Cleaning, Sorting, Consolidating recent finds.

Hey All, I just got back from a vacation to Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado and am working on cleaning and identifying my finds. Sorry for the lack of updates but I will be back in a week or two with new content. In the meantime, enjoy some scenery from the places I visited.


Ammonite in North Texas

Bois d'Arc formation in Oklahoma

Green River formation in Kemmerer, WY

Neozoic Rhyolite flows with Geodes from Dugway, UT

Weeks formation, limestone near Delta, UT

Marjum formation near Delta, UT

Green River formation Douglass Pass, Colorado

An old fossil on top of Pikes Peak, Colorado

Coenholectypus planatus echinoid from the Walnut formation of Texas

This round echinoid is Coenholectypus planatus echinoid from the Walnut formation of Texas (Cretaceous, Albian stage). It is one of many that I have received from a friend who collects in the Lone Star State. The test is round when viewed from the dorsal or ventral sides and shaped like a dome when viewed from the sides. In like it would have been covered with many small spines, the bases of which you can see preserved. I think this is considered a "regular" echinoid due to it's shape. Based on the shape of the test and small spine bases I think that C. Planatus would have lived in the littoral zone in rocky and sandy areas.

Adoral surface

Profile views

Oral surface

Placopecten clintonius pelecypod from the Yorktown formation of Virginia

This shell was among a number of Chesapectin jeffersonius specimens and it caught my eye due to the difference. A little research leads me to believe that this is a Placopecten clintonius pelecypod as it exists within the Yorktown formation at the same horizon as C. jeffersonius. The shell is smaller than C. jeffersonius and the radial ribs are both more numerous and finer.

This specimen came from the Yorktown Formation, which is Neogene in age (Pliocene epoch, Zanclean stage), along the James River in Virginia.

Chesapectin jeffersonius pelecypod from the Yorktown formation of Virginia

I acquired this shell at a rock/fossil/mineral show this past spring from someone who collected it themselves. It's a Chesapectin jeffersonius pelecypod from the Yorktown formation (Neogene, Pliocene epoch, Zanclean stage) of Virginia and was found along the James River.  The shell is enormous and I can just imagine what the scallops would have tasted like! It's only a single valve, I'm not sure if it is the left or the right but was a host to some epibionts. There are large barnacles (Balanus concavus), barnacles spats and some corals (Septastrea marylandica). All in all it's a terrific specimen that gives evidence of the environment that it lived in.

Shell exterior

Shell interior

I think these small holes are the traces from the boring sponge Cliona sp.

A better view of the huge barnacles

and some shots of the corals.

Corals with Cliona sp. boring sponge traces