Jump to content

Celebrating Veterans Day at the C&D Canal


historianmichael

Recommended Posts

I took advantage of the day off yesterday for Veterans Day to attempt to beat the rain with a quick stop at the Reedy Point spoils piles (Late Cretaceous; Mt. Laurel Formation) from the C&D Canal in Delaware. Unfortunately neither of those things came true - it began to rain about halfway through my visit and I collected there much longer than I expected. This was my first ever visit to the spoils piles since I have found very similar fossils before in Big Brook, which is a much closer drive for me. I didn't quite know what to expect when I arrived. What I thought were going to be large piles of dredge from the bottom of the canal turned out to be large fields covered in a layer of sandy gravel. Hence why my visit lasted much longer than I expected. For the good part of the morning and early afternoon, I scoured the area, mostly surface collecting with a little bit of sifting. I didn't find anything extraordinary, but the sheer size of the bivalve shells there was enough to make it a worthwhile trip. Notably I only ever found mostly complete shells - these bivalves must have been massive when alive!

 

There were quite a few fossils easily found just lying on the ground 

IMG_2838.jpg.7c8bc81f3f41c96bfd1c9ec1d5bf2053.jpg  IMG_2839.jpg.eb9feae0fb2c8d08aa7eb92b55d5ebd2.jpg

 

 

Here are my finds:

 

Gastropod Steinkern Pieces

IMG_2863.thumb.jpg.691c1e0ec169cd52f13f673c1440678a.jpg

 

I found two types of bryozoan on shell pieces

IMG_2861.thumb.jpg.80087f5cbca646d76640532a10aa060d.jpg  IMG_2862.thumb.jpg.514e5a73e9dfffca4027a0a675facd96.jpg

 

I was struck by the extent of boring by sponges (Cliona cretacica) on this shell 

IMG_2864.thumb.jpg.af7af70813a8ca716c0994342b80a63f.jpg

 

I thought these worm tubes (Serpula implicata) were pretty cool, including one that extends from one side of the shell to the other side
IMG_2865.thumb.jpg.54692dafa825b47a50f240bb1820c680.jpg  IMG_2866.thumb.jpg.d6548ee1a77b74ff5e08af3566c46a50.jpg

 

The largest belemnite (Belemnitella americana) I found was about 7.2 cm, which is large but not as big as the 11.2 cm belemnite I found many years ago in Big Brook

IMG_2871.thumb.jpg.f6d8483989fda6c567fa9fcc9b78b6b9.jpg

 

Similar to the bivalves, some of the belemnites also exhibited traces of boring sponges

IMG_2872.thumb.jpg.52889456251ccb466f0082269fe1a8d2.jpg

 

  • I found this Informative 7

Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ostrea falcata - the one on the bottom right is complete with both valves!

IMG_2869.thumb.jpg.7fa6d68c9a2e3b5d08687f74d7601593.jpg

 

Exogrya costata - the big one at the top is about 10 cm wide!

IMG_2873.thumb.jpg.0ceba731ed6c307546591cdd1386fa7d.jpg

 

Pycnodonte mutabilis - the largest one is about 11 cm wide!

IMG_2876.thumb.jpg.8602c189416ccd04f095730a5d255b95.jpg IMG_2875.jpg.4178590ac3187ef4076592443d0107cd.jpg

 

My understanding is that each shell layer represents a new growth cycle - this would have been one old oyster!

IMG_2878.thumb.jpg.3624e50d983cd14556fd70010ed20729.jpg 

 

 

  • I found this Informative 4

Follow me on Instagram (@fossil_mike) to check out my personal collection of fossils collected and acquired over more than 15 years of fossil hunting!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...