Predatory Sea Snail
S1
Ellura
Predatory Sea Snail
S1
 
                      
Predatory Sea Snail (Cominella cf sp)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Molluscs (Mollusca) - Gastropods, Slugs, And Snails (Gastropoda)
Order: Marine Snails & Slugs (Hypsogastropoda)
Family: Large Sea Snails (Buccinidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Predatory Sea Snail (Cominella cf sp)
This Photo:     🔍S1🔎

Thank you Ben Travaglini for identifying this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~15mm long.
We're pretty sure this is a calcified fossil we dug up when installing our septic tank. Didn't find it then, only the other day on the ground.
We weren't sure if it was Terrestrial or not, but Ben's id pointing to Marine species confirms it's a fossil.
Ben said "Definitely a marine species, potentially in the genus Cominella"

We were an ocean here millenia ago, and the floor is supposed to be ~60m below us. But we're pretty sure that's incorrect as we've found fossils here on the surface before. Shell Hill at Black Hill is only 10 or so km to our South.
All the limestone (calcrete actually) rocks on the surface out this way were formed from leaching of the limestone table/ocean floor below. The calcium came from sea shells.

Copyright © 2023-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 30-May-2023
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.