Shell large (up to 171.2 mm), thin and fragile. Shape usually broad with large aperture. Spire conical, upper whorls laterally slightly flattened, with 3 fine, weak primary spiral cords (occasionally the third one partly concealed under lower suture). Occasionally a fine additional cord on subsutural slope. Interspaces broad, smooth or with 5-12 line secondary spiral cords of unequal strength, the middle cord usually slightly stronger. Axial sculpture or growth lines stongly twisted, consisting of folds or lamellae of incremental origin (some species with foliated, projecting fronds) or none at all. "Variant acuminata van n. differs in the less convex whorls, which are narrower towards the top; the weakly developed axial plates, which are often replaced by rather low, pointed pleats; a lower number of spiral keels on the last whorl, which can decrease in number to 3-4, and the absence of a noticeable callus on the inner lip. Average shell height of specimens of this form which have an age of 18 years is 115 mm, diameter -61 mm, height of last whorl - 83 mm, height of aperture - 69 mm, width of aperture - 32 mm, length of siphonal projection 27 mm, width of siphonal canal - 9 mm" (Golikov, 1962: 31, translated from Russian).

Neptunea lamellosa is characterized by the shape of the upper whorls and by the fine spiral sculpture. The smooth shells look quite different from the sculptured ones, but occasionally and under magnification one may detect some traces of sculpture. The axial sculpture is occasionally
extraordinary foliated. The shape is variable. Specimens with a high spire may be called form acuminata. Specimens from the northern Sea of Okhotsk arc characterized by having weak axial sculpture and a broader body whorl. The colour ranges from snow white over yellow to reddish brown. Neptunea varicifera is similar in shape and axial sculpture but differs in the absence of spiral cords and the slightly convexer upper whorls.

Neptunea lamellosa lives in the Sea of Okhotsk with records from the adjacent Pacific Ocean and is known from Gulf of Terpeniya (eastern Sakhalin) in the east, off Magadan and in the Shelikhov Gulf in the north, off Pymta (western Sakhalin) in the east and Iturup Island (Kuril Islands) in the south. Also recorded from southeastern Kamchatka Peninsula (Golikov, 1963: 112). Bathymetric range between 57 and 500 m (Golikov & Sirenko, 1998: 116). Recorded from southern Sakhalin between 62 and 200 m (Golikov & Scarlato, 1985:408), from Paramushir and Simushir Islands (Kuril Islands) between 100 and 500 m (Golikov &Gulbin, 1977: 190).
Type locality: "Southern Kamchatka and the islands of Schumschu and Paramushir and western and central Okhotsk Sea" (Golikov, 1962: 5); eastward of Paramushir Island, 50° 20" 8" N, 156° 32' 8" E, 100 m (Kantor & Sysocv, 2006: 192).