Picking up from yesterday, a few more Eocene fossils from the Stone City Bluff. Yesterday was mostly gastropods (and one scaphopod), today will be bivalves and other marine organisms. I'll save my favorite find for last.
Clams: Left to right, Pitar petropolitanus, Venericardia densata, V. rotunda. Many of the bivalves at the site, although relatively thick-shelled, break easily. One of the differences between V. densata and V. rotunda are beaded ribs on the latter, only slightly visible in the picture.
Tiny clams: Left to right, Nucula mauricensis (note the visible nacre), Notocorbula texana, Vokesula smithvillensis. This V. smithvillensis is the only tiny clam I have found with both valves still together. Tiny clams are pretty common at this site.
Other bivalves: Left to right, Anomia ephippioides (Jingle shell), Barbatia uxorispalmeri (Ark clam), Cubitostrea petropolitana (Oyster). There aren't a lot of oysters at this site, a big difference from many of the cretaceous sites around Central Texas. A. ephippioides is very common at the Stone City Bluff site.
Sharks, Rays, Fish, and Cephalopods: Top two rows, left to right, Belosaepia ungula (Sepioid cephalopod), Fish vertebrae, Otoliths (Fish ear bones). Bottom row left to right, two different shark teeth and a Myliobatus sp. tooth.
Nautiloid: This is my favorite find, as I rarely see nautiloids from this site. When I first started digging it out, it looked more like a bunch of oysters stuck together, but with cleaning, its true nature became apparent. The sand and fossils stuck to the side are lithified, and not easily removable.
If I get around to organizing and identifying the bryozoans and corals, I'll add them in another post later.