MOLLUSKS 1: CLAMS
Phylum Mollusca, Class Pelecypoda Aviculopecten
These two large shells are pelecypods (clams). The photo on the left
above may be the mold of the shell, where the shell itself has eroded away. As
you hunt clams here, look for the assymmetrical shell. A line drawn down the
middle of a single valve does not divide it into equal halves as it would a
brachiopod shell. Clams were scarcer in the Paleozoic than they are
today, but they were common in some localities. Here they are inconspicuous
except for those above. Clams and oysters are in the Phylum Mollusca, as are
snails, scaphopods, chitons, squids and octopi.