COLONIAL METAZOANS that lived symbiotically with hermit-crabs create striking and distinctive fossils. Examples of such fossils recorded (Schindler and Portell, 1993) from Cenozoic deposits in Florida include the scleractinian coral Septastrea marylandica (Conrad, 1841) (see Darrell and Taylor, 1989), the hydrozoan Cystactinia ocalanaBrooks, 1964, and the bryozoan Hippoporidra edax (Busk, 1859) [recorded as H. calcarea (Smitt) by Scolaro, 1970]. In all of these fossils, the symbiotic colony covers the entire external surface of a gastropod shell with a thick encrustation. Growth of the colony outwards from the shell aperture in...
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