article_snippet.sent: Scientists have used a new technique to reconstrcut the colourful patterns on 28 fossilised cone snail shells that are up to 6.6 million years old.
article_snippet.sent: Scientists now believe the cone snail shells, which come from the northern Dominican Republic, include 13 entirely new species.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Jonathan Hendricks, a paleontologist at the San Jose State University who led The new research, said that the lack of colouration in many fosisilised cone snail shells made the lack of colouration in many fosisilised cone snail shells difficult to identify.
article_snippet.sent: There are around 700 species of cone snail still living in tropical seas worldwide and around 1,000 species have been found in the fossil record.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Hendricks, whose work is published in the journal Public Library of Science One, compared the cone snail shells whose work examined with the patterns of those of modern Caribbean cone snails.
article_snippet.sent: Dr Hendricks said: 'This approach — combined with the exceptional Neogene fossil record of the Dominican Republic, as well as other regional fossil deposits — has the potential to provide a detailed understanding of the evolutionary and biogeographic development of the modern western Atlantic cone snail fauna. '
highlights_snippet.sent: Fossilised cone snail shells found in Cibao Valley of Dominican Republic .
  