Dear Allen;-
    Thanks for the info. The Hormotomas I have seen are certainly Ordivician.
They are nothing like slit shells, however, looking in length and width and
angle to spire much like E. tollini (Bartsch)---only without the costae.
Interesting.
        Art

ALLEN AIGEN wrote:

> Art,
> According to the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Part 1, Mollusca
> 1, 1960, the species        Murchisonia (Hormotoma) gracilis (Hall) is
> found from the Middle Ordovician from Quebec.  The group it is in was
> given it's own suborder Murchisonina as it was not clearly anything else.
>  Maybe you can see the mid whorl periphery with the slit and selenizone
> (not unlike the modern Pleurotomariids).  There may be some more recent
> work done on this, but it apparently dead-ended long ago.  Paleozoic
> gastropods are facinating, but only locally common, so they get little
> noticed except by a handfull of experts.
>
> Allen Aigen (I did on a masters thesis on a Mississippian fauna)
> Serirach.com
>
> On Tue, 14 Nov 2000 21:34:40 -0500 Art Weil <[log in to unmask]> writes:
> > Dear (probably Old Seashells and Andy);-
> >         What I have here is a Hormotoma gracilis (maybe Homotoma?).
> > It
> > measures 13.48mm long and is about 400 million years old. Since a
> > fleeting glance makes it look like an Epitonium (or Cerith or other
> > coiled critter) I wondered if there is some descendency from the
> > fossil
> > that I have. Inquiring minds want to know.
> >             Art