Friday, July 9, 2010

Byssonichia radiata

Silurian Period clam fossil found in Waynesville, Ohio stored in Muséum National D'Historie Naturelle Jardin Des Plantes Paléontologie et Anatomie Comparée, Paris, France.  The clam is called Byssonichia radiata.
UPDATE: Solius Symbiosus of Swimming the Ordovician Seas blog left a comment that this pelecypod should be called Byssonychia radiata.  After looking it up I find that is has a new name Ambonychia radiata Hall, 1847 see this for more. Also it appears to be an Ordovician Period fossil and not a Silurian one. Thanks for the clarification.


Past references I have made to the Ambonychia:

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2009/03/ordovician-pelecypod-ambonychia.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/01/kope-formation-fossils.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2008/07/ordovician-pelecypod.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/05/fossils-of-bullitt-county.html

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have an Ord ambonychiid the size of my foot, and I have big feet!

Wonder what they tasted like???

Anonymous said...

Too, I think that the museum in France got the spelling wrong. Shouldn't it be "Byssonychia"???

Michael Popp said...

I am not sure about the spelling but it appears to have changed. Before this post was submitted, I did an image and Google search on the name and found a number of results matching in paleontology books from the early 1900s. No images were found.

You are correct in that the Byssonychia term is used for today's spelling, it generates a slew of results in Google.

This identification on this fossil was probably made a long time ago since it is classified Silurian while today that fossil would be considered Ordovician. Were not both time periods at one time combined?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, at one time the Cam., Ord., and Sil. were one time period. I have a geology text from 1865 that lists the periods as sil/old red sst/carb/new red sst/oolitic/cretaceous/tert.