• Turbinella is the Indian chank shell, commonly used as Temple trumpets.

• Gregarious, marine mollusk, living in large groups in the sandy or muddy sea buds of tidal zone.

• Turbinella feeds on polychaete worms.

• Body is soft and unsegmented, divisible into Head, Foot and Visceral mass.

• Visceral mass is spirally coiled and enveloped by mantle.

• Shell whorls are coiled around a central axis, called Columella, which is thick, solid and folded.

• Chankshell has a thin, yellow periostracum layer, beneath which is a thick procellaneous layer of Calcium carbonate.

• Chankshell is economically important – used as libation vessels.