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Definitely new to me... (isn’t everything, though?!?!)


InfoHungryMom

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Psst...  Jon Landis’ Staff, from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller Video”, want the mask back STAT! :headscratch:

 

Unlike any mollusk shell I have ever seen... which doesn’t mean a whole lot!

 

Thank you!

 

Karen 

B86DD892-4D99-4152-A354-945689021459.jpeg

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It is really hard to tell from the pics, but I have seen at least 3 types of mollusk fossils that look similar this.

1. Some of the conglomerates of oysters can look like the first group of pics.

2. Around here in the North Sulfur River there very eroded and worm eaten Exgyra ponderosa oysters, which are huge which look a bit like the second pic or first individual pic. These can look a bit like eroded stone, but hints of shell layers appear 

3. Then there is another type of fossils I see here in North Texas that was a conglomerate of mollusks where the mollusks eroded away leaving imprints in limestone or other material. 

 

Those are just possibilities. I can’t tell from the pics which they could be, if any. It could just be eroded stone too. You have to look for the hints of calcium carbonate shell or the shell pattern imprint.

 

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I'm gonna agree with the rest and say that there aren't any mollusks of any type in this rock... sorry!

 

Max Derème

 

"I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day."

   - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

 

Instagram: @world_of_fossils

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Here are two oysters to show a likely similar shell’s “original appearance”

image.jpg

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I know most of my “beach bling”!  Just don’t know/understand the processes that take it “from A-to-B”. :)  Thank you all for input!  I am learning from EVERYTHING!

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14 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

Here are two oysters to show a likely similar shell’s “original appearance”

image.jpg

What is the relative hardness of your rocks? Try scratching them with a steel knifeblade. A shell will scratch; a piece of quartz will not. Let us know the results.

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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Hi DPS-

 

I am quite confident these are not rocks!  However, I was/am hoping to learn about the fossilization process from it/them.  If the hardness of the “coating” will help determine what is growing or chemically changing, WONDERFUL!

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4 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

I am quite confident these are not rocks!  

The larger white piece is an oyster shell.

I have doubt about the other one being shell of any kind. It looks like a mineral vein in rock. (Flat surfaces and sharp angles are not typical of shells.)

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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Exactly ynot!  Thus the conundrum!  (Hey, I’m learning AND hopefully adding valuable info to the mix):)

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11 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

Hi DPS-

 

I am quite confident these are not rocks!  However, I was/am hoping to learn about the fossilization process from it/them.  If the hardness of the “coating” will help determine what is growing or chemically changing, WONDERFUL!

It sort of works the other way around. You explain how a shell that looks like this becomes a "fossil" shell that looks like that and we will be more likely to follow. :)

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 Rockwood, I am literally thrilled I can add to the knowledge here!  And... that no one has been intentionally condescending to me!

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21 minutes ago, InfoHungryMom said:

 Rockwood, I am literally thrilled I can add to the knowledge here!  And... that no one has been intentionally condescending to me!

Perfect.

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I don't see any coral related material here, but the specimen in question may be an initially bioeroded hard substrate with further biological and geological erosion, making it unrecognizable in the final state. :)

" We are not separate and independent entities, but like links in a chain, and we could not by any means be what we are without those who went before us and showed us the way. "

Thomas Mann

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 I tend to believe they are likely very worn oysters based on the first set of pics. 

I think the 2nd set of pics are a bit misleading.

Regarding sharp angles: this is a post from about a year ago. Pseudoperna congesta oysters do form sharp angles. They will take on the shape of anything they encrust. I found an oyster once that looked so much like an ammonite with ridges, but I had never seen an ammonite in the area with shell, as the were all casts or steinkerns. I showed it to someone more experienced than I at the time and he explained it was an oyster that had encrusted an ammonite.

Here are Pseudoperna congesta oysters encrusting a fragment of Inoceramus clam. You can’t see that here but you can in the link below.  It was @DPS Ammonite who ID’d them for me.

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This shell isn’t the best example to use, 

but it will help some to illustrate how shells weather or decay. This is a modern oyster127288FF-6162-47AB-AB4C-B96FCD7C0A58.thumb.jpeg.c4957492efab343b29643ec99d8e06c0.jpeg

 

 

 

 

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Hi Kim!  Awesome!

 

Actually, I found some oyster shells today with flat surfaces and sharp angles.  I’ll post pictures later.  Atlantic oysters are amazing...  like many shells/species you can “tell their age” based on the number of layers on their shell.  

 

And- adding to Kim’s info:

 

 Once the larvae are approximately two weeks old and in the pediveliger stage (larva with a foot), they begin to concentrate at the bottom of the river system to search for a hard substrate. The larvae utilize an appendage that they grow called a foot. This foot helps them crawl around on the bottom to find a suitable substrate for them to attach to. Once they have successfully located a suitable location, usually an oyster shell, they begin to attach to the shell by secreting a glue. The larvae then undergo a complete metamorphosis of internal anatomy and become what we call a spat.

E92A1DF4-487E-453C-B7C6-C26BD71456D8.jpeg

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We need to figure out what the rocks are made of. Does it fizz in acid? Will a steel knife blade scratch it?

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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Hi DPS-

 

I just contacted my favorite National Park Service Ranger to get complete details if possible-  Thank you for being interested :)

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DPS, my Ranger was not in the office today, but I spoke with another...   there’s no question that the one is “from” an oyster.  As soon as I can get the exact answers I will, but they believed it was weathering like that because of the concentration of minerals in the area.....   I will get a direct answer ASAP!

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