Tellina — Tellina
Tellina Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY SA 4.0

Shell · Genus

Tellina

Tellins

Tellins (Tellina and many split genera) are thin, glossy, flattened bivalves often in pink, yellow or white, like the sunrise tellin Tellina radiata of Florida and the Caribbean. They are delicate and cheap, and paired valves that open like butterfly wings are the collector form. The family has been extensively split in WoRMS.

HabitatSand and mud, shallow to shelf, worldwide
RegionsWorldwide
FamilyTellinidae
Authority (WoRMS)Linnaeus, 1758· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Status (WoRMS)accepted· WoRMS / MolluscaBase
Classification (WoRMS)Animalia › Mollusca › Bivalvia › Cardiida › Tellinidae· WoRMS / MolluscaBase

CITES and protection

Not CITES-listed.

Care (Byne's disease)

Thin, glossy shells; store flat and dry.

Elsewhere

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Tellina" (Shell family). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/shells/tellina. Accessed 2026-09-20.

@misc{stratum-tellina,
  title        = {Tellina},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/shells/tellina}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Shell family article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, worms, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.