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Winged Creature Fossil - What is it?


Pohju

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Just wondering if someone could help ID this fossil. It is part of a large stone (10 pounds) with many of these on the stone.

DSCF3122.JPG

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That is actually a Spiriferid brachiopod

Most likely Mucrospirifer mucronatus. 

They are a very common find in some Devonian areas, like upstate New York. 

They are known to be an Index Fossil of the Devonian. 

Nice find. 

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Spiriferid brachiopod, I have many of those in my fossil collection.

 

"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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med_gallery_13044_2007_309180.jpg 

 

Here is one of mine from Central NY and that's another one in my avatar. The one you have is an internal mold which means the original outer shell dissolved at some point. Mucrospirifer brachiopods  are found in Middle Devonian sediments of NY's Hamilton Group and in Pennsylvania's Mahantango Formation and in sediments of the same age in some other neighboring states and provinces.

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Would these have been hinged up the middle like a "Butterfly scallop". If so the closed creature would have been triangular???

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53 minutes ago, snail said:

Would these have been hinged up the middle like a "Butterfly scallop". If so the closed creature would have been triangular???

 

No, no. What you see there is just one stiff shell. The other one is either buried in the matrix underneath it or competely missing. Check this link out: http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpalaeos.com%2Fmetazoa%2Fbrachiopoda%2Fimages%2Fbrachi.gif&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpalaeos.com%2Fmetazoa%2Fbrachiopoda%2Fbrachiopoda.htm&h=437&w=432&tbnid=0ACwCYPfFNT2AM%3A&vet=1&docid=HBisqf28sTD9PM&ei=qFdvWP_rLcqva679oDg&tbm=isch&client=firefox-b&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=6015&page=0&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=0ahUKEwj_38qaj63RAhXK1xoKHa4-CAcQMwgeKAIwAg&bih=760&biw=1600

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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55 minutes ago, snail said:

Would these have been hinged up the middle like a "Butterfly scallop". If so the closed creature would have been triangular???

 

Not sure if I know what you're saying, exactly.

They were hinged shells, but the symmetry of brachiopods  is different from that of pelecypods.

Brachiopods were symmetric (looking at the shell from above) side to side, whereas pelecypods were symmetric from front to back. 

 

brachiopods_versus_bivalves_illustrated1_t.jpg

 

Here are pictures of Mucrospirifers in different orientations

Regards,

 

 

EDIT: Ooops! Looks like Roger beat me to it. :P 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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Nice spirifer.:)

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11 hours ago, Rockwood said:

The 'wings' aren't for flying. 

You know I'm going to have to retract this part. I would be surprised if selective pressures to inhabit places with the current to feed in without being buried by it didn't produce a shape that provided a certain amount of lift. On a very limited scale I bet they did fly !  

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"Delabole Butterfly" is an old quarryman's name for the very similar Cyrtospirifer verneuli from Cornwall, usually found flattened. :)

Tarquin

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17 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

 

 

Here is one of mine from Central NY and that's another one in my avatar. The one you have is an internal mold which means the original outer shell dissolved at some point. Mucrospirifer brachiopods  are found in Middle Devonian sediments of NY's Hamilton Group and in Pennsylvania's Mahantango Formation and in sediments of the same age in some other neighboring states and provinces.

I am trying to learn how to tell an internal mold of a brachiopod from an external cast. I have some brachiopods that are free from the matrix but only one valve and, like a bivalve, they have ornamentation outside but a smooth inside surface but can have internal features preserved. How do you know this is an internal mold without seeing the other side? Could any possible growth lines just be worn off?

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Bob,

 

I think the lack of any real ornamentation, along with the slight gap around the fossil, and the indents from the hinge teeth at the hinge line,  all point to it being an internal mold. :) 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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15 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

Not sure if I know what you're saying, exactly.

They were hinged shells, but the symmetry of brachiopods  is different from that of pelecypods.

Brachiopods were symmetric (looking at the shell from above) side to side, whereas pelecypods were symmetric from front to back. 

 

brachiopods_versus_bivalves_illustrated1_t.jpg

 

Here are pictures of Mucrospirifers in different orientations

Regards,

 

 

EDIT: Ooops! Looks like Roger beat me to it. :P 

I know what 'snail' is thinking but of course you guys gave the right reply anyway..

 

If it were a clam, you'd be right in interpreting the fold to go down the middle, in this pic.

The hinge is actually along the straight edge at the top.

 

As for 'mold', I think you can kind of tell a mold just by the look of it, but one of the giveaways that I have noticed for brach's is those two little holes/slots in the rock near the 'beak'.

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I would say it is an internal mold (underside) of a dorsal valve of a Mucrospirifer mucronatus.

 

DSCF3122.JPG.1c2d30120010264ba48d86090aa493b5.JPGMucrospirifer_mucronatus_Silica_dorsal.jpg

 

Maybe other examples of other specimens from the same matrix could reveal more details.

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On 1/6/2017 at 5:12 PM, BobWill said:

How do you know this is an internal mold without seeing the other side? Could any possible growth lines just be worn off?

Here's a picture of the interior showing the location of the hinge teeth.  f09_chon_draw.gif

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Thanks Tim and trisk, I see what you mean about the hinge and teeth. I guess the answer to my other question is that sometimes you can see traces of the external ornamentation on the inside so  they would be visible on an internal mold. That's the part I haven't seen on my brachs before. I don't have many showing the inside at all and even those are casts of the outside and inside of a single valve. Internal molds are common for many cretaceous mollusks from here but the Carboniferous shells of both mollusks and brachs I find here are mostly external casts so maybe I just need to get out more :) 

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