shellie

noun

shellie

noun

Etymology From shell + -ie (diminutive suffix).

1

Informal A small or miniature shell.

As you would expect, the first shelled organisms acquired a shell in small steps, forming tiny (less than 1 mm) hard parts nicknamed "little shellies" or "small shellies."2023, Kate LoMedico Marriott, Alexander Bartholomew, Donald R. Prothero, Evolution of the Ammonoids, page 60:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.