Platyceramus
{{Short description|Extinct genus of bivalves}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = Cretaceous
| image = Platyceramus platinus with Pseudoperna congesta, Gove County, Kansas, USA, Late Cretaceous - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC00063.JPG
| image_caption = Platyceramus platinus
| taxon = Platyceramus
| authority = Heinz, 1932
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
- Platyceramus cycloides (Wegner, 1905)
- Platyceramus platinus (Logan, 1898)
}}
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 {{convert|1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} or more in axial length, but some exceptional specimens {{cvt|3|m|ftin}} long have been found,Journal of Paleontology , Jan., 2007, Vol. 81, No. 1 (Jan., 2007), pp. 64-81 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,{{cite journal |last1=Everhart |first1=Mike |title=Oyster-shell coprolites; a stratigraphic marker in the smoky hill chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Western Kansas |journal=Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science: Abstracts |date=2009 |volume=11 |page=12 |url=http://oceansofkansas.com/page6b.html}} also for oysters such as the epizoic oyster Pseudoperna congesta, and barnacles.
Shells containing pearls have also been discovered.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- [http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1666%2F0022-3360(2007)81%5B64%3APOGIPO%5D2.0.CO%3B2 Paleoecology of giant Inoceramidae (Platyceramus) on a Santonian (Cretaceous) seafloor in Colorado]
- [http://www.nhm.org/sas/p_platinus.html Natural History Museum: Savage Ancient Seas] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720031605/http://www.nhm.org/sas/p_platinus.html |date=2008-07-20 }}
- [http://www.oceansofkansas.com/FieldGuide1.html Invertebrate fossils of Kansas article]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q7202562}}
Category:Prehistoric bivalve genera
Category:Mesozoic molluscs of Europe
Category:Prehistoric bivalves of North America
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1932
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