Shellseeker Posted September 18 Share Posted September 18 Went hunting yesterday. Initially found very little. One very nice G. cuvier tooth. SO , I started moving checking out places that had produced in the past. One place had whale vert eroding out of the bank into the stream a couple of years back. So, I went there and Lo and Behold, a whale vert laying in the water directly below that bank. Hunting for fossils is sometimes easy. The bank is hard, almost rock like clay and there are hundreds of shells on the face of the bank. Small oysters and pecten's dominate. I noticed a very large oyster that seemed to have become calcified or silicified that had also fell out of the bank. I have taken some photos... The Whale Vert The Oyster Here is a pecten from the same location.... I always search the Internet for possible matches, For the Pecten I found a paper written by Richard Hulbert and Roger Portell who lead their respective departments (Vert, InVert) at the University of Florida. It had this Picture of Florida Pliocene Pecten's I did a side by side of the pecten I found. I am now thinking I have found Carolinapecten murdockensis druidwilsoni , but think I need someone like @MikeR to validate. Continuing, I searched the Internet " giant oyster Florida Pliocene" and found... this newspaper article, I wonder if this very large oyster I found is Qstrea Coxi from the Pliocene of Florida. Maybe @Boesse can tell me. So, if the Pecten and Qyster turn out to be Pliocene species, is it reasonable to think that the Whale vert might be from a Pliocene whale ? and any this was just the 2nd spot I tried... 5 Link to post Share on other sites
hemipristis Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 Nice doorstop! Worth a trip Link to post Share on other sites
Shellseeker Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 50 minutes ago, hemipristis said: Nice doorstop! Worth a trip Well, not a doorstop... I wanted to get it into occasional water... decorative at the bottom of a drainpipe off my roof. Definitely worth the trip. Mine , at just under 10 inches, is just a shrimp and likely only lived 45 years... Also not likely to be Ostrea Coxi... (Not to size) 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Shellseeker Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 Ostrea_greeni.. we stand on the shoulders of Giants in this case (Ward L. W., 1992) 1 Link to post Share on other sites
hemipristis Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 3 hours ago, Shellseeker said: Well, not a doorstop... I wanted to get it into occasional water... decorative at the bottom of a drainpipe off my roof. Definitely worth the trip. Mine , at just under 10 inches, is just a shrimp and likely only lived 45 years... Also not likely to be Ostrea Coxi... (Not to size) Lots of cocktail sauce to get that one down 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Coco Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 Hi, Jack, about your Carolinapecten, unless I’m having a problem with your picture in the hollow/relief, on your specimen the hollows are much wider than the ribs compared to the photos in the publication. Are you sure of the species ? Coco Link to post Share on other sites
Shellseeker Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 5 hours ago, Coco said: Hi, Jack, about your Carolinapecten, unless I’m having a problem with your picture in the hollow/relief, on your specimen the hollows are much wider than the ribs compared to the photos in the publication. Are you sure of the species ? Coco No, but I am hardly ever sure. South Florida is a mix of Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene fauna but not every location is the same mix. This location tends to be more Pliocene than all others... So as I look on the Internet for Reference Papers or Research manuals, I start searching for "Florida Pliocene Large Oyster" or "Florida Pliocene Carolina Pecten". I find documents where Paleontologists have compared Florida Pliocene Oysters or Pectens and provide photos of what they had found, These are my possibilities and I can compare to the fossil I found. At this point, I just select the closest possibility. I have taken my investigation as far as I am capable and my hope is that MikeR will swoop in and say " Jack, the actual ID is Carolinapecten xxxxyyyzzz". I know that Mike has the experience /skills to correctly Identify this pecten. This is my process for how I learn and remember. Jack Link to post Share on other sites
Coco Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 OK Jack, it’s true that Mike is the best to help us, wait for his opinion Coco Link to post Share on other sites
Shellseeker Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 I have contacted Roger Portell, Collection Director, Division of Invertebrate Paleontology, Florida Museum of Natural History. I have never disagreed with Roger on any Identification he provides. Roger indicates that the very large oyster is Looks more like Hyotissa haitensis to me. I had hoped to find a couple of shells that were not present in the Pleistocene, and that might "date" the layer these 2 shells and Whale Vert were found, but it was not to be, at least with the Oyster. Link to post Share on other sites
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