Another Big Brook Trip!

[Vernalequinox]

Dragged the family back to Big Brook in Monmouth County, NJ so I could do some more fossil hunting. We've had some pretty big storms over the past couple days, and I wanted to see if anything cool surfaced. Here are most of our finds. (The really dark thing on the bottom right is a vertebrae.)

[Praefectus]

Nice finds. What is the swirly thing called?

[Vernalequinox]

8 minutes ago, Praefectus said:

Nice finds. What is the swirly thing called?

Thank you! I'm not sure what it's called. It kind of looks like the inside of a snail shell.

[Jeffrey P]

12 minutes ago, Praefectus said:

Nice finds. What is the swirly thing called?

Internal cast of a turritella gastropod.

[Trevor]

Looks like a nice trip. I am especially fond of the Brachyrhizodus wichitaensis (ray) tooth on the bottom left. Certainly a displayable piece.

[Vernalequinox]

13 minutes ago, Trevor said:

Looks like a nice trip. I am especially fond of the Brachyrhizodus wichitaensis (ray) tooth on the bottom left. Certainly a displayable piece.

It's my first ray tooth! I've been looking for one for a while. I was so glad to see it!

[bthemoose]

Nice finds! How big is the ray tooth?

[Vernalequinox]

7 hours ago, bthemoose said:

Nice finds! How big is the ray tooth?

About half an inch from point to point.

[bthemoose]

On 7/25/2020 at 9:49 AM, Vernalequinox said:

About half an inch from point to point.

Thanks--I thought it looked quite a bit bigger than what I've found around here! I'm not hunting Cretaceous deposits, but the Miocene and Paleocene ray teeth I've found in Maryland are all a quarter of an inch or smaller.

[PaleoNoel]

On 7/24/2020 at 7:31 PM, Praefectus said:

Nice finds. What is the swirly thing called?

the inner mold of a snail shell is called a steinkern.