



dead rapane shell raw rapane waiting to be cooked








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The following method works better than a dictionary most of the time when you have to identify plants or animals.

  1. Open the Wikipedia home page, and search for "rapane" in Romanian.
  2. Result #1 is rapană (I don't speak Romanian, but I guess it's the singular), and a cursory look at the pictures confirms that it's the same shell.
  3. On the left sidebar, look for the section "in other languages", and click on "English"
  4. You are redirected to the English page for Veined Rapa Whelk.

That's a bingo! Even a non-expert, non-Romanian like me could identify this species with no effort.



  • Honestly, reading this post was the first time that I had ever heard of a 'whelk', and thought it looked like a conch, too. It seems that they're different, though : ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/blog/2015/03/02/… – Joe Jun 15 '15 at 11:27

In Ukraine these are sold preserved in jars with oil and spices, one of their kinds is called "Antalya". If they are popular in Turkey too, or this is just a marketing name - I don't know.

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