Without seeing the Conus in question and from the original description the
most logical choices would be 1. Conus flavescens, 2. Conus attenuatus, 3.
Conus mindanus, 4. Conus patae, 5. Conus jaspideus.

The "borrow area" for the Dania beach reclamation project lies between the
2nd & 3rd reef structures off Dania.  These reefs roughly parallel the
shoreline and crest at about 40' for the 2nd reef & 60' for the third reef.
The distance between the two is about 700 yards.  The areas between these
reefs are clean sand with virtually no growth.  As the beach areas erode due
to wave action the sand migrates back out to sea.  The reason they call it
reclamation is they are just putting the sand back up on the beach where it
"belongs".  Some of us say that if it "belongs" there it would stay there.

The get back to the Conus  -- all the species I've listed are recent species
and can be found alive off south Florida.  C. flavescens, C. mindanus, and
C. jaspideus are routinely found on sand at night here.  C. patae is more
cryptic and associated more with live reef but many dead specimens have been
found near reef areas in sand and reef rubble.  I've heard of C. attenuatus
being found live off SE Florida in the 70's and early 80's but none
recently.  The possibility of these being true fossil species would be
somewhat remote since these current offshore reef structures are
comparatively recent (i.e.. less than 100,000 yrs old).


Wayne Harland
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"The trouble with doing something right the first time
is that nobody realizes how difficult it really was."