Trying To Figure Out What This Looked Like When Alive - Dentalium

[6ix]

I have been trying to show the kids (and myself) what the animal from our 5mya shells probably looked like, we decided they are Fissidentalium as identified here..

http://www.gns.cri.nz/static/Mollusca/taxa/BM177.html

After googling a heap I have come with them being known as tuskshells and dentalium (as coveted by american indians), but havent been able to find any video or photos of live ones so we are struggling to comprehend the animal. We bought back a few - biggest about 80mm long from a clay/silt deposit.

Cheers in advance...

[painshill]

These are from the Dentaliidae family:

Left: Tusk shell (Antalis entalis)

Right: Aberrant tooth shell (Gadila aberrans)

There’s some great information about the morphology and behaviour of these scaphopods on the what-when-how website here (which is where that illustration came from):

http://what-when-how.com/animal-life/class-scaphopoda/

[6ix]

Thank you very much - That explains them well - and wow they have been around a while!