Xenophora Fossil Sea Shell Prehistoric Gastropods Pliocene Terziary Collection

Description

Origin : France

Geological era : Upper Pliocene (Piacenzian)

Age : 3 million of years

Size : cm 3.2 x 1.8 h

Fossil Seashell Sea Snail mm 32 x 18  Gastropod Xenophora sp. Carrier Shell Gastropods Prehistoric Estinct Molluscs Pliocene Cenozoic Tertiary Collecting Paleontology Museum.

Pleasant fossil find of a Gastropoda Xenophoridae Shell from the late Pliocene, a representative collectible sample of appreciable quality, with evident details of shape of the shell and coils well preserved. Only a piece, as in photo.

The fossil is supplied naturally, as taken from the field. It can be easily cleaned dorsally of sediment that covers it hiding the rest of the shell, and if you wish, consolidated with resin paraloid.

Xenophora is a genus of gastropod molluscs of the Xenophoridae family. The name Xenophora comes from Greek, and means carrier of foreign objects. In English they are also commonly called carrier shells.
Xenophora species have shells ranging in size from small to large. The shape is conical-depressed. Like all Xenophoridae, these species also have foreign objects incorporated into all the whorls of the shell which usually occupy more than 1/3 of its dorsal surface in adult species. Among these objects one can find complete shells of bivalves, gastropods, scapopods, brachiopods or their fragments, parts of coral, pebbles, rock debris, etc. Current species also incorporate human waste. Foreign bodies are fixed on the peripheral edge of the shell opening glued with pallial excretion. The species feed mainly on microalgae collected from the substrate under the shell. The first species of Xenophora are found in the Cretaceous and by the late Cretaceous the group was widespread. Most Cretaceous species are known from only one or a few poorly preserved specimens, but are generally small. The genus diversified during the Paleogene when it probably gave rise to most of the forms that exist today. It is difficult to evaluate the evolution of the group in detail, since many fossil species are very rare and poorly studied.