Worthenia tabulata

Worthenia
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Specimen #857
Taxon: Worthenia tabulata (Conrad)
Locality: McCoy, Eagle County, CO
Age: Pennsylvanian Period, Late Atokan Stage
Rock unit: Minturn Formation
Collector: W. Itano

This is a common Pennsylvania gastropod. It strongly resembles Ananias welleri, which lived at the same time. They can be disinguished by the ridge on the outer part of the whorl, which in Worthenia tabulata is convex and nodose and in Ananias welleri is concave. The two species were the subject of a study on convergent evolution by Dr. Niles Eldredge. [Eldredge, N., 1968, Journal of Paleontology, v. 42, p. 186-196] (Length 1.5 cm.)


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