Turbinella pyrum, common name

Common name

A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...

s the chank shell, sacred chank or chank, also known as the divine conch, sometimes referred to simply as a conch

Conch

A conch is a common name which is applied to a number of different species of medium-sized to large sea snails or their shells, generally those which are large and have a high spire and a siphonal canal....

, is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of very large sea snail

Sea snail

Sea snail is a common name for those snails that normally live in saltwater, marine gastropod molluscs....

 with a gill

Gill

A gill is a respiratory organ found in many aquatic organisms that extracts dissolved oxygen from water, afterward excreting carbon dioxide. The gills of some species such as hermit crabs have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are kept moist...

 and an operculum

Operculum (gastropod)

The operculum, meaning little lid, is a corneous or calcareous anatomical structure which exists in many groups of sea snails and freshwater snails, and also in a few groups of land snails...

, a marine

Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...

 gastropod

Gastropoda

The Gastropoda or gastropods, more commonly known as snails and slugs, are a large taxonomic class within the phylum Mollusca. The class Gastropoda includes snails and slugs of all kinds and all sizes from microscopic to quite large...

 mollusk

Mollusca

The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...

 in the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Turbinellidae

Turbinellidae

Turbinellidae are a family of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the order Neogastropoda.-Distribution:Species in this family are found world-wide, mostly in tropical shallow waters but some in deep waters.- Subfamilies :...

. This species occurs in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

.

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

Shankha

Shankha bhasam , also spelled and pronounced as Shankh and Sankha, is a conch shell of ritual and religious importance in Hinduism and Buddhism. It is the shell of a large predatory sea snail,Turbinella pyrum found in the Indian Ocean....

, the divine conch. The old generic name was Xancus. The Dutch used to call them chianco. http://cf.hum.uva.nl/galle/avondster/finds.html

Description

The shell of this species is massive, with three or four prominent columellar plicae. It is usually pure white under a heavy brown periostracum

Periostracum

The periostracum is a thin organic coating or "skin" which is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including mollusks and brachiopods. Among mollusks it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in bivalves and gastropods, but it is also found in cephalopods such as the...

, but it can also be a pale apricot

Apricot (color)

Apricot is a light yellowish-orangeish color that attempts to represent the color of apricots. Actually, it is somewhat paler than actual apricots....

 color. It can sometimes be dotted with dark brown. http://www.gastropods.com/7/Shell_247.html

Shells of the normally right-handed western Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 species Busycon contrarium

Lightning whelk

The lightning whelk, scientific name Busycon contrarium, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Buccinidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell...

are sometimes sold in imitation of the rare right-handed shells of this Turbinella species. http://www.princelystates.com/ArchivedFeatures/fa-03-03b.shtml, http://www.astrojyoti.com/shankha.htm

Human use

The shell has considerable significance in Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

 and Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

. 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

Spire (mollusc)

A spire is a descriptive term for part of the coiled shell of mollusks. The word is a convenient aid in describing shells, but it does not refer to a very precise part of shell anatomy: the spire consists of all of the whorls except for the body whorl...

 cut off, so that it can be blown as a ceremonial trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

. Some shells that are used in this way are decorated with metal and semiprecious stones. http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Chank_Shell_Trumpet/trumpet.html?50

The shell of this species is almost always left-handed, or sinistral, in its shell-coiling, but very rarely a right-handed shell is found. In the Hindu religious context, the very rare right-handed shells of this species are known as "Dakshinavarti", as opposed to the more common left-handed sinistral forms which are known as "Vamavarti". The Dakshinavarti is particularly highly valued in terms of its religious significance. http://www.princelystates.com/ArchivedFeatures/fa-03-03a.shtml

Further reading

• The Religious Use of Turbinella pyrum (Linnaeus), The Indian Chank, by Kenneth D. Rose, The Nautilus, 88(1):1-5, 1974.

External links

• Photo of a shell with periostracum and operculum: http://shell.kwansei.ac.jp/~shell/pic_book/data17/r001697.html
• A dextral and a sinistral shell of the species: http://www.jaxshells.org/pyrum1t.htm