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Unknown item from Pennsylvanian shale


KCMOfossil

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I found this item in shale from the Stark Shale Member, Kansas City Group of the Pennsylvanian.  Photos are of either of the halves of the specimen.  The specimen is about 2 cm long.  I would appreciate ID help. The only thought I had was that it seems to be flora and that the "stem" looks similar in appearance to Cordaites.

 

Thanks,

Russ

 

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Looks like a fish spine, to me. 

Perhaps something similar to Ctenacanthus or Xenacanthus ?

 

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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1 hour ago, RCFossils said:

Listracanthus spine

Thanks for the ID.  That looks just like it.  I've found three other spines in this same small bucket of shale.  These are the first I've encountered.  

 

Russ

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Nice!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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7 hours ago, KCMOfossil said:

These are the first I've encountered. 

 

You'll find many more. :) At least for me, they seem to be the most common vertebrate in the Stark.

Context is critical.

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Technically a scale, and not a spine. A single Listracanthus would be covered in hundreds to thousands of these, which is why these scales are so common. 

 

Always satisfying to find one, though. There's not much like them.

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