However, whilst this pattern of shell-shape variation with exposure is generally true over most of the animal's range in both Europe and North America, there are exceptions. There are occasional enclaves with much more elongated shells than would normally have been expected. Sometimes these are so abundant, as in the Severn Estuary, that all dog-whelk enclaves are unusually elongated, regardless of the exposure of their habitat.
In other areas, such as south-eastern England, the Solway Firth and the area around the mouth of the Conway the shells are not unusually elongated, but the enclaves show very little variation: a normal sheltered-shore form is seen wherever the species occurs. Shetland samples appear to be a combination of this pattern (predominating) with the ‘normal’ one showing the full range of shellshape variation.
Nucella appears in the Atlantic fossil record at the end of the Pliocene without any antecedent forms. It is assumed to have colonized from the Pacific and exploited the vacant niche before the onset of the Ice Age. Successive advances and retreats of the ice, with attendant changes in sea level, will have served to break up and recombine those dog-whelk populations that were not eliminated. It is postulated that the modern Nucella lapillus is a combination of several genetically distinct populations, some of which show the full range of variation and may respond to the selective effects of crabs and waves, and some of which do not and show little variation.","AbstractOtherLang":null,"BibLvlCode":"AS","StandardTitle":"Variation in dog-whelk shells in relation to wave action and crab predation","OrigTitleLangCode":"en","OrigTitleLangCodeExtended":"eng","OrigTitleLangID":15,"DateLastModified":{"date":"2026-06-10 01:31:45.380669","timezone_type":1,"timezone":"+02:00"},"UserAccessRight":null,"UserAccID":null,"AuthorKeywords":"Shell-shape variation; Dog-whelks","OtherDescriptors":null,"Notes":null,"AnaPub":1983,"MonPub":null,"DateUpdate":"2012-11-26","DateCreate":"2012-11-26","SecASFANote":null,"ConfID":null,"PeerRev":1,"VlizCoreFlag":1,"WoScode":"WOS:A1983RD94100007","VABBcode":null,"OpenAcc":0,"DOI":"10.1111/j.1095-8312.1983.tb01591.x"},"refs":null,"anarec":{"AnaID":220465,"PubliDate":1983,"Pagination":"85-102","XtraPublOfAnaID":null,"ISBN":null,"Volume":"20","Issue":"1","BRefMon":null,"BRefMonRR":null,"BRefXtra":null,"BRefXtraRR":null,"SerBRefID":42441,"SerRR":"Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Academic Press: London; New York. ISSN 0024-4066; e-ISSN 1095-8312","StandardTitleSer":"Biological Journal of the Linnean Society","ISSN":"0024-4066","AbbrevSer":"Biol. J. Linn. Soc.","StandardTitleMon":null,"StartPage":85,"Pages":18,"ToPubliDate":null,"BRefBibLvlCode":"S","SerNotes":null},"monrec":null,"serrec":null,"relations":null,"relationsRev":null,"addrec":null,"othpubs":null,"ownerships":null,"authors":[{"AutName":"Crothers","Firstname":null,"Initials":"J.H.","Affiliation":null,"Discriminator":null,"CorporateFlag":0,"BEntID":212198,"AutID":8168,"OrderNr":1,"DegrID":null,"EditorFlag":0,"CorrespFlag":0,"IllustratorFlag":0,"ReviserFlag":0,"TranslatorFlag":0,"InsAcronym":null,"InsFSN":null,"ORCID":null,"PersID":null,"InsID":null}],"mapdetails":null,"datasets":null,"monographs":null,"monparts":null,"serparts":null,"BEntOpen":null,"BEntPrivate":null,"availability":[{"BInstID":240716,"LibID":36,"BRefID":220465,"EmbargoDate":null,"FullEmbargoDate":null,"PhysMedID":16,"hasOCRd":1,"ShelfLocCode":"240716","RFID":null,"PaidValue":null,"Medium":"Server","Description":"Interne VLIZ documenten","Acronym":"VLIZ","Library":"Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee","DutchTerm":"Non-open access","URL":null,"ClassifID":228,"Classification":"Non-open access","ReqLink":1,"ClassifTypID":3,"URLLocation":"https://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/","SubDir":1,"InternalReq":1,"LoggedInReq":1,"Disclaimer":"Disclaimer_VLIZ_Intern","DutchDisclaimer":"
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