Search the Community

Found on the beach in North Carolina. Wasn’t sure if it was actually a tooth or just a very neat looking rock. Any help would be appreciated!

Went to Green Mill Run, NC, over the weekend and found the usual various shark teeth and belemnites, but also found these coin-shaped objects. They all have a round shape on the middle on one side. Several have a small hole by an edge. Any ideas? Thanks for the help!

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.

Hi, I found this fossil at Topsail Island over the weekend. Is this possibly a sloth bone?

Is this tooth legit ? I believe it is from North Carolina. I understand that it’s not in an amazing condition but is it real ? 0A1D9369-7446-41B6-9D01-AFEC8BDE6077.mov

Howdy all, Recently purchased this little crocodilian tooth from the Bladen Formation of North Carolina. The seller says it's Deinosuchus and I feel pretty confident with that ID, considering the faint ridges, but I'd like a second opinion as I'm not yet an expert on the Campanian of Appalachia. 0.2 inches, perhaps a juvenile?

Any help with an id to this bone would be appreciated, it looks to be a vertebrae of some sort but I'm just a newbie to this but I love to learn. Thanks guys.

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

Please help identify this tooth that was found on Ocean Isle, NC beach. There does look to be a notch at the top center of root. Thanks

This is a small tooth I found in some debris from Green Mill Run, NC. Initially I passed it over as a broken goblin shark tooth, and while that’s probably most likely the case, it seems too flat to be a shark tooth, and something about it seems more actinopterygian or even reptilian in origin. Any thoughts? Locality is Cretaceous and Neogene combo.

Hello everyone one, this is my first post on here and I was hoping to try and figure out what this mystery bone is. It was found on the coast of North Carolina near the town of Duck on the ocean side on 12/25/23. This is for sure a modern bone and not a fossil. I am led to believe this piece is from a sea turtle shell, though I am not 100% sure. The piece itself is roughly 13 cm across, a little over a cm thick, and about 8 cm tall in the middle point. The piece appears to connect to other bone structures from just about every side except for the points of the "wings". If you all have any suggestions as to what this could be that would really help! Thank you!

Hi everyone, During my recent productive trip to GMR in NC, which I’ve previously shared, I also found this rather large rock. I was considering trying to split it since there’s a case of one full fossil fish impression being found from there that way, but something about it, namely the weird “etchings”for lack of a better word, seems off and potentially important on its own. Bone with bite marks? Native American sharpening stone? Unless those are just caused by my shovel which seems a bit unlikely. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Howdy all, I know Squalicorax pristodontus is known from North Carolina, but is it known from the Black Creek Group?

Hi all, I'm a biologist (herpetologist) who recently moved back to coastal North Carolina. On a recent trip to visit family in SC, finding shark's teeth on the beach rekindled my childhood fascination with fossils that I think was one of the sparks that led me into biology in the first place. Sad to learn that some of the places I was able to explore in my youth (like the phosphate mines in Aurora) are now closed, but I hope to be able to learn from you all and explore as time permits. Thanks!

Hi everyone! After more than 7 years of putting it off, I finally returned to Green Mill Run last weekend. There were lots and lots of giant Exogyra in the creek, which was interesting since I’ve never really seen trip reports mention those; not sure if something happened to bring them all there. Especially since I assumed most of the Cretaceous stuff in GMR is washed from upstream, but I can't see so many of those big shells being washed all the way to the same spot. But anyways, here are some fossils I’d like an ID or a clarification on! Ignore the ruler pattern haha Burrow casts? There were a few of these, they looked rock-like but with a unique weight and texture, and they were colored differently from the usual black GMR fossils Hybodont clasper? I know most/all of these are Squalicorax, including this absolute beast here, but any idea on species? C. hastalis? Brachiopod? Some kind of shark teeth but not certain about species Either goblin or sand tiger? Bryozoan? Thanks everyone!

Hello everyone, After struggling to obtain material from the the local Triassic formations, I was fortunate enough to obtain some material from a fellow collector and friend after trading some things with him. This included not only Pekin Formation plant specimens from an inaccessible spot, but also some Cumnock Formation grey and black shales from a different site that were collected long ago. I was splitting one piece when I found this. Unfortunately, due to the age and condition of the material, whatever this is split into several fragments. I pieced together the two larger fragments with a small dab of adhesive, but I was having trouble with the smaller fragments. I could not get a good measurement of it because of this, but it is likely under 7 mm in length if it were intact, and probably around 3 mm in diameter. I have no good ideas on what it is, but it appears similar to a tooth from a undescribed Metoposaurus from the formation. I figured I would get additional opinions on it. There do not seem to be serrations on it. I apologize for a lack of pictures, the condition of the specimen made me nervous about moving it around too much. I kept the fragments of shale and coal it came from separate to look for more fragments. (Edit: I took additional photos, see my reply below - 12-7-23)

Hello everyone! I've hardly had downtime this November, between work and my fossil hobbies! I've been from one end of the state to another, from doing a display with my fellow club members towards the Appalachian mountains, to hunting by the coastal plains with others. It's fun, but also a bit tiring! I've got just a little more planned before the holidays get into full swing, but for now I'll just show off a little of what I've been doing. It'll kind of be all over the place, much like I have been! I don't want to focus on it too much, as I'm mostly just showing off my finds, but this is a shot of my display I did for a club event in Hickory, NC early in the month. It was mostly comprised of my best finds from the past two years with a few fossils I received from fellow collectors, and I think people enjoyed it! I met a few new friends and got acquainted better some some others, and I was able to snag a sweet piece of literature, which I'll mention again later. Ultimately, it was a great event, and being in the western side of the state for it had put me in a good position to swing out and hit an unusual Triassic spot I've been checking out on my way home. On to the Triassic Troubles; I've, unfortunately, hit a snag with finding a good local spot. Some of the ones recorded in literature are either inaccessible or in a risky location, and the two more well-known areas have been a no-go with the landowners. I got really close on one, but I was cut from contact at the last minute for unknown reasons. It's unfortunate, but I'm not giving up yet! I might try one more time to reach out after the new year, and I still have one potential site near home that I might be able to access once deer hunting season has passed, though it seems to be mostly a conglomerate based off of geological reports, so there may not be much. I'm also heavily considering trying out kayaking, as there may be river exposures as well. I did, however, achieve one goal I was aiming for with local Triassic fossils, in a roundabout way. A fellow club member gave away some of her old Otozamites specimens from the Pekin Formation, so I was able to give it to the local historical museum for their collection. However, I did find a different kind of Triassic spot, which is the one I hit on my return trip! The Triassic spot I have been able to visit, which is from the Cow Branch Formation, is just a small exposure of brown to black shale off of a road in the northern part of the state. It isn't very big, and so far I haven't found much of anything specific, just a lot of little "somethings". It could just be odd minerals, but I think some of it could be random loose plant remains. However, the first one pictured I have I've been told by several people may be fish scales, so it's probably the best contender yet. The rest are just examples of the random little "somethings" I've found in the shale. Now on to the Waccamaw Winnings; I joined a few friends and some new acquaintances on a trip to a former pit in the southeastern part of the state only a week after the first event. It's a spot I've previously been to back in the spring, but like most first time trips I was plagued with stomach issues and was mostly getting familiar with the site's contents. And much like other trips, it seems like the second time is the charm! I found a lot of really cool things, including my third North Carolina Echinoid species. The whole cleanup took almost two weeks, which took a lot of my free time up (and is also why sharing the highlights has taken so long). Unlike my previous trips, I've better identified a lot of the finds from this site, in part due to a book that was recently published, the Photographic Atlas of Waccamaw Formation Mollusca by Timothy David Campbell. I picked it up from him at our fossil even in Hickory, NC, and It's been a really neat little guide for the things you can find in the formation, as far as mollusks go. Here are some of the specimens I had after cleaning, where I left them to dry overnight and sort the next day. There are microfossils in two of the compartments of this box. Here are some assorted microfossils in a different box, while I was trying to sort them. These are super fragile, and I have to be careful how I pick them up with the tweezers to avoid crushing them. There are bivalves, gastropods, barnacles, bryozoan colonies formed around grains of sand, crab dactyls, echinoid spines, and a couple of scaphopods. Here are some bagged microfossil bivalves and gastropods. I currently don't have them sorted down to genus / species, but I'm hoping one day I'll find the time to do it. They can get quite small, and I've found some that were around .635 to 1.27 mm (.025 to .05 inches) in size. Now onto some specific finds. The first specific things I have are the Lirophora varicosa athleta, also known as Imperial Venus clams. I really enjoy the variable ridges on these clams, and in a way they remind me of Ecphora in regards to their structure. These are exceptionally plentiful in the site we were at, and I ended up snagging perhaps a few too many specimens, haha. I did have a good reason for, which I'll get to later. Most are loose valves, but I did find a few nice intact specimens as well. I had more that I didn't photograph, but this is a good representation of the ones I did collect. These little shells can hold a surprising amount of microfossils to boot! I did also find an unusual, pathological specimen, with some unusual curvature to the valve, and flattened ridges. Onto another plentiful bivalve in the site, Glycymeris americana, also known as the American Bittersweet. These are very fun to collect, because they have the potential to contain a lot of microfossils inside their shells if they are covered in the dirty matrix, especially the larger ones. These are found intact as well occasionally. Now for an unusual one, this one has small little bumps all over the interior surface. I'm not sure if it's some sort of pathology, a bunch of blisters, or something else. However, this particular specimen had something neat inside the matrix that once filled it; a small shark tooth! These are fairly uncommon in the formation, so it was a nice surprise to find while cleaning it out. This was not the first shark tooth I found, though. I found this slightly larger tooth in the dirt while I was hunting the site, as well as this fish skull of unknown species. Unfortunately, the skull was once more intact and pristine, but some unfortunate accidents while showing it off to relatives and transporting it caused it to fracture into four pieces. I was able to reform it with three, but the last one was permanently lost. I believe both shark teeth are from a Mako, but I'm still not the best at identifying them. One friend managed to find a sizable shark vertebrae in the site as well. While on the topic of surprise finds, arguably my best find and the biggest surprise was my first "whole" echinoid of the formation, and my third North Carolina species found! This Mellita caroliniana was hiding inside of a matrix-filled Dinocardium robustum also known as the Atlantic Giant Cockle. I had to have the shark-vetrebra friend help me retrieve this shell, as it was up on the side of a dirt wall I couldn't quite alone fully reach. I was jumping with joy when I discovered this thing hiding inside it! It was a bit of a good twist of fate as well that I had to change my cleaning method for this trip as well; we only have well water where I live and we were in severe drought conditions, so I was forced to clean my specimens with a spray bottle rather than a water hose (which is also why it took so long). I think if I had been using a hose it would have destroyed the specimen. The aboral surface is crushed in and the petaloids are a little fractured due to this, but I still think it's a great specimen! It's currently sitting in a cabinet until I can get the wisdom of my fellow fossil club friends on how to best preserve it with consolidant, as I'm worried it'll fall apart if I'm not careful. It's likely going to stay in this cockle as well, which I think makes for a good pairing, as well as a demonstration as to how things get buried together in the formation. I did find what I believe was an intact microfossil echinoid as well, likely a juvenile Mellita. However, I unfortunately have nothing to go off of other than my words, as it tragically broke apart after it had dried and I attempted to move it to a coin case. It was probably less than 6mm (.236 inches) in diameter, and I believe I had misidentified it as one of the small bryozoan colonies at a first glance. Now that I know it's a possibility to find them, however, I'll try to be even gentle while cleaning out my finds, so I'm likely to stick with my current bottle method for the foreseeable future. On a brighter note, while it isn't a whole specimen I did find most of the oral surface of a Rhyncholampas sabistonensis. It's enough of a specimen that I feel good displaying it in a case! Back to mollusks now, the site has a fair number of these Arcinella cornuta, also known as Florida Spiny Jewelboxes. The ones from the Waccamaw Formation seem to have much larger spines. I was fortunate enough to find two intact specimens of these this trip! One did come apart while washing, but I kept the pair together after cleaning the microfossils out from inside. These shells hold a lot of microfossils as well, both on the interior and between spines. They often have barnacles as well, though, which fall off easily if care isn't taken while cleaning. Next are some of the Americoliva carolinensis gastropods I found. They're extremely similar to the living Oliva sayana, also know as the Lettered Olive. These seem to have the best odds of holding up the best out of all the different mollusks from the site, which suffer from deteriorating aragonite. Two very pristine and large specimens I found have quite a sheen to them still! They're both exactly 6.1 cm (2.401 inches) long. Here are some Chionopsis cribraria valves, an extinct species of Lady-In-Waiting clam, from the site. The slightly frilly ribbing on these makes them quite attractive, but the sediment that settles between them is often times difficult to remove without damaging them. Next is a scallop of the Argopecten genus, which contains the modern Atlantic Calico Scallop (Argopecten gibbus). There are several species present in the formation, and many have very subtle differences, so I'm having difficulty differentiating them. This one specimen is fairly interesting due to the outer layer being almost entirely covered with a type of bryozoan. Here are few slipper snails, mainly Crepidula fornicata, a common slipper snail from the formation. They're really "arched", and can curve strangely when they're larger. The upper right specimen is likely a different species, but I was having trouble identifying it. In addition to the standard slipper snails, I found a Crepidula plana (on the right), which is a flat slipper snail, and two Bostrycapulus aculeatus (on the left), a type of spiny slipper snail. I have a soft spot for slipper snails, as an older gentleman at the beach gave me some really cool modern specimens and explained to me what they were when I was younger. Here were two neat oysters I have yet to identify. One has a lot of different coral growths all over the outer surface. These are a whole bunch of intact Plicatula marginata, a type of Kitten's Paw Clam. Out of all the intact bivalves in the site, these are by far the most common, and they tend to have a lot of "personality". I've seen some with some crazy ridge variation, and I've seen some with only one or two large ridges (Timothy Cambell had a really interesting one that was basically one giant "U" Shape) Here is a Gemophos basidentatus, an extinct Cantharus snail. This is probably one of the larger ones I've found, most of the ones I've found are microfossils. Some more interesting gastropods. The top two are Ilyanassa irrorata (Extinct nassa mud snails), the bottom Left is a Cinctura evergladesensis (An extinct banded tulip snail), and the bottom right is a Ilyanassa scalaspira (A larger, extinct nassa mud snail with some cool ridges). Some small predatory gastropods. From Left to right: Strictispira ? acurugata (An extinct turrid snail), Turritella virginica (An extinct turrited snail), Turritella beaufortensis (Another extinct turreted snail), a pathological Turritella beaufortensis with an unusual curve, Neoterebra dislocata (Eastern Auger Snail), Neoterebra protexta (Fine-ribbed auger snail), and another Neoterebra dislocata. Here are two Neverita duplicata (Shark eye moon snails). These can sometimes be really well preserved as well, but in other cases they're some of the most deteriorated mollusks. This is a Naticarius plicatella, an extinct species of moon snail with an interesting spiral groove pattern. I, for the life of me, cannot nail down the murexes very well for some reason! The bottom three are members of the Urosalpinx genus (All three may be Urosalpinx miamiensis?), the top right is a Eupleura caudata, and the top left is currently unknown. Several whelk and other gastropod species from the site. The top row are all Busycon contrarium contrarium (A left hand, or sinistral, whelk), middle left is a Busycotypus amoenus (A knobby, or nodose, whelk), middle right is a Heilprinia carolinensis (An extinct gastropod related to the tulip and spindle snails), the bottom left is a Fulguropsis floridana (A type of whelk with a recessed canal on the top spiral), and the bottom right is a Ficus papyratia (A fig snail) with a broken tail. And finally, the cone snails. The top one in the first picture might be a Conus anabathrum, but the rest are some species of Conasprella, (Mostly Conasprella oniscus?). These are also some gastropods that have been particularly tricky for me to differentiate. However, the two in the second picture are a couple of rarer Conasprella adversaria, which are a species of left hand, or sinistral, cone snails. Their left hand morphology makes them easy to identify, and I'm heard someone say that they can get quite large at times. I picked up a lot of the cone snails, too, but most of them went unpictured. And just as a fun bonus, while we were cleaning up and getting ready to depart I discovered this interesting shell under a sheet of metal! It's not a fossil, but rather a shell from a Euglandina rosea snail, also known as the Rosy Wolfsnail or the Cannibal Snail. These land snails are native to our forests, but they're a particularly nasty invasive species elsewhere, especially in Hawaii, where they've wiped out at least eight native species of gastropod. It's probably the largest land snail I've seen myself around here! And with that the Waccamaw trip is all wrapped up. As I said before, the cleanup took nearly two weeks, and was quite exhausting, but absolutely worth it. As for the hundreds of spare Imperial Venus valves and dozens of other species, I took a look back through all of my recent finds and my finds from April, and have separated out the specimens I wanted to hold on to. The rest have been donated to the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, NC, where they'll hopefully find some good uses for them! It helps keep my collection at reasonable quantities, while also helping them out and hopefully giving others the opportunity to obtain some things they wouldn't normally be able to easily find. It also gave me a good excuse to spend the day relaxing while digging in the pits there, which contain a variety of cool fossils from many different formations, including the Yorktown Formation. I'm definitely a invertebrate kind of guy, but I like a good shark tooth hunt once in a while too! These were some of the more interesting finds I had that day, including an unidentified cone snail, two nice Hemipristis serra upper teeth, and a broken Otodus chubutensis tooth measuring about 5.969 cm (2.35 inches) long. And that's all my adventures I've had the past month! I still have one trip left planned for this year, which is combination return to the Waccamaw site, as well as a trip out to Holden Beach for one last go at the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids this year. Beyond that, I think I'll spend the rest of the holidays at home, spending time with family and working on some important projects. I might check out the one Triassic spot if the gentleman gives me permission, since it's only a short drive away, but I don't know if I'll go on any more "long trip" hunts until closer to the Spring. There are also some club friends from central and western North Carolina that may want to check out some different spots this winter, whom I may make an exception and try to tag along with, but there's nothing solid planned yet. I do have one potential beach trip that I really want to try come February depending on work holidays and the weather as well, but the focus would be on finding modern echinoids, particularly the elusive Rhynobrissus cuneus.

Ok, grandson found some cool stuff here in eastern North Carolina. I'm pretty sure the tooth is an extinct giant white shark. The other a trilobite.

Newbie here. Need help with identifying this. Looks like a tusk but have no idea. Found on beach in North Carolina. Know it's a bone but it sounds like ceramic when you knock against it

Found this in a bag of Miocene-Pliocene micro matrix from Aurora Fossil Museum in North Carolina. I apologize for the less than stellar image, but this object is only 2mm long and my microscope cam is at it's limit here. It is hollow. The larger end is circular. The smaller end is obstructed by what looks like a portion of a missing bit at that end. There are no holes in the basket-weave outer texture, so not bryzoan. The surface is somewhat dirty as I was afraid of losing it if I tried to clean it. I can't find any matches in my Miocene library. I don't have much on Pliocene or later. Might also be foram, mollusk, or worm. None of those have cancellated ornament on that shape shell/test. Does this look familiar to anybody?