While most mollusc shells turn whitish or greyish when fossilized, specimens of Ecphora retain a distinctive dark brown coloration. These snails are in a family known as the muricids, predatory drilling snails that fed on other molluscs. Muricid drill holes can be recognized by their straight sides. These large snails are prized by collectors and can reach large sizes. This genus went extinct in the late Pliocene.