One White Chank shell measuring 5 to 6 inches ****

One White Chank shell measuring 5 to 6 inches

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TURBINELLA PYRUM

Turbinella pyrum, common names the White chank shell, sacred chank or chank, also known as the divine conch or referred to simply as a conch, is a species of very large sea snail with a gill and an operculum, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Turbinellidae. This species occurs in the Indian Ocean.

The name "chank" for the shell of this species is derived from the Indian word shankha, the divine conch.

This species is found mainly in the Indian Ocean

The shell of this species is massive, with three or four prominent columellar plicae. It is usually pure white under a heavy brown periostracum, but it can also be a pale apricot color. It can sometimes be dotted with dark brown.

columellar is column, or a small column

plicae is a folding over of parts.

This shell has considerable significance in Hinduism and Buddhism. It is considered to be sacred and is one of the eight auspicious symbols. In these religious contexts, the shell is sometimes modified by having the tip of the spire cut off, so it can be blown as a ceremonial trumpet. Some shells used in this way are decorated with metal and semiprecious stones.

Like most other gastropods, the shell of this species is almost always right-handed, or dextral, in its shell-coiling, but very rarely a left-handed shell is found (one in approximately 200,000 shells).

Scientific classification

Domain: Eukaryota

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Mollusca

Class: Gastropoda

Subclass: Caenogastropoda

Order: Neogastropoda

Family: Turbinellidae

Genus: Turbinella

Species: T. pyrum

Binomial name: Turbinella pyrum

Linnaeus, 1758

(REF: "WoRMS - Turbinella pyrum (Linnaeus, 1767)". World Register of Marine Species.) (REF: "Finds from the Avondster". Archived from the origina) (REF: "Gastropods by Eddie Hardy | Conchology) (REF: The Religious Use of Turbinella pyrum (Linnaeus), The Indian Chank, by Kenneth D. Rose, The Nautilus, 88)