Hancock, 1846
Description (shell):
Shell smooth to the naked eye, thin, with a tall spire. Aperture a broad oval confluent with a siphonal canal. Siphonal fasciole absent. There are 6-7 whorls, tumid but without subsutural flattening and covered by a thin periostracum. Though smooth to the naked eye there are numerous fine growth lines, prosocline at the adapical suture, orthocline peripherally; older shells usually show equally fine spiral lines. The outer lip is thin, the inner reflected outwards, without an umbilical groove alongside. Last whorl occupies 60-70 % of total shell height, aperture about 50 %.
Size:
Up to 70 x 40 mm.
Colour:
Pale bronze with darker areas where covered by the out-turned parietal lip and along some sutures; the outer lip, the columellar area and the protoconch are pale.
Animal:
The animal resembles that of other Buccinum species. Operculum round with a central nucleus.
Habitat:
Lives on soft bottoms from 100 to 1200 m deep.
Distribution:
This is an arctic animal with a range across the whole North Atlantic and extending south as far as Shetland (Distr. B. hydrophanum).