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Need Help What Kind Of Cretaceous Oyster Is This?


Fossils4U

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I know from my studys that this is not a Exogyra costata, Graphaea convexa, or a Flemingostrea subspatulata... The oyster was found at a cretaceouse site in NC. The oyster is 3" long by 2" wide. Any Ideas??? :blink:

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Very nice oyster! the colors are great and the preservation too! :) Great find! :)

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.

Charles Darwin

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In picture # 4 the specimen seems to have arms unlike the Flemingostrea that has wavy flat extentions. I have another to show what I am talking about. I will get the picture on later.

It looks like Flemingostrea to me. Why did you rule this out?

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Thank you.. This is a scarce find.

Very nice oyster! the colors are great and the preservation too! :) Great find! :)

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The North Carolina Fossil Club website has a similar oyster with these "arms" identified as Gryphaeostrea vomer. I don't have this species in any of my references.

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I have been calling it the long arm! :) Hear are some more pictures of a different specimen... This one is a monster at 4 3/4" long and 3" Wide again found at a cretaceous eastern NC site. I took the liberty to draw some arms on the one picture.

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The North Carolina Fossil Club website has a similar oyster with these "arms" identified as Gryphaeostrea vomer. I don't have this species in any of my references.

I get no hits on Google for "Gryphaeostrea"; is this the correct spelling?

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I get no hits on Google for "Gryphaeostrea"; is this the correct spelling?

Try it without the first 'a' in there, like so: grypheostrea.

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there is reference to a grypheostrea vomer here...Link

"Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus

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The photo is #15 on this page: http://www.ncfossilc...show_gallery/31

When I do a google search for Gryphaeostrea (with the a), I get 1,700 hits.

Fer Sure! Weird, I did a copy/paste before and got nada...

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Out of 33 years of fossil hunting I have never seen anything like it untill I found these...

Fer Sure! Weird, I did a copy/paste before and got nada...

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This species wanted to make sure it had a hold of what ever it landed on!?!! Feeding? What were the arms used for??

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This species wanted to make sure it had a hold of what ever it landed on!?!! Feeding? What were the arms used for??

The length of those "arms" may well be an artifact of weathering, the erosion of the thinner shell between the "ribs".

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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there is reference to a grypheostrea vomer here...Link

It's not G. vomer. But sorry I don't have a link or a good picture of the few G. vomers I have in my collection.

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It's not G. vomer. But sorry I don't have a link or a good picture of the few G. vomers I have in my collection.

Do you mean the fossil in Xonenine's link isn't G. vomer or the NC Fossil club photo and Fossil4U's fossil isn't? Or all three? Here is a link to Morton's original illustration of G. vomer. It can be found on plate #9: http://archive.org/details/synopsisoforgani00mort

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Do you mean the fossil in Xonenine's link isn't G. vomer or the NC Fossil club photo and Fossil4U's fossil isn't? Or all three? Here is a link to Morton's original illustration of G. vomer. It can be found on plate #9: http://archive.org/details/synopsisoforgani00mort

No. Those are good illustrations. But it still doesn't match ones I have either collected or seen in other collections. The left, upper, valve in G. vomer is normally slightly concave and they don't get that big. The illustrations do appear at first to be very similar but the written descriptions add the missing info.

I've looked thru a few books (various NJ & TX, Case and IFNA) and can not find an exact match. But it seems closest to the classic "Ostrea" or maybe Liostrea or as suggested Flemingostrea and I wouldn't rule out Crassostrea. Oysters are notoriously varied in their appearance so a better shot of the interiors of both valves and tighter stratigraphic info would help. But it is such a nice specimen that I'm sure someone will figure it out.

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ah well, sorry for a useless link.The threads been interesting to me both for the fine photography, stunning specimens F4U, and cause I'm looking at three or four beautiful examples Fossil Foilist has just sent from NC that I can't wait to shoot and post... :)

"Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus

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The second one listed is the largest I have seen of this particular species...

No. Those are good illustrations. But it still doesn't match ones I have either collected or seen in other collections. The left, upper, valve in G. vomer is normally slightly concave and they don't get that big. The illustrations do appear at first to be very similar but the written descriptions add the missing info.

I've looked thru a few books (various NJ & TX, Case and IFNA) and can not find an exact match. But it seems closest to the classic "Ostrea" or maybe Liostrea or as suggested Flemingostrea and I wouldn't rule out Crassostrea. Oysters are notoriously varied in their appearance so a better shot of the interiors of both valves and tighter stratigraphic info would help. But it is such a nice specimen that I'm sure someone will figure it out.

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Thank you for the link. :)

The North Carolina Fossil Club website has a similar oyster with these "arms" identified as Gryphaeostrea vomer. I don't have this species in any of my references.

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The arms are to uniform for weathering.They were grown that way for some kind of purpose.

The length of those "arms" may well be an artifact of weathering, the erosion of the thinner shell between the "ribs".

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