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This is a lot of Florida Fossil shells all with unique tones. These tones are black, bluish, red or rust. These tones are a product of the microenvironment in which these shells fossilized. Small changes in the microbes and minerals around these formed the tones that are more than the standard white normally seen. Tones of these colors are much less common than the standard shells.
Many of these are extinct. Here are a few of the species:
Pyrazus scalatus
Naticarius plicatella
Hanetia mengeana
Echinofulgur echinatum
And many more that still exist today
The names of these can be quite variable if looked up, I have tried to find the best info. Also, at times there are multiple similar species with only minor differences that have been scientifically described in the Florida fossil record. I'm not convinced these aren't variable forms of the same species, as even with modern shells there can be variations in shape and color. Food for thought!
The locality of these specific shells is not precisely known, but these will likely be from the Caloosahatchee formation which spans the boundary of these pliocene and pleistocene ages (1.8 to 2.5 million years ago)
This was a period before the last ice age, and Florida was mostly shallow ocean as the water level was so high (hence these deposits are found far inland today). The land and sea then had many species we would feel were familiar, but most of which are now extinct. In the sea this included sea cows (dugongs), various seals and sea lions, whales, many corals and fishes, and many sharks (sadly megalodon was gone by this period). On the land there would have been Mammoths and Mastodons, Giand sloths and Giant armadillos, Glyptodonts, and Saber toothed cats as well as dire wolves. The period of the Caloosahatchee formation was a time well before humans came to Florida, and indeed according to the fossil record, before humans existed. No Human would have walked the shoreline and picked up the extinct species here.
Please message me with any questions!
