Gastropod Gallery

Gastropods are the most diverse and abundant type of mollusks, with nearly 35,000 living and 15,000 fossil species identified so far. In Kansas, fossils of marine snails are common in the Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks of the eastern part of the state and in the Cretaceous rocks farther west. Fossils of terrestrial and freshwater snails are also common in some Pleistocene deposits in northwestern and northeastern Kansas.
Common fossil gastropods

Common Gastropods

From left to right, top to bottom: Turritella, Worthenia, Soleniscus, Baylea, Meekospira?, and Bellerophon.

Trepospira

Trepospira

A series of raised bumps spiraling out from the apex distinguishes these three specimens of Trepospira, collected from the shale below the Stanton Limestone in Elk County.

Pennsylvanian gastropod, probably of the genus Meekospira

Meekospira?

This Pennsylvanian gastropod, which probably belongs to the genus Meekospira, has a shell with a very high spire. It was collected from the Leavenworth Limestone Member of the Oread Limestone in Douglas County.

Amphiscapha

Amphiscapha

Straporallus (Amphiscapha) is a common fossil in the Pennsylvanian rocks of eastern Kansas. This specimen is embedded in a chunk of limestone taken from the Drum Limestone of Montgomery County.