Turbo castanea f. ayersi

Order Archaeogastropoda
Family Turbinidae

Turbo castanea Gmelin, 1791 form ayersi Olsson, 1967

Location: SMR Phase 10, Sarasota County, Florida USA.

Notes: Petuch (1984) elevated this to species level but without explanation. Very similar to the recent T. castanea but with coarser sculpture. Turbo castanea is an extant species which shows a great deal of variation in the size of nodes including individuals similar to form ayersi. According to the World Registry of Marine Species (WoRMS) no subspecies of T. castanea is accepted. I list this as a form only to show the degree of variation in the fossil population.