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Hunterc123

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Looking through my typical pile of gravel I saw this, I thought maybe it was wishful thinking because I see spiral shapes all the time. I picked it up and noticed it had traces of shell like material tracing the spiral. Could it be an ammonite encased in chert like this, or just a worn down snail of some other sort?

20190531_112654.jpg

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My only hesitation to say that it's simply a gastropod is the fact that I find these fossils around coral and crinoids which I believe date to around the Devonian period when the US was covered in shallow oceans. What other gastropods were there at the time?

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16 minutes ago, Hunterc123 said:

My only hesitation to say that it's simply a gastropod is the fact that I find these fossils around coral and crinoids which I believe date to around the Devonian period when the US was covered in shallow oceans. What other gastropods were there at the time?

There were no actual ammonites during the Devonian. Those would show sutures of one kind or another.

Only goniatites and ammonoid type cephalopods. 

Here are some potentially helpful links. 
 

LINK 1

 

LINK 2

 

 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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3 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

There were no actual ammonites during the Devonian. Those would show sutures of one kind or another.

Only goniatites and ammonoid type cephalopods. 

Here are some potentially helpful links. 
 

LINK 1

 

LINK 2

 

 

I have seen that link before, but I can now definitely see how if the top of a gastropod shell would wear down, it would end up looking like that.

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Some were long stretched out spirals; some were nearly flat.

 

DCM_G.05804.jpg

naticopsis-fossil-mollusc-full-width.jpg

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Some were long stretched out spirals; some were nearly flat.

 

DCM_G.05804.jpgnaticopsis-fossil-mollusc-full-width.jpg

I see. I've found many other gastropods in the gravel, but this is the first resembling this. Seeing other examples of planispiral gastropods, I can definitely say it looks like that.

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2 minutes ago, Hunterc123 said:

I see. I've found many other gastropods in the gravel, but this is the first resembling this. Seeing other examples of planispiral gastropods, I can definitely say it looks like that.

And some are even flatter. I just didn't run across a photo of one as I searched.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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9 minutes ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

And some are even flatter. I just didn't run across a photo of one as I searched.

The one I posted is fairly worn, thus its hard to see a cross section, but if anything I'd say about 2-3mm thick.

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1 minute ago, Hunterc123 said:

The one I posted is fairly worn, thus its hard to see a cross section, but if anything I'd say about 2-3mm thick.

Can't judge the thickness well from the photo. If you Google "gastropod" you'll see the amazing variety of shapes and sizes. There's 35,000 extant species and, I'm guessing, at least that many fossil species.

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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Image from HERE.

 

pseudoplanispiral+shell.jpg

  • I found this Informative 1

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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