Fossils From The C&d Canal, Delaware

[Shamalama]

We finally have some nice, warm weather this weekend and the snow is mostly gone so it was time to do some fossil collecting. After visiting the Delaware Min Societies 47th annual show in Newark, DE I decided to head a few miles southeast to visit Reedy Point and the remnant dredge piles. A number of years ago they dredged the C&D canal (which connects the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware Bay) to make it deeper for larger ships and barges. When they did this they brought up a large amount of the loose, sandy Mt. Laurel formation and it's associated fossil fauna. The Mt. Laurel formation is Upper Cretaceous, Campanian stage which means it's roughly 70-82 millions years old and from near the end of the Mezosoic. The formation exists along the Atlantic coast from Maryland up into New Jersey and is exposed beneath the younger Navisink formation at parts of Ramanissen Creek and Bound Brook in New Jersey. Here at Reedy Point in Delaware, the dredge spoils have been collected for years and still yield some decent fossils. I forgot my camera so my apologies for no field photos.

What I've found the most of at the site are the large Oysters Exogyra and Pycnodonte as whole, unbroken shells sometimes with both valves associated but usually not. Here is a Pycnodonte convexa with some worm tubes on it's surface indicating that the shell was exposed to marine life before it was buried.

This trip I wanted to make an effort to see if I could find any shark teeth. I knew they could be found here but it would require either sifting or close examination of the ground. I chose the latter as it was easier to move from place to place and look. As I was wandering I found a number of black to dark brown colored "steinkerns". These are the internal molds of bivalve shells and are far more commonly found than the shells themselves. The picture below shows the variety of what I found including a couple of Gastropod steinkerns. The Belemnite at the bottom is 4cm long and is a nearly complete "baby" that is just missing the very tip of the end.

Another common find for me were these small Ostrea falcate Oyster shells. They are a different species than is commonly found in Big Brook or Ramanessin Creek (which are mostly Navisink Formation which is a little younger). The two on the right hand side are steinkerns.

Continued in next post....

Edited March 7, 2010 by Shamalama

[Shamalama]

Here is one of the Ostrea falcate that still has both valves intact.

I'd spent an hour and a half without finding anything significant and was getting hungry so I decided to head home. As I'm walking back to my car I meet another collector named Dwayne. We are talking and I asked him about microscopic fossils. He proceeds to show me that if you scour the ground close enough you will find quite a bit of them. Dwayne picked out a few solitary corals and Bryzoans and I was conviced to start searching the ground! I found the aforementioned as well as some tiny Terebratulina cooperi brachiopds and Echinoid spines.

The Echinoid spines are 8mm long and the Solitary Corals are 4mm wide

Terebratulina cooperi

this one is a mystery as to what it is:

Dwayne also told me that sifting the sand with a 1/8" screen would yield more stuff including whole echinoids. Before I left he gave me a couple of things he'd found, a part of a Baculite and a Belemnite with a Bryozoan encrusting it.

I took a plastic grocery bag out of my pocket and filled it with surface sand to look through more later and headed home. I had a great day and found some neat stuff I'd never thought to look for before!

Edited March 7, 2010 by Shamalama

[MikeD]

Now those are different. I like them.

[Auspex]

Thanks for the great report!

Those T. cooperi brachiopods are pretty neat.

[Just Bob]

Very cool Dave, I went to the show today but did not think the stop at the C&D canal.

What was I thinking? It would have been the perfect time to take her.

[lordpiney]

awesome finds dave...those micro fossils are great! ive gotta get my butt back there soon.

[siteseer]

We finally have some nice, warm weather this weekend and the snow is mostly gone so it was time to do some fossil collecting. After visiting the Delaware Min Societies 47th annual show in Newark, DE I decided to head a few miles southeast to visit Reedy Point and the remnant dredge piles. A number of years ago they dredged the C&D canal (which connects the Chesapeake Bay to the Delaware Bay) to make it deeper for larger ships and barges. When they did this they brought up a large amount of the loose, sandy Mt. Laurel formation and it's associated fossil fauna. The Mt. Laurel formation is Upper Cretaceous, Campanian stage which means it's roughly 70-82 millions years old and from near the end of the Mezosoic. The formation exists along the Atlantic coast from Maryland up into New Jersey and is exposed beneath the younger Navisink formation at parts of Ramanissen Creek and Bound Brook in New Jersey. Here at Reedy Point in Delaware, the dredge spoils have been collected for years and still yield some decent fossils.

This trip I wanted to make an effort to see if I could find any shark teeth. I knew they could be found here but it would require either sifting or close examination of the ground.

Another common find for me were these small Ostrea falcate Oyster shells. They are a different species than is commonly found in Big Brook or Ramanessin Creek (which are mostly Navisink Formation which is a little younger). The two on the right hand side are steinkerns.

Shamalama,

I believe the dredging you refer to took place during the mid 80's because there were a few collectors hitting the C&D canal by the late 80's. There was a dealer named Don Malick who had a selection of invertebrates and vertebrates from there. Don had a catalogue full of interesting specimens though he had an unusual pricing structure (he provided letter-coded price ranges so you couldn't just send in an order - you had to call him to get the exact price for a specimen). From him and a few other collectors I obtained a few shark teeth, a Ischyrhiza rostral, a belemnite, and even a small mosasaur tooth. The specimens show weathering (sun bleaching) as if they were on the surface for a while but are otherwise complete. I believe the locality given to at least some of my specimens was "Bear, Delaware."

By the mid 90's fewer people were collecting there as the pickings got slim. I hadn't heard of anyone mention that stuff until this thread. It's good to hear that collectors are still finding interesting specimens.

[Western NY Explorer]

Great finds, thanks for sharing.

Tim

[erose]

The Mystery item may be the cast from a Clionid sponge.

[Shamalama]

The Mystery item may be the cast from a Clionid sponge.

I was thinking that it might be a sponge, but there are so few details I wasn't sure. Hopefully I find some more the next time I go down. I'm not into micro fossils usually, but this is a local site for me and will help to flesh out the paleoenvironment some more.

One of the things that has reinvigorated the site some is that a few years ago the state came in and pulled a bunch of the sand out for building projects. Makes me wonder if I dug a pit if I might find anything else.

[Guest Smilodon]

Just to add a little local flavor. Dredging began in the 1820s :startle: and there were major fossiliferous spoil dumps as well as natural outcrops along the way from the Delaware River west until about Chesapeake City in MD. Nowadays, the only easily acessible area is the spoil dump on the north side of the canal at the Rt 9 bridge.

[Guest Smilodon]

The Mystery item may be the cast from a Clionid sponge.

Strangely enough you usually find the "lattice work" of Cliona either intact or just the regularly spaced pattern of the borings, but this seems to be the case where the lattice work broke off but the "footings" remained.

[erose]

Strangely enough you usually find the "lattice work" of Cliona either intact or just the regularly spaced pattern of the borings, but this seems to be the case where the lattice work broke off but the "footings" remained.

Sometimes they merge together and get much clumpier. Here is a typical one from Big Brook. Also these are just the infilled holes and chambers where the sponge bored thru a bivalve or other hard surface. I don't know if anyone has ever identified any Cliona spicules (tiny silicate pieces that make up some sponges).

[Just Bob]

Just to add a little local flavor. Dredging began in the 1820s :startle: and there were major fossiliferous spoil dumps as well as natural outcrops along the way from the Delaware River west until about Chesapeake City in MD. Nowadays, the only easily acessible area is the spoil dump on the north side of the canal at the Rt 9 bridge.

I have been at that spot twice before Don and I really didn't find all that much, It was very over grown. I have heard before if you dig under the brush you tend to find more but that was a little more work then I wanted to do at the time. If I remember right I have been on the south side as well with not much luck. In fact the south side from what I remember had a huge sand pit on it, I thought that was the spoil dump.

It has been a couple of years though.

[Shamalama]

Strangely enough you usually find the "lattice work" of Cliona either intact or just the regularly spaced pattern of the borings, but this seems to be the case where the lattice work broke off but the "footings" remained.

Sometimes they merge together and get much clumpier. Here is a typical one from Big Brook. Also these are just the infilled holes and chambers where the sponge bored thru a bivalve or other hard surface. I don't know if anyone has ever identified any Cliona spicules (tiny silicate pieces that make up some sponges).

Don - Good point about how those sponges lived. I've never seen one intact on a shells so the fact that this if found tells me it probably lived within a Exogyra or Pycnodonte shell as they are fairly thick. I've seen some Belemnite tests with the borings in them as well.

erose - Great pic of a super specimen. That looks very similar to the tiny piece I found. Here I've been tossing those out of my screen when found at Bound Brook!