| P number: | P550296 |
|---|---|
| Caption: | Turritella sulcifera, a burrowing gastropod. |
| Description: | Turritella is a long-ranging caenogastropod that first evolved in the Cretaceous and is still found living today. Turritella sulcifera is a species that lived during Eocene times, about 35-55 million years ago. It preferred areas of quiet sedimentation and searched for food by burrowing into the muddy sea floor. Turritella sulcifera has a very high spired (turreted) shell composed of many whorls (12 on the specimen illustrated). The outer surface of its shell is ornamented by fine ribs, or cords, that follow the spire and its aperture is a simple opening. Gastropods are molluscs with a muscular foot, eyes, tentacles, and a rasp-like feeding organ (a radula), although only the coiled or conical shell is fossilised. The earliest Cambrian species were marine, but gastropods now colonise fresh water and the land. Classification is based mainly on soft body parts, which are not fossilised, and although there is uncertainty, most fossils appear to fall into one of three groups: 1. Archaeogastropods which have two auricles in the heart, two gills and two kidneys. 2. Caenogastropods which have one gill, auricle and kidney and sometimes a siphon. 3. Pulmonates which have a lung. |
| Photographer: | Unknown |
| Copyright statement: | Unknown |
| Orientation: | Landscape |
| Size: | 335.41 KB; 1000 x 497 pixels; 85 x 42 mm (print at 300 DPI); 265 x 131 mm (screen at 96 DPI); |
| Average Rating: | Not yet rated |
| Categories: | Best of BGS Images/ Fossils |
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