Whiskey Bridge Trip, Friday, Nov. 28

[mommabetts]

It's nice to have connections. Here it is. I have never seen anything like it there. I was told that fragments can be found sometimes and may be very colorful and irridescent. May also be mistaken for oyster shell.

That is nice, is the tape measure in in. or cent.?

[MikeD]

That is nice, is the tape measure in in. or cent.?

I believe it is centimeters. There is a 150cm marking on the tape in one of the pictures.

[silverphoenix]

A bad day to go fossil hunting alone!

haha I think I will invite some folks from here to come along next time.

I've been going through the dirt I brought back--about 2/3 of a bag down--2 shark teeth (one could fit on a pin head), 8 otoliths, 7 bryozoas, 12 corals, and a ton of other stuff--mainly small gastropods. It's a lot to look through, it's tedious, and it'll make your eyes hurt, but it's worth it It's nice that I can fossil hunt indoors when it's too cold to do it outside...being able to hunt for fossils regardless of weather= PRICELESS!

[kauffy]

haha I think I will invite some folks from here to come along next time.

I've been going through the dirt I brought back--about 2/3 of a bag down--2 shark teeth (one could fit on a pin head), 8 otoliths, 7 bryozoas, 12 corals, and a ton of other stuff--mainly small gastropods. It's a lot to look through, it's tedious, and it'll make your eyes hurt, but it's worth it It's nice that I can fossil hunt indoors when it's too cold to do it outside...being able to hunt for fossils regardless of weather= PRICELESS!

i completly agree... the beauty of collecting 'dirt' and searching it at home! i love it, i just need to find a site near my house where i can collect some material... until then its trading and buying! but thats fine, i think theres something about unsearched dirt that is more personal than just buying or trading fossils, because in many ways your still 'finding' the fossils for the first time.

Your fossils are stunning, the preservation from that site is really nice... great variety of fauna too... keep the pictures coming!!!

[Harry Pristis]

Thanks for the mention of the pub, I have heard of that one before but I haven't picked it up yet. Apparently, the Avon Park Formation is also exposed at the never completed Cross Florida Barge Canal a mile south of Inglis. This comes from the 2008 book by Bryan, Scott, and Means (Roadside Geology of Florida), which I think is a well written book. Apparently, the oldest surface rocks in the state not only include the Avon Park Formation but also include the lower member of the Ocala Group (according to the above book).

There are many pubs relating to the geology of Florida. I have one in front of me called THE REGIONAL LITHOSTRATIGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF PALEOCENE AND EOCENE ROCK OF FLORIDA, Florida Geological Survey Bulletin No. 45 (1966).

In this bulletin, the author states that the Middle Eocene (Claiborne Series) Avon Park Limestone "crops out at the peak of the Ocala Uplift in Citrus and Levy Counties."

On the same page, the author points out, "Faunally, the Avon Park Limestone is characterized by the presence of abundant . . . diagnostic foraminifers. Other fossils such as astracodes, bryozoans, mollusks, and echinoids are also present, but are rather rare and limited in areal distribution."

If you are collecting inverts (other than forams) from limestone in the barge canal area, you are probably collecting from the overlying, Late Eocene, Ocala Group Limestone or the Oligocene Suwannee Limestone.