[11] Three species of tusk shell are referred to with the historic and ethnographic term "dentalium", A. pretiosa, A. entalis, and D.

Clark noted A. entalis "was never collected by the Indians", only flooding the market due to demand for tusk shells in trade and introduction by European traders.

[12] Worn by both men and women, the shells were used as decorative material for beaded earrings, bracelets, dolls, hair adornments, hats, headdresses, necklaces, and nose pins.

[13] The shells' scarcity, beauty, ease of transport, and difficulty to reproduce made it an excellent source of currency.

[12] Between the years of 1750 and 1850, the shells were sought out by both Indigenous peoples and European traders from the Hudson's Bay Company for use in trade.

[12] Ethnographic studies note the usage of dentalium shells by the Hupa, Tolowa, and Pomo in California, the Aleuts in Alaska, Western Dene groups, into the Arctic Coast with the Mackenzie Delta Inuit, the Plains Indigenous peoples including the Blackfoot and the Hidatsa, as well as into the Great Lakes Indigenous peoples with the Ojibwe and Saulteaux.

[7] In British Columbia, the wampum tuskshell was collected by fishermen who worked from canoe using a device resembling a “great, stiff broom”[11][13] which were extended by sticks to reach depths of up to 21 metres (69 ft).

[12][11] Phil Nuytten alongside Kwakwaka'wakw carver John Livingston reproduced the device in 1991 which successfully harvested the shells off Kyuquot Sound.

Davydov, a Russian naval officer, reported that the shells were harvested by the Tlingit people off the Charlotte Islands by submerging a human corpse off the coast for several days.

[7] In coastal and Interior Plateau regions, the shell first occurs in sites between 5000 and 6000 years Before Present (BP).

[7] Dentalium trade between Europeans and Indigenous peoples began with James Cook's 1778 arrival at Yuquot, British Columbia.

[5][7] The wampum tuskshell inhabits areas of deep water in coarse, clean sand on the seabed's surface.

[12][11] It is found in association with sand dollars and the purple olive snail (Callianax biplicata).

[6] They are slow-moving and feed on particulate organic matter,[5] including algal cells, detritus, diatoms, and foraminifera,[7] as a deposit feeder.

[12][10] These crab-occupied shells were noted to often encrusted by Bryozoans or bear the drill markings as a result of moon snail predation.

[6] It was moved to the genus Antalis in 2021 by Austin Hendy in A review of the Quaternary Mollusca of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.