>Again, the juvenile form may be quite unlike the adult. But how
>dissimilar can it be? I'm still figuring that out with micros.



Vermetid protoconchs are extremely dissimilar to the teleoconchs.
They are pretty distinctive at family level, however. My
northernmost-NZ vermetids are restricted to protoconchs from a
shell-sand in a cave, and there are two spp, but there's no mistaking
them for anything else.

It is possible that Vermetidae belongs in Ptenoglossa, along with
Epitonioidea & Eulimoidea.

If anyone has a cluster of the brown-candystriped vermetid from the
Philippines, often occurring in spectacular clusters, usually sold as
"Vermetus roussaei Vaiilant 1871",  these PI shells are actually a
new species, Vermetus (Thylaeodus) enderi Schiaparelli & Métivier
2000. "V." roussaei belongs in Petaloconchus (Macrophragma) and looks
nothing like the PI shell. Note thet V. enderi is operculate (I bet
that like me, some of you have received specimens of Serpulorbis spp
with an operculum mounted... Serpulorbis is inoperculate).
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
<[log in to unmask]>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut

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