a. [f. as prec. + -OUS.]
1. Producing a shell, shell-bearing; sometimes spec. belonging to the Conchifera; bivalve.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 230. [Cypris] moults its integuments annually, which the conchiferous molluscs do not.
1839. Todd, Cycl. Anat., II. 380/2. In all the conchiferous Gasteropods.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, II. ii. Periwinkles, Blackamoor’s teeth … and other specimens of the conchiferous ingenuity of Nature.
2. Geol. Characterized by the presence of shells.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 130. When our oldest conchiferous rocks were produced.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., iv. 136. This is also a shelly series, and is 20 feet thick…. The strata of these richly conchiferous beds [etc.].
