Shell to 140 mm

Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific to the Revillagigedo Ids., Mexico. Intertidal to 73 m.

Shell color flesh to beige, usually blended with fawn or gray zones, ornamented with 2 row of small brown dots, one anterior to the subsutural band, the other posterior to the suture, also with short wavy brown axial lines immediately anterior to the suture; outline of whorls straight, with the subsutural area narrowly convex or angular; protoconch of 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 conical whorls; subsutural band with rounded nodes or narrow axial ribs, band defined by subsutural groove, and deep punctations between nodes, groove becoming progressively obsolete; axial ribs numerous, sharp, on early whorls, fading completely; later whorls smooth except for nodes below suture; nodes small and inconspicuous or large and triangular; aperture quadrate; columella almost straight.
[Bratcher & Cernohorsky]

This species is so variable in outline and pattern that it is easy to understand why it was considered a different species or subspecies by a number of authors, although the various forms clearly intergrade into one another when a large number of specimens are available for examination. T. crenulata is netted in the plankton from April through September in Hawaii. The larvae settle when their length is approximately 1 mm. Upon, metamorphosis the protoconch becomes opaque cream color.