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chg057

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Hi all,

I found these recently along Colorado's front range in the Niobrara Fm, about 20 mins southwest of downtown Denver. I am familiar with inoceramus, but these pieces have ridges - something I didn't think inoceramus had. They also have a similar cross-sectional structure with aragonite as the inoceramus fossils I've found, which makes me think it's some other type of clam or bivalve, maybe platyceramus?

The largest piece appears to have small attached bivalves.

Thanks for your help!

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Kind of hard to tell from the small fragments, but I think those are Inoceremus. The ribbed pieces are from the hinge area. I've picked up a million of them in Kansas thinking they were some kind of jaw or teeth.

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There are quite a variety of "Inoceramids" now. Many former Inoceramus species placed in other genera like Platyceramus. I would label it as "Inoceramid" gen. & sp. indet.

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There are quite a variety of "Inoceramids" now. Many former Inoceramus species placed in other genera like Platyceramus. I would label it as "Inoceramid" gen. & sp. indet.

Agreed. I believe they come from a larger species of inoceramid, not a platy. The ridges are as Xiphactinus said part of the hinge, the dentition or teeth which articulate the two valves.There is a lot of literature on Inoceramids so I would suggest trying to pin down some papers that describe the fauna of your area, from this you may be able to narrow down the possible species based on size and morphology. I've found similar ones from the greenhorn megacyclotherm in Pueblo Colorado. The formation they come from and the species I identified them as escape me off the top of my head, I'll see if I can dig them up...

"Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"


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