Mid Devonian cephalopods...or gastropods?

[ScottBlooded]

So I found this fossil skull...

Kidding! Anyway, back digging in the needmore formation outside Winchester VA and I’ve started finding a lot (like in one small part of the exposure, a whole lot) of these sorts of shells. Initial thought was some kind of ammonite. Searched for mid Devonian and got agoniatites vanuxemi but I don’t get any hits in this formation/location. Still looks right though, although I guess it could be some kind of gastropod? Mostly a little over 5 cm at the largest. Also, they’re generally the same color/consistency, save for this one very colorful specimen (very distinct blue, pink, orange) and I was wondering if anyone knows why it would have preserved that way. Surely the shell wasn’t that color

[ScottBlooded]

[FranzBernhard]

Nice!! So you perhaps found something unreported?! Congrats!

 

What else do you find nearby?
The fossils appear to be planispiral, is that right? 

There is also some nice sculpture on some of the specimens.

Overall, I am leaning more towards the cephalopod than the gastropod side.

 

Hope, we get a lively discussion about this fossils!!

Franz Bernhard

 

[ScottBlooded]

30 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Nice!! So you perhaps found something unreported?! Congrats!

 

What else do you find nearby?
The fossils appear to be planispiral, is that right? 

There is also some nice sculpture on some of the specimens.

Overall, I am leaning more towards the cephalopod than the gastropod side.

 

Hope, we get a lively discussion about this fossils!!

Franz Bernhard

 

I wouldn’t go so far as to say unreported, I’m sure it’s something run of the mill and I’ve just missed exactly what. My guess is planispiral, if they’re conispiral they’re very squashed. I find trilobites around (what I’m there looking for), also brachiopods, some sort of conical cephalopods (at least I think) and crinoid. It’s a very rich site

[FranzBernhard]

11 minutes ago, ScottBlooded said:

I wouldn’t go so far as to say unreported, I’m sure it’s something run of the mill and I’ve just missed exactly what. My guess is planispiral, if they’re conispiral they’re very squashed. I find trilobites around (what I’m there looking for), also brachiopods, some sort of conical cephalopods (at least I think) and crinoid. It’s a very rich site

Sure it is something generally somewhat common, but that´s also nice.

The other fossils you are finding seem to be the usual suspects for that formation (as far as I have read in that one single wiki line...).

Lets see, what local members have to say!
Franz Bernhard

[Fossildude19]

These look like nautiloids/goniatites to me.

 

 

 

[Ludwigia]

I'm in the goniatite camp.

[Heteromorph]

It looks more cephalopod than gastropod to me, although I’m more familiar with the Mesozoic than the Paleozoic. Either way, really beautiful finds! I look forward to seeing more. 

[RJB]

Very interesting.  I'm in the cephalopod camp.

 

RB

[ScottBlooded]

Here’s a fragment of another that had better detail. Also worth mentioning each photo I’ve posted is a different specimen, which I’m sure folks already realized but just thought I’d clarify, some of them split very similarly.

[Thomas.Dodson]

I'd go cephalopod on these. Some of them (like the last one you posted showing septa) show telltale signs while others are more subtle but overall the features are most like cephalopods. The second one is the most like a gastropod but I attribute this to the worn umbilical detail. I'd still say cephalopod. #4 might actually show an aptychus, the mandible part of the cephalopod shell.

[Mahnmut]

13 hours ago, ScottBlooded said:

Surely the shell wasn’t that color

Hi ScottBlooded, I am not so sure you are not looking at the original colour here.

I just read up on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammolite expecting to find something about how diagenesis enhances the colour. But although it seems some trace metals may enter the original mother of pearl as far as I understood the article that is not necessary.

I also remember reading about abalone that their intense colours are typical for evolutionary old species. No idea if the same trend holds for cephalopods as well.

Bet Regards,

J