Muliple IDs from Cape May

[ArtsyAxolotl]

Heya~! I recently returned from a trip to Cape May, NJ and spent most of my trip on Sunset and Higbee beach picking through the rocks and shells looking for cool stuff. I really want to get into rock hounding/fossil collecting, but I didn't really know what I was looking at so I just grabbed a bunch of stuff that I thought looked neat or interesting. I'm really happy with my haul but I was wondering if any of you nice folks could tell me if I have anything of particular interest? 

 

This photo has two that I'm sure are coral fossils, but I don't know what species. The other things looked interesting but I'm not familiar enough with types of rocks to know if any of them are something special or just a cool looking weather worn rock:

 

In this photo, I have some that I thought may be fossils, or that at least had interesting patterns on them:

 

In particular I thought these 3 seemed interesting:

 

Lastly, a few with cool patterns on them. I don't think any of these are fossils but I was wondering if some of these may be petrified wood or something else interesting?

 

 

Bonus! Rocks, shells, and sea glass that I just thought looked neat! I don't necessarily need an ID on these unless you see something of interest; just wanted to share~!

 

 

I'm not expecting anything to be mind blowing but if anyone is able to help me identify some of these, or point me towards resources I could use to do it myself, I'd really appreciate it! Like I said I'm very new to all of this so I'm not totally sure what I'm looking at. Really, any help at all is SUPER appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

PS: I can definitely take more angles of some if you need! I had so many that I didn't want to take pictures of all of them.

Edited May 26, 2021 by ArtsyAxolotl
clarification

[Plax]

You have some nice paleozoic chert fossils in the group. The sand is modern or Pleistocene derived that you found the fossils in. The paleozoic pebble fossil inclusions are transported by natural processes from their origin in the Poconos and parts northwest. Nice collection!

[Fossildude19]

The cool patterned stuff looks like some types of banded chert. 

Second and third photos appear to have a mixture of Paleozoic corals, shells, and maybe bryozoans. 

Neat finds for the beach. 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

5 minutes ago, Plax said:

You have some nice paleozoic chert fossils in the group. The sand is modern or Pleistocene derived that you found the fossils in. The paleozoic pebble fossil inclusions are transported by natural processes from their origin in the Poconos and parts northwest. Nice collection!

 

Oh! That's fascinating! I live fairly close to the Poconos, so it's interesting to know these traveled all the way down to the coast! I really appreciate the info! Thank you!

 

1 minute ago, Fossildude19 said:

The cool patterned stuff looks like some types of banded chert. 

Second and third photos appear to have a mixture of Paleozoic corals, shells, and maybe bryozoans. 

Neat finds for the beach. 

 

Thank you! I'll definitely do some research on the things you and Plax mentioned! I appreciate the info!  

[A.C.]

Your moon snail is either a shark eye or northern depending on if the hole in the back has a cap over it or not. I've hunted along Ocean City NJ a few times and have found what appears to be the same coral as #2 and #4 growing in an oyster. As for IDs I am not much help to you, although if you plan on hunting in that region more I would encourage you to keep your eye out for some sea robin skull plates as I have found a few there.

Edited May 27, 2021 by A.C.

[Plax]

There's a good article in the DVPS Mosasaur regarding these glacial and or river transported paleozoic fossils.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F5EtC6OYCiZd0NurmVahgnxmpJJwvXkS/view

[Coco]

Hi,

 

3 hours ago, A.C. said:

Your moon snail is either a shark eye

Sorry, I am affraid I don't understand. They are recent gastropods, from Naticidae family http://www.idscaro.net/sci/01_coll/plates/gastro/pl_naticidae_1.htm

 

Your pics are ... small

 

Coco

[A.C.]

1 hour ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Sorry, I am affraid I don't understand. They are recent gastropods, from Naticidae family http://www.idscaro.net/sci/01_coll/plates/gastro/pl_naticidae_1.htm

 

Your pics are ... small

 

Coco

Yes so they are recent gastropods but from my understanding of the area the Naticidae species commonly found include the Neverita duplicata common name shark eye, or the Euspira heros common name Northern moon snail. The plate you have shows species from the family but not in the right geographical location. Hope that helped!

Edited May 27, 2021 by A.C.

[ArtsyAxolotl]

6 hours ago, A.C. said:

Your moon snail is either a shark eye or northern depending on if the hole in the back has a cap over it or not. I've hunted along Ocean City NJ a few times and have found what appears to be the same coral as #2 and #4 growing in an oyster. As for IDs I am not much help to you, although if you plan on hunting in that region more I would encourage you to keep your eye out for some sea robin skull plates as I have found a fe there.

 

Ohhh I'll have to keep an eye out for those next time! Is there any particularly good spot to look for them (closer to the surf, the strand, rivers, etc?) I'm not sure which kind my moon snail shell is. I don't see a cap?

 

2 hours ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Sorry, I am affraid I don't understand. They are recent gastropods, from Naticidae family http://www.idscaro.net/sci/01_coll/plates/gastro/pl_naticidae_1.htm

 

Your pics are ... small

 

Coco

 

Wow there are so many different kinds! I'll check these out for sure! Are my pictures small? I thought I made it so that if you click on them, they get bigger. Are they still too small then? My phone camera can only do so much but I can take some closer solo pics of ones that seem interesting!

 

[Coco]

Hi,

 

6 hours ago, A.C. said:

Yes so they are recent gastropods but from my understanding of the area the Naticidae species commonly found include the Neverita duplicata common name shark eye, or the Euspira heros common name Northern moon snail. The plate you have shows species from the family but not in the right geographical location. Hope that helped!

I didn’t know you called "shark eye" some Naticidae. I am French and I took this name at the 1st degree since the OP is new registered on the forum.

The link I gave was to show what the Naticidae are, not for the OP species because I don’t know the American fauna.

 

About your photos, by clicking on them you can see them a little bigger, but I think your image host provides you with another link to display the bigger photos directly on the board without having to click on them, do some tests

 

Coco

Edited May 27, 2021 by Coco

[hemipristis]

9 hours ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Sorry, I am affraid I don't understand. They are recent gastropods, from Naticidae family http://www.idscaro.net/sci/01_coll/plates/gastro/pl_naticidae_1.htm

 

Your pics are ... small

 

Coco

"shark eye" is a nickname some give to Natica and Polinices gastropods, like "moon snails"

[Coco]

Yes Hemipristis, I understood through AC intervention. Good understanding is sometimes difficult for non-Anglian people

 

Coco

Edited May 27, 2021 by Coco

[hemipristis]

2 minutes ago, Coco said:

Yes Hemipristis, I understood through AC intervention. Good understanding is sometimes difficult for non-Anglian people

 

Coco

sorry, just saw that! 

 

I was in the middle of editing my post when I saw your reply here.  oops.

 

Anyways, to the OP: 

Sunset Beach is so much fun to go to!  Lots of "Cape May Diamonds" (small, clear, water-rounded qtz), Paleozoic fossils in chert, sometimes some small Eocene-Pliocene shark teeth, modern shells, great fishing

 

If you have a rock tumbler, it is THE go-to place in the mid-Atlantic for material to put in the tumber.

Edited May 27, 2021 by hemipristis

[hemipristis]

7 hours ago, ArtsyAxolotl said:

 

Ohhh I'll have to keep an eye out for those next time! Is there any particularly good spot to look for them (closer to the surf, the strand, rivers, etc?) I'm not sure which kind my moon snail shell is. I don't see a cap?

 

 

Wow there are so many different kinds! I'll check these out for sure! Are my pictures small? I thought I made it so that if you click on them, they get bigger. Are they still too small then? My phone camera can only do so much but I can take some closer solo pics of ones that seem interesting!

 

 

To see if there is a "cap" to the shell, flip it over. if the "navel" is a complete 'innie', no cap.  Check the high tide line after a storm to find them.

 

We cane large the pics if we download and zoom in, but we lose resolution.

 

What I can tell so far:

#10, #13 are fossil corals

#17 possible brachiopod (left side)

#21 possible brachiopod

#24 is a fossil horn coral

#33 possible bryozoan

 

[Tetradium]

20 hours ago, ArtsyAxolotl said:

Heya~! I recently returned from a trip to Cape May, NJ and spent most of my trip on Sunset and Higbee beach picking through the rocks and shells looking for cool stuff. I really want to get into rock hounding/fossil collecting, but I didn't really know what I was looking at so I just grabbed a bunch of stuff that I thought looked neat or interesting. I'm really happy with my haul but I was wondering if any of you nice folks could tell me if I have anything of particular interest? 

 

This photo has two that I'm sure are coral fossils, but I don't know what species. The other things looked interesting but I'm not familiar enough with types of rocks to know if any of them are something special or just a cool looking weather worn rock:

 

In this photo, I have some that I thought may be fossils, or that at least had interesting patterns on them:

 

In particular I thought these 3 seemed interesting:

 

Lastly, a few with cool patterns on them. I don't think any of these are fossils but I was wondering if some of these may be petrified wood or something else interesting?

 

 

Bonus! Rocks, shells, and sea glass that I just thought looked neat! I don't necessarily need an ID on these unless you see something of interest; just wanted to share~!

 

 

I'm not expecting anything to be mind blowing but if anyone is able to help me identify some of these, or point me towards resources I could use to do it myself, I'd really appreciate it! Like I said I'm very new to all of this so I'm not totally sure what I'm looking at. Really, any help at all is SUPER appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

PS: I can definitely take more angles of some if you need! I had so many that I didn't want to take pictures of all of them.

#5 is broken bivalve shell

#9 is basalt. Grain not visible to eye and generally darker than rhyolite. 

[Tetradium]

13 hours ago, ArtsyAxolotl said:

 

Ohhh I'll have to keep an eye out for those next time! Is there any particularly good spot to look for them (closer to the surf, the strand, rivers, etc?) I'm not sure which kind my moon snail shell is. I don't see a cap?

 

 

Wow there are so many different kinds! I'll check these out for sure! Are my pictures small? I thought I made it so that if you click on them, they get bigger. Are they still too small then? My phone camera can only do so much but I can take some closer solo pics of ones that seem interesting!

 

#15 solitary coral most likely horn coral so you have some much older era fossils mixed in. 

#17 bivalve shell piece

#21 bivalve piece, same kind as above, maybe brachiopod if it occurs in same formation as horn coral. 

#20 #22 Just a rock no fossils in them. 

#25 weird to me. Not bryozoan or coral. 

#33 Bryozoan from same formation as horn coral, brachiopods

#34 is weird - maybe a jaw piece but hard to tell as its worn out. 

 

Bivalve is Eastern Oyster

lady slipper is the remaining gastropod not identified - very common along entire Atlantic coast down to florida. 

Purple and the bryozoan covered piece of shell is Quahog broken piece.  

[Tetradium]

19 hours ago, A.C. said:

Your moon snail is either a shark eye or northern depending on if the hole in the back has a cap over it or not. I've hunted along Ocean City NJ a few times and have found what appears to be the same coral as #2 and #4 growing in an oyster. As for IDs I am not much help to you, although if you plan on hunting in that region more I would encourage you to keep your eye out for some sea robin skull plates as I have found a fe there.

Northern cup coral. Occurs in Florida as well too. 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

9 hours ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

I didn’t know you called "shark eye" some Naticidae. I am French and I took this name at the 1st degree since the OP is new registered on the forum.

The link I gave was to show what the Naticidae are, not for the OP species because I don’t know the American fauna.

 

About your photos, by clicking on them you can see them a little bigger, but I think your image host provides you with another link to display the bigger photos directly on the board without having to click on them, do some tests

 

Coco

 

Ohhh I see! Another forum I'm in doesn't reduce the resolution when you resize them in the post itself, so I assumed it worked the same here. I'll try to get the photos now at a better resolution for you all! Thanks for sharing the pics of the Naticidae for reference! 

 

7 hours ago, hemipristis said:

sorry, just saw that! 

 

I was in the middle of editing my post when I saw your reply here.  oops.

 

Anyways, to the OP: 

Sunset Beach is so much fun to go to!  Lots of "Cape May Diamonds" (small, clear, water-rounded qtz), Paleozoic fossils in chert, sometimes some small Eocene-Pliocene shark teeth, modern shells, great fishing

 

If you have a rock tumbler, it is THE go-to place in the mid-Atlantic for material to put in the tumber.

 

That's great to know what you can find at Sunset Beach! I was hoping to find some shark teeth but didn't manage to find any. I think next time I'll bring a sieve to make it a bit easier. I don't have a rock tumblr but I'm definitely considering getting one if I'm going to do this more often!

 

Mine appear to be complete "innies" so I think they have no cap? I'll get pics in a bit as I try to get you guys better resolution.

 

Thank you for the ids! I really appreciate you checking them out and giving me so much info!

 

2 hours ago, Tetradium said:

#15 solitary coral most likely horn coral so you have some much older era fossils mixed in. 

#17 bivalve shell piece

#21 bivalve piece, same kind as above, maybe brachiopod if it occurs in same formation as horn coral. 

#20 #22 Just a rock no fossils in them. 

#25 weird to me. Not bryozoan or coral. 

#33 Bryozoan from same formation as horn coral, brachiopods

#34 is weird - maybe a jaw piece but hard to tell as its worn out. 

 

Bivalve is Eastern Oyster

lady slipper is the remaining gastropod not identified - very common along entire Atlantic coast down to florida. 

Purple and the bryozoan covered piece of shell is Quahog broken piece.  

 

Wow! thank you for all the ids! This is awesome info. I'm going to try to get better photos of all these, maybe that'll give us a better look at some of the weirder ones like #25 and #34. I'm super jazzed that I got so many corals and bivalves and such. I thought most of these were just neat rocks lol.

[A.C.]

16 hours ago, ArtsyAxolotl said:

 

Ohhh I'll have to keep an eye out for those next time! Is there any particularly good spot to look for them (closer to the surf, the strand, rivers, etc?) 

 

I have found all of my skull plates in the areas close to the surf where shells collect. It just takes a little bit of combing through to find them. 

 

Here is what they look like: 

 

 

Also here is the cap I was referring to.

And of course be on the lookout for Cape May "Diamonds" as well! 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

12 minutes ago, A.C. said:

I have found all of my skull plates in the areas close to the surf where shells collect. It just takes a little bit of combing through to find them. 

 

Here is what they look like: 

 

 

Also here is the cap I was referring to.

And of course be on the lookout for Cape May "Diamonds" as well! 

 

Ohhh I see! In that case the two larger ones do have caps I think, the small one does not. I'm taking new pictures now so I'll make sure to get the backside of these!

 

Great to know that I should be looking closer to the surf for those kinds of things! I wasn't seeing too many shells and wasn't sure if I should be checking the surf, the strand, or things in between.

[ArtsyAxolotl]

Dug out my good camera and my macro lens from storage to take some better pics of a few of these. I omitted the ones we've already identified and ones I thought weren't as interesting on closer inspection, but kept their original numbers for ease of discussion. Hopefully these are better resolution?

 

 

[ClearLake]

Some interesting specimens in there. Here are my thoughts on the most recent batch of pictures:

1-looks like a heavily bored piece of shell

3,8 - neat rocks

7 - could be a piece of slag 

10, 12, 13, 18 - interesting coral pieces

26, 28 - triangular rocks

17 - looks like a spiriferid brachiopod

14, 33, 19 - rocks that could have some fossil fragments in them. 

30 - looks like a neat piece of shale or mudstone with fractures

[A.C.]

#13 is beautiful in my opinion and a great find!

 

I agree with @ClearLake on the thoughts of what you have there.

 

#1 being a bored piece of shell... if you aren't sure what we mean there is a sponge came along and drilled out some of the calcium in the shell resulting in the neat hole patterns. 

 

 

 

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

18 hours ago, ClearLake said:

Some interesting specimens in there. Here are my thoughts on the most recent batch of pictures:

1-looks like a heavily bored piece of shell

3,8 - neat rocks

7 - could be a piece of slag 

10, 12, 13, 18 - interesting coral pieces

26, 28 - triangular rocks

17 - looks like a spiriferid brachiopod

14, 33, 19 - rocks that could have some fossil fragments in them. 

30 - looks like a neat piece of shale or mudstone with fractures

 

I did wonder if #7 was slag. I found that one a bit closer to the sunken ship off the coast of sunset beach so that tracks I think? I wasn't sure if rocks that have a different colored center like #3 were anything interesting. Same with #26. I knew it wasn't anything like a tooth but I wasn't sure if the shiny black part was of note. Just neat rocks are cool too  

 

Any idea what species 10, 12, 13, and 18 might be? They're some of my favorites in the bunch! 

3 hours ago, A.C. said:

#13 is beautiful in my opinion and a great find!

 

I agree with @ClearLake on the thoughts of what you have there.

 

#1 being a bored piece of shell... if you aren't sure what we mean there is a sponge came along and drilled out some of the calcium in the shell resulting in the neat hole patterns. 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you! I think #13 is my favorite out of the bunch. As for the bored shell, I sorta thought that might be what it was but I didn't know it was caused by sponges! That's really interesting O:

[ClearLake]

On 5/28/2021 at 4:32 PM, ArtsyAxolotl said:

Any idea what species 10, 12, 13, and 18 might be? They're some of my favorites in the bunch! 

They are nice and may be identifiable by someone familiar with the area or potential formations they might come from, but unfortunately that is not me. Sorry