Ground sheltering soft shelled creature (8)
I believe the answer is:
terrapin
'shelled creature' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
I also know that 'creature' relates to this answer.
'ground sheltering soft' is the wordplay.
'ground' becomes 'terrain' (terrain is land or ground).
'sheltering' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'terrain' enclosing 'p' is 'TERRAPIN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for terrapin that I've seen before include "Small freshwater turtle" , "Web-footed turtle" , "Give out" , "Partner I found for freshwater tortoise" , "Little turtle" .)