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Somebody can help me with the identification
09-03-2011, 07:59 AM,
#3
Re: Somebody can help me with the identification
Hi,

Your images look good, but the shells in the images are very worn and eroded, which is going to make a positive identification impossible.

In the first two images, I don't think the item shown is a whole shell, just a broken and beach worn piece of some gastropod shell, perhaps a piece of a turban shell (family Turbinidae).  When I looked at the second image, for a moment I thought it might be a small abalone shell (family Haliotidae), but on closer examination I think the similarity is just incidental.  The first picture, showing the other side of the same specimen, does not look like an abalone.  Besides, the only abalone species in that locality are a couple of small deep water species that primitive peoples would not have access to.

Regarding images 3 and 4, do you know whether the hole in the shell is manmade or natural?  If it was drilled in order to string the shells in a necklace, then I cannot even guess a possible family.  However, if it is natural, then at least we have the family - Fissurellidae, commonly known as "keyhole limpets".  However, there are about 30 species of Fissurellidae in that locality.  Some of them could be excluded because they don't grow this large; and the fact that the hole is perfectly round would exclude other species that have a more elongate hole; but there is no way to name the actual species, given the poor condition of the shell.
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Re: Somebody can help me with the identification - by paul monfils - 09-03-2011, 07:59 AM

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