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Fossil of snake head perhaps?


Inason

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A friend from Somalia gave me this rock.

he said he found in Hargeisa (northern Somalia). That's all I know about.

any ideas what it could be?.

the last picture is teh under side.

IMG_2163.JPG

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I don't think this is a snake head, sadly. Instead, this looks to be a brachiopod, possibly a spiriferid. One giveaway is the hinge at the lower end.

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3 minutes ago, caterpillar said:

Rhynchonella for me

These are sometimes found in Somalia, according to the internet.

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Happy hunting,

Mason

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Nice Brachiopod. 

Rhynchonellid.

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Yeah, I think Rhynchonella sp. is a pretty solid guess in this case.

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I know I'm being a curmudgeon about this, but putting an actual genus name (Rhynchonella) on a specimen of unknown geological origin and age seems a bridge too far.  It could actually be a Rhychonella, but given the level of homeomorphy within the group labeling it as a "rhynchonellid", or at most cf Rhynchonella (comparable form to Rhynchonella) would be more appropriate.

 

Don

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4 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

I know I'm being a curmudgeon about this, but putting an actual genus name (Rhynchonella) on a specimen of unknown geological origin and age seems a bridge too far.  It could actually be a Rhychonella, but given the level of homeomorphy within the group labeling it as a "rhynchonellid", or at most cf Rhynchonella (comparable form to Rhynchonella) would be more appropriate.

 

Don

Point well taken, and not curmudgeonly at all. Without more information on origin, we are consigned to venturing "best guesses" and so we ought to hedge these with "resembles" or "looks like." At best, we can say it is an articulate brachiopod that has a resemblance to Rhynchonellids. Perhaps the OP can ask his friend a few more questions about the locality it was collected from. 

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But in a way I had never noticed before they do kind of look like snake heads!  Where would we be without our imaginations?

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I agree with the others on a rhynchonellid brachiopod.

I think, first of all, it would be important to know the geological age of the sediments where the specimen comes from. My initial thought related to the ID was either Somalirhynchia africana, Burmirhynchia sp. or Cymatorhynchia sp., but, considering the tectonic evolution of the sedimentary basins, the region (Hargeisa) looks to be in a Cretaceous/Paleocene-Eocene/Pleistocene-onward realm (according to Ali & Watts, 2015), so, probably, the mentioned genera could be ruled out, in the condition if the specimen in question is not transported material from the Middle/Upper Jurassic sediments from the west. If not, it could be one of them, possibly the former (?).

 

597a6b3fda643_AliWatts_2015_10.1111_bre.12113.thumb.jpg.d87c0768d71d7dd1c41d66e3ed858ec4.jpg

 

Kiessling_et_al_2011.thumb.jpg.ce51925bb9ad12e482f6279e00338ee0.jpg

excerpt from Kiessling et al. 2011. Marine benthic invertebrates from the Upper Jurassic of northern Ethiopia and their biogeographic affinities. Journal of African Earth Sciences 59:195–214

 

1475-4983.00195_2.thumb.jpg.b25d1b8e70eb024003fb2ba2f5ec1c69.jpg1475-4983.00195_1.thumb.jpg.0424694a9ef596ec6eae4af03fe51047.jpg

excerpt from Feldman et al. 2001. BRACHIOPODS FROM THE JURASSIC (CALLOVIAN) OF HAMAKHTESH HAGADOL (KURNUB ANTICLINE), SOUTHERN ISRAEL. Palaeontology, Vol. 44, Part 4: 637-658

 

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13 hours ago, Kane said:

Point well taken, and not curmudgeonly at all. Without more information on origin, we are consigned to venturing "best guesses" and so we ought to hedge these with "resembles" or "looks like." At best, we can say it is an articulate brachiopod that has a resemblance to Rhynchonellids. Perhaps the OP can ask his friend a few more questions about the locality it was collected from. 

Unfortunately I was unable to gather any further information from the friend. She said she found it outside her house. It seems to me someone else may have lost it/thrown it away.

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14 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

I know I'm being a curmudgeon about this, but putting an actual genus name (Rhynchonella) on a specimen of unknown geological origin and age seems a bridge too far.  It could actually be a Rhychonella, but given the level of homeomorphy within the group labeling it as a "rhynchonellid", or at most cf Rhynchonella (comparable form to Rhynchonella) would be more appropriate.

 

Don

 

Yes, I'm agree. It's just an error of language. (As you say, french people don't speak very well english). I thought Rhynchonellid and I've written Rhynchonella

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  • 2 months later...

 

 

The following publications might be relevant for the discussion: West's 1926 "Mesozoic Fossils of Somaliland*"

* Africa has a peculiar history,remember?

or :Stefanini, G. 1925. Description of fossils from South Arabia and British Somaliland. In, O.H. Little (Ed.) The Geography and Geology of Makalla, South Arabia. Geological Survey of Egypt, Cairo, p. 142-208.

For those who doubt the importance of internal features for a consistent taxonomy of rhynchonellids,I recommend

 

 

rhyncht6hb.jpg

 

 

 

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