It was a pleasure to pull this massive specimen out of the cabinets, where it had been sitting for more than 20 years. It is a small reef of the oyster Liostrea strigilecula (White, 1877) from the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) near Gunlock, southwestern Utah. It is out of storage because I’m returning to this section in Utah with students this summer to begin fieldwork again. The rocks and fossils are fascinating, and it is time someone looked seriously at them again.
A closer look at these little oysters shows how they could construct such a tight, nearly seamless structure. Each oyster grew in a cup-like fashion (first pointed out by Tim Palmer) so that they nestled together rather than overgrowing each other. These same oysters in this same locality also formed the famous oyster balls (ostreoliths). These reefal equivalents grew on carbonate hardgrounds, which are abundant in the Carmel Formation.
Liostrea strigilecula was named by Charles Abiathar White (1826-1910) as Ostrea strigilecula in 1877. White was an American paleontologist and geologist who did considerable work on midwestern and western North America. He was born in Massachusetts and worked in Iowa as the state geologist from 1866 to 1870. He returned east to teach at Bowdoin College for a couple of years, and then he joined the United States Geological Survey from 1874 into 1892. In 1895 he became an associate in paleontology at the United States National Museum. White was one of the first fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the first members of the Geological Society of America, and he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1889. Abiathar Peak in Yellowstone National Park was named after him. A more thorough biography can be found at the link.
I’m looking forward to seeing these beautiful oysters in the field again!
References:
Bennett, K. 2017. White, Charles Abiathar. The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press, 2009. Web. 19 September 2017
Nielson, D.R. 1990. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation in the Gunlock area, Washington County, Utah. Brigham Young University Geology Studies 36: 153-192.
Taylor, P.D. and Wilson, M.A. 1999. Middle Jurassic bryozoans from the Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah. Journal of Paleontology 73: 816–830.
Wilson, M.A. 1998. Succession in a Jurassic marine cavity community and the evolution of cryptic marine faunas. Geology 26: 379–381.
Wilson, M.A. 1997. Trace fossils, hardgrounds and ostreoliths in the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) of southwestern Utah, in Link, P. and Kowallis, B., eds., Mesozoic to recent geology of Utah, Brigham Young University, v. 42, p. 6–9.
Wilson, M.A., Ozanne, C.R. and Palmer, T.J. 1998. Origin and paleoecology of free-rolling oyster accumulations (ostreoliths) in the Middle Jurassic of southwestern Utah, USA. Palaios 13: 70–78.
