Mrs PreK Teacher Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 I found hundreds of these in San Antonio and would like to have a few interesting facts for my 5 year old students. My best guess from pictures online was they are exogyra? And they are from the Cretaceous period? I also do not want to give them the wrong information. Can anyone help? The pictures I am sending are all of just one fossil. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Welcome to the Forum. Definitely looks like an oyster, probably Exogyra sp. 1 5 Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petalodus12 Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 I cannot help with the ID, but I think that is such a wonderful thing to do for your students! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs PreK Teacher Posted April 23, 2021 Author Share Posted April 23, 2021 1 minute ago, Petalodus12 said: I cannot help with the ID, but I think that is such a wonderful thing to do for your students! Thank you! I will have a surprise for them after we learn about them. I brought enough for each to have one. Hope the parents don't mind as they are all military with potential PCS moves. LOL Now the teacher sends a rock home...hahaha 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 (edited) HWelcome to the forum and that is an awesome “gift” to give the kids! The one you have shown is a very nice specimen and indeed is an Exogyra. There are many different species of that genus and without knowing what formation it came out of, it may be hard to pin down more specifically, but that is probably more detail then the kids would want anyway - haha. This is a type of mollusk and is an oyster, related to oysters still around today that are common in our local marine waters. They lived during the Cretaceous as you mentioned, primarily the Upper Cretaceous so the age is ~66-100 million years ago. This was of course during the time of the dinosaurs, but most of Texas was covered by water at that time (a much larger Gulf of Mexico and a seaway that extended north to Canada) so we don’t have dinosaur fossils in this area but rather marine creatures, such as these oysters, as well as ammonites, other shells, echinoids, sharks teeth, and lots of other fossils. These are often called a ”Devils toenail”. Edited April 23, 2021 by ClearLake Spelling 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Compare to Exogyra costata. Welcome to The Forum. 1 1 1 The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsaacTheFossilMan Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 That's amazing, I wish my teachers did stuff like that... You're really shaping their lives beautifully here, who knows, maybe some of them will grow up to be palaeontologists? Thank you so much, welcome to the forum. 1 1 ~ Isaac; www.isaactfm.com "Don't move! He can't see us if we don't move!" - Alan Grant Come to the spring that is The Fossil Forum, where the stream of warmth and knowledge never runs dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted April 23, 2021 Share Posted April 23, 2021 Nice specimen! 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs PreK Teacher Posted April 30, 2021 Author Share Posted April 30, 2021 Ok all here is the update. When I pulled the bucket out I was asked all kinds of questions but the one I like best was, "Are those rocks or are those sea shells?" So we discussed all week the information I was provided here and I even found a cute booklet for them to take home and share with their families. Today I had them use very soft paint brushes to clean the fossils. Hopefully you can see in my photos the shell we found inside a larger shell! They were so excited. I told them they were now officially 'Jr trainee Paleontologists' I didn't have the heart to tell them those were not teeth....but in the mind of a 5 year old those are some kind of dino teeth! I can not thank this group enough for the quick response and information. I wish I could post pictures here of my kids and their smiles. From Mrs. Silvin's class at Lackland ISD Elementary I would like to say YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted April 30, 2021 Share Posted April 30, 2021 18 minutes ago, Mrs PreK Teacher said: but in the mind of a 5 year old those are some kind of dino teeth Haha, that is excellent! I'll tell you, for a lot of folks that feeling persists way past the age of 5! Glad the kids enjoyed it, and thank you for treating your kids to that adventure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LabRatKing Posted May 1, 2021 Share Posted May 1, 2021 Teachers like you are why 35 years later my wife gets to complain about “$&@!$?@&$ rocks in my pockets...and why my students detest me.... I agree with previous IDs. Keep up the good work! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs PreK Teacher Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 New Fossil found among the oysters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 Very nice! Looks like the cross section of a gastropod (snail). What you are seeing is the sediment that filled in the inside of the snail shell and hardened. Then the shell dissolved away (the void space between the "half donuts") and then the rock broke in half to reveal what you have in your hand. Its upside down in the picture. I grabbed this picture of a gastropod steinkern off the internet to help demonstrate. Cut this in half (long ways) and then stick it in your rock and that is what you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs PreK Teacher Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 Awesome thank you so much! The kids will love this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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