''Inoceramus'' (Greek: translation "fibrous shell" for the fibrous structure of the mineral crystals in the shell) is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of fossil marine

pteriomorphia The Pteriomorphia comprise a subclass of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs. It contains several major orders, including the Arcida, Ostreida, Pectinida, Limida, Mytilida, and Pteriida. It also contains some extinct and probably ...

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

s that superficially resembled the related winged pearly oysters of the

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

genus '' Pteria''. They lived from the

Early Jurassic The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic� ...

to latest

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

.''Inoceramus''
at

Fossilworks Fossilworks was a portal which provides query, download, and analysis tools to facilitate access to the Paleobiology Database, a large relational database assembled by hundreds of paleontologists from around the world. History Fossilworks was cr ...

.orgWard ''et al.''
"Ammonite and inoceramid bivalve extinction patterns in Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary sections of the Biscay region (southwestern France, northern Spain)"
''

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

'', 1991 The English naturalist

James Sowerby James Sowerby (21 March 1757 – 25 October 1822) was an English natural history, naturalist, illustrator and mineralogist. Contributions to published works, such as ''A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland'' or ''English Botany'', include his ...

proposed the name ''Inoceramus'' at a meeting of the Linnean Society in London in 1814 but a text version was not published until 1822. He gave the etymology from Greek with Latin translation as: ἴς fibra iberet κέραμος testa

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

The fibrous-appearing mineral structure of the shell inspired the name choice: " consists entirely of a substance composed of parallel perpendicular fibres, and much more conspicuously so than '' Pinna'' or any other genus".

Taxonomy

The

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of the inoceramids is disputed, with genera such as ''

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 ...

'' sometimes classified as

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

within ''Inoceramus''. Also the number of valid species in this genus is disputed.

Description

Ogallala opaline sandstone with Cremnoceramus deformis fragments 20201115 143032

Inoceramids had thick shells composed of "prisms" of

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

deposited perpendicular to the surface, and unweathered fossils commonly preserve the mother-of-pearl luster the shells had in life. Most species have prominent growth lines which appear as raised semicircles concentric to the growing edge of the shell. In 1952, the huge specimen of ''Inoceramus steenstrupi'' 187 cm long, was found in Qilakitsoq, the

Nuussuaq Peninsula Nuussuaq Peninsula (, old spelling: ''Nûgssuaq'') is a large () peninsula in western Greenland. Geography The waters around the peninsula are that of Baffin Bay. To the south and southwest the peninsula is bounded by Disko Bay, an inlet ...

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. This fossil is 83 Ma old, the Upper

Santonian The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 86.3 ± 0.7 mya ( million years ago) and 83.6 ± 0.7 m ...

or Lower

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

stage. Paleontologists suggest that the giant size of some species was an adaptation for life in the murky bottom waters, with a correspondingly large gill area that would have allowed the animal to survive in oxygen-deficient waters.

Selected species

*†''I. aequicostatus'' *†''I. albertensis'' *†''I. altifluminis'' *†''I. americanus'' *†''I. andinus'' *†''I. anglicus'' *†''I. anilis'' *†''I. anomalus'' *†''I. anomiaeformis'' *†''I. apicalis'' *†''I. arvanus'' *†''I. bellvuensis'' *†''I. biformis'' *†''I. brownei'' *†''I. carsoni'' *†''I. comancheanus'' *†''I. confertim'' Roemer, F. (1849). Texas : mit besonderer Rücksicht auf deutsche Auswanderung und die physischen Verhältnisse des Landes nach eigener Beobachtung. A. Marcus. *†''I. constellatus'' *†''I. corpulentus'' *†''I. coulthardi'' *†'' I. cuvieri'' *†''I. dakotensis'' *†''I. dominguesi'' *†''I. dowlingi'' *†''I. dunveganensis'' *†''I. elburzensis'' *†''I. everesti'' *†''I. fibrosus'' *†''I. formosulus'' *†''I. fragilis'' *†''I. frechi'' *†''I. galoi'' *†''I. gibbosus'' *†''I. ginterensis'' *†''I. glacierensis'' *†''I. haast'' *†''I. howelli'' *†''I. incelebratus'' *†''I. inconditus'' *†''I. kystatymensis'' *†''I. lamarcki'' *†''I. lateris'' *†''I. mesabiensis'' *†''I. morii'' *†''I. multiformis'' *†''I. mytiliformis'' *†''I. nipponicus'' *†''I. perplexus'' *†''I. pictus'' *†''I. pontoni'' *†''I. porrectus'' *†''I. prefragilis'' *†''I. proximus' *†''I. pseudolucifer'' *†''I. quenstedti'' *†''I. robertsoni'' *†''I. saskatchewanensis'' *†''I. selwyni'' *†''I. sokolovi'' *†''I. steenstrupi'' *†''I. steinmanni'' *†''I. subdepressus'' *†''I. tenuirostratus'' *†''I. triangularis' *†''I. undabundus'' *†''I. undulato'' *†''I. ussuriensis''

Distribution

Species of ''Inoceramus'' had a worldwide distribution during the

and

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

periods (from 189.6 to 66.043 Ma). Many examples are found in the

Pierre Shale The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from Pembina Valley in Canada to New Mexico. The Pierre Shale was described by Fielding Bradford Meek, Meek a ...

of the

Western Interior Seaway The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea (geology), inland sea that existed roughly over the present-day Great Plains of ...

in North America. ''Inoceramus'' can also be found abundantly in the Cretaceous

Gault Clay The Gault Formation is a geological formation of stiff blue clay deposited in a calm, fairly deep-water marine environment during the Lower Cretaceous Period (Upper and Middle Albian). It is well exposed in the coastal cliffs at Copt Point in Fo ...

that underlies

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Other locations for this fossil include

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

,Ludvigsen & Beard, 1997, pp. 102–103 British Columbia, Colombia (

Hiló Formation The Hiló Formation (, Kih) is a formation (geology), geological formation of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Cordillera Oriental (Colombia), Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The predominantly shale formation dates to the Middle Cretaceous per ...

, Tolima and La Frontera Formation, Boyacá, Cundinamarca and Huila).Acosta & Ulloa, 2001, p. 41

Gallery

File:InoceramusCretaceousSouthDakota.jpg, ''Inoceramus'' from the Cretaceous of South Dakota File:Inoceramidae - Inoceramus proximus.JPG, ''Inoceramus proximus'' File:Inoceramus cuvieri Palaeontological exhibition Prague.jpg, ''Inoceramus cuvieri'' File:Inoceramus vancouverensis 1.jpg, ''Inoceramus vancouverensis'' File:Inoceramus hobetsensis - National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo - DSC06954.JPG, ''Inoceramus hobetsensis''

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q129300 Inoceramidae Prehistoric bivalve genera Jurassic bivalves Cretaceous bivalves Mesozoic Antarctica Mesozoic animals of Africa Mesozoic animals of Asia Cretaceous molluscs of Europe Prehistoric bivalves of North America Mesozoic animals of South America Mesozoic Chile Cretaceous Argentina Cretaceous Brazil Cretaceous Colombia Cretaceous Ecuador Cretaceous Peru Cretaceous Venezuela Early Jurassic genus first appearances Toarcian genera Aalenian genera Bajocian genera Bathonian genera Callovian genera Oxfordian genera Kimmeridgian genera Tithonian genera Berriasian genera Valanginian genera Hauterivian genera Barremian genera Aptian genera Albian genera Cenomanian genera Turonian genera Coniacian genera Santonian genera Campanian genera Maastrichtian genera Late Cretaceous genus extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1814 Fossils of Serbia Fossils of Turkmenistan