Seashells from the central Mojave desert

[AllGrownsUp]

Hi. Here are some shells from our desert property. Also some burrows/worm tubes I think? There's a tiny shell inside one of the holes (pictured).

 

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[Raggedy Man]

Have to be careful where you collect there, but im sure you already know that. Nice finds!! 

[AllGrownsUp]

Just now, Raggedy Man said:

Have to be careful where you collect there, but im sure you already know that. Nice finds!! 

Thanks. Yeah these are all from our property so hopefully we're safe. 

[Raggedy Man]

36 minutes ago, AllGrownsUp said:

Thanks. Yeah these are all from our property so hopefully we're safe. 

[Herb]

nice shells, looks Neogene to me

[DPS Ammonite]

Please give us more specific locality info. Do you know the formation? We may be able to ID the shells for you.

[Max-fossils]

 

Man, these beauties are making me really jealous!

Awesome finds, well done. 

 

Max

[ricardo]

I believe some of your "worm tubes" are Gastropoda (Vermetidae).

 

Regards,

 

Ricardo

[AllGrownsUp]

On 12/31/2018 at 10:00 AM, ricardo said:

I believe some of your "worm tubes" are Gastropoda (Vermetidae).

Thanks Ricardo - I looked it up and yep they look identical to those! Very good to know. 

 

And aww shucks thanks Max. Every time I think I must have found them all I dig up another. Found this one last weekend to add:

 

 

 

 

 

[FranzBernhard]

Nice shells over there, congrats! You seem to find bivalves more often then gastropods?

 

Your last one is especially nice. It could be a volutid gastropod with still preserved color pattern.

20 hours ago, AllGrownsUp said:

Do you find such patterns more often at your site?

 

Here is one for comparison from the infamous Weitendorf locality of the Miocene Styrian basin in Austria. Height of this volutid (Athleta rarispina) is 4 cm, I took the pic from Hiden (2008).

 

Franz Bernhard

 

[FossilDAWG]

You have some very nice mollusc fossils.  If you could give us an idea of where they were collected, such as a nearby town, we might be able to help you more with the age and possible IDs.

 

Don

[AllGrownsUp]

Thanks Don! Our property is in Landers, CA. We're in the Qoa geo zone but also downslope from Pc, Pcc, Gb, Mz, and Gr in about a mile radius in various directions and we're on top of a major fault line. We've also been working on a rock wall using med/lg rocks we can dig up on the property, so lots of random new digs in previously untouched places turning up interesting new things right now.

 

Franz - that's really interesting. I was reading somewhere I may be able to see the old faded patterns on some with a UV light. I have a blacklight flashlight & am trying that with some of the other shells when I'm back on the property this weekend. The photo you posted of the volutid kind of reminds me of the shape of one of the mystery items I had dug up that I posted in the fossil ID section. I think it was decided via the forum that it is likely just a sedimentary rock that has rippled on one side due to the movement via fault on our property, but I can't help but think it looks so much like something that would be inside one of my shells. Its about 4" long. I tried to take photos in different lights so you could see some of the webbed spiral coming out of the round portion:

 

[AllGrownsUp]

On the subject of molluscs I had also posted this at some point, thinking it could maybe be a giant mollusc. I assume that would be rare and out-of-place at my desert house so I'm sure it's not but it's a crazy looking huge rock. About 20" tall.

 

 

 

 

[FranzBernhard]

4 hours ago, AllGrownsUp said:

I was reading somewhere I may be able to see the old faded patterns on some with a UV light.

Oh yeah! Conus snails found only a few km away from the Weitendorf locality.

I was using my old (1980ies), regular UV-lamp and my crappy camera, best of all, everything was hand-held . Worked out ok.

 

4 hours ago, AllGrownsUp said:

reminds me of the shape of one of the mystery items I had dug up

That´s a really difficult one! No idea! Usual preping seems to be difficult with this one. I am leaning toward cutting it lenghtwise with a tile saw.

 

4 hours ago, AllGrownsUp said:

thinking it could maybe be a giant mollusc.

20´´ would be quite tremendous! I am also thinking that this is an oddly shaped rock.

 

Franz Bernhard