Platyceramus

Platyceramus was a genus of Cretaceous bivalve molluscs belonging to the extinct inoceramid lineage. It is sometimes classified as a subgenus of Inoceramus.

Platyceramus
Temporal range: Cretaceous
Platyceramus platinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Bivalvia
Order: Pteriida
Family: †Inoceramidae
Genus: †Platyceramus
Heinz, 1932
Species
  • Platyceramus cycloides (Wegner, 1905)
  • Platyceramus platinus (Logan, 1898)

Size

The largest and best known species is P. platinus. Individuals of this species typically reached 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or more in axial length, but some exceptional specimens 3 m (9 ft 10 in) long have been found, 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,[1] also for oysters such as the epizoic oyster Pseudoperna congesta,[1] and barnacles.

Shells containing pearls have also been discovered.

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References
  1. Everhart, Mike (2009). "Oyster-shell coprolites; a stratigraphic marker in the smoky hill chalk (Upper Cretaceous) of Western Kansas". Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science: Abstracts. 11: 12.


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