Claw? Tooth? Horn?....and the answer is?
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 7:08 am
None of the above.
Finally found out yesterday, from Professor Dick Hilton at Sierra College. The specimen that I found in the hills near Crockett last November is the stienkern of a crepidula. Or, for us lay people, an internal mold of a slipper snail.
Seems that, after the snail dissolved, sediment collected inside the shell and fossilized. Then the shell fell off, leaving the internal mold.
Not as captivating as a claw or tooth, but still a nice find. Estimated age of between 5 million and 10 million years old.
(My find on the left; a slipper snail on the right.)
Finally found out yesterday, from Professor Dick Hilton at Sierra College. The specimen that I found in the hills near Crockett last November is the stienkern of a crepidula. Or, for us lay people, an internal mold of a slipper snail.
Seems that, after the snail dissolved, sediment collected inside the shell and fossilized. Then the shell fell off, leaving the internal mold.
Not as captivating as a claw or tooth, but still a nice find. Estimated age of between 5 million and 10 million years old.
(My find on the left; a slipper snail on the right.)