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More Florida Marine Shells


Mediospirifer

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted a topic asking for help with some mollusk IDs. MikeR kindly identified them for me, and suggested that they were from the Upper Pliocene Pinecrest Beds of the Tamiami Formation.

Today I'm posting the rest of that batch of fossils. These were collected from the same site as the last bunch. This time, I have an idea of what they might be, I'm largely looking for confirmation or correction. My IDs are based entirely on the Florida Museum of Natural History image galleries online. All scales are centimeters, with half-cm marks.

First, a conch. Is this Melongena corona?

post-12648-0-89954400-1376970588_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-55638400-1376970591_thumb.jpg

Second, a murex. Phyllonotus globosus?

post-12648-0-51893800-1376970576_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-61710200-1376970578_thumb.jpg

Third, a miter shell. Pleioptygma ronaldsmithi?

post-12648-0-07337300-1376970595_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-87762200-1376970596_thumb.jpg

Fourth, a wentletrap. Pyrazus scalatus?

post-12648-0-19744300-1376970585_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-98427800-1376970586_thumb.jpg

Fifth, a thorny oyster. Arcinella cornuta?

post-12648-0-53121400-1376970581_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-56599800-1376970583_thumb.jpg

I have several more that I'll post in the comments.

Edited by Mediospirifer
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Here's another set for identification.

#6 Turret shell. Turritella subgrundifera?

post-12648-0-92482000-1376971803_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-93236400-1376971805_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-16935900-1376971786_thumb.jpg

#7: Heilprinia equalis?

post-12648-0-87975400-1376971789_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-84665000-1376971791_thumb.jpg

#8: Solenosteira mengeana?

post-12648-0-47295000-1376971793_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-84116700-1376971794_thumb.jpg

#9: Subpterynotus textilis?

post-12648-0-46905800-1376971798_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-96549800-1376971799_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-13672000-1376971802_thumb.jpg

More to come!

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Here's the final set.

#10: Vermicularia sp.?

post-12648-0-35696800-1376972731_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-69392600-1376972734_thumb.jpg

#11: Another species of Vermicularia?

post-12648-0-81690200-1376972736_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-88699200-1376972738_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-96556400-1376972722_thumb.jpg

#12: Coral Septastrea marylandica on whelk and turban shells?

post-12648-0-25941000-1376972726_thumb.jpg post-12648-0-20748500-1376972729_thumb.jpg

I have more Florida shell fossils from other sources, to be posted another day. I need to finish cropping pictures first!

Thanks to all!

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  • 5 months later...

Hi,

I know your post is a few months old, but I didn't see any confirmations on any of the IDs, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot. You are correct on the 2 muricids (P. globosus & S. textilis). Not sure what the source of the ID of Turritella subgrundifera was, though. T. subgrundifera is a lower Miocene species found in the Chipola Formation; to my knowledge it isn't found anywhere outside the members of the Alum Bluff Group. (Here's a link to the Google Books version of Julia Gardner's USGS pub that figures that species: http://tinyurl.com/l9zreyz). Also, I'm going to try to embed a photo of a T. subgrundifera from Chipola, that I pulled off my blog site, for comparison purposes. (It is the specimen on the far left.)

turritella.jpg

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Hi,

I know your post is a few months old, but I didn't see any confirmations on any of the IDs, so I figured I'd go ahead and give it a shot. You are correct on the 2 muricids (P. globosus & S. textilis). Not sure what the source of the ID of Turritella subgrundifera was, though. T. subgrundifera is a lower Miocene species found in the Chipola Formation; to my knowledge it isn't found anywhere outside the members of the Alum Bluff Group. (Here's a link to the Google Books version of Julia Gardner's USGS pub that figures that species: http://tinyurl.com/l9zreyz). Also, I'm going to try to embed a photo of a T. subgrundifera from Chipola, that I pulled off my blog site, for comparison purposes. (It is the specimen on the far left.)

turritella.jpg

Thanks! I'm glad to know that I have a couple of them right...and I'm also happy to be corrected about the one I have wrong.

I tentatively assigned the T. subgrundifera ID after purchasing a bunch of Florida shell fossils online, where the seller listed T. subgrundifera as one of the possible species in the batch. I thought my large turret shell looked like it could be the same species as the small one that came in that lot, and I didn't find a better match on the FMNH site. I may have overlooked something since I started with an ID that seemed plausible. Preexisting bias can do that!

I'm not sure exactly where these were found. I bought them from a dealer at a gem & mineral show, who told me that all of his shells were from the same construction site. I'm going with MikeR's suggested formation info until someone gives me a better suggestion.

If you recognize any of the others, I'd appreciate any correction/confirmation!

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the U. of Florida geological site is nice to ID Florida fossils/

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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Very cool finds....where abouts where you collecting? Sarasota,Fort Myers, Bonita springs, Naples?

I bought them at a rock show in NY. All I know about the find location is that it was a beachfront area with construction going on. ;) The man who found them said he'd been searching the beach all day without finding much, then he walked a bit further and took a closer look at a white mound, and found it was a pile of shells. Once he found that, he just kept collecting nice-looking pieces until the daylight ran out! And he came back the next day for more.

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I somehow missed this in August. Anyway most of your ids are accurate with the exception of the following

Melongena subcoronata Heilprin, 1886

Pleioptygma is a genus that Petuch has overly split. I prefer Pleioptygma carolinensis (Tuomey & Holmes, 1858)

Pyrazisinus scalatus (Heilprin, 1886) not a wentletrap (Epitoniidae) but a Potamid (Potamididae)

Turritella wagneriana Olsson & Harbinson, 1953

#10 Vermicularia woodringi Olsson & Harbinson, 1953

#11 Serpulorbis granifera (Say, 1824)

"A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington

"I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain

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I bought them at a rock show in NY. All I know about the find location is that it was a beachfront area with construction going on. ;) The man who found them said he'd been searching the beach all day without finding much, then he walked a bit further and took a closer look at a white mound, and found it was a pile of shells. Once he found that, he just kept collecting nice-looking pieces until the daylight ran out! And he came back the next day for more.

Nice! Half the fun is knowing how the fossils were found and where they came from. For me anyway.

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I somehow missed this in August. Anyway most of your ids are accurate with the exception of the following

Melongena subcoronata Heilprin, 1886

Pleioptygma is a genus that Petuch has overly split. I prefer Pleioptygma carolinensis (Tuomey & Holmes, 1858)

Pyrazisinus scalatus (Heilprin, 1886) not a wentletrap (Epitoniidae) but a Potamid (Potamididae)

Turritella wagneriana Olsson & Harbinson, 1953

#10 Vermicularia woodringi Olsson & Harbinson, 1953

#11 Serpulorbis granifera (Say, 1824)

Thanks, Mike! I'll correct my labels in the display box. :D

Nice! Half the fun is knowing how the fossils were found and where they came from. For me anyway.

Agreed! I love knowing the story behind things. Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask "what part of Florida?" when I was talking to the finder. ;)

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