1A marine mollusc with a shell that forms loose irregular coils, giving it the appearance of a worm.
蠕螺
Family Vermetidae, class Gastropoda: Vermetus and other genera, including the European giant worm shell (V. gigas)
Example sentencesExamples
Next, I added a row of cowrie shells around the base of the birdhouse (figure B) and then topped it off with a spiral worm shell like a little birdie weathervane on the top (figure C).
The bench consists of calcareous algae and worm shells which cover the limestone and make it resistant to the wave action.
The vermetid worm shells have irregularly coiled or contorted shells which are attached to hard surfaces by their early whorls.
The bottom is covered with worm shells.
It is a bar of worm shells at the mouth of the Mee Klong River.
2The twisted calcareous tube of a sedentary marine bristle worm, typically attached to a stone or mollusc shell.
龙介虫
The worms belong to Serpula and other genera, class Polychaeta
Example sentencesExamples
However, almost any sort of hollow object can make a home for a hermit crab; some of them will move into straight worm shells.
As they grow, the shells may coil or meander over the substrate producing a tube that looks quite similar to a serpulid tube worm shell.
Moreover, any of the worm shells can be superficially mistaken for similar shells formed by certain annelid worms - a wholly unrelated phylum.
The spiral worm shell is also considered to be a horn shell.
Most of them were covered with these tube worm shells.