Ripley Formation crab finger(?)

[pefty]

I found this today in the Ripley Formation (Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of ne Mississippi. Am I right in thinking it’s a crab finger? Which one? Thanks. 
 

coin is 19 mm in diameter. 

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, pefty said:

Am I right in thinking it’s a crab finger?

I think it is part of a crab claw. I can't say which crab it was though.

[Coco]

It is better to give the size of the fossil than that of the penny !

 

Coco

[jpc]

2 hours ago, Coco said:

It is better to give the size of the fossil than that of the penny !

 

Coco

yes, we have many many members all over the world who might have no idea how big a penny is.  

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

3 hours ago, jpc said:

yes, we have many many members all over the world who might have no idea how big a penny is.  

 

Especially since that is a cent, not a penny. The English have pennies.

[jpc]

12 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Especially since that is a cent, not a penny. The English have pennies.

well, dang.  I have been calling them pennies for 50 plus years.  (Not gonna change now).

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

12 minutes ago, jpc said:

well, dang.  I have been calling them pennies for 50 plus years.  (Not gonna change now).

 

Leftover from colonial days, I guess. I am guilty also. Pennies are not decimal portions.

[jpc]

 

19 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Especially since that is a cent, not a penny. The English have pennies.

Do the Brits still used pennies?  The Swiss and the Canadians haven't used single cent (centime) pieces for a while. 

Or are British pennies from the days of shillings?

 

[Kane]

4 minutes ago, jpc said:

 

Do the Brits still used pennies?  The Swiss and the Canadians haven't used single cent (centime) pieces for a while. 

Or are British pennies from the days of shillings?

 

They do. The halfpenny was demonetized in 1984, but the 1p still exists. The British decimalized their coinage in 1971, so 100 p = 1 pound. They also kept the nomenclature of it being "One Penny."

[Troodon]

14 minutes ago, jpc said:

well, dang.  I have been calling them pennies for 50 plus years.  (Not gonna change now).

 

+1   however 50 +++

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Kane said:

They do. The halfpenny was demonetized in 1984, but the 1p still exists. The British decimalized their coinage in 1971, so 100 p = 1 pound. They also kept the nomenclature of it being "One Penny."

Yup, it is officially one New Penny, to differentiate it from the old, pre-decimal penny when 240 pennies made a pound. But people just say pennies or pence. 

The old penny was much bigger than the new verison and was represented by the letter d for denarius. 6d was six pennies for example, now it's p, so 6p is six pence. 

[jpc]

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

 

... was represented by the letter d for denarius. 6d was six pennies for example, now it's p, so 6p is six pence. 

I was a stamp collector in my youth and this always befuddled me about British and colonial stamps.  Why is a pence abbreviated with a d?  So now that I know, what the heck is a denarius? 

 

But yes, I think the OP fossil is a crab claw.   

[Kane]

6 minutes ago, jpc said:

 So now that I know, what the heck is a denarius? 

 

A legacy holdover for when Britain was a Roman territory. Denarius (or denarii in plural) was a unit of coinage among the ancient Romans. Its legacy still survives today in some eastern coinages such as the dinar. 

[DPS Ammonite]

8 minutes ago, Kane said:

A legacy holdover for when Britain was a Roman territory. Denarius (or denarii in plural) was a unit of coinage among the ancient Romans. Its legacy still survives today in some eastern coinages such as the dinar. 

It also lives on in the informal term: dinero. As in: I have no dinero. 

[JohnJ]

Meanwhile, back at the crab claw...interesting find @pefty.   

 

@MB might have a few thoughts.

[dhiggi]

5 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

It also lives on in the informal term: dinero. As in: I have no dinero. 

Which comes from the fact that it is the Spanish word for ‘money’ does it not?

[Kane]

I'll venture a potential guess of Avitelmessus grapsoideus. 

(click/tap on the image to open the document)

 

 

[pefty]

Thank you @Kane! What an exceptional specimen.  But not as oddly peglike in the teeth as the OP pic. Curious what such peglike teeth are even good for. 

[Rockwood]

5 hours ago, pefty said:

Curious what such peglike teeth are even good for. 

Same as any tooth. The shape increases the force/area ratio to enable it to process food to eat.

[pefty]

7 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Same as any tooth. The shape increases the force/area ratio to enable it to process food to eat.

 

Exactly. A peg is by far the worst shape for increasing force per unit area.

[Rockwood]

27 minutes ago, pefty said:

 

Exactly. A peg is by far the worst shape for increasing force per unit area.

I'm not sure that is as true for crushing as it is for penetrating. Producing more force than the peg can take would be counterproductive at any rate. They use what they have.

[Plax]

some crabs have narrow picking and claws and the other one is a crusher. If this is a crab claw most of the exoskeleton was dissolved away leaving the thicker crushing pads. It looks oddy like something fishy but that looks like sediment with shells inside so must be a crab claw (I suppose...)

[pefty]

Update from Dr. Gale Bishop:

“this is likely a new species. Univ. Of Mississippi has a nearly complete claw...”

[Uncle Siphuncle]

On 3/6/2020 at 1:33 PM, jpc said:

 

Do the Brits still used pennies?  The Swiss and the Canadians haven't used single cent (centime) pieces for a while. 

Or are British pennies from the days of shillings?

 

Part time numismatist here.  Planning to start using farthings for scale with my micros...

[jpc]

3 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Part time numismatist here.  Planning to start using farthings for scale with my micros...

I have some truly intriguing foreign coins I could use too.  This could be fun.