Species can be found from coastal regions out to the continental slope, and in all temperature ranges.

Species of this genus have seven to twenty chambers in the final whorl, and may have an umbilical plug on each side.

Another distinctive feature is the retral processes (small backward extensions of the chamber walls) that cross the sutures, giving some the appearance of tiny rolled up glass baskets.

[citation needed] Elphidium crawls using a type of pseudopod called reticulopodia.

The complete cycle for Elphidium crispum takes two years in the shallower marine regions, although it may be delayed at deeper stations.

The gametes conjugate outside in open sea to produce zygotes and the B form then develops and matures during the second summer.

It means there is always an alternations of asexual (microspheric) and sexual (megalospheric) generation in Elphidium.