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Description: | Specimen of a fossil gastropod, Hippochrenes sp., collected from unspecified rocks of Tertiary, Eocene (?) age.
This sea snail has an unusual flat lip fused around the opening in its shell. The function of the lip is unclear although it probably supported the gastropod on soft clay seabeds. Hippochrenes was part of a rich warm subtropical shallow water community. The thin shell and clay that it was found in suggest a low-energy (calm) environment. It was a predator and a scavenger that fed on live molluscs, dead animals and plants on the sea floor.
It is from the Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Classification: Animalia, Invertebrata, Mollusca, Gastropoda | Temporal: | Tertiary period (65 - 1.8 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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