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Hello everyone! I've been swamped with work, preliminary home building plans and trying to get my collection more organized, but I still managed to pull of a small hunt at Green's Mill Run in this weekend, as well as a short trip to Aurora back in February. I hadn't really made any strong plans for either trip, but a series of different events eventually let to me heading to the area, and the timing worked out in my favor both times. The Aurora visit in February was a quick one; I got up one Saturday morning with nothing much planned for the day, but when I looked into my surplus storage trailer and saw all the excess Hardouinia echinoids and Exogyra oysters that needed to be donated, followed by receiving word there was some special things going on that morning that could have been a decent opportunity to represent the fossil club I am in, I figured it was a good day to visit. After I made my donation and spoke with some folks, I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon digging through one of the piles that was poised to be relocated soon with a local friend. I ended up finding a few nice things! This is a group shot with most of the things I found that day. Only a couple of really big highlights, I was able to find quite a few Trivia gastropods! These are some of the coolest fossil gastropods from the mine spoils that I've found there, and they're really ornate. I was told the last batch of material had a lot of them in it, so I was glad to have found some before they moved it on. And the other really cool find, a Scaphella gastropod with some trace color patterning! I've only found a handful of these gastropods as well, and the fact that it had some preservation like this was really neat. It's not at the Florida level of preservation, but it's really nice regardless. Moving on to the present, I had previously made a few short attempts to locate a modern echinoid that is almost exclusively found in North Carolina, Rhynobrissus cuneus. However, none of them bore any fruit, and with the cost of fuel and lack of time making it difficult to continue taking detours on my way back from other trips, I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if I could attempt to locate someone that wouldn't mind swapping some things for a specimen. Fortune was kind to me, and a very nice lady was willing to part with one she found in exchange for some of my spare finds in my collection! It also included spines, which was more than I was hoping for. After talking a bit, we decided to meet "in the middle" at Greenville, NC to swap the specimen. Knowing I'd be in the vicinity of the site, I packed my creek gear and hit the road for a very rainy hour and a half drive. These are a couple of photos of said specimen, alongside a copy of the official description of the species that the USNM (AKA the NMNH) printed to give out to various institutions. After wrapping up, I immediately went to my preferred Belemnite hunting spot in GMR. However, I failed to realize how much rain had fallen not just that morning, but the night before! It was just shy of 6 foot on the Tar River, and the water was considerably high and rough in that particular par of the creek, which is narrow and steep. I was a bit disappointed in the turn of events, but rather than call it quits I decided to go to the other spot I have hunted at with friends, which was wider and much more shallow. I can safely say I have now learned my lesson with the height of the river's impact on the site, it was still quite rough in that area too! Still, since I was there, I gave it my best shot and got to work on some areas without strong currents. Ultimately, it wasn't a bad visit! I found a few surprisingly nice things, as well as a few finds that I did not expect. Unfortunately, this particular part of the creek is not very good for any sort of mollusk fossils, including my favorite belemnites! They are a bit rarer, and are highly eroded, but I still was able to find one decent quality specimen. The bivalves and gastropods are also more scarce and weathered in this area, so I ended up with fewer invertebrates than I was hoping for. My preferred spot has a higher concentration of Peedee Formation finds, and there are some nice belemnites that have come out of a small 2-meter area. However, this spot is really good for vertebrate material! I found quite a few cool things there, and there are plenty of large bone chunks to be found, such as these. On to my shark teeth, these are all my Squalicorax teeth! These are some of my favorite shark teeth to find, and most of the ones I've found at this Peedee Formation site are much smaller than the ones I found on Holden Beach. Here are some unsorted teeth I found. I'm still learning shark teeth, so unfortunately a lot of my finds are currently lumped together like this. GMR teeth tend to be pretty worn down, so it makes it hard to identify a lot of the specimens I pick up. These are some miscellaneous things I found; the bottom left is a ray tooth, which I don't find quite as often there. The other two on the bottom are probably Enchodus teeth, the middle one is either a heavily worn tooth of sorts or bone fragment, and I have no idea what the top specimens are, though they looked interesting enough to hold on to. On to some of the more exciting shark teeth I found! these are pretty worn down Otodus teeth, but I always enjoy picking them up even in rough condition. This was a fairly large but worn Isurus (Mako) tooth of some variety, about 3.05 cm (1.2 inches) long. It's got a thick root but is somewhat flat, with the edges of the blade flattening out to almost a shelf of sorts where the serrations would be in other teeth. This is my first Hemipristis serra (Snaggletooth) tooth from the site that wasn't a small chunk, and it's one of the largest I've found anywhere! It's missing the root unfortunately, but is still about 2.41 cm (.95 inches) long without it. If it had the root I'd imagine it would have been at least 3 cm (1.18 inches) long. And speaking of large teeth, this is the largest Galeocerdo cuvier (Tiger Shark) I've found there, at about 2.79 cm (1.1 inches) crown width and about the same slant. It was a suprise to find to say the least, I nearly dumped it back into the creek because I didn't notice it at first! It doesn't beat my largest Holden Beach specimen (3.2 cm or 1.26 inch slant), but it's a big tooth with nice color. And for the most interesting tooth, some sort of Lamnidae shark that is missing a root, but appears to be possibly pathological! It's about 3.75 cm (1.475 inches) long as is, but it'd probably be at least 4.445 cm (1.75 inches) long if it had a root. Lacking the root makes it hard to say what it might have been, but it's definitely one of the largest teeth I've found in the creek thus far, and one of the most interesting. And lastly, this is the find that kind of caught me off guard the most: It appears to be, just based off of appearances, a specimen of Skolithos linearis. Not the most exciting trace fossil visually, but it's really interesting to me! These trace fossils were a surprise bonus to my fossil hunts in Surry County, Virginia, and I wasn't really expecting to see something of the sort here. The ones found on eroded cobbles in Virginia along the James River are said to be from the Cambrian Chilhowee Group (563-516 ma), but I'm not really sure what the age of these here would be. From the best I can tell online, they seem to have occurred throughout multiple periods of time in multiple places due to different organisms, but these look strikingly similar to the ones I saw in Virginia, albeit with the cobbles more eroded. I took a picture of the larger one next to a Virginian specimen to compare, and I highlighted the burrows with a red circle on the GMR specimen, as they are very hard to see in pictures. The longer circles are of "side section" specimens, and the smaller ones are from the ends of some running through the center of the rock from one edge to the other. The smaller cobble's specimen is a bit more obvious to see, so I didn't circle it. I haven't been able to locate any information on these fossils occurring in the area anywhere online on a superficial level, so if anyone has any insight into it, please let me know! I'd love to know if these are indeed what I am thinking they are, and what age they could possibly be if so. I might make a post on the ID forum some other time if I can borrow a camera that can take better pictures of the specimen. Anyway, that's all for me! I've got a family trip to Holden coming up shortly, and I may have some interesting opportunities to collect some different NC fossils coming up this spring; I don't have a lot of info on it, but it seems promising. I've also got a return trip to Virginia planned before the end of spring, and I can hardly wait for it!

So here are all of my best finds from fossil collecting at Holden Beach. The coolest stuff to me is the Cretaceous PeeDee formation material. It gives a snapshot (albeit incomplete) of the material available in the PeeDee of NC. Usually many of these finds are sparsely distributed in this formation, but the dredging activity really helped concentrate it. 1st pic: mosasaur teeth and bones (jaw and rib fragments, verts, flipper bones), meg teeth, a horse tooth, a Pycnodontid fish mouth plate, a zipper oyster, and a mammalian astragalus, Lion's paw shells, and a cetacean cervical vertebra. 2nd pic: crow shark teeth, ray teeth barbs dermal denticle and verts, shark verts, angel shark vertebrae with prismatic cartilage, sawfish rostral teeth, enchodus teeth/jaw segments, crab claws, fish skull plates, and a croc scute 3rd pic: various sharks teeth, including great whites, bull sharks, tiger sharks, and various mackerel sharks 4th pic: soft shell turtle carapace and plastron fragments

Howdy all, Just bought this mosasaur tooth from the Pee Dee Formation of North Carolina. Seller has IDed it as Prognathodon and I'm wondering if that is valid or if it could be something like Tylosaurus (I looked at tylosaurus teeth from that area and the patterns in the enamel seem to match). Either way I'm overjoyed to finally have a mosasaur tooth from that region of Appalachia's ancient coast.

I was going though so fossil mix from North Carolina and thought share what I'm finding. I was starting with easier to see fossils, then may look over again with scope. It's most of what I've found so far. I'm still trying to learn what to look for with some types of fossils but think starting get better looking. #1 #2 #3 The rest of photos where trying get little closer. #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9

I found this vertebra fossil in North Carolina. I understand that vertebrae can be hard to identify, but if anyone can help me out, I greatly appreciate it! Sara

Needed help with few finds not sure of. They are from North Carolina. The one in the middle of the first photo is very fragile, so if it's anything nice wanted to try and get it protect (its thin). #1 ( wasn't sure if left one was coral or shell piece maybe?)-( middle no idea)-( left was thinking shell piece, just looked different with the swirls then what have been seen) #2 (Backs) #3 ( middle one closer view) #4 ( Wasn't sure on what parts was) #5 ( closer view) #6 ( back of one on left) #7 ( back one right)

I know most the time what think is an egg isn't but wanted to ask to be sure on this one that I found today. It's from North Carolina. #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7

Hello! This is my first time posting on this forum. I am hoping that someone can help me identify what I have found on the beach of NC. It is < 1in and hollow in the bulbous part (unsure if long part is hollow). It doesn’t look like a typical shark tooth and it doesn’t look like a typical shell found in Wilmington. I have Google image searched images from all different angles and the closest comparison I’ve received is a dinosaur tooth…. But that doesn’t seem plausible.

I was trying searching some micro fossils for the first time and found some fossils needed help with. Haven't done anything with bones or coral much. They are all from North Carolina. Will post 2 sides of each. #1 (first one was thinking sea urchin but not sure) #1 (other side) #2 (first side) #2 (second side) #3 (first side) #3 (second side) #4 (first side) #4 (second Side) #5 (first side) #5 (second side) #6 (first side) #6 (second side) #6 (top) #7 (first side) #7 (second side)

Hey everybody! I'm Korey and I'm a bit new here (and to the world of paleontology in general) so I apologize if things might be a little messy. Regardless, I'll try my best in keeping things as crisp as possible. I was hoping I could have some help identifying a few fossils on the exterior of these rocks I found. The following three fossil matrices were collected in a single trip along Cape Fear River in the Wilmington area. Each one contains numerous fossils of a variety of species embedded within a limestone matrix. Mineral composition was confirmed by a professor of paleontology (specialized in microfossils) at UNC Wilmington, meaning they likely originated from the Castle Hayne limestone deposit. I would really appreciate some help in identifying some of the fossils found in these matrices, as while a decent number are somewhat recognizable, there are some that are completely mysterious. Specifically in matrix B and C. Matrix A: Measuring roughly 61mm in length, and 40mm in width, this is a cluster of what appears to be remnants of steinkerns and their remaining impressions. I counted over 10 individual snail shells, the exact number being a bit unclear, and a single bivalve impression. The snails appear to be some form of teribridae, while the nature of the bivalve impression is unknown. The largest snail impression measured at roughly 14mm in width. Length was unfortunately not easily measured as there are seemingly no complete impressions left behind. Much of them simply stretch across the entire matrix. The bivalve impression takes up much of it's side of the matrix, measuring at a rough 38mm. Matrix B: Measures roughly 52mm in length, and 43mm in width. This matrix is host to an intact unidentified bivalve shell, what appears to be a pair of concretions, encrusting bryozoa, and an unidentified organism. The bivalve shell is roughly 25mm wide. A bryozoan colony is visible to the left of the shell's beak. You can also see the concretions top right of the shell. What species of bivalve is it? Each concretion is roughly 5mm in width. The edges of the concretions appear to be encrusted by bryozoa. (It is very hard to get good pictures of this feature, I'm sorry). The final feature of Matrix B is this unusual shape closely resembling a reverse impression of a coral cup. Measures 17mm at it's widest and 10mm at the thinnest. Seems to consist of a central undefined and weathered shape surrounded by a series of 10 striated symmetrical structures resembling the septa of a coral polyp cup. There is no other apparent evidence of similar structures within the matrix, and it seems to be entirely on it's own. Matrix C: Measuring 174mm long, and 97mm wide, this chunk of limestone has some heft to it. Contained within is the fossil of highest interest to me, what I originally thought to be petrified wood. Also present is what appears to be a eutrephoceras shell, and a single unusual ring-shaped organic artifact. This particular matrix was discovered under the water, where only a small part of it was sticking out of the submerged mud. Jutting out of the matrix is a partly exposed branch-like structure of unknown biology. This picture depicts the anterior end of it where it appears to have been broken off, revealing the interior cross section of the branch. This structure is roughly 25mm at it's widest I had originally thought it to be petrified wood, but the paleontologist I consulted disagreed, stating that petrified wood typically looks different. It is most certainly not coral either, so perhaps it is a species of branching bryozoan? Here is a side view of the branch structure, showing the deep striated appearance of it's exterior. At this point it looks almost more geological than biological, but the interior shapes tell a different story. I honestly suspect that it may have been eroded. A scant 19mm of this structure is exposed from the surrounding substrate, which I suspect might be hiding a much longer specimen. Here is another branch that appears similar to the prior one, only much smaller. Measuring a mere 5mm in width at it's widest point. Unlike the larger branch, the entire 25mm of this structure has been left exposed, revealing a very similar striated exterior. Could both of these have belonged to the same organism? This little limpet-like organism was hiding in a tiny recess, merely 4mm at it's widest. Not sure what it is, really. I appear to have forgotten to measure this one while I had my fossils out so I apologize, but this appears to be some form of coral-like structure. If you look closely you can just barely make out what appears to be a defined exterior ring nigh indistinguishable from the surrounding limestone. And finally we have what appears to be Eutrephoceras or at least some other similar mollusc. It's fairly small and measures around 18mm wide from the lip to the anterior of the whorl. Only three chambers can be seen, though there might be one or two more. I'm excited to see what everyone thinks of these fossils, and what they think they might be. It's a mystery that's been nagging at my mind for weeks now, and I have unfortunately yet to find answers. Please let me know if any more angles or pictures are needed, and I will try my best to provide.

Looking for and ID on this tooth found on a beach is the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It’s 1.5 inches long (3.81 cm).

Found this tiny shark tooth in some Lee Creek matrix. Any ideas?

I finally finished out sorting my GMR matrix and I have a few small shark teeth and the like that I’m interested in! 1) 2) 3) 4) Reptile hopefully? 5) hybodont? 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) I shared this with Dr. Shimada, who thinks its Cantioscyllium or Plicatoscyllium? 12) 13) Ray crusher plate? 14) Catshark? 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20)

Hey all, Looking for input from all the wonderful people I've called upon in the past! I found this tooth in 2022 sifting at GMR. Upon first glance I thought it to be a small dolphin tooth but after digging it out of my collection recently I put it under a higher power magnifier and actually looked at it with attention. I'm starting to believe this maybe a mammal tooth or canine specifically. I've been to GMR many times and have found a distal bone of a mammoth and a hoof bone of an ancient peccary which was identified by the curator of prehistoric animals at the Indianapolis State Museum. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated so I can try to file and put away for safe keeping! Thanks all! Steve

Has anyone on this forum recovered examples of hadrosaur (hadrosaurid or hadrosauroid) teeth from Green Mill Run, North Carolina? Would be interested to chat via email if so. Thanks!

Hey guys my name is Justin I live in SouthEastern North Carolina (Bladen co.) And I'm very excited to see, show, & learn.

Found this off Wrightsville Beach NC, is it a Meg chunk? Notice the tiny speck of blue enamel and nice line along the root?

Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I've had a chance to give a fossil hunting update, the Holidays took over in quite a hurry, and coupled together with taking on some new responsibilities, the shorter days, cooler weather and a scramble to get the end of the year work done, it was quite difficult to get everything organized! I'm hoping to be more efficient with my cleaning and preparation this year, and though I have some life hurdles to overcome I think this year could be even better than last one with my fossil hobbies. I'm hoping to add more additions to my echinoid album, and I'd like to make some albums for some of my other fossils sometime this year. Not long after my last trip to the Waccamaw site I once again found myself out there collecting more specimens. I went with a slightly different group for the weekend, where we doubled up and went to the ever popular Holden Beach to look for some more Cretaceous goodies. And in addition, I did get to check out a different Waccamaw site at a different time as well, which had slightly different specimens, and an array of unusual color preservation. I think it was another successful month, and I found a lot of really cool specimens. I even got an opportunity to obtain some neat fossils from a fellow collector and friend in the midst of everything, and I'd like to include some of that briefly as well. While we were wrapping up for the weekend, I ended up trading him some of my Virginian Ecphora shells for some really cool Triassic plant specimens from the Pekin Formation, as well as some grey and black shales from the Cumnock Formation. It's a positive update to my quest to obtain local Triassic fossils I can take on the road to display, and with these acquisitions I was able to do just that recently! I feel like they get overlooked at times, but there are some really cool fossils from the Triassic Basins. I did manage to acquire some other cool specimens as well, but I'll save them for the mailbox scores thread. Here are some of those plant specimens and shales. Most are hard to identify, but there are some partial Otozamites fronds. The shales were a gamble, and I ultimately did end up splitting some, while retaining the last two intact, as they contained visible coal, and are somewhat significant to my home area's history in regards to the Cumnock Formation and all the historical coal mining that occurred. However, I did manage to find this little guy in one shale. I made a post a while back, and my current idea is that it's some form of Metoposaurus tooth. It's badly fragmented, though I have been offered by a friend to try and repair it, which I may take him up on. Although these second hand fossils were greatly appreciated and will serve well as display items, I also attempted to steak out a potential Triassic site right down the road earlier this week! Unfortunately, though it did indeed have Triassic geology, it was a conglomerate of Sanford Formation with a small bit of Pekin Formation mixed in, which did not immediately appear to contain much, at least on the surface. The old Triassic report mentioned it was mostly a mixture, so I wasn't too disappointed; it was still fun to check out a new area. In addition to the hunt for a fossil site, the area was also home to a small copper mine that last operated in the very early 20th century. I had not been exploring there since I was a boy over 20 years ago, so it was interesting to check out again! I ended up collecting some malachite from the spoil piles before heading home, so I at least found a few things to keep on that trip. I'm really grateful the landowner was kind enough to let me check it out. I hope to return there again sometime during lighter hours to look for some copper ore fragments as well. Now, onto the actual fossil tips! I'll start with Holden, as I have less to show off from there. It was fairly tame as far as crowds go, since the Holidays were kicking into gear. Despite a single day to collect, I think I did alright! I made a new friend during that part of the trip, and I was able to collect some nice modern mollusk shells as well, some of which could be used to compare to my Waccamaw finds. I did find an interesting sand dollar of some variety embedded in a stone, but I dropped it in the rapidly rising tide as I was collecting another specimen, so I ended up losing sight of it. To start, these are two Glycymeris americana valves, one from Holden, and the other from the Waccamaw site, as a comparison. These are some of the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids I found that day. I had many more, but it was hard to get them all pictured! On the topic of those echinoids, I found a few really good pathological specimens that day! This is the more extreme of them, with the side being somewhat compressed into the part, and the peristome off axis and off center. I'm not sure if this is something genetic, or if this was evidence of some kind of repaired biologic damage. It's probably my most pathological specimen to date. This was another specimen with similarly placed deformities, but much less extreme. And this one was a really unusual one, with an "elongated" periproct, giving it a more heavily sloped appearance compared to the standard ones. Moving on, this was probably my favorite find from the Holden part of the trip. This is a partial Anomoeodus phaseolus mouth plate and jawbone, which is a fairly uncommon find. I had previously found two teeth attached together, but this one is by far my best one yet. I found some individual "teeth" from these reworked into the Waccamaw formation site as well, but they were very small. I also found a few things I had not found myself since 2022, namely a nice, whole Mosasaur tooth, and a fragment of a Sphenodiscus lobatus ammonite. I found a few shark teeth, but I was honestly so focused on other finds I didn't emphasize looking for them as much as I normally would. I gave a few that I picked up to my new friend I made while I was hunting, as well as a small mosasaur tooth. This is an Enchodus jaw fragment with the base of a tooth I found, this might be the largest jaw fragment I found to date. I haven't found a tooth and jaw fragment attached together yet, but I'll keep looking! A turtle shell fragment I found out there. This is one of the more defined ones I've found, and appears to be from the edge of the shell. This was a cool steinkern I found, from what appears to be a Naticidae snail. This one is a bit heftier than ones I've found previously, and it almost seems to have some of the innermost shell preserved on one section, but this could be some other material. This is one Exogyra costata I found on the beach. I did pick up a number of them, but there weren't as many good specimens this trip for some reason. I took a couple of pictures of the same shell under UV light as well. And the last of my notable finds, this is a Striaticostatum harbisoni, a Peedee Formation Wentletrap Snail that was preserved due to recrystalization! Next to it is a steinkern of another one, which is usually all that is preserved; this is the first one I've found like this. It's broken toward the base, but it lets people see the tiny crystals inside the shell that grew during the process. I also found a second partial one, but it's in a much more worn condition. Now, onto the Waccamaw site finds! This site is slowly growing on me, as well as a greater appreciation for mollusks. It's becoming one of my favorite sites to visit. I've been utilizing a out a book that was published just last year titled Photographic Atlas of Waccamaw Formation Mollusca to identify my finds. It's a great resource for identifying the various mollusks of the formation, of which there are over 1000 different varieties! I found so much this time that I had to cut back on sharing them, though I do hope to do an album on everything when I get time. Starting off, here are some of the paired Lirophora varicosa athleta, AKA Imperial Venus Clams, I found. Here are a couple of pathological valves I found, as well as a sponge damaged valve and a valve with an oddly placed gastropod drill hole. Here is an intact Chama macerophylla, also known as the Leafy Jewelbox Clam. It's less common than the Arcinella cornuta Spiny Jewelbox Clams from what I've noticed. This is a Neverita duplicata, also known as the Shark Eye Moon Snail with some particularly beautiful shell preservation. This is a Naticarius plicatella, an extinct moon snail with an interesting spiral groove pattern along the whorl. Although the aperature (opening) is broken, this is my largest specimen of this snail found at the site to date. Here are two paired bivalves, a Trachycardium emmonsi (Cockle Clam) and a species of Diplodon clam (Diplodonta acclinis?) A Crepidula fornicata, also known as the Fornicating Slipper Snail. This one was unusually thick and large compared to the ones I normally find, around 5.715 cm (2.25 inches) long. Another worn Crepidula fornicata with a couple of Septastrea marylandica coral colonies growing on it. There appears to have been a third between the two but it probably broke off when it was originally extracted from the earth. Two valves from two different Ostrea lawrencei oysters that have a lot of small coral colonies and singular corals. This one is interesting because they were both attached to a relatively small scallop valve, as seen by the impression on their hinges. A really cool Ostrea lawrencei that has a Septastrea marylandica colony over nearly the entire outer surface. I didn't realize that it was covered in coral until I washed it, as the amount of sand and dirt that covered it almost covered it completely! The uncovered inner surface was the only exposed part of the oyster when I collected it. A large oyster, Ostrea compressirostra, that was found paired in the Waccamaw site, a fairly rare find. Unfortunately, the upper valve had a lot of bore damage on one side, but it's still a cool, paired find nonetheless! A Pleuromeris decemcostata, a pretty cool, small species of clam. It almost has a beaded structure to its ribs. In addition, the same Pleuromeris decemcostata under UV light. It's hard to see in this picture, but some of the "beads" in the ribbing have a UV reaction, in a somewhat random order.The Waccamaw stuff has some decent UV reaction, but it's no where near the level of the Florida Pleistocene shells of a similar age. A very small intact Arcinella cornuta, also known as the Florida Spiny Jewelbox. This is the smallest intact one I've found yet, at around 1.9 cm (.75 inches) across. One of my favorite finds from the Waccamaw site part of the trip, a Pterorytis fluviana, a type of murex with very frilly spires. Usually the spires are broken down, but this one as fairly intact aside from a hole in the side! A Radiolucina waccamawensis, an extinct hatchet clam. It measures about 7.62 mm (.3 inches ). These are pretty interesting little bivalves with a neat crossed structure to them. Some Eupleura caudata, a small species of murex snail. These had some nice shell preservation as well! A Neoterebra dislocata (Eastern Auger Snail) on the right, and what I believe is a Calliostoma tuomeyi (Calliostoma Top Snail) on the left. The Calliostoma Top Snails, like the Cone Snails and the Murexes, seem to vary a good bit and have very subtle differences, which makes it hard for me to identify. Two different extinct Nassa Mud Snails (or Dog Whelks); a rare Ilyanassa porcina on the left, and a somewhat uncommon Ilyanassa scalaspira on the right. A bryozoan-encrusted gastropod shell. I'm wondering if this is a variety of Bryolith (or Plagurized Gastropod), or if it it is simply a colony that covered an empty shell; either way it's really cool. Two Waccamaw Formation Conasprella oniscus cone snails, with a UV light comparison showing the remnants of their color pattern. This pattern can be used to differentiate the different species found in the same place to some degree. Here's a cool Arcopsis adamsi, a type of Ark Clam with an interesting beaded sculpture instead of the coarse ribs of the more common species. Next, a case of miscellaneous micros: on the right are three Biflustra savartii, a species of "Erect Form" Bryozoans, on the bottom left is an interesting and unknown Archohelia coral branch, and the upper left is some unknown, extraordinarily fragile fossil of some sort. It was probably 30-40% larger before I tried moving it to this case; it had a fragility not unlike that of the ill-fated microfossil echinoid I found on the previous trip. Another little case containing an assemblage of various paired microfossil bivalves from the Waccamaw site. The beaked Nuculana acuta (Pointed Nut Clam) are probably my favorite of the micro-sized bivalves. Kalolophus gibbesii, a medium-sized clam related to the modern Kalolophus speciosus, also known as Gibb's Clam. I've found similar clams in Virginia, but this is the first one I found in the Waccamaw Site. An Aurinia obtusa, a type of Volute Snail. This is the most common species from the Waccamaw, I've been told the other two are exceptionally rare. This is also the first mostly whole one I've found in the site. Next is a large Mercenaria mercenaria valve, which I took pictures of to show the progression of cleaning it out for it's inner contents. About halfway through cleaning I discovered a partial Rhyncholampas sabistonensis echinoid, with part of the side plating and the entire oral surface. It's overall in poor condition, but serves as another good example of the rare things that can be found inside other shells. There were quite a number of other things as well, such as whole Lirophora varicosa athleta (Imperial Venus) Clams, barnacles, and more. However, a lot of stuff was attached with a tough sediment, which made extraction difficult. The last image in this series shows the contents found inside waiting to dry off. And the last thing I wanted to share from the site is a juvenile gastropod of uncertain identity I'm thinking it's likely a Pliculofusus sparrowi (A type of gastropod related to the Tulip and Spindle Snails), but also somewhat resembles a juvenile Scaphella precursor (A rare species of Volute). While that's all the Waccamaw stuff from the normal site, that's not all the Waccamaw Formation fossils I found last month! I had a chance to check out a different location of the formation at a different time, and while there were a lot of similar things, there were some things different about this other site as well. Oysters were much more common, I found a few species I hadn't seen before, some varieties of gastropod were larger, and there were a lot of really interesting mineralization colors as well. There were a lot of red, yellow and orange colored shells, likely from iron oxides in the soil. There were also some interesting blue-grey colored shells, which I'm not too sure of the process that made them this way. Some were comparable to the blue shells found in the Bone Valley area of Florida. Here's a really cool and large Anadara lienosa Ark Clam valve from the secondary Waccamaw site. This is the largest Ark Clam I've found from the formation yet. It has some of the unusual orange-yellow iron oxide coloration. Here's a paired Arcinella cornuta (Florida Spiny Jewelbox) from the other Waccamaw site. This one came apart while I was cleaning it but I've got the two halves paired together still. I found some other paired specimens but they had a lot of spines missing. A very big Mercenaria mercenaria (Hard Clam) valve that was in the portion that had the blue mineralization. The outer surface is heavily worn but it has a very dark grey-blue coloration to it. A very hefty and thick Glycymeris americana (American Bittersweet) that has buried in the sediments containing a lot of iron oxides, and has a very cool yellow, orange and red marbled coloration. Two Septastrea marylandica corals from the other Waccamaw site. Both have some yellow coloration, and one has splotches of red, all from the iron oxide present in the site. Here's a Crepidula fornicata (Fornicating Slipper Snail) and two Neverita duplicata (Shark Eye Moon Snails) with some pretty cool blue-gray coloration. The rightmost is an especially pretty dark grey-blue! Two worn Crepidula fornicata specimens (Fornicating Slipper Snails), with Septastrea marylandica coral colonies growing on them. They also both have bryozoan colonies and Polychaete worm tubes on them, as well as a lot of boring sponge damage; These were the home of a number of animals, even after their death. An unusual paired oyster from the other Waccamaw site. Due to the larger quantity of oysters in that site, and paired ones like this could be found in a much higher frequency. Here's what I believe might be a juvenile Triplofusus giganteus, also known as the Horse Conch. It's over 3.81 cm (1.5 inches) long. A somewhat rare Trigonostoma elizabethae, an unusual type of Nutmeg Snail. This came from the other Waccamaw site, but I did find a larger specimen at the primary site that I forgot to take a picture of before storing it away. This one has some of the blue-gray coloration. Two neat Ensis clams, also known as Razor Clams, from the secondary Waccamaw site. They're usually broken like this due to their thin, fragile structure. The top one may be a Ensis directus, and the bottom may be a Ensis megistus. An assortment of microfossils from the other Waccamaw site with various mineralization colors. I'm hoping to find a new technique for extracting these, as my current method results in some of these getting broken. And my last find from the site, An unusual bone of some variety; I almost want to think it's a turtle shell fragment, but I'm really not sure. It has some odd, rib-like structuring on the longer outer edges. And that's all I've got for now! 2023 was a really fun year for collecting, but I feel like 2024 could potentially be even better. As I wrap this post up, I'll be getting ready for tomorrow, where I'll be displaying some of my finds from the last two years at a park for an event, after which I'll be heading back to Holden Beach once again for a weekend to unwind from work and hunt for fossils with a couple of friends (I'll save my modern echinoid hunt for another time). I might post an update on that here, or I might wait until I go to Aurora, NC fairly soon. Further out, I've got a trip planned for Virginia once again in the early summer (Super excited for this one!), another extended Holden Beach trip in the spring, and there's a chance I might be able to tag along with a small group to go hunt fossils in central / northern Texas around the time of the solar eclipse, with some stops in Oklahoma and Mississippi! It'll be the first time I've ventured west of the eastern coastal states, so it'll be interesting if I do end up going. It'd require a lot of time off of work, so I'm still working out the logistics of it.

Hello everyone! I've once again made a return trip out to Holden Beach, which is my first trip of 2024. I briefly showed a few of my finds on my last report, but there were a lot of really interesting finds I've found that I'd like to show off. I didn't even realize I had some of these until I was sorting them earlier this week! It was a fairly nice weekend for early February, with it being rather warm during the day, but about the usual winter cold at night. The crowds were elevated similarly to they were in December due to the coverage the beach has been getting online, but otherwise weren't too bad. As usual, the best times to go were in the late evenings and early mornings, though I did try to do some midday hunting with a couple of friends this time as well, who stopped by for a little while. The beach was covered in Peedee Formation sediment chunks from some mid and late December storms, which made for some interesting finds. These are a couple of shots of my finds as I was cleaning them off. I picked up a fair bit of modern specimens as well this trip, which I'll show a little of at the end of this. The first of my main finds is this really neat paired Exogyra costata, which is the first one I've found! I'll have to see if I can work on getting the matrix off of this one, I'm looking into air abrasion to see if I can speed up my process, and maybe make it better as well. These are some Prehepatus harrisi crab chelae I found. This is the largest haul I've found since 2022, and the first I've found since February 2023! The left middle specimen and the one in the matrix have fairly decent fingers and dactyls, which are usually broken off beyond the end of the socket. My friend found a different segment of one leg, which isn't very common. This is a fish skull fragment and a fragmented mosasaur tooth. I didn't luck out with the mosasaur teeth this trip, though my friend found a nice one fairly quickly once she started looking. I did find a decent number of shark teeth this time, which was nice! I haven't been focusing down on these the last few trips, so next family trip we'll be having in the spring I might try to look a little harder for them. This is the first vertebra of this variety I've found since 2022, right after the beach work took place. My current thoughts are that it's from the primitive ray Brachyrhizodus wichitaensis, but there is some question if it came from an angel shark. An array of turtle scute fragments, some of the largest ones I've found there. I'm not sure if there is any specific identification for these, although I've been told that a lot of them are from softshelled turtles. Some I've found from previous trips look almost like box turtles or something similar. A horse tooth fragment. My friend came back again the next weekend and found a really nice intact one. Most of my finds are similar to this quality. These are some steinkerns I found. The first picture is a bivalve of some variety, and the second one is of some partial ammonites. This is a really interesting rock or phosphate nodule that has a shark tooth embedded into it! I've never seen a tooth in matrix quite like this from the area. It's far from perfect, but a really interesting piece regardless. On to some of the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids from this trip, this one was a particularly tall and narrow specimen, which is fairly interesting. There are some really interesting variations I've found over the last couple of years, but narrow ones or tall ones like this are probably the least common variations I've found, and the fact that it is both is really neat. This is a really interesting pathology I found, on the opposite side from my last one! This one unfortunately had some damage on the anterior end from the dredging pipe, and it started falling apart once I got it home and washed, so I had to stabilize the broken area with some strong adhesive. Here are some of my favorite echinoids from this trip. I didn't total up all the ones I ended up keeping, but my grand total of lower grade specimens I've collected to donate between this trip and my December one is 322. This last specimen is a broken one, but it is really neat in the fact that it shows the void of material present in most of these echinoids. This one obviously broke differently, but in a lot of specimens that are broken from the dredging process it tends to be in this area devoid of material. There are some small Scabrotrigonia bivalve molds on the aboral surface matrix. This is a large rib bone fragment of some variety. I've always understood them to be sirenian ribs, due to their dense and heavy nature. This is probably one of my best finds from the trip, a whole but small ammonite steinkern! I misidentified it as Sphenodiscus before, but after talking with some people I'm thinking it's a much rarer scaphitid ammonite, perhaps a Discoscaphites(?). It did break while in transport, but I was able to get it back together the best I could with the loss of material surrounding the break. This is a chunk of Peedee Formation sediment with a bunch of small gastropod steinkerns throughout, as well as two sizable Scabrotrigonia bivalve molds on one side. I saw a lot of these molds this trip, but these were some of the nicer ones. And speaking of trace fossils, this is another really good find from the trip! I picked up a lot of Exogyra costata oysters, but I didn't check them all very thoroughly while out on the beach, and didn't notice this until I cleaned it at home. It appears to be a bioimmured gastropod of some variety, existing as an impression on the oyster. These are some other bioimmured mollusks on Exogyra oysters I found. One is likely some variety of Turritellidae gastropod, while the other might be a type of Cardiidae bivalve. This is some material that contains what I believe could be trace fossils of burrows, but I'm not too sure. It also resembles the shape of some branching bryozoan fossils that are common in the area. This little chunk of material contains two unusual steinkerns! I'm wondering if the cone shaped one is from a type of limpet, but as far as the gastropod one goes I have no idea what it might be. There are some odd round shapes on the surface of it that are visible much more clearly under my new UV light. I wonder if it's a type of turban snail or whelk. And lastly, this is a chunk of Late Cretaceous Peedee Formation material containing a bunch of what I've always considered to be Heteropora bryozoan fragments and Exogyra fragments. However, the most interesting part of this cluster is the presence of appears to be a Biflustra bryozoan of some variety. I've seen them in Pleistocene material quite a bit, but never in the Cretaceous stuff. The surface detail shows better in the UV light. And as a bonus, these are just some of my nicer modern mollusks and a sand dollar I collected that weekend. Holden Beach is really good for modern specimens, and I've found quite a number of them there over the years. When I eventually start an album of my finds from my travels and work on my Waccamaw Formation collection, I might try to have a side-by-side comparison of them with their modern equivalent, closest relative or direct descendant, just to show any potential appearances they might have had before becoming fossils. And that's all I've got for now! I was considering going to Texas this spring with some friends, but I realized that was going to require too much time off of work to pull off, so I'll have to pass for now. I don't have anything planned before my family trip back to Holden in April, as well as a Virginia trip in May/June, but who knows what the future has in store.

Found in the pits at the Aurora Fossil Museum. I think I've narrowed it down to a Thresher/Alopias. Does that seem accurate? I also wasn't sure if there was an ability to narrow it down further. Thank you!

My son found this in a creek bed in Raleigh NC. Just looked weird so kept it. Very light weight, porous in spots and smooth and shiny on one spot. Any ideas? Nothing? Found a tiny pointed quartz crystal on the same creek shore Thanks!