Scientific Classification
| Kingdom: Animalia |
| Phylum: Mollusca |
| Class: Gastropoda |
| Order: Neogastropoda |
| Family: Conidae |
| Genus: Conus |
| Species: Conus spurius Gmelin, 1791 |
Information
Geological Range
Paleogeographic Distribution
Stratigraphic Occurrences
| Fort Thompson Formation [Questionable/rare] |
| Jaimanitas Formation |
| Bermont Formation [Abundant] |
| Caloosahatchee Formation [Common] |
| Jackson Bluff Formation [Questionable/rare] |
| Tamiami Formation (Pinecrest Beds) [Abundant] |
Remarks
Common name: Alphabet cone.
Synonymy: n/a
Type specimen, locality, and stratum: n/a
Other voucher specimens: n/a
Descriptions:
First English Description (from Dillwyn, 1817, p. 366):
“Shell conical, white, with irregularly alternate rows of broad and smaller spots; spire depressed, mucronated, and the whirls concave.
[…] Shell about two inches long, and rather more than half as broad, with the spire flattish at the circumference, and mucronated at the centre; some of the rows of spots are frequently confluent, and others detached in the same specimen, and in other specimens they are frequently all detached, and often considerably distant from each other. A shell from the Red Sea figured by Chemnitz, x.t. 140. f. 1300, has the spire considerably elevated, and is considered by Bruguiere to be a Variety of this species.”
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Measurements: n/a
Other remarks:
For information on the modern distribution of the species, see Malacolog. A project to investigate the fossil record of Conus spurius beyond southern Florida is currently in progress. The fossil record of the species likely extends into the Caribbean and back to the Late Miocene.
References: n/a
Online resources:
Page history:
Some of the content on this page was originally published on the Neogene Atlas of Ancient Life on April 25, 2014. It was developed by Jonathan R. Hendricks and colleagues and migrated here in 2026.
This page was last modified on October 28, 2026 by Jonathan R. Hendricks.
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