Alectryonia vicksburgensis

Phylum Mollusca
Class Bivalvia
(an oyster)

 

(Scale bar is 1 cm)



Alectryonia vicksburgensis is an easily recognized oyster that is common in late Eocene and early Oligocene rocks of the region. The generally small size for an oyster, and the strongly ribbed larger valve make it easy to distinguish from other oysters. This specimen is from the Ocala Limestone near Leesburg, but the long stratigraphic range makes the species less useful for correlation that others.

This species is generally found as solitary animals in open marine sediments rather than nearshore colonies. The upper left individual in the photo above clearly shows the attachment scar of the inside of another bivalve's shell which it colonized as a hard attachment point on an otherwise soft sediment bottom.

AGE: LATE EOCENE and EARLY OLIGOCENE

FORMATION: OCALA LIMESTONE and BRIDGEBORO LIMESTONE

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