They position their head down in the substrate, with the apical end of the shell (at the rear of the animal's body) projecting up into the water.

At Mehrgarh, a village located at the foot of the Bolan Pass in Balochistan in modern-day Pakistan, ornaments made of Dentalium shell have been found at burial sites dating back to 6000 BCE.

[4] The shells of Dentalium neohexagonum have been used by Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and West Coast as a form of status and currency since time immemorial.

The shell used for this purpose was described by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in London in the 18th century as being "of a tubular, or conical form, about 3 inches long; of a shining, greenish white; hollow; light, and divided lengthwise by parallel lines, running from top to bottom.

This genus is very ancient, going back up to the Silurian period (age range: from 422.9 to 0.0 million years ago).