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Hello, I found your site while trying to find information or images
of 'Devils Claws'. My son found the 'Claw' in a garden border at his
local nursery school, he was told by his teacher that it was known as
a 'Devils Claw' and was a fossilized sea shell from long long ago. We,
my son and I, were wondering if you could tell us anything about this
wonderful find. We've tried our best to take some good images to help
with any identification.
Yours, with great hopes,Hello, I found your site while trying to find
information or images of 'Devils Claws'. My son found the 'Claw' in
a garden border at his local nursery school, he was told by his teacher
that it was known as a 'Devils Claw' and was a fossilized sea shell
from long long ago. We, my son and I, were wondering if you could tell
us anything about this wonderful find. We've tried our best to take
some good images to help with any identification.
Yours, with great hopes,
Darren and Thomas
PS: Oct. 27th:
"thank you for your replies, sorry to have not responded sooner,
I am very slow at doing anything. My son has not seen the page you have
set up for us but I will be showing him it when he returns from school
today. He will be delighted and thanks again for your work in doing
this. I think the misnaming of the fossil is down to me, as when we
saw the reference to a 'Devils Toenail' and the accompanying images
we searched for on the internet, we saw how similar they were to our
fossil. Personally I think 'Devils Claw' sounds cooler although it is
very misleading. We live in a little town called Stony Stratford on
the North West edge and part of Milton Keynes, a larger town, in the
county of Buckinghamshire in England. The ground where Thomas found
our 'Toenail' had gravel on or in it which might have been sourced locally
in Buckinghamshire or elsewhere. I cannot say for certain where it originated
but there are Gravel pits and Quarries local to us at present. I will
try and contact his Nursery teacher to find out if the 'Toenail' originated
naturally in the Nursery grounds. Thomas will be excited to hear that
it is possibly 100's of millions of years old, but may be disappointed
to hear that it is not a dinosaur fossil. Thank you again for your help,
we shall try and send a good image of the apex/hinge area soon. Should
this be sent to you or is there a way for ourselves to add the image
to the page you set up for us?"
Send
Ideas to: Darren
and Thomas
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Identified:
Fossil oyster
probably from the family Gryphaea
Discussions:
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It is a fossil oyster. Most of the oysters with this general
morphology are gryphaeid oysters such as Gryphaea itself,
and are Jurassic or Cretaceous in age. However, there are occasional
other oysters of a similar appearance. Is it possible to tell where
the rocks in the garden border came from? Are they local, and if
so, where is local?
The "devil's claw" name is not specifically related to
ideas about the Flood or fossils being planted by the Devil, but
rather given to a mysterious large claw-like thing, not corresponding
to any familiar living animal.--Dr. David C
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Looks like Gryphaea (Devil's toenail); a separate family from
true oysters. ...Tim W.
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The "devils claw" is a fossil oyster. The name, however,
reflects the conflict between science and religion. Anything that
comes out of the ground that is not near an ocean but looks like
a shell can be considered as having been left from the Noachian
Flood. If not, it was placed in the ground (by the Devil?) to fool
people into believing that there are extinct fossils. ...Allen A.
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It looks to me like a fossil oyster. Something very close to
Pycnodonta....Henk M
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Or Exogyra. Would be nice to see a close-up of the apex/hinge
area. ...csturmjr
PS Comments
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