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Please Help I.d. This Fossil?


diabeticwolf

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I found this today at the rock quarry located in Crescent, Iowa. I was busting shale when I noticed something shiny amidst the rubble, and found this. The professor on the trip (I went with my college) said she had never seen anything like it before. The shiny part reminds me of mother of pearl. The professor guessed that it may be a wasp, but she suggests that I get it identified by someone with more knowledge/experience than her.

Any ideas??

post-14138-0-10283500-1429396964_thumb.jpg

post-14138-0-72039500-1429396993_thumb.jpg

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Reminds me of a chiton. Though I've never seen an iridescent one before.

Paul

...I'm back.

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Is that quarry strata of Pennsylvanian age?

It has the look of a fragment of a pecten.

"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 believe it is Pennsylvanian shale. I do not believe that this has the appearance of a shell.

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Well, I think your 'mother of pearl' observation is valid, and strongly suggests a shell fragment of some kind.

What other sorts of fossils were found at that site?

"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 know there have been fish, trilobites, brachiopods, and various other shells and sponges found at this site.

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A marine shale, then.

Some ancient lineages of brachiopods, cephalopods, and gastropods were nacreous; if I could just find one with this internal ribbing, we'd be well on track for an ID, me thinks.

"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 am planning to take it to a professor who is the school's paleontologist Monday. I was just looking for some suggestions for the time being.

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How 'bout a nautiloid cephalopod?

post-423-0-51145700-1429445932_thumb.jpg

The image presented is just to illustrate the structural possibility; it is of a fossil that precedes the Pennsylvanian, though relatives existed then.

"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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... but how about Eurypterid?

I think they're chitinous.

"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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It does look like a nautiloid fragment. Carboniferous nacre is pretty rare - bits of Jurassic coleoid phragmocone can look just like that. Nautiloid is far more likely of course though a Carboniferous coleoid would be exciting!

Tarquin

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Coleoids are cephalopods including squid, cuttlefish, octopus and belemnites. The phragmocone is the chambered internal shell that some of them have - also applies to the external shell of ammonites and nautiloids.

Tarquin

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