Talk:Knobbed whelk

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The photo attached to this article is NOT a knobbed whelk, it is a lightning whelk. A knobbed whelk has more prominent knobs, but more importantly the aperture of the shell is on the wrong side for a knobbed whelk. A knobbed whelk opens to the right while a lightning whelk opens to the left. Furthermore, the knobbed whelk is NOT the largest whelk species. The lightning whelk gets up to 16 inches (and I have such a specimen myself) whereas the knobbed whelk tops out at 12 inches.

See this page for more info:' http://crd.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=367

Note that the the distinctive coloration that gives the lightning whelk its name, as obvious in the photo of the page linked to above, typically fades as the whelk reaches the upper limits of its size, which is why the lightning whelk shown in the photo on the knobbed whelk page is whitish.