelk

Busycon carica

The knobbed whelk is a small soft body animal covered in a spiraled shell to protect it. You can find then knobbed whelk on the Atlantic coast in estuaries, bays, and shallow shelf waters. All organisms belong to a domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. Its domain is Eukarya,its kingdom is Animalia, its phylum is Mullusca, its class is Gastropod, its order is Neogatropoda, its family is Melongenidae, its genus is Busycon and its Genus is carica. The knobbed whelk has bilateral symmetry. That means that if you were to split the animal in half each side would match up perfectly. One adaptation of the knobbed whelk is its soft body. The soft body helps it squeeze into shells and hide from other animals. That is a structural adaptation. Another adaptation of the knobbed whelk is the hard coat at the bottom of its body. That helps it suction to the bottom of the ocean, that is also a structural adaptation. The last adaptation is its camouflage. That helps the animal blend in with the sand so other animals can't see it. An interesting fact about the knobbed whelk is it can measure from 5inches all the way up to 9 inches. The knobbed whelks predators are blue crabs and humans, and its prey are plankton and any deceased organism. The knobbed whelk is a heterotrophic organism, which means it gets its energy by eating other organisms. Last the knobbed whelk is endothermic, that also means it is warm blooded and its blood does not change temperature no matter what temperature its environment is.

This picture is from http://www.okeefes.org/Whelks/Whelks.htm