Turritella Agate Earrings in Marquise Sterling Silver Settings

Turritella aka Elimia Agate marquise dangle earrings,  Each earring measures 1.55 inches long by 0.47 inch wide Turritella meaning: Despite its name, “Turritella agate” is not made of fossil snails of the genus Turritella. This has been realized by professionals and many amateurs for a long time, but the name (and the confusion it promotes) have persisted. The snails are actually properly referred to as Elimia tenera, in the family Pleuroceridae.  The rock in which they are so abundant varies from a soft sandstone to a dense chalcedony.  Elimia agate comes from the Green River Formation in southwestern Wyoming, northeastern Utah, and northwestern Colorado, from layers deposited in an series of ancient lakes that geologists call Lake Gosiute and Lake Uinta, in the early and middle parts of the Eocene Epoch, between around 53 and 42 million years ago.  These rocks formed in fresh water.  The real Turritella is a group of snails that live only in the ocean. The shells of Elimia are disti