Gastropod From Cookiecutter Creek

[digit]

When my wife and I visited Jeff's magical "Cookiecutter Creek" to stock up on some micro-matrix to sort through while the Peace River reloads the gravel beds throughout the summer months, we found a number of bivalve and gastropod shells in this marine fossil deposit. Many of the shells were rather beat up but a few of the bivalves were complete (with a matching set of valves) and a few of the gastropods were acceptably intact enough to collect. The most interesting one we found were a few intact conch shells. From some online image searches I believe this may be (or be related to) Melongena corona, the Florida Crown Conch. The most distinctive and eye-catching aspect of this species is the row of sharp protuberances not only around the upper shoulder of the whorl but also along a second row closer to the anterior canal (opposite the apex). The examples I found seem similar to the shells of the extant Crown Conch but from what I seem to see online the protuberances on the shoulder seem to point more upward toward the apex (forming a bit more of a "crown" in appearance) where on the fossils these points are directed much more outward.

Anybody on the forum familiar with the fossil gastropods commonly found in the southwest portion of Florida who would be willing to confirm or suggest a better ID for these intriguing little gastropods?

Cheers.

-Ken

[Plantguy]

Hey Ken, cool.... I can't walk past a gastropod (fossil or otherwise) most of the time! Nice one you have there--great question!

As for the ID I'm hoping Mike might see this and will chime in....I like that ID but I'm thinking its more likely M. subcoronata as I've seen that ID used more commonly but I dont know exactly why. I believe the present day M. corona is supposed to be a descendant and has highly variable and more robust spines than subcoronata so how you sort thru the 2 I need an expert.

Here's a number of what I believe are all Melongena that I have found in central Florida from 5 different sites--a couple could be spoils brought in during construction. The largest is rather worn (upper right in the photos) and 90 mm long and those from that site seem to have smaller spines than the others almost identical to yours. When I was looking around earlier I read the bigger present day M.corona have more robust spines and terrorize oyster beds and can get up to 120-150mm...

Will bump this in hopes of Mike or one of the gastropod folks can peg this ID for you and maybe elaborate.

Regards, Chris

[digit]

I've got a "train" of 4 of these in increasing size currently residing in my curio cabinet in my family room. These are quite intriguing fossils of a species that was probably even more stunning with life coloration to the shell. Would be nice to have an actual name to put to them--M. subcoronata seems an interesting possibility and I can see that they may have been an ancestor species to the current extant one. It would be great (and informative) if any gastropod experts with experiencing in this fauna would chime in. Thanks Chris for the possible lead in the true identity of this spiky little species.

Cheers.

-Ken

[Coco]

Hi,

Verryyy niiice !

Coco