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Description: | Specimen of a fossil gastropod (snail), Searlesia costifera, collected from the Red Crag of Quaternary, Early Pleistocene age from Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex (SE England). Collected by William K. Loftus.
The original shells of these spindle-shaped gastropods have a pattern of fine spiral cords (rope-like pattern) and broad rounded vertical ribs. The whorls (coils) of the shell increase in size towards the opening into which the snail could withdraw its soft body for protection. The thick shell shows that Searlesia lived in high-energy coastal waters up to 15m deep, the shell protecting the animal from the rough water. It was a predator that fed on bivalves and other molluscs that lived in the muddy sand on the sea floor.
The specimen was found in Essex.
It is from the Quaternary period (1.8 - 0 million years ago) | Publisher: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Subjects: | Gastropoda Classification: Animalia Invertebrata Mollusca William K. Loftus | Temporal: | Quaternary period (1.8 - 0 million years ago) | Source: | Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums | Identifier: | http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/geofinder/se... | Go to resource |
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