1.6" Ecphora Gardnerae Gastropod Fossil Shell Lee Creek Miocene Epoch North Carolina

Location: Lee Creek, North Carolina

Weight: 0.4 Ounces 

Dimensions: 1.6 Inches Long, 1.5 Inches Wide, 1.2 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 species of predatory sea snail in the family Muricidae, recognized as the official state fossil of Maryland in 1994. These carnivorous gastropods hunted bivalves, drilling into their shells with a specialized feeding organ called a radula to reach the soft tissue inside.

This species thrived during the Miocene epoch (approximately 23 to 5.3 million years ago). Fossils of E. gardnerae are primarily found in Miocene marine deposits along the East Coast of the United States. Initially, Maryland specimens were mistakenly identified as Ecphora quadricostata, but in 1987, they were correctly reclassified as E. gardnerae, with further subspecies identified in 1988.