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Turritella Shell Cast in Limestone Matrix?


Bronzviking

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I found this shell cast on Honeymoon Island, Florida, USA. As you can see from the photos it's a complete shell cast and measures about

4 x 3 1/2 inches. I did some research and found similar pictures that looked like Turritella Shell. Would the Forum agree with this ID?? If so I read that this is an extinct species of fossil sea snail. Is this correct? I appreciate your feedback. Thank you!

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It certainly looks like a steinkern of a high-spired gastropod, I do not know whether it is of the Genus Turritella, though.

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Gastropod, yes, Turritella, no, though not sure what it is, the proportions and size seem wrong for Turritella. 

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Height versus width too small to be Turritella.  Maybe Cerithiidae or Potamididae.  Honeymoon Island rock is Early Miocene Tampa Limestone.

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I found this photo on the net. Turritella in Matrix #504 Goodland Formation. Looks very similar to mine accept it has 4 spirals and mine has 3. Could it be a partial shell cast of a Turritella??

 

Turritella in Matrix.jpg

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Has some similarity in general shape but I'm not sure its labeled correctly and its from a different age and formation. You'd be better off looking for Mio-Pliocene, Pleistocene types from Florida on the web but I'm not sure without a complete one showing its ornamentation/various views you are gonna be able to do much more with narrowing the ID. Mike knows his stuff. Turritellas are very tall/thinner relative to their width and yours doesnt exhibit those characters. Here are a couple Mike has in one of the families he was proposing to give you a better look... 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/search/&q=cerithidea&sortby=newest

 

Just in case you werent aware here's a couple of other links that are very helpful.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/gallery.asp?gallery=Florida Mollusca-Gastropoda

http://www.marinespecies.org/photogallery.php?album=702

There are hundreds of different fossil gastropod species here in Florida. You are in good hunting grounds! 

Regards, Chris 

 

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I'm more knowledgeable of rocks than fossils but I find them fascinating! Thanks for every bodies comments and useful links!

I thought this was a cool find. Would you say this is a rare find? Could it be some family of worm or snail?

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4 hours ago, Bronzviking said:

I thought this was a cool find. Would you say this is a rare find? Could it be some family of worm or snail?

It is a nice find. It is not rare, but rather common. It is a snail (gastropod).

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Yes, it's nice enough, but not unusual. 

I'd still have picked it up and kept it. :)

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Tortoise Friend.

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All over Florida we use Stone called rip-rap,. Chunks of limestone mostly, coquina sometimes, but most of it has shell, or coral imprints of some kind. I live on a little lake and decided to have my bank terraced  couple years ago. We used rip-rap as the retaining walls... Most road culverts have retaining banks made of the stuff. Now, when I can't get out to field hunt, i go to my terraced bank, sit down with my loop and turn over the rocks to look at coral, bivalve and gastopod impressions... Yours is similar to many, and common, but no less fun to contemplate. Enjoy it. 

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Yep, agreed it is cool, a gastropod/snail and you will find more. Have fun! 

 

Regards, Chris 

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I have several steinkerns of gastropods that look like yours, and here is one of my Turritelae (each square is half a centimeter) :

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