Bivalves

[Chris Anderson 12]

Here is a nice pair of bivalves (sterkin) fossils.  Me and my wife found, they were found in Myrtle Beach in the shell patches. The one on the right has a nice coral growth on it. 

[yardrockpaleo 35]

12 hours ago, Chris Anderson said:

(sterkin)

Steinkern, that is. It's a weird word. But steinkerns are almost impossible to identify. Those are pretty cool, though.

[Ludwigia 6,963]

Steinkern is a German word which means literally Stonecore.

[digit 6,127]

Indeed! A great German word to toss around in fossil conversations (along with Lagerstätte from Lager 'storage, lair' Stätte 'place' meaning a fossil site abundant with well preserved fossils).

 

You'll recognize 'Stein' from the name Einstein (literally 'one stone') and 'Kern' (literally 'core/central part/seed') which is familiar to us in the English word 'kernel' an artifact of the Germanic influences in our mutt of a language. It's a fun word to say as well.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Kane 11,906]

4 hours ago, yardrockpaleo said:

But steinkerns are almost impossible to identify. Those are pretty cool, though.

Just a minor correction, but there are several formations wherein the fossils are only known as steinkerns, but are also identifiable to species. 

[FossilDAWG 5,855]

2 minutes ago, Kane said:

Just a minor correction, but there are several formations wherein the fossils are only known as steinkerns, but are also identifiable to species. 

Well, names have been attached to such fossils and they can be used to ID fossils from those formations.  For example many of the Ordovician limestone/shale formations in Ontario or the Cincinnatti area (also the Stoney Mt. Formation in Manitoba, and many others) have abundant molluscs, especially gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods, preserved almost entirely as steinkerns.  The problem is that these fossils are very difficult to compare to fossils with the actual shell preserved, so the same species could be known by multiple names based on preservation style.

 

Don

[Ludwigia 6,963]

Steinkerns don't necessarily have to be out of stone, but can also be made up of minerals like calcite, quartz, pyrite etc. which have either filled in the cavity instead of sedimentary stone or have metamorphosed the original stone. Some of them have very distinct structure and sculpture left by the impression of the original fossil's shell, so these can very well be identified.