>given the depth at which this species normally lives the only reasonable assumption was
> that a crab (or a series thereof) moved it into increasingly shallower waters

Reversing the depth anomaly, the occasional landsnail gets transported
deeper by hermit crab occupants.  I once saw a Cerion shell scuttling
along the lagoon floor at San Salvador, Bahamas.

Crabs alone were not responsible for the transport of the
hermit-occupied Babylonia I saw from Tampa Bay.  Someone lost a
souvenier!

--
Dr. David Campbell
Collections Assistant
The Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca NY 14850

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