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A Few Summer Trips To The Late Cretaceous Of Nj


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Here's some stuff I collected on 4 trips this summer to a site of mine in the late Campanian Wenonah formation of NJ. A few friends from the forum also were there for some of those digs. Perhaps they will share some of their finds as well.

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---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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It's good to see that tooth hanging out in there. You know which one haha.

I'll try to get some pictures of my stuff up sometime soon.

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There are some really pristine teeth in there! I think I see the ischyrhiza, a worn mosasaur, some squalicorax, scapanorhynchus, cretolamna, and archeolamna, enchodus, and a xiphanctinus. But which one is Darwin drooling over, hmmm??

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I seem to remember that some of the Wenonah Fm. clays had fossil bivalves with actual shell preserved, not just steinkerns.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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Great finds from the Wenonah Thanks for sharing :)

It's hard to remember why you drained the swamp when your surrounded by alligators.

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Steve

Great specimens! The preservation is awesome!!!!! I see a few smaller teeth like Squatinas. Did you take home any matrix to search for micros? Thanks for sharing.

Marco Sr.

"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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the mosasaur is about 1/3" complete, dont let it fool ya. ;) but darwin is drooling over the large cretalamna in the bottom right of the second picture. unfortunately the angle of my pic doesnt quite capture the true nastiness of this tooth.

There are some really pristine teeth in there! I think I see the ischyrhiza, a worn mosasaur, some squalicorax, scapanorhynchus, cretolamna, and archeolamna, enchodus, and a xiphanctinus. But which one is Darwin drooling over, hmmm??

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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There's an area at Big Brook where you can collect some bivalves with the original shell preserved, but they are incredibly fragile there and its not easy. I have never really attempted it. There may be more localities like that, but I don't think its common at all.

I seem to remember that some of the Wenonah Fm. clays had fossil bivalves with actual shell preserved, not just steinkerns.

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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Great teeth, but I was also impressed by the fish vertebra. Don't see too many of those. Summer in Monmouth County the streams are usually picked over pretty good, so these are unsual for summer finds. Must be a great site. Best wishes.

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I absolutely agree Jeff. But actually I gave my buddies most of the shark and fish vertebrae though. Its a good spot, but it took a ton of hard work digging and it stopped producing at all for us at the end of the last trip unfortunately.

Great teeth, but I was also impressed by the fish vertebra. Don't see too many of those. Summer in Monmouth County the streams are usually picked over pretty good, so these are unsual for summer finds. Must be a great site. Best wishes.

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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Took quite a bit of material home, but it was pretty poor, as usual. I do have some remaining...

Steve

Great specimens! The preservation is awesome!!!!! I see a few smaller teeth like Squatinas. Did you take home any matrix to search for micros? Thanks for sharing.

Marco Sr.

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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An exceptional quantity of sharks teeth for the area. Monmouth County is one of the most hunted fossil areas anywhere. A good day for most collectors is three or four small sharks teeth.

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There's an area at Big Brook where you can collect some bivalves with the original shell preserved, but they are incredibly fragile there and its not easy. I have never really attempted it. There may be more localities like that, but I don't think its common at all.

There are oyster beds in the Navesink that crop out downstream of Hillsdale Road that preserve shell material. But it is almost always just oysters and similar bivalves. No clams or gastropods. But since digging in the banks is now verboten they are hard to come by. Sometimes after a good rain you can pick up decent Exogyra, Pycnodonte and Agerostreas that have collapsed into the creek. I often went below Hillsdale Road just to look for those odd invertebrates. If you use a fine screen down that way you can find urchin spines, very small crustacean bits and other small things.

Never heard of a Wenonah bed around there that had shell material as well, but would love to learn more about it.

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the shell exposure is basically in the streambed only and doesn't extend up into the banks much if at all. its just a small area where some wenonah shell material survived for some reason. with the way things have been changing recently, it might not even be currently exposed or accessible. tons of huge trees are down in that area, silting everything up.

There are oyster beds in the Navesink that crop out downstream of Hillsdale Road that preserve shell material. But it is almost always just oysters and similar bivalves. No clams or gastropods. But since digging in the banks is now verboten they are hard to come by. Sometimes after a good rain you can pick up decent Exogyra, Pycnodonte and Agerostreas that have collapsed into the creek. I often went below Hillsdale Road just to look for those odd invertebrates. If you use a fine screen down that way you can find urchin spines, very small crustacean bits and other small things.

Never heard of a Wenonah bed around there that had shell material as well, but would love to learn more about it.

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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the shell exposure is basically in the streambed only and doesn't extend up into the banks much if at all. its just a small area where some wenonah shell material survived for some reason. with the way things have been changing recently, it might not even be currently exposed or accessible. tons of huge trees are down in that area, silting everything up.

Where is that located along the brook? There is a great deal of confusion about what is Wenonah and what is Navesink at BB. I did a lot of research and spoke with a handful of geologists trying to get it straightened out in my head.

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not too far upstream from the bridge, if i remember correctly. but there may be a few spots in the vicinity.

Where is that located along the brook? There is a great deal of confusion about what is Wenonah and what is Navesink at BB. I did a lot of research and spoke with a handful of geologists trying to get it straightened out in my head.

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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Hello fossilhunter just click the link to the correct posting area. If it's a fossiling trip for example you need to go to fossil hunting trip. You can then click on the button labeled start new topic near the top right of the screen.

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Erose, there was a small exposure along a creek bank somewhere near Woodbury which Keith Madden, then of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia took me too several times. The bivalves were preserved as very white and very soft shell material, but they dried out and hardenend nicely. They weren't at all like the Exogyra or Ostrea material from, say, Cream Ridge or the Nutt Farm, which were quite hard and weathered out whole. The layer which contained the fossils was, as I recall, a black clay.

I've invited Keith to join this Forum.

Rich

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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There are definitely some shell exposures in that area, but they are more likely in the Woodbury fm. A black clay doesn't sound like Wenonah fm.

Erose, there was a small exposure along a creek bank somewhere near Woodbury which Keith Madden, then of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia took me too several times. The bivalves were preserved as very white and very soft shell material, but they dried out and hardenend nicely. They weren't at all like the Exogyra or Ostrea material from, say, Cream Ridge or the Nutt Farm, which were quite hard and weathered out whole. The layer which contained the fossils was, as I recall, a black clay.

I've invited Keith to join this Forum.

Rich

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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