whorl containing the body

< Previous | Next >
VicNicSor

VicNicSor

Banned
Russia
Russian
gastropoda_sml.gif
the picture from Google

spire
the upper tapering part of the spiral shell of a gastropod mollusc, comprising all but the whorl containing the body
Oxforddictionaries

1. Show me please in this (or other) picture where the spire is.
2. Do I correctly understand that all but the whorl containing the body = all except the whorl which (whorl) contains the body?

Thank you.
 
    • entangledbank

    entangledbank

    Senior Member
    London
    English - South-East England
    That picture of a snail doesn't usefully show any spire. Look on Google Images for Buccinidae, the whelk family. (The common name whelk produces too many images of food.) That's a typical seashell shape, with whorls (loops of a spiral) coming down from a point, and ballooning out in the largest whorl, where the opening is. The animal lives in the largest whorl. The spire is the spiral pointy bit above that. (Not the divided point that in some shells comes away from the opening, and whose name I can't remember.)

    The word 'body' confused me, because that could mean the body of the shell = the largest part, the main part, of the shell. It took a while to realize it meant the body of the animal.
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    < Previous | Next >
    Top