[Titanites]

The clam was shut, and you could see mud jammed along the crack. Perfectly consistent with sudden death by mud. Based upon my estimate from holding the specimen in my hand, it was more like 3000 years old, not the 300 million you find in the literature.

I'm sure your extensive training has taught you how to eyeball that a specimen is only 3000 year old, but be aware that brachipods are not clams.

Having seen the Sierra crest, but not the provenience that claims a clam was found 12,000 feet under, what should one believe?

Provenience does not "claim", so I'm not sure your sentence makes sense. Believe what you want, but I've been present when cores have been retrieved with the "clams" imbedded.

[blackpacific]

I could be off by a factor of two. But it is better than being off by a factor of a 1,000 or more.

What state were the core bound clams/brachiopods/two-sided-shellfish, were they fragments or whole? That is indeed amazing, I sit corrected. But that is also consistent with the Sierras.

I did participate in an archeological dig once, and the validity of any find has to be documented on the spot. Too often we have seen “scientists” claim to find something, and find out later it was a fraud. That is what happens when mythology is mixed in with hard science.