Technical expressions are unavoidable when describing the details of a seashell. I have compiled a list of terms associated with seashells for your reference. They are arranged in an A-Z sequence for your easy search and reading.
Aperture - opening at the front end of gastropod shell and a tusk shell.
Apex - starting point of shell growth, the 'top' of a gastropod spire.
Apophysis - a projecting spur inside a bivalve shell below the umbo, the site of a muscle attachment.
Axis - an imaginary line around which the whorls revolve, drawn from the anterior to the apex of gastropods.
Bivalve - a mollusc with s shell formed of two pieces.
Body whorl - the largest section of a gastropod, this encolses the soft parts.
Byssus - a bunch of silky threads anchoring some bivalves to solid object.
Calcareous - made of calcium carbonate, chalky.
Callus - a thick or thin layer of shelly substance, smooth and glossy, usually transparent.
Canal - a channel at the top or bottom of the aperture to accommodate the siphon of a gastropod.
Cancellation - a sculptured area of lines crossing others at right angles, in a lattice-like effect; also referred to as reticulation.
Cardinal tooth - projection on the hinge plate below the umbo.
Chiton - a mollusc with a foot, a head bearing tentacles and eight shelly plates held together by a girdle.
Columella - the spirally-twisting pillar surrounding the axis of a gastropods.
Concentric- following the direction of growth lines, mostly in bivalves.
Ear - an extension of the hinge region of a bivalve shell, as in scallops.
Escutcheon - a depression found behind the umbones of a bivalves shell, often compassing an extenal ligament.
Family - a unit comprising of two or more closely related species belonging to one genus or two or more genera, subordinate to a superfamily.
Fluted - scalloped or arched.
Foot - the fleshy sole that a gastropod creeps or glides upon, or by which it adheres.
Gastropod - any of various mollusks of the class Gastropoda, such as the snail, slug, cowrie, or limpet, characteristically having a single, usually coiled shell or no shell at all, a ventral muscular foot for locomotion, and eyes and feelers located on a distinct head.
Genus (Genera) - a unit comprising one or more species, subordinate to a family.
Girdle - the muscular ribbon surrounding and binding together a chiton's shelly plates.
Globose - rounded or almost spherical.
Granulose - tending to be inflated, like a ball.
Growth line - a fine or coarse, raised line defining a temporary pause in the growth of the shell. Otherwise knowth as ridge.
Hinge - inner edge of the valve of a bivalve shell, usually joined by a ligament to the opposite valve and usually bearing teeth that interlock with teeth in that valve.
Impressed - indented or sunken, a term usually applied to the suture.
Incised - finely scratched.
Incurved - turned inwards.
Keel - a raised, often sharp ridge.
Ligament - the elastic, corneous structure joining the valves of a bivalves.
Lip - the inside or outside edge of the aperture of a gastropod shell.
Lunule - a heart shaped depression in front of the umbones of a bivalves shell.
Mantle - a fleshy lobe which secretes the mollusc's shell and lines the inside of the shell wall.
Margin - the shell edge.
Mollusc (Mollusks) - A soft body, legless, invertebrate animal which usually secretes a calcareous shell.
Mother-of-pearl - a shelly layer or the inner lining of a shell, displaying a pearly surface.
Muscle scar - the impression inside the valve of a bivalve shell made by a muscle holding the valves together.
Nympth - the narrow ledge, on the hinge behind the umbo, to which the external ligament is attached.
Obsolete - ceasing to exist, no longer present.
Operculum - grown on the foot of many species of gastropod, this is an oval or rounded structure which seals the aperture when the animal withdraws into its shell.
Ornament - raised or depressed features on the shell surface.
Ovate - oval; egg-shaped.
Pallial line - an impressed line inside the valve of a bivalve shell parallel to the margin, which marks the position of the mantle edge.
Parietal area/wall - occasionally referred to as the inner lip, this is the area in gastropods that lies opposite the outer lip and above the columella.
Radial - ray-like ornamentation or sculpturing, diverging from the umbones of bivalves; the direction of the raised or depressed ornamental feature of a bivalves, running form the umbo towards the edge of the valve.
Range - the total distribution of a species.
Recurved - curving upwards or downwards.
Rib - a continuuous elevation of the shell surface.
Ridges - see growth lines.
Scale - raised, sharp edged, ornamental feature, sometimes fluted.
Serrated - edge of a shell that exhibits a series of grooves or points.
Shelf - a thin plate obsuring the aperture of some species of gastropod shells.
Shell tube - hollow tube occupied by most gastropods, all tusk shells and few bivalves.
Shoulder - the angulation of a whorl at or just below the suture.
Sinuous - greatly waved.
Siphon - a rectractable fleshy tube of gastropods and bivalves, used for various purposes, including feeding and the explusion of waste.
Siphonal canal - otherwise known as notch; the tube or gutter at the front end of the aperture, to hold the front siphon of a gastropod.
Slit - a shallowor deep cut in the shell margin of some gastropods and in the umbones of some bivalves.
Species - a group of beings sharing virtually identical characteristics; it is subordinate to and contained within a genus.
Spine - a blunt or sharp projection, often found in murex.
Spiral - on gastopod shells and tusk shells, going in a transverse direction.
Spire - the coiled part of a gastropod shell apart from the body whorl.
Stria (striae) - fine raised or grooved line on the surface of a shell, sometimes an indication of growth stage.
Suture - the junction of two whorls, it is often depressed or indented.
tooth (teeth) - pointed or blunt structure(s) inside the outer or inner lip of a gastropod shells, and on the hinges of bivalves shells.
Umbilicus - the lower open axis around which the whorls of a gastropods are coiled.
Umbo (Umbones) - the earliest-formed part of a bivalve shell's valve.
Valve - one piece of a bivalve shell or of a chiton.
Whorl - one complete turn of the tube of a gastropod shell about its imaginary axis.
Wonderful Selection of BEAUTIFUL Seashells
My other Review titled "Gastropods Seashell Family Guide (with pics)"
)