Conch shell from Florida

[Max-fossils]

Hi all,

 

From Cris & Kyle, along with a few other awesome seashells, I got these two great conch shells. They were found somewhere in Putnam County, Florida, and are likely from the Nashua Formation (early Pleistocene). They seem to be part of the conch shells, the Strombidae family. But I really don’t know what species. 

 

Anyone know what it could be?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Max

 

[Max-fossils]

[Max-fossils]

The second shell (which is quite obviously the same species)

 

[Max-fossils]

 

@MikeR again, hope you don’t mind me tagging you

[sixgill pete]

Strombus alatus possibly.  I bet there are some nice tiny prizes in that matrix inside the conchs.

[MikeR]

Interesting.  Strombus is a tropical/warm subtropical taxa.  The Nashua is a lateral equivalent to the Waccamaw Formation in the Carolinas and the tropical Caloosahatchee Formation in South Florida and as a result contains elements of both but environmentally it was closer to the Waccamaw where no Strombus is found than the carbonate Caloosahatchee where Strombus is very common.  No species of Strombus is listed from the Nashua in Florida Fossil Invetebrates Part 15 (2013) or from the Florida Musuem of Natural History collections database.

 

If I had to guess I would say Strombus floridanus Mansfield 1930 from the Upper Pliocene Pinecrest Member where it is very common.

 

Mike

[Max-fossils]

On 1/1/2018 at 5:51 PM, sixgill pete said:

Strombus alatus possibly.  I bet there are some nice tiny prizes in that matrix inside the conchs.

There sure are!!! That's gonna be incredibly fun to prep  

And Strombus alatus is indeed a good guess, I'll keep it in mind against S. floridanus proposed by Mike underneath.

 

1 hour ago, MikeR said:

Interesting.  Strombus is a tropical/warm subtropical taxa.  The Nashua is a lateral equivalent to the Waccamaw Formation in the Carolinas and the tropical Caloosahatchee Formation in South Florida and as a result contains elements of both but environmentally it was closer to the Waccamaw where no Strombus is found than the carbonate Caloosahatchee where Strombus is very common.  No species of Strombus is listed from the Nashua in Florida Fossil Invetebrates Part 15 (2013) or from the Florida Musuem of Natural History collections database.

 

If I had to guess I would say Strombus floridanus Mansfield 1930 from the Upper Pliocene Pinecrest Member where it is very common.

 

Mike

Oh, the fact that there are no Strombus known to the Nashua Formation is an important (though not very positive) fact... It is indeed possible that they don't come from the Nashua Formation; Cris & Kyle said they were likely from the Nashua Fm (which is apparently named after a town in Putnam County, where they were collected), but they weren't sure they were from that formation. So if I understand well, these shells are probably Strombus floridanus from the Pinecrest Sand Member (part of the Tamiami Fm)? 

 

So, to compare, here are Strombus alatus and S. floridanus (pictures picked from Google Images):

 

Honestly both seem like pretty good matches to me. I can't say which ones fits best (looking just at these two pictures). So I think it is best to look at the geology data that we can make out to determine the species.

 

Oh, and of course, thanks both a lot for your help! 

[sixgill pete]

3 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

There sure are!!! That's gonna be incredibly fun to prep  

And Strombus alatus is indeed a good guess, I'll keep it in mind against S. floridanus proposed by Mike underneath.

 

 

I would defer to Mike R.'s ID. I am really just learning Mollusks, much of what I know came from him.

[Max-fossils]

Just now, sixgill pete said:

 

I would defer to Mike R.'s ID. I am really just learning Mollusks, much of what I know came from him.

Well, lucky you, he seems like a great mentor! That you can so quickly come up with an accurate ID is always impressive, and shows that you already know loads on the subject. I like mollusks a lot too, especially bivalves, and already know the species found in my area pretty well, but getting familiar with all the foreign species is still a challenge.

[Cris]

The two Strombus shells came from a small dirt road a couple miles from the Peace River...Unknown formation. All of the other shells came from the location you mentioned above.

[bone2stone]

On ‎1‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 10:51 AM, sixgill pete said:

Strombus alatus possibly.  I bet there are some nice tiny prizes in that matrix inside the conchs.

 

That matrix is a wonderland of micro stuff....You should see it under a microscope !!!!

[Max-fossils]

22 hours ago, Cris said:

The two Strombus shells came from a small dirt road a couple miles from the Peace River...Unknown formation. All of the other shells came from the location you mentioned above.

Ah, that does change quite a lot then! @MikeR @sixgill pete what do you guys think of this new info?

 

11 hours ago, bone2stone said:

 

That matrix is a wonderland of micro stuff....You should see it under a microscope !!!!

It must be indeed; thanks for the tip! 

[Nimravis]

On 1/1/2018 at 10:51 AM, sixgill pete said:

Strombus alatus possibly.  I bet there are some nice tiny prizes in that matrix inside the conchs.

@Max-fossils I also agree with Don on his comments. Whe I collect fossil shells in Florida I always will gravitate towards the nicer specimens that are loaded with things. I soak them in water and then use a fine strainer to rinse away the unwanted sand/dirt and I am usually left with some outstandingly, perfect little shells of varying species- give it a go.

[Max-fossils]

Just now, Nimravis said:

@Max-fossils I also agree with Don on his comments. Whe I collect fossil shells in Florida I always will gravitate towards the nicer specimens that are loaded with things. I soak them in water and then use a fine strainer to rinse away the unwanted sand/dirt and I am usually left with some outstandingly, perfect little shells of varying species- give it a go.

That sounds really cool, and I will definitely try that. Thanks so much for letting me know! I can already spot a lot of little treasures in the shells (got a few other ones that I didn't post pictures of because I managed to get them IDd myself), and am gonna have lots of fun uncovering Florida's palaeomacological fauna!

[MikeR]

18 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

Ah, that does change quite a lot then! @MikeR @sixgill pete what do you guys think of this new info?

 

It must be indeed; thanks for the tip! 

 

Fossil shell deposits are mined in Florida for road fill and construction so it is not uncommon to find shells lining roads, parking lots and better yet in piles prior to dispersal.  In some cases it was easy to tell where shells came from in Southwest Florida where SMR aggregates mined the Upper Pliocene Pinecrest Sand for several decades.

 

 

The shells from Cris' site in Putnam County were probably mined from the East Coast Aggregates pit in neighboring St. Johns County.  The Nashua Formation is mined for fossil shells much in the same way as in SMR and where the Florida Paleontological Society collected in May of last year.

 

[Max-fossils]

58 minutes ago, MikeR said:

Fossil shell deposits are mined in Florida for road fill and construction so it is not uncommon to find shells lining roads, parking lots and better yet in piles prior to dispersal. 

I knew this (and you guys are so lucky btw). It’s done similarly in the Netherlands with sand from the North Sea. 

1 hour ago, MikeR said:

In some cases it was easy to tell where shells came from in Southwest Florida where SMR aggregates mined the Upper Pliocene Pinecrest Sand for several decades.

So do you think that the conchs in question are also from that? (And therefore Strombus floridanus?) 

 

By the way, those pictures make me  That is simply too cool!

 

[MikeR]

1 hour ago, Max-fossils said:

I knew this (and you guys are so lucky btw). It’s done similarly in the Netherlands with sand from the North Sea. 

So do you think that the conchs in question are also from that? (And therefore Strombus floridanus?) 

 

I would call it Strombus floridanus LINK  and not S. alatus LINK which the links clearly show the differences, however I don't think you can assume that it is from SMR.  S. floridanus is also found within the Lower Pleistocene Caloosahatchee Formation which is also heavily mined for shell.

 

Mike

[Max-fossils]

12 minutes ago, MikeR said:

 

I would call it Strombus floridanus LINK  and not S. alatus LINK which the links clearly show the differences, however I don't think you can assume that it is from SMR.  S. floridanus is also found within the Lower Pleistocene Caloosahatchee Formation which is also heavily mined for shell.

 

Mike

Alright. Thanks so much for all the help, much appreciated! 

 

I agree that S. floridanus is a better match in this case, because it doesn’t have those spines along it, but S. alatus does.

 

And I’ll put the formation as unknown in order to be safe and not put possibly wrong info on the label.

 

Thanks again everyone @MikeR @sixgill pete @Cris @bone2stone @Nimravis for all the ID help and tips!

 

Max

[sixgill pete]

2 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

Alright. Thanks so much for all the help, much appreciated! 

 

I agree that S. floridanus is a better match in this case, because it doesn’t have those spines along it, but S. alatus does.

 

And I’ll put the formation as unknown in order to be safe and not put possibly wrong info on the label.

 

Thanks again everyone @MikeR @sixgill pete @Cris @bone2stone @Nimravis for all the ID help and tips!

 

Max

 

Any time Max. That's how we roll here on the forum. Everyone helping, everyone sharing = everyone learning

[Max-fossils]

2 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

 

Any time Max. That's how we roll here on the forum. Everyone helping, everyone sharing = everyone learning

And that's why I love it here so much!