View Full Version : Guess What? Thing 1


Architeuthoceras
Oct 22nd, 2006, 04:05pm
This is part of a fossil cephalopod, anyone know which part. :grin:

cuttlegirl
Oct 22nd, 2006, 08:16pm
Ok, I'll try, but I am a terrible paleontologist...

Either a siphuncle or a rostrum from a belemnite.

spartacus
Oct 23rd, 2006, 12:37pm
crystalline structure says belemnite rostrum to me, what's the prize Kevin ?

Keef

Architeuthoceras
Oct 23rd, 2006, 01:36pm
what's the prize Kevin ?

I guess the winner will have to settle for the satisfaction of being the one that was most correct. :wink:

And of course they will get my admiration.

spartacus
Oct 25th, 2006, 02:22pm
And of course they will get my admiration.

Priceless then :grin: !

Keef

Architeuthoceras
Oct 25th, 2006, 03:13pm
Well, I was going to wait for a few more remarks but...

Cuttlegirl got it right :notworth: (you'd make a good paleontologist)

Although it has the crystalline structure of a Belemnite, it is an internal mold of the siphuncle of an ammonite. It was hollow when buried and the crystals grew into the empty space, all the shell material, and whatever the connecting ring of the siphuncle was made of has been desolved, leaving only the crystallized internal mold. Below are 3 pics of the last three chambers of a large Prionocyclus macombi. You can see the same crystalline structure growing toward the center of each chamber (best seen in the middle pic). In the first and last pics you can see the siphuncle, an end view in the first pic and 2 segments and the mold of a third in the last pic (thing 1 is on the left).

spartacus
Oct 26th, 2006, 05:08am
Kevin, maybe it's better that I just stick to my usual drivel & leave the clever stuff to the clever clogs :oops:

Keef

cuttlegirl
Oct 26th, 2006, 10:28am
:oops: I just guessed based on what I thought would be cylindrical in a cephalopod...

Architeuthoceras
Oct 26th, 2006, 11:43am
:oops: I just guessed based on what I thought would be cylindrical in a cephalopod...

That is basically the definition of Paleontologist :wink:

Phil
Oct 27th, 2006, 07:44am
Sorry for the delay Kevin. Been off for a few days, at a conference on the British Bronze Age(!) and helping out excavating at a local mill where a mysterious floor has been discovered underneath the existing 19th century mill.

Anyway, that's pretty interesting. I would certainly not have guessed that was a crystalline cast of siphuncle from an ammonite. I knew it wasn't a belemnite, but beyond that I would have been stumped. How unusual!