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Southern Comfort

A blog by MikeR in General

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Fossil collecting in the southern states

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Chowan River Formation

At the end of the Pliocene, two sea level pulses occurred. With the first of these, temperatures cooled and sea level dropped as much as 25 ft, and in the process caused the extinction of approximately 80 percent of the cool-temperate Yorktown molluscan fauna including famed genera such as Chesapecten and Ecphora. When the sea rose once more during the latest Pliocene, temperate conditions returned and a mix of survivors, sub-tropical emigrants, and a few new molluscan species repopulated the
MikeR

MikeR

0

Waccamaw Formation

In 2009 and 2010, I visited a couple of exposures of the Lower Pleistocene (Calabrian) Waccamaw Formation in North Carolina. The Waccamaw is 1.5-2.0 million years in age and is contemporaneous with the Caloosahatchee Formation in south Florida, the Nashua Formation of central/northern Florida and the James City Formation in northern North Carolina and Virginia. Its geographical range is even more restricted than the Duplin and found mostly in Bladen, Columbus and Brunswick Counties in North Ca
MikeR

MikeR

11

Duplin Formation: Correction

In researching for my next entry about the Waccamaw Formation, I found a mistake in my gastropod identification which exposed an error in reasoning in my post about the Duplin Formation. I stated that Fulguropsis carolinensis (Tuomey & Holmes, 1856) was a valid species based on a comparison with Busycon excavatum Conrad, 1840 from the APAC Pit in Sarasota. The shell that I pictured however, is not B. excavatum, but Busycon spiratum floridanum Olsson & Harbison, 1953. Looking in my cop
MikeR

MikeR

0

Duplin Formation

The Duplin Formation is composed of unconsolidated sand and mud representing Late Pliocene (3 to 3.2 million years) brackish to open marine sediments. It has a limited surface exposure, ranging from Southeastern North Carolina to Northeastern South Carolina. The major macrofossil component is mollusks with some crustacean, echinoderm and vertebrate representatives. Biostratigraphically, its fauna is equivalent to Zone 2 Yorktown to the north, the Jackson Bluff Formation in the Florida Panhand
MikeR

MikeR

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Pliocene-Pleistocene Molluscan Species Identification

The Plio-Pleistocene molluscan fauna in the Southeastern US is extremely rich and extends for the most part from South Florida along the eastern seaboard to Virginia. Although the most popular reference for this material is Ed Petuch’s Atlas of Florida Fossil Shells (1994) and several follow-ups (Petuch, 2004, 2007) my primary reference is Lyle Campbells’s Pliocene Molluscs from the Yorktown and Chowan River Formations in Virginia (1993). I have stated my reasons before My link so I will not d
MikeR

MikeR

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Introduction

Hello and welcome to my blog, Southern Comfort—Fossil collecting in the southern states. For several years I have wanted to start a website about my love of fossil shells, but never seemed to have the time. After discovering the Fossil Forum and its blog hosting services, I decided I could do the same in a blog without exerting the energy in designing a webpage. I have been collecting fossils for 30 years. An interest in fossils as a child led me to take a paleontology elective course while
MikeR

MikeR

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