Enjoy your tour

Home Books Links Fossil Talk

FS299 Variable Wormsnail

22.0 cm. Long x 8.0 cm. Wide x 6.0 cm. High

Click on images for other views

Classification: Metazoa, Mollusca, Gastropoda, Neotaenioglossa, Vermetidae, Petaloconchus, varians

Description: Often confused with worm tube trace fossils, these are the shells of the vermetid snail Petaloconchus varians (d'Orbigny, 1841). Vermetid snails are fixed to the marine substrate and catch their prey by making a web of sticky tendrils. You can see how the tube forms early in the photo close-up of the base of the tubes.

Age: Pliocene Epoch to Pleistocene

Location Found: United States, Florida, APAC Shell Pit, near Sarasota, FL

Found by: Ed DeRouin

Custodian: fossilweb

Identified by: Ed DeRouin

References: