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South Texas Upper Cretaceous Bivalve

CraigHyatt

By CraigHyatt
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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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Posted (edited)

I'm about to send out an email to my relatives bragging about my latest finds. You guys have identified all of them, but I never submitted one of the shells. It looks nice in the collection, but I'm not sure if it's just a fragment. It's the grey shell in the middle of the top row. It looks like a clam to me, but nobody shows the *inside* of the shell on the identification sites. :-)

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Edited by CraigHyatt

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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Fossildude19 Regular Member

Fossildude19

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Looks a bit more oyster-ish to me.

Let's wait for other local opinions before writing out a label, though.

Regards,

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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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Looks a bit more oyster-ish to me.

Let's wait for other local opinions before writing out a label, though.

Regards,

Yeah. I've since found a couple of inside shots of a shell and it could an oyster: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

What gives me pause is the apparently rounder shape if you follow the curve. There's a slight convexity in the center of the photo and an inverted shape to the rim that I don't see in the oyster photos. On the other hand, cretaceous oysters have all kinds of crazy shapes....

post-20989-0-14605500-1463667163_thumb.jpg

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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tmaier Regular Member

tmaier

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Yeah, definitely an oyster with that layered shell look. Maybe the lower valve of something in the genus Pycnodonte. They are flatish and dish shaped like that.

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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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Yeah, definitely an oyster with that layered shell look. Maybe the lower valve of something in the genus Pycnodonte. They are flatish and dish shaped like that.

Excellent! Thanks.

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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tmaier Regular Member

tmaier

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Oh, and stop calling these "shellfish"! It makes me think I'm at a Red Lobster. Use the fancy-schmancy word "Bivalve". =-)

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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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Oh, and stop calling these "shellfish"! It makes me think I'm at a Red Lobster. Use the fancy-schmancy word "Bivalve". =-)

Ha ha ha. I was trying to be generic in case it was a monovalve or trivalve. From now on, I'll assume they are bivalves. :-)

Reminds me of Bertie Wooster (https://emsworth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/what-p-g-wodehouse-learned-from-macbeth/)

Bertie: A sensitive plant, what?

Madeline: Exactly. You know your Shelley, Bertie.

Bertie: Oh, am I?

  • I found this Informative 1

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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tmaier Regular Member

tmaier

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... also, even though fish fossils are not cooked, we resist the urge to call them "sushi". =-)

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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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... also, even though fish fossils are not cooked, we resist the urge to call them "sushi". =-)

OK. I'm a little slow... I just got your point. I guess you don't dig up an auroch and say "That's a nice lookin' side of beef!"

  • I found this Informative 1

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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JohnJ Regular Member

JohnJ

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Yeah. I've since found a couple of inside shots of a shell and it could an oyster: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

What gives me pause is the apparently rounder shape if you follow the curve. There's a slight convexity in the center of the photo and an inverted shape to the rim that I don't see in the oyster photos. On the other hand, cretaceous oysters have all kinds of crazy shapes....

attachicon.gifCapture.JPG

Compare it to the right valve of Exogyra sp. oysters.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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abyssunder Regular Member

abyssunder

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I agree with JohnJ. It is a right (upper) valve because is flat or slightly concave/convex, thick and spiral shaped. You are looking at the inner surface which is smooth, not the external surface with spiral ridges. Also you can see the large muscle scar.

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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CraigHyatt Regular Member

CraigHyatt

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Just look at this beauty! I was on my way home for the day and picked it up off the ground just now.

post-20989-0-31083700-1463689144_thumb.jpeg

Info: Craig Hyatt, retired software/electrical engineer

Experience: Beginner, fossil hunting less than a year

Location: Eagle Pass, TX USA on the border with Mexico, hot dry desert

Formation: Escondido, Marine, Upper Cretaceous

Materials: Sandstone, Mudstone, Shale, Chert, Chalk

Typical: Thalassinoides, Sphenodiscus, Exogyra, Inoceramus

Reference: http://txfossils.com/Txfossils.html

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fifbrindacier Regular Member

fifbrindacier

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Just look at this beauty! I was on my way home for the day and picked it up off the ground just now.

attachicon.gifimage.jpeg

Nice !

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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fifbrindacier Regular Member

fifbrindacier

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OK. I'm a little slow... I just got your point. I guess you don't dig up an auroch and say "That's a nice lookin' side of beef!"

:hearty-laugh: Buffalo beef. :ninja:

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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fifbrindacier Regular Member

fifbrindacier

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Posted (edited)

I agree with JohnJ. It is a right (upper) valve because is flat or slightly concave/convex, thick and spiral shaped. You are looking at the inner surface which is smooth, not the external surface with spiral ridges. Also you can see the large muscle scar.

I also agree with this, you can see in the following photo the inner surface of one of mine :

post-21013-0-36620300-1463950753_thumb.jpg

Edited by fifbrindacier

theme-celtique.png.bbc4d5765974b5daba0607d157eecfed.png.7c09081f292875c94595c562a862958c.png

"On ne voit bien que par le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"We only well see with the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes."

 

In memory of Doren

photo-thumb-12286.jpg.878620deab804c0e4e53f3eab4625b4c.jpg

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