1.3" Ecphora Gardnerae Gastropod Fossil Shell Lee Creek Miocene Epoch North Carolina
Location: Lee Creek, North Carolina
Weight: 0.3 Ounces
Dimensions: 1.3 Inches Long, 1.1 Inches Wide, 1.1 Inches Thick
The item pictured is the one you will receive.
Miocene Epoch, 5.3 million to 23.3 million years old.
Ecphora gardnerae is an extinct predatory sea snail from the family Muricidae, recognized as the state fossil of Maryland in 1994. These snails hunted bivalves by boring holes into their shells with a specialized radula to reach the soft tissues inside.
Living during the Miocene epoch (23–5.3 million years ago), E. gardnerae inhabited the shallow seas that once covered the East Coast of the United States. Fossils are especially abundant in Maryland, where their discovery shed light on the diversity of Miocene marine life.
Initially misidentified as Ecphora quadricostata, Maryland specimens were reclassified as E. gardnerae in 1987 by Druid Wilson, with further subdivision into subspecies by Ward and Gilinsky in 1988.
