Bellerophon (Pharkidonotus) percarinatus

Pharkidonotus
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Specimen #931
Taxon: Bellerophon (Pharkidonotus) percarinatus (Conrad)
Locality: McCoy, Eagle County, CO
Age: Pennsylvanian Period, Late Atokan Stage
Rock unit: Minturn Formation
Collector: W. Itano

This gastropod is quite distinctive, and I feel fairly confident in assigning it to this species. The width is 2 cm. Here "Pharkidonotus" is inside parentheses because it is considered to be a subgenus of the genus Bellerophon. This is consistent with the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Sometimes Pharkidonotus is considered to be a genus. The name has the distinction of being the favorite of Prof. Stephen Jay Gould, the famous evolutionary biologist of Harvard University. In his book, Wonderful Life (W. W. Norton and Co., New York, 1989), p. 68, he states:

"The formal Greek and Latin names of organisms can sometimes rise to the notable or the mellifluous, as in my favorite moniker, for a fossil snail -- Pharkidonotus percarinatus (say it a few times for style)."


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