Aporrhais Fossil Sea Shell Prehistoric Gastropods Pliocene Terziary Collection

Description

Origin : France

Geological era : Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian)

Age : 3 million of years

Size : cm 2.5-3.5

Fossil Seashell "Pelican's Foot" mm 25-35 Gastropod Aporrhais pespelecani Snails Gastropods Prehistoric Molluscs Pliocene Cenozoic Tertiary Collecting Paleontology Museum.

Pleasant fossil find of a Gastropoda Aporrhaidae Shell from the late Pliocene, a representative collectible sample of fair quality, with clear details of the shape of the shell, the digitations of the external lip in the shape of  a webbed foot of a sea bird such as a pelican, the coils, the ribs and ornamental tubercles well preserved. The species is still alive today.

The fossil is supplied naturally, as taken from the field. It can be easily cleaned of sediment that covers it, and if you wish, consolidated with resin paraloid.
The specimen may not appear perfectly intact (see photo with more samples).

Aporrhais is a genus of medium-sized sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs of the family Aporrhaidae and the superfamily Stromboidea.
The genus is known from the Triassic to the Recent period (age range: 205.6 to 0.0 million years ago). Fossils of species belonging to this genus have been found all over the world.
The genus contains 5 extant and 6 extinct species.
Aporrhais pespelecani (Linnaeus, 1758), known as pelican's foot, is a marine gastropod mollusc of the Aporrhaidae family. It has a shell ranging from 3 to 5 cm with a characteristic shape with 4 expansions in the shape of a webbed foot. Young specimens, however, have a straight and sharp lip. Its color varies from light brown to shades of yellow. It is a very common species in the cold and temperate waters of the Mediterranean Basin and the north-eastern Atlantic. It lives in the sandy and muddy bottoms of the infralittoral plane.