Death Assemblages of Marine Shells
January 14, 2019
Photographer: Dale Chadwick
Summary Author: Dale Chadwick
The three images above show death assemblages of organisms typically brought together by currents. From left to right: the first is brachiopods from the Lock Haven Formation of Devonian age in Pennsylvania, the second is mollusks from Zone 17 of the Plum Point Member of the Calvert Formation of Miocene age in Maryland, and the third is an assortment of shells (though not strictly a death assemblage because the shells are not fossilized) from Sanibel Island, Florida. All were photographed this past year.
Death assemblages are not limited to marine shells. The fossil mammals from Agate Springs, Nebraska and the dinosaur remains at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah are both examples of death assemblages.