Platyceramus

Platyceramus
Temporal range: Cretaceous
Platyceramus platinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Subclass: Pteriomorphia
Order: Praecardioida
Family: Inoceramidae
Genus: Platyceramus
Species

Several, including:
Platyceramus platinus
Platyceramus vanuxemi

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Platyceramus.

Platyceramus was a genus of Cretaceous bivalve molluscs belonging to the extinct inoceramid lineage. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of Inoceramus.

Size

The largest and best known species is P. platinus. Individuals of this species typically reached 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or more in axial length, but fossil specimens 3 m (nearly 10 feet) long have been found, making it the largest known bivalve. Its huge but very thin shell often provided shelter for schools of small fish, some of which became trapped and fossilised themselves. The outer shell often provided habitat for its own juveniles,[1] also for oysters such as the epizootic oyster Pseudoperna congesta [2] as shown in the image here, and barnacles.

Shells containing pearls have also been discovered.

References

  1. ↑ OYSTER-SHELL COPROLITES; A STRATIGRAPHIC MARKER IN THE SMOKY HILL CHALK (Upper Cretaceous) of Western Kansas, Kansas Academy of Science, Transactions 11(Abstracts):12.© 2001-2009 by Mike Eberhart 2009 "These structures are made up almost entirely of shell fragments from the epizootic oyster Pseudoperna congesta with single, small pieces of juvenile inoceramid shell occurring"
  2. ↑ OYSTER-SHELL COPROLITES; A STRATIGRAPHIC MARKER IN THE SMOKY HILL CHALK (Upper Cretaceous) of Western Kansas, Kansas Academy of Science, Transactions 11(Abstracts):12.© 2001-2009 by Mike Eberhart 2009, "Biostratigraphically, these shell masses are found in association with the large bivalves Volviceramus grandis and Platyceramus platinum
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