Joyce Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Is there any way to tell what kind of tube worm this fossil was? This is my first tube worm collection! AWESOME! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drobare Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 I found a bunch of these last week in the Yorktown, VA area. They look exactly like that. I have been searching but can't find any information on them either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Are they actually calcitic? They look a bit like root-cast concretions. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drobare Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) I found these listed in Jasper Burns book tonight for location 46, which was where I found them. They are listed in his book as "Pelecypod Kuphus Boring Clam tube". Although, upon further searching of the internet, I'm not quite sure what that means. Is it a tube that was part of the boring clam or more likely, a tube created by the boring action of a clam. I tried to include a link here to a dropbox photo of the ones I found last week. I found quite a few in good condition. Edited August 12, 2014 by drobare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Ah! In that case, they are trace fossils; the tubes are a by-product of the clams' boring, not an organic construct of their own metabolism. Fossils to be sure, but different in origin from tubeworm tubes. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 I'm not sure what made the tubes in post #1 but there are clams that secrete calcitic tubes. Clavagella and Brechites are two types:https://www.google.com/search?q=Clavagelloidea&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=zRbqU_nOMOnSiwKjhoGQDQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw&biw=1083&bih=827#q=brechites&tbm=isch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drobare Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hmmm.. maybe they are secreted tubes, as the material seems to be some type of shell-ish calcitic material. Definitely going to preserve them well and keep them in my collection. I thought they were pretty cool to find. :-) Thanks to you both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 The creatures' secretions could have altered the diagenesis of the sediment surrounding the burrows, rendering the walls a little more resistant to erosion. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 These clams secreted a calcitic lining to their burrows in the sediment. The actual shell of the clam is extremely rare, I think only one or two specimens have ever been found although the tubes are quite common. Don 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 These clams secreted a calcitic lining to their burrows in the sediment. The actual shell of the clam is extremely rare, I think only one or two specimens have ever been found although the tubes are quite common. Don Very interesting, thanks! "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 We find a clam in the Plio/Pleistocene of North Carolina that burrows into coral and has a calcite tube that is visible on the surface of the coral. Here is a piece of coral where I saw the tube and dissected the borrow so the clam can be seen. I removed one of the valves before taking the picture. There is another smaller clam to the right. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drobare Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Now I need to take a closer look at all the coral I brought back also! Cool Pics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 The name of the bivalve that produced the calcitic tubes is Teredina fistula (H.C. Lea, 1843). Teredo, Kuphus, and Teredina are related in forming a calcitic tube but differ by their mode of life. Toredo aka shipworm (but is a bivalve) burrows specifically into wood. Kuphus begins life by burrowing into mangrove roots but continues tube development into mud after it has outgrown its wood substrate. Kuphus incrassatus Gabb, 1873 is common at certain locations within the Chipola Formation. Teredina are sand burrowing bivavles. They are much more common in Zone 1 Yorktown than Zone 2 but I have found them in both. Mike 4 "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 The coral burrowing bivalve is Lithophaga bisulcata (Roding, 1798) which geologically ranges from the Upper Pliocene to today. 2 "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drobare Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Thanks MikeR, that's some great information! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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