Fossil Junonias
Photo taken at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum.
Mollusks are the second largest group of invertebrates on earth and there are over 85,000 mollusks living today. It is estimated that the fossil record contains another 60,000 to 100,000 species! A fossil species, Scaphella floridana has been found in Late Pleistocene deposits ranging in age from 11,700 to 129,000 years ago. Modern day mollusks represent over 20% of all known living organisms in our oceans.
Fossil Junonia photo courtesy of Dr. Rick Batt.
According to Dr. Rick Batt, Scaphella floridana is easily recognized by the raised "ribs" on the earliest whorls of the spire. He relates that the remnants of the color spots frequently, but not not always, fluoresce under longwave UV (black) light due to trace organic pigments retained and incorporated into the shell from the food items the floridana ate.