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Trying to ID this type of fossil


friedpork

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Please forgive me for my fossil ignorance, as I do not know much about them.  I am trying to find our what kind of fossil this could be.  Or maybe it isn't.  I'm not sure.  I have looked on the internet for awhile and found nothing really similar to it.  If this is easy and I'm just an idiot, I'm sorry haha.  Just thought you all could help me here.  Thank you :)

 

 

20170318_204316.jpg

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Welcome to the Forum. :) 

 

It looks like an internal cast of a bivalve - Clam. 

Where was this found?

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

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Thank you for your reply.  This was found in Fort Collins, CO.  My dad found it about 15 years ago when we were having a house built.

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3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

+1 for bivalve steinkern. What would @Harry Pristis call this...mold or cast?

Little side bet on cast ? I think the ridges tell a story.

I may have missed the point, but what do the ridges mean ?

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Forgive my ignorance.  What would be the difference between mold and cast?  This is really interesting to me, and my dad would have really loved to know.

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Check about 2/3 of the way down this Website. ;) 

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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A mold is quite literally a shape left in matrix which if filled would reproduce that shape. The inside of a shell is seen to mold the living space of the mollusk. The confusion comes with the fact that resulting fossil has been cast inside the shell. 

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40 minutes ago, moriniboy said:

Hi Tim, this link does not seem to work?

 

 

Should work now ;) 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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It is a "steinkern" (internal mold) of an Inoceramus clam.  It looks identical to Inoceramus fossils I collected from the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale in the Fossil Ridge area of Fort Collins, CO.

 

Don

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6 hours ago, friedpork said:

Forgive my ignorance.  What would be the difference between mold and cast?  This is really interesting to me, and my dad would have really loved to know.

 

A couple of discussions on the subject are to be found here and there. Hopefully it's not too confusing, but I'm sure you'll get the gist of it in the end. What you have found is called an endocast in scientific jargon.      

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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What is sure, the shell walls/valves are eroded away.

 

"

the fossilized outline of a hollow organic structure, as a skull or a mollusk shell, formed when mud or sediment consolidated within the structure and the structure itself disintegrated or dissolved. " - Word Origin

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On ‎3‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 4:54 AM, Ludwigia said:

+1 for bivalve steinkern. What would @Harry Pristis call this...mold or cast?

 

It's a cast of the interior of the bivalve.  If there remains any doubt about this characterization, just google "steinkern geology" to find many instances of definition and usage.

 

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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