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Inoceramid Bed


paul-waxahachie

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Piece of a creekbed Waxahachie, Texas. Look closely you can see the fossil imprints of dozens of inoceramid clams on this one piece of limestone.

post-11352-0-71366400-1379443861_thumb.jpg

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Wow. Those are big.

This genus of bivalve must have dominated a wide area at one time. Every so often I've come across beds of them when driving through remote parts of Utah, Montana, etc. and they get the collecting juices flowing. Sometimes they seem to be the only fossil present when in layers. Other times, when in big nodules, fun to crack them open and hope to discover ammonites, etc.

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In Wyoming, if you find layers of Inoceramids... start looking for their neighbors the ammonites.

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There are single inoceramids fossils as large as a hoola hoop in that same creek. It is walking distance from my house. A University team from Poland spent a a few months onsite studying them.

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There are single inoceramids fossils as large as a hoola hoop in that same creek. It is walking distance from my house. A University team from Poland spent a a few months onsite studying them.

That sort of make up for your tiny deer.

I've never seen Inoceramids in our Cretaceous bigger than 6 inches or so. The same with those in The Pierre Shale in the locale I collect in Montana. Placenticeras and Baculites ammonites get big but not the gastropods or bivalves.

Edited by Ridgehiker
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The "Flat Clams" definitely had their day! Some of the beds in Kansas are practically made of their broken shards.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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One of the more common fossils for sure. I will go to the creek and get a photo of one of the larger inoceramids tomorrow night. I didn't know the larger "fat clams" were uncommon in other States.

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Thanks. That's incredible. The Brontosaurus of bivalves.

One wonders what variables in an ecosystem encourages supersize evolution..

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I had no idea they were that large in that area..

Welcome to the forum!

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We saw some that big on the Labor Day field trip DPS and MAGS shared in Cooke County Texas. Most were the same size as your first image but some were huge.

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