Ordovician in Tennessee (Help!)

That makes sense to me, there's an area that's mostly gastropods, another section where there are mostly brachiopods and trace. Now if I can just discover a section that's mostly chephalopods :heee: but so far they seem to be sort of evenly scattered around the quarry.:smile:
 
Here are a few of the gastropods; the first and 2nd, possibly Macularites? The third I'm not sure of.
 

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Terri;177348 said:
The first two look like Maclurites :heee:

Is the last one planispiral? I can see no sign of any septa, and if it is planispiral, it is too involute for an Ordovician coiled nautiloid, maybe a Bellerophontid??? Cool to see all those little worm trails in the mold. :cool2:

DWhatley;177379 said:
This one (397) looks really interesting. I hope Kevin can ID it.

397 ???? Is that Terri's post count? Post #'s and time have disappeared from FireFox. :hmm:

 

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The first two look like Maclurites :heee:

Yes! Got something right...I like the first one, I don't find a lot of fossils free of the matrix and 3d, that I can actually hold in my hand and see all sides. On the second one I was wondering about the area at the bottom just left of center that kind of branches to the left, is that part of the gastropod, and if it is, what part? :roll:

This one (397) looks really interesting. I hope Kevin can ID it.

I think it's very interesting! Definintely different than the other gastropods, very cool you noticed the difference! :cool2:
 
Is the last one planispiral? I can see no sign of any septa, and if it is planispiral, it is too involute for an Ordovician coiled nautiloid, maybe a Bellerophontid??? Cool to see all those little worm trails in the mold. :cool2:

I think it is planispiral, but I need a lesson here, I have the definition but am not sure I know how to apply it, can you show an example with another fossil? I'm a visual learner (need a duh emoticom). I don't see any septa either. I don't have the fossil with me (been away from home for 3 weeks) so just going through pics. Love the worm trails... so the worms had to get inside the shell before diagenises? I'm going to look at pics. and see if I have some different views and am googling Bellerophontid! :smile:
 
Terri;177410 said:
On the second one I was wondering about the area at the bottom just left of center that kind of branches to the left, is that part of the gastropod, and if it is, what part? :roll:
Possibly part of the aperture ?


Terri;177411 said:
I think it is planispiral, but I need a lesson here, I have the definition but am not sure I know how to apply it, can you show an example with another fossil?

Most gastropods are torticonic, they grow in a spiral and along another axis. Most coiled cephalopods are planispiral they grow in a spiral on one plane, kinda like the crooked red line in the pic below :oops: Spherocone is an involute planispiral form with wide whorls, similar to your fossil.

 

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That view helps quite a bit :biggrin2: Now it looks like the bottom view of a Maclurites, or Macluritid. In the new view it would be flattened on the left, like the right view below (it is flat on bottom), the old view is like the left view below, and the first two are like the center view below.


As for the thing on the left that branches to the left that I thought could be part of the aperture, well, it seems these things had a fairly robust operculum, it may be remains of that. :cool2:
 

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