Fossil Oyster (Inocerasmus) Shell Section With Pearls - Kansas

This is two fossil pearls attached to a fragment of oyster (Inocerasmus) shell from the Smoky Hill Chalk, Gove County, Kansas. The pearls are both 0.6" in diameter and still occluded to the shell. Pearls do not often preserve as they are composted of Aragonite which is not as stable as the calcite of the oyster shell. There is a repaired crack on the shell. The reverse side has shells of barnacles and spats, juvenile oysters.

Inocerasmus was very large marine bivalve distantly resembling modern pearl oysters of the genus Pteria. They had heavy shell with calcite crystals imbedded in them.

The Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk formation is a Cretaceous conservation Lagerstätte, or fossil-rich geological formation, known primarily for its exceptionally well-preserved marine reptiles. It outcrops in parts of northwest Kansas--its most famous localities for fossils--and in southeastern Nebraska. Large, well-known fossils excavated from the Smoky Hill Chalk include marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, large bony fish such as Xiphactinus, mosasaurs, pterosaurs, and turtles.

Come with an acrylic stand.