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Turritella Fossil range: Cretaceous–recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Turritella communis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Gastropoda Subclass: Orthogastropoda Infraclass: Apogastropoda Superorder: Caenogastropoda Order: Sorbeoconcha Suborder: Cerithiimorpha Superfamily: Cerithioidea Family: Turritellidae Genus: Turritella Lamarck, 1799
Species
Turritella communis and see text

Fossil specimens of Turritella incrassata

Turritella is a genus of medium-sized sea snails with an operculum, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Turritellidae. They have tighly coiled shells, whose overall shape is basically that of an elongated cone.

The genus is known from the Cretaceous to the recent periods¹. Fossil species include:

• Turritella vertibroides (Late Cretaceous of S North America)
• Turritella turris (Early Miocene of C Europe)
• Turritella incrassata (Pliocene of Belgium)
• Turritella trempina (Pliocene)
• Turritella apicalis (Pleistocene of Florida)
• Turritella terebralis

The shells are quite frequently found as fossils, and the carbonate stone made from large quantities of Turritella shells is often referred to as "Turritella limestone", or, if silicified, "Turritella agate". Both varieties of this stone are commonly sold as polished cabochons.

The Erminger Turritellenplatte ("Turritella plate of Ermingen") near Ulm, Germany² is a rocky outcrop situated in the northern part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin. It is famous for its superabundance of Turritella turris shells within its sediments³ and dates from the Burdigalian.

Footnotes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Turritella

• Baier, Johannes (2008a): Ein Beitrag zur Erminger Turritellenplatte (Mittlere Schwäbische Alb, SW-Deutschland) ["Contribution on the Erminger Turritellenplatte"]. Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereines, Neue Folge 90: 9-17 [German with English abstract]. HTML abstract
• Baier, J. (2008b): Über die Tertiärbildungen im Ulmer Raum ["On Tertiary structures in the Ulm region"]. Documenta Naturae 168: 1-32 [In German].
• Mayr, Helmut (1992). A Guide to Fossils. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
• Pek, I.; Vašíček, Z.; Roček, Z.; Hajn, V. & Mikuláš, R. (1996): Základy zoopaleontologie. Olomouc. ISBN 80-7067-599-3 [In Czech]

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