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This past weekend some good buddies and I headed down to a river in SE NC which is known for producing cretaceous fossils in a lag deposit among other things. The group consisted of folks from NC, VA, MD and PA. Weather forecast Saturday for central/eastern VA and NE NC was really BAD, but forecast was great for where we were headed, mid-80s, mostly sunny with a nice breeze. Even more exciting and important to us (especially at this time of year), the river level was low enough for us to access the lag deposit material. In the field with us for the first time were a few of Ray's @aerogrower "magic cubes." They came in the mail about an hour before I headed south with the boat and I was hoping they would bring us all good luck. Obviously, they did that and more! I just wish Don @sixgill pete could have joined us. Maybe next time. Most of us met Friday night at the hotel, had a great dinner at a local steak & seafood place across the street and then hung out chatting and catching up about life since our last fossil hunting trip together. Two of our group were still gun shy of the hotel from their encounter with "bed bugs" during our December trip, so they drove in early Saturday morning to meet us. Saturday morning started out with perfect weather and eight (8) very excited fossil hunters. Getting the boat in at the ramp was interesting to say the least, given its shad season and the fishermen were everywhere on the ramp, dock, etc. They didn't like having to stop or move even for just a few minutes so we could launch. Water temp was in the low 70s and we headed out to our intended location. When we got there, we perused the area, discussed and debated what was the best strategy and where to start. 2 others started a spot to the right of the boat and I started a spot to the left of the boat. My very 1st screen produced a bunch of sharks teeth and 2 deinosuchus vertebrae, 1 with very fresh shovel marks, if you know what I mean. I will try and post photos of the shark teeth & vert, coprolites, misc. croc teeth and other stuff this evening. One of our group moved farther to the left and started exploring and surface collecting. Dang if he didn't come walking back up with a nice deinosuchus tooth and other stuff, right off the beach. Here's a photo of some of @Daleksec and his dad's croc/deinosuchus teeth. They have quite a few more. Note one of Ray's "cubes" getting its inaugural photo op. Eventually, the guys to the right of the boat gave up and helped explore my area. They are nice folks and good friends, so I only minded a little. :-) j/k So, wouldn't you know that it would have to be one of my buddies who pulled this beauty of a Hadrosaur vert out. This particular friend is known by all to have a lucky golden horseshoe in a certain place. While all this was going on, @Daleksec had walked farther down to the left where his dad was exploring and found this vertebrae exposed in situ. Note, Ray's @aerogrower "magic cube" making another appearance in this photo. As you can tell, the vert came out in several pieces despite our best efforts. Daleksec will put it back together as best as possible and we'll post more photos of it. During the course of Saturday, one of our friends found 2 nice Theropod teeth with one being about an inch and one being about 1/4 inch. Both were serrated. I will add photos once they are cleaned up. Besides the multitude of croc and shark teeth and the 2 deinosuchus verts I found early on, one of my prizes from Saturday was this gorgeous, but yet suggestively shaped object. :-) The laughter and stories going around about my coprolite find are not fit for printing on a family oriented website. We finally finished up hunting/collecting about 415pm Saturday with most of us filthy and sore but VERY happy as we headed back to the boat ramp. Saturday evening was another night of hanging out, chatting and a great dinner with good friends. Though, we did go to bed much earlier than Friday night and Ibuprofen was definitely on the menu. Sunday morning we woke to drizzle, low-50s and breezy. It was going to be a cold/wet ride in the boat back to our spot. Not to mention, at least one thunderstorm had come through in the early hours of the morning. Forecast looked OK though with a little drizzle but most of the rain holding off till after 1pm. We got back to our spot and started at it again. Quite a few more deinosuchus teeth/verts were found along with many more sharks teeth and other assorted goodies. Given the awesome and spectacular finds everyone else had on Saturday, I rubbed my newly acquired "magic cube" for some personal good luck. About an hour into the hunting, the magic cube came through for me. While working through the matrix I heard this distinct "chunk" sound of metal hitting on something very solid. I should have snapped a photo right then but there was no way I was vacating the spot so one of my friends could jump in given the heads turning around at the "chunk" sound. I probed a little more and pulled this beautiful hunk of bone out. This is the very first Hadrosaur vertebrae I've ever found. I've been present when several others were found (by the friend with the golden horseshoe), and he even found a very nice dino toe bone in front of me. But this one is mine. After all the excitement and joking about my "happy" dance died down we went back to the task at hand. And, of course it didn't take long for the golden horseshoe to show up AGAIN!!! He pulled this Hadrosaur tail vertebrae out about a foot from where I had found mine. The cube was working it's magic. About 1230p it started sprinkling and was threatening to turn into a steady rain. We packed up and headed back to the ramp. Photos of all 3 Hadrosaur verts in the next post.