About 60 million years ago (or so) during the Paleocene epoch, a towering coiled shell sea gastropod roamed a shallow sea that is now where southern Alabama is in the United States. Fast forward to the early 1800s, Timothy Abbott Conrad from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia spends years studying the shell fossils of Monroe County, Alabama. His studies result in a book Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America which a reproduction of can be found at Google Books website.
The fossil pictures in this post were found in the Gosport Sand or Lisbon Formation of the Paleocene Epoch/Eocene Period. The location was Monroe County, Alabama, USA. This gastropod fossils might be the Turritella mortoni?. Thanks to Pam and Herb for these fossils.
Close up of spiral point.
