Went back to the desert wash near Jean, Nevada where I had found my first geode. Was looking for more. Didn’t find any but I may have found my second and third brachiopod or fossilized shell.
The first example is pretty convincing but the second is a mite odd. I see by a Google image search that brachiopods are often distorted.
Too many times a publication or a web page presents perfect specimens instead of what is usually found in the field. I’ve posted the images to the Fossil Forum on FB, I’ll see what they say.
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Phivos Martin Broedsgaard-Raptis from the FB Fossil Page responded to the second specimen. “We call it a ‘mussel fracture’, it comes as a resulted of a concentrated force and radiates outwards from the point of contact.” I am assuming that something injured this poor mussel and the resulting damage was captured in stone.
Or, perhaps not. There is a geological process called plumose fracture. See the Wikipedia Common photo below. Okay, what do we have? A biological phenomenon or a geological one? I’m leaning to biologic because the rock is round and not a square or chip fragment.
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OR
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Fig. 3.20f: Plumose structure and rib marks on an opening fracture in PMMA. Laboratory experiment (Rummel, 1987) on hydraulic fracturing induced fracture from pressurized cylindrical hole at left. - David D. Pollard
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