Show us your giant Brachiopods!

[JimB88]

My recent trip to the Fort Payne has me wondering how big do brachiopods get? So why not a thread to show off the largest ones we've found!

Here's some of my monsters...

 

 

First up Productus sp. from the Fort Payne, Lower Mississippain.

 

 

I think this is Syringothyris sp. from the same formation as the other.

 

 

I believe this is Rhipidomella sp. (same formation.)

 

Lets see yours!

[Kane]

Some mighty big brachs there! 

 

The biggest I've found in Devonian rocks has been a few beat up specimens of Mediospirifer audaculus. Not quite as big as, say, Gigantoproductus giganteus., but a fairly big chunk o' brach! Also, some of the Stropheodonta species in the mid to lower Devonian could get to a pretty robust size.

 

Neat thread! 

[Miocene_Mason]

I dint find these, they were sent to me by @hauyn888 (thank you very much to him!) and have the biggest Brachiopods I've seen in person. These are from the Devonian of Germany, spiriferids are all about 2 1/2 inches (and none are complete!) I'm not sure if these are considered big to others but they are mammoth to me...

scale in inches

[hauyn888]

hello Mason,

the brachiopods are "only" stone-core preservations and depending on how they were stored and sedimented (mussel schill on the sea coast ...) shell parts are chipped or superimposed by others and you can not see if they are complete ! ......

But this is just the beginning ... save a bit of money .... 2-3 years for example, wait until the school/college holidays, ask your parents, book a ticket to Frankfurt am Main, sit in the train -or I´ll pick you up with my car .... and you stay a few days in Koblenz in my family and I show you a few locations ... You then hunt your own fossils and minerals, see my collection.....

[Bullsnake]

This is probably my largest.

Antiquatonia - Upper Pennsylvanian

[Al Dente]

Here's a more recent one. Paleocene Oleneothyris from North Carolina.

 

 

[TqB]

@Kane mentioned Gigantoproductus giganteus so here are a couple from the UK, north east England (Mississippian,Brigantian/lower Namurian).

 

Finding collectable specimens is hard and this is the best I've managed, a tiddler at 12cm though incomplete:

 

 

And this very bashed about one lives in the garden, 17cm preserved but would be over 20cm complete.

[JimB88]

Holeeeeee.........

[deutscheben]

Wow!

 

Here are my two largest brachiopod specimens- Both Echinoconchus sp., I think, from the Pennsylvanian LaSalle Limestone. The one on the left is just the brachial valve.