#fossil bivalve

[drhoz]

a few more fossil molluscs from NZ, that @purrdence found at a B&B on the Fossil Coast. Unfortunately she didn’t ask exactly where the owner had found them, so narrowing down an ID is beyond me, beyond two scallops and what might be a brachiopod.

[vickysaurus-art]

An unfortunate biological scheduling conflict occurs on the coast of a Silurian lagoon when Pseudoniscus horseshoe crabs and Eurypterus sea scorpions come to the same beach to mate and spawn. Although they are relatives who share both this behaviour and eyes which lack acuity, but have perfect night vision, the sea scorpions have no qualms about using this accidental meeting to snack on their smaller cousins.

[wh00pwh00p]

look there's not ganna be any art for the next couple weeks (exams >:|)so I offer my favourite specimens in my collection :D

(did anyone think a rock post is what would substitute the lack of art)

gryphea - brachiopod looking bivalve (silly)

brachiopods (unspecified) - both jurassic in age found in the same place a year apart

obsidian furnace slag - admittedly this isn't in my collection bc it's full of lead but it is pretty

I've got a lot more n some rlly nice corals (if people wanna see I'll share em but I don't have the photos sitting on my phone) but I'd love to find an ammanoid or trilobite n hopefully in the spring I'll get some neat igneous specimens

tbh I think my favourite are the fossils of the small stuff yk, I'm never ganna find a full dinosaur but I will find a full brachiopod or coral

[strigops]

boy i love getting jumpscared by random raw chunks of unlabeled asbestos in the donated collections

[raphlecia]

Illustration of Cretaceous Bivalvia (previously called Lamelliabranchia) by Thomas Alfred, Brock from the Monograph of Palaeontographical Society Vol. 63 (1909)

[katarinanavane]

All fossil charm necklace and charm bracelet! Currently making stock for the upcoming Columbus oddities and curiosities expo (4/20 and 4/21 2024) but if you'd like me to list this one online instead or if you'd like a custom one any time message me!

[allpowerfulaxolotl]

Recently I’ve started fossil hunting, and I’ve found several things on the surface of boulders in riprap along the Chicago river. I have no idea what species any of these things may be, but I know it’s at least mostly stuff from an ancient ocean floor. This includes things like bivalves and corals—many corals. These are pictures of a handful of the things I’ve found with a ruler for scale.

[unshatters-your-teacup]

@mollymerula and @wilderminds both said they’d steal my fossil rock so here’s some pictures of it. It’s a bunch of crinoid fossils that are pretty small but there’s a lot of them

[bjarkob2620]

Fossil bivalves

We did find some Posidonia fossils on our field trip, in the Kulmtonschiefer. Teach says it must be a water escape structure, but I swear we found one in a Dasberg sandstone as well... (not the one in the picture, the sandstone has been lost in the pile. Picture is Kulmtonschiefer - we think).

[uk-fossils]

Ctenostreon proboscideum Fossil Bivalve with Attached Worm Tube | Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Osmington Mills Dorset UK | Genuine Specimen + COA

Ctenostreon proboscideum Fossil Bivalve with Attached Worm Tube

Formation: Kimmeridge Clay

Age: Jurassic Period (Approx. 157–145 million years ago)

Location: Osmington Mills, Dorset, UK

This listing showcases a fascinating and rare Ctenostreon proboscideum fossil bivalve with a naturally attached fossilized worm tube, providing a unique look into Jurassic marine ecosystems. Discovered on December 4, 2024, by our expert team members Alister and Alison, this fossil was unearthed from the Kimmeridge Clay at Osmington Mills, Dorset. Carefully cleaned, prepped, and treated by Alison, this specimen captures the intricate interplay of two distinct marine species preserved together in exceptional detail.

Species Information:

Ctenostreon proboscideum: This extinct bivalve species is renowned for its ornate shell structure and played an important role as a filter feeder in Jurassic marine environments. Its fossilized remains are often found in the Kimmeridge Clay, a formation famous for its extraordinary preservation.

Attached Worm Tube: The fossilized worm tube, naturally adhered to the bivalve, adds a unique layer of interest. Likely belonging to an ancient marine worm species, this feature illustrates the symbiotic or opportunistic interactions between marine organisms millions of years ago.

This remarkable pairing offers a rare snapshot of ancient marine biodiversity, emphasizing the interconnectedness of species in prehistoric ecosystems.

Product Details:

Authenticity Guaranteed: 100% genuine fossil with a Certificate of Authenticity included.

Exact Specimen: The fossil in the photos is the exact piece you will receive.

Size: Refer to the scale cube (1 cm) and photos for precise dimensions.

Discovery and Preparation: Found on December 4, 2024, by Alister and Alison, and meticulously prepared by Alison to showcase its exceptional features and scientific value.

Formation and Location: Sourced from the Kimmeridge Clay at Osmington Mills, Dorset, UK.

This fossil bivalve with an attached worm tube is a standout addition to any fossil collection, ideal for display, study, or teaching purposes. Its historical significance, unique preservation, and visual appeal make it a prized specimen for collectors, educators, and paleontology enthusiasts.

Shipping & Handling:

Your fossil will be securely packaged to ensure safe delivery. International shipping with tracking is available for a smooth and worry-free purchasing experience.

Don’t miss the opportunity to own this unique and scientifically significant Ctenostreon proboscideum fossil bivalve with attached worm tube. Add this extraordinary piece of Earth’s Jurassic history to your collection today!

[reddpenn]

Now that I'm back from the gem and mineral show, here are all the Cool Rocks I came home with!

A cute little coral fossil! He looks like a cauliflower.

A Keokuk geode! These geode beds aren't far from where I live, and it's always fun to have local specimens.

Phosphosiderite! This purple stone comes from Chile. It's so soft that it has to be stabilized with resin before it's cut. This one is a cross section of a botryoidial formation!

Speaking of botryoidial, this Hematite! Botryoidial means it has a bubbly shape kind of like a bunch of grapes. The faces of the bubbles on this pieces are super shiny and metallic.

Dendritic chalcedony, from Turkey! It's a white chalcedony full of dendrites - branching formations of manganese that look kind of like trees!

A cabochon for my cab collection! This one is made from a material sometimes called "ajooba jasper." The pattern is actually a cross section of a bunch of colorfully jasperized bivalve fossils!

Speaking of jasper, this one is Blue Mountain jasper, from Oregon! The circles in this stone are what’s known as an “egg pattern,” and jaspers which have them (Blue Mountain, Imperial jasper, and a few others) are collectively known as “fine jaspers,” the most valuable jaspers in the world.

Hyalite opal! This stuff forms water-clear spheres that look like jelly.

It fluoresces bright green under UV light!

Now to show off this year's haul of awesome agates!

Dryhead agate, from the Bighorn Mountains in Montana! This agate is named after the many bison skulls found in the area. A weird shaped guy with awesome red and orange bands.

Bou Lili agate, from Morocco! I like the name of this one. Soft banding and very subtle, muted colors. I've heard that this locale can produce peachy colors too.

Bear Canyon agate, from the Pryor Mountains in Montana! Agates from this locale have very stark black and white banding.

Red Fox agate, from Argentina! Sometimes this material is also called "crater agate" because the area it comes from is near the crater of an ancient volcano.

A Blue Sky thunderegg, from New Mexico! Thundereggs from this locale often have this two pointed, saucer-like shape.

It fluoresces really brightly!

Dulcote agate, from England! The bands of this agate are full of calcite, which gives them a strange, distinct texture.

Malawi agate, from Malawi! See all the cracks in it? Almost all Malawi agates have them. Frequent earthquakes due to the East African Rift cause these agates to crack and fracture.

Paint Rock agate, from Paint Rock Valley in Alabama! This agate is very rarely banded, and usually just contains swirls of red and yellow color.

A big, unpolished slab of Montana agate! This agate is known for its clear banding and black lines and spots, which are caused by manganese dendrites.

It's best viewed with some light behind it!

A smaller piece with really amazing dendrites!

Here it is backlit!

Fighting Blood agate, from Hebei Provence in China! This locale is known for its super saturated reds and yellows. This piece has purple amethyst crystals growing inside! They didn't photograph well; they are much more purple in person.

A really weird Fighting Blood agate! This one lacks the bright colors typical of this locale, but makes up for it with that super cool spiderweb pattern!

And finally, as is tradition, I came home with some Ethiopian opals! Here are the five I got this year.

And that's everything I got at the show!

[alphynix]

The tuzoiids were an enigmatic group of Cambrian invertebrates known mostly just from their spiny bivalved carapaces. Although hundreds of fossils of these arthropods were discovered over the last century or so, only vague fragments of the rest of their bodies have been found even in sites usually known for preserving soft tissue impressions.

…Until late 2022, when several new specimens from the Canadian Burgess Shale deposits (~508 million years ago) were described showing tuzoiid anatomy in exceptional detail, finally giving us an idea of what they looked like and where they fit into the early arthropod evolutionary tree.

Tuzoiids like Tuzoia burgessensis here would have grown up to about 23cm long (~9"). They had large eyes on short stalks, a pair of simple antennae, a horizontal fluke-like tail fan, and twelve pairs of appendages along their body – with the front two pairs at the head end being significantly spinier, and most (or all) of these limbs also bearing paddle-like exopods.

The large carapace enclosed most of the body, and was ornamented with protective spines and a net-like surface pattern that probably increased the strength of the relatively thin chitinous structure.

Together all these anatomical features now indicate that tuzoiids were early mandibulates (part of the lineage including modern myriapods, crustaceans, and insects), and were probably very closely related to the hymenocarines.

Tuzoiids seem to have been active swimmers that probably cruised around just above the seafloor, with their stout legs suggesting they could also walk around if they flexed their valves open. The arrangement of their spiny front limbs wasn't suited to grabbing at fast-swimming prey, but instead may have been used to capture slower seafloor animals or to scavenge from carcasses.

———

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[housecow]

one thing that always makes me want to cry is the fact people have been collecting fossils for THOUSANDS of years. they recently found a cave where neanderthals had collected bivalve and gastropod fossils… native people in the US made beads and jewelry out of crinoids.

so many older dwellings in the southwest were made with petrified wood!! in more recent history, archaeological excavations at civil war-era sites in the east found pinecone impressions (dating to the early cretaceous), collected by someone that was a slave.

such a rich history!! we all see these lil rocks and think they’re neat!!

[mindblowingscience]

The unique underwater kelp forests that line the Pacific Coast support a varied ecosystem that was thought to have evolved along with the kelp over the past 14 million years. But the new study shows that kelp flourished off the Northwest Coast more than 32 million years ago, long before the appearance of modern groups of marine mammals, sea urchins, birds, and bivalves that today call the forests home.

Continue Reading.

[transgenderer]

Clam shrimp are a group of bivalved branchiopodcrustaceans that resemble the unrelated bivalved molluscs.[1] They are extant and also known from the fossil record, from at least the Devonian period and perhaps before.[2]

hey. whats going on with crustaceans

[thehereticpharaoh]

The Great Sphinx

Who Built the Sphinx? The Sphinx Temple Has the Answer by Mark Lehner

Many alternative thinkers claim the Sphinx is much, much older, that it existed thousands of years before Khufu. But our study of the Sphinx and the temple lying just below it—the Sphinx Temple—says no. As certain as we can be about such matters, Khafre created most of the Sphinx. However, Khufu might have started it.

The stone-by-stone map of the Sphinx Temple allowed us to investigate a telltale clue about who built the Sphinx. Quarrymen cut the core blocks (the ones forming the core of the temple walls) so thick—some weigh up to a hundred tons—that many of them include three geological layers. And it was clear that the layers in many blocks were the same as those that run through the bedrock of the Sphinx itself. The blocks had to have come from the U-shaped ditch around the Sphinx. When workers quarried the ditch they left a large block of limestone from which the Sphinx was carved.

As I moved about the Sphinx Temple during my first year of the mapping project, I was struck by how the geological layers run continuously in many places, from one block to another, as the layers must have run in the bedrock. The gangs of young men who moved these mighty stones did not have much chance of mixing them up from quarry to temple wall. The Sphinx and its temple must have been part of the same quarry-construction sequence. But could I prove this?

The following year I met Tom, who had the expertise needed to geologically “fingerprint” the blocks and trace them back to the quarry. Tom looked at the Giza Plateau less as an archaeological site and more as frozen sea floors, petrified, pancaked, and stacked into the bedrock layers from which the pyramid builders quarried blocks, created tombs, and carved the Sphinx.

These layers formed during the Eocene epoch—some 34 to 56 million years ago, as a great primordial sea retreated northward. Under its ebbing waters, a colossal bank of nummulites, unicellular plankton-like organisms, built up. A sandbar developed on the embankment, and in the more protected waters behind it, a shoal and coral reef grew. As the sea retreated to the north, the area behind the sand bank became a muddy lagoon, inhabited by burrowing bivalves and sea urchins. A regular sequence accumulated, which petrified as soft, yellow, marly layers interspersed with harder beds.

In carving the Sphinx directly from the natural rock, the ancient Egyptian quarrymen cut a cross-section through the principal geological layers of the southeastern slope of the Moqattam Formation. The hard layers of the shoal and reef, for example, make up the lowest layer in the Sphinx and its ditch.

Tom and I began our Sphinx Temple core block study by examining each layer, or bed, of the Sphinx. We gave each bed a number and marked them on photographs and on profiles of the Sphinx. The beds were easy to distinguish as they weathered differentially: harder beds protruded, softer beds receded. Also, the relative abundance of different fossils varied. Members I and II showed the greatest differences: I is a very hard gray reef formation, while the first bed of Member II, 2b, is one of the softest of the yellow marl-clay layers. Members II and III are distinct, but the boundary is not so clear as between I and II. Aigner, following an earlier geologist, set the boundary between Beds 7 and 8.

The massive fine-grained bedrock of Beds 8–9 made for good sculpting, with far more endurance than the soft-hard-soft sequence of Member II. This is why the 4th Dynasty builders reserved Member III for the more exposed head. Details like the eyebrows have survived wind, rain, and sand for 4,500 years.

But from which beds exactly did they cut the core blocks? Would this tell us where they were in fashioning the Sphinx at the time they built the Sphinx Temple? To answer these questions we logged each block. We recorded their lithic qualities and fossil content, and assigned each block to one of seven types, A through G.

Most of the Sphinx Temple core blocks are Type A and consist of three layers: upper and lower hard massive layers separated by the soft, yellow marl layer in the middle, which runs continuously through separate blocks over long stretches of temple wall. These blocks come from beds that correspond to the lower chest of the Sphinx.

Type C blocks come from beds that correspond to the Sphinx’s upper chest, top of the chest, and base of the neck. In the Sphinx Temple these blocks cluster near the front. The quarry workers hewed the blocks from layers that would become the lion’s upper chest and top of the back and then dragged them to the eastern front of the Sphinx Temple. As quarry workers cut deeper, to the middle and lower Sphinx chest level, haulers and builders composed most of the core walls of the temple.

Block types B and D did not come from the Sphinx ditch. They most closely match strata to the southwest, exposed in the quarry cut for the Khentkawes Monument. They are less frequent and more intermittent in the temple walls than the A and C blocks. This could indicate that the builders stockpiled these blocks and brought them into the walls whenever there was a hiatus in the quarrying, dragging, and placing of the A blocks from the Sphinx ditch.

Khafre’s workers started shaping the Sphinx as they built his valley temple. And they were probably still shaping the lower lion body, cutting it out of its surrounding ditch, as they made the Sphinx Temple, Khafre’s last major addition to his pyramid complex. But they did not finish. They left the Sphinx Temple incomplete, without its exterior granite casing.