For epitoniids, the shell is calcite rather than aragonite, which is
relatively unusual for snails (especially relatively delicate ones, as
opposed to Ecphora or Platyceras).  This may be related to their ease of
dissolution in some settings.  In the Eocene limestones here in North and
South Carolina, they are the only gastropod shells remaining because the
aragonite is gone.


David Campbell

"Old Seashells"

Department of Geological Sciences
CB 3315 Mitchell Hall
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill NC 27599-3315
USA

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919-962-0685
FAX 919-966-4519

"He had discovered an unknown bivalve, forming a new genus"-E. A. Poe, The
Gold Bug