Shells found in crete

[Jurassicz1]

Found these shells in crete. Elafonissi i think its called. There looks to be matrix in the shells. Thats what caught my eye are they fossils?

[Ludwigia]

1 hour ago, Jurassicz said:

  are they fossils?

Hard to say. You would need to determine the exact stratigraphy of the exposure in order to be able to say if they are old enough to be fossils.

[Jurassicz1]

17 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Hard to say. You would need to determine the exact stratigraphy of the exposure in order to be able to say if they are old enough to be fossils.

I found them on the Beach so dont know where they came from. Should i look at maps that shows the bedrock in the area?

[Ludwigia]

3 hours ago, Jurassicz said:

I found them on the Beach so dont know where they came from. Should i look at maps that shows the bedrock in the area?

That might not be a bad idea.

[Oxytropidoceras]

It was written: "Found these shells in crete. Elafonisi i think its called."

 

I presume that you are writing about Elafonisi, Crete.

Elafonisi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elafonisi

 

At Elafonisi, there are three Quaternary marine terraces at elevations of

approximatelt 15, 23, 53 m above sea level that could serve as sources

of your shells. Also, I suspect there is likely Holocene beachrock to

be found at that location. Thus, these shells could be either fossil

(Pleistocene) or subfossil (Holocene) shells filled with matrix.

 

I do not think that these marine terraces (paleoshorelines) and any

Holocene beachrock are shown on bedrock geological maps.

 

For the information about the marine terraces, go see, including

table 25, of:

 

Ott, R.F., Gallen, S.F., Wegmann, K.W., Biswas, R.H., Herman, F. 

and Willett, S.D., 2019. Pleistocene terrace formation, Quaternary 

rock uplift rates and geodynamics of the Hellenic Subduction Zone 

revealed from dating of paleoshorelines on Crete, Greece. 

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 525, p.115757.

 

and, including Figure 6, of

 

Mouslopoulou, V., Begg, J., Nicol, A., Oncken, O. and Prior, C., 

2015. Formation of late quaternary paleoshorelines in Crete, Eastern 

Mediterranean. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 431, pp.294-307.

 

Gallen, S.F., Wegmann, K.W., Bohnenstiehl, D.R., Pazzaglia, F.J.,

Brandon, M.T. and Fassoulas, C., 2014. Active simultaneous uplift

and margin-normal extension in a forearc high, Crete, Greece. 

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 398, pp.11-24.

 

More publications by Vasiliki Mouslopoulou

 

More publications by Richard Ott

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[ClearLake]

You may also want to look to see if they can be identified as a current part of the local Mediterranean fauna. I am not familiar with the sea shells of that area. 

[Dimitris]

You will not find precise geologic maps, at least for free.

IMO the species is extant, however, it might be quite old.

I found similar species in North Greece and one Greek palaeontologist suggested that they are deposits caused by floods during Holocene. 

 

On the north side of the island there are big deposits of older fossils. Most dominant are bivalves like Pectens and some urchins, but if you are lucky enough you will find even Meg teeth.

Rhodes and Kefalonia are the other two islands that Meg teeth have been found.

Anyway, that is quite irrelevant to the post, but if you ever find yourself in Greece...