Bivalvia » Allopinna

Order Ostreida Fërussac, 1822
Family Pinnidae Leach 1819
Genus Allopinna Yancey 2024
Species godleskya Yancey 2024

The pinnid Allopinna godleskya is common in the Brush Creek limestone in Parks Township. In life, existent pinnids bury their anterior end in sediment and attach to the seafloor using a mass of byssus threads. I find most fossils of this species in life position. The shells appear as sectioned, pointed oval shapes in the top portions of the limestone. These are the remains of the anterior end, which is the thicker part of the shell.

Recovery is challenging since these are in the Brush Creek limestone. The prismatic outer layer, made of geometric columns of agronite, sticks well to the limestone, and you can rarely recover good samples. I gathered over one hundred specimens in the first few years of fossil collecting—one exceptional example (CG-0112) preserved, splayed out flat, and became the holotype.

The Ohio Pennsylvanian bivalve book (Hoare, Sturgeon, Kindt, 1979) incorrectly calls local pinnids Pteronites, but they followed the Treatise publication of the times.

References

• Anelli, L.E. & Rocha-Campos, A.C., Simoes, M.G., 2016, Pennsylvanian Pteriomorphian bivalves from the Piaui Formation, Parnaiba Basin, Brazil., Journal of Paleontology – V80, Issue 6, pp. 1125-1141.
• Dauphin, Y. et al., 2018, The Prismatic Layer of Pinna: A Showcase of Methodological Problems and Preconceived Hypotheses, Minerals, 19 Pages.
• Geinitz, H. B., 1848, Die Versteinerungen des Deutschen Zechsteinge-birges. Dresden, p. 77, Plate XIV
• Hoare, R.D., 1979, Bulletin 67: Pennsylvanian Marine Bivalvia and Rostroconchia of Ohio, State of Ohio Div. of Geological Survey
• Meek, F.B., 1864, Remarks on the family Pteriidae, (=Aviculidae) with descriptions of some new fossil genera. The American Journal of Science and Arts, Second Series 37, pp. 212-220
• Munster, G.G., 1840, Beschreibung einiger seltenen Versteinerungen des Zechsteins. Beiträge zur Petrefacten-Kunde, p 45, Tab 3, Figure 4
• Shumard, B.F., Swallow, G.C., 1858, Descriptions of new fossils from the coal measures of Missouri and Kansas., St. Louis Academy of Science Transactions, p. 214
• Waller, T.R., 1978, Morphology, morphoclines, and a new classification of the Pteriomorphia (Mollusca: Bivalvia). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (B), 248, pp. 345–365
• Yancey, T.E., 1978, Brachiopods and mollusks of the Lower Permian Arcturus Group, Nevada and Utah, Pt. 1, Brachiopods, scaphopods, rostroconchs and bivalves. American Paleontology Bulletins, 74(303), pp. 257–363
• Yancey, T.E., Amler, M., Raczyński, P., & Brandt, S., 2023, Rebuilding the foundation of late Paleozoic pinnid bivalve study (family Pinnidae). Journal of Paleontology, 97(1), pp. 140-151.
• Yancey, T.E., 2024, Revision of Late Paleozoic Pinnid Genera and North American Species of Bivalve Family Pinnidae, Paleontological Research Institution, p. 84