Yankeetown Echinoid Hunt

[digit]

As I eluded to in a separate posting, my wife and I recently joined the FPS (Florida Paleontological Society) and joined them for their fall field trip and meeting in the High Springs area of north central Florida. It was a 320 mile drive (one way) but well worth the effort. It also gave us lots of time to listen to a stash of podcasts to pass the time on the long drive. During the field trip to Haile Quarry I found my first Eupatagus antillarum (on my fossil bucket list for a few years) and several other nice smaller echinoids. During the FPS meeting in the evening Jack (Shellseeker) introduced me to Gunther Lobisch who has a passion (and accumulated knowledge base) for echinoids. I mentioned to him about my nascent interest in Florida echinoids.

I first learned about Eupatagus antillarum (Florida's long-time "almost" state fossil which is still pending approval) a few years back. Apparently, state legislature also does things on a geological time scale and at the present Florida still does not have a state fossil. I don't remember what led me there but somehow I happened upon a YouTube video of a couple of guys who took kayaks out to the spoil pile islands just west of the small town of Yankeetown along the Gulf Coast of Florida (just north of Crystal River). They were looking for (and found) a number of these fossilized spatangoid (irregular) urchins. That original video is no longer available on YouTube but one of the guys who posted it (and who goes by the handle "Snot Otter") has a newer replacement video showing collecting on the spoil pile islands:

I had mentioned to Gunther that it was on my fossil bucket list to one day where to launch some kayaks or a canoe to be able to reach these spoil pile islands in order to go hunting for the echinoids found there. Gunther replied that echinoids could be gathered along the canal itself without having to venture out to the spoil piles. This was all I needed to hatch a plan. We were up in the High Springs/Alachua area and would pass right by Yankeetown on the way home--if you ignore the one hour detour that it would take to head west. My wife was up for the idea so on Sunday (the day after the FPS meeting) we checked out of our hotel and set the car's navigation system at an address nearby where I wanted to go. In a little over an hour we were driving through the little town of Inglis and crossed over the canal itself that runs from Lake Rousseau to the Gulf of Mexico.

Along the southern edge of the canal is a small road called the Withlacoochee Bay Trail. There are a few parking areas along the road, an equestrian trail, some paved walking paths, and areas where people had stopped to try their luck with some fishing poles. Along most of the canal length there is a ridge mound made up of the dredging material that was removed from the canal back in the 1930s. In most places this ridge was covered with grasses and trees but we did spot an area where the limestone that made up this ridge was visible along the surface. It was packed hard and weathered and the color was more blackish gray than white due to the mildewy covering. We walked this area for a few minutes and turned up a larger echinoid (still embedded in a coating of limestone but identifiable by shape) and a smaller grape-sized echinoid that had a clean surface but also a few cracks. This was better luck than we had had at the Haile Quarry the day before (or at least quicker finds). We got back in the car and continued down the road. Most of the ridge was covered by grasses with some scattered bushes and trees. In a little while we got to an area where the trees were taller and more dense. It looked like the undergrowth was light limited in these areas and I thought that it might be possible to search under the trees in areas where the soil was eroded away enough to uncover some of the underlying limestone rocks. This was the same sort of areas I looked for while surface hunting the Mazon Creek area for nodules so I wanted to see if my gained knowledge in that environment would cross over to this new area.

In just a few minutes of looking around under the trees I spotted a few nice echinoids hiding at the surface. I decided that I needed to return to the car to tell Tammy and to get some bug spray as the mosquitoes were quite dense (and hungry) under the canopy. The flying insect density it seems was not being mitigated enough by the copious number of spider webs stretched between branches. More than once I planted my face directly in a Spinybacked Orbweaver (crab spider) or Golden Orbweaver web--it kinda felt like Halloween haunted house display a week early.

-Ken

[digit]

In just a few minutes my wife Tammy and I were enjoying an belated Easter egg hunt of the fossil variety. It didn't take long to refine our search image to look for the oval rounded shapes among the bits of limestone that peeked up at us through the loose soil under the tree canopy. We only stayed for about 45 minutes before we had to get on our way as we still had a few hundred miles to put behind us before reaching home. We came away with a nice little collection of echinoids. Many are coated with limestone so we will get some practice in methods of cleaning and prepping. I would never have expected echinoids to be accessible alongside the canal and thought I would have had to mount a short expedition with kayak or canoe to reach fertile fossil hunting grounds on the offshore spoil piles. It's interesting on how a single comment from someone with deeper knowledge (Gunther) at a time when we were reasonably close to Yankeetown could effortlessly develop into a quick (and highly enjoyable) little fossil hunting side trip.

Those in Florida who are interested in fossil echinoids may find this posting useful and motivational enough for you to mount your own trip to this area for a little surface hunting under the trees (don't forget the bug spray). For those on the forum more distant, I took some in situ sequences of some of my finds to share with you. I enjoy vicarious hunts when looking at other member's postings and try to repay this when I can. For any who enjoy in situ images here's what yesterday's hunt looked like through the eyes of my camera:

-Ken

[digit]

Here's a few more finds just as I first saw them:

-Ken

[digit]

At the risk of overdoing a good thing, here are the last of the in situ photos of a few more of my finds so you all can share the experience of spotting these nearly-hidden little treasures:

Hope you enjoyed this little virtual fossil hunt as much as I did while hunting in the field (even given the mosquitoes and spider webs).

Cheers.

-Ken

[Herb]

nice report and nice echs

[Ludwigia]

Thanks for the detailed report! Nice of you to think of the distant participants.

[digit]

Thanks.

Roger, you've posted some wonderful images over the years that have made me green with envy. Till I can arrange some sort of fossil hunting trip to your area some day I enjoy the images on this forum to keep me dreaming of wondrous ammonites that I may one day discover. Though I do most of my collecting locally--and all of it within the States (so far)--I try to always remember this is a global forum.

Cheers.

-Ken

[Ptychodus04]

Nice finds. Fortuitous fossiling trips are often more rewarding than the planned ones!

[digit]

I agree completely Kris. Expectations are lower without the planning and it's great fun when things work out well.

-Ken

[Ludwigia]

Thanks.

Roger, you've posted some wonderful images over the years that have made me green with envy. Till I can arrange some sort of fossil hunting trip to your area some day I enjoy the images on this forum to keep me dreaming of wondrous ammonites that I may one day discover. Though I do most of my collecting locally--and all of it within the States (so far)--I try to always remember this is a global forum.

Cheers.

-Ken

Well, if you ever happen to get over here you know who to get in touch with

[JohnJ]

Great report, Ken. Looking forward to some of the prepped echinoid photos.

There's nothing like feeling that little tickle on the back of your neck that you casually start to brush away...only to come up with a palm-sized spider. The little 'crab spiders' are awesome, too.

[Khyssa]

I know the general area you went to but have never ventured up under the trees looking for fossils. A number of people that I have talked to have been chased out of there by the park ranger type people that periodically patrol that area. They get upset if they even catch you picking up a fossil from the gravel road. Makes no sense seeing as the fossils would just get driven over and crushed. I've not gotten in trouble looking for fossils there myself but then I usually go down into the drainage cuts they bulldozed off the side of the road. Nobody can see me from the road and I leave my car back at one of those parking lots you saw. I will have to go back once it's cooled down some more and the mosquitos are quite so bad. My collection only has a couple completely intact Eupatagus Antillarum in it and it's only a 30 minute drive from my house.

Looks like you found quite a few intact specimens. Great trip report!

Edited October 26, 2015 by Khyssa

[digit]

Well, if you ever happen to get over here you know who to get in touch with

I've been known to travel a lot--and to plan trips for a single focused objective so don't be surprised when I send to a PM one day with my flight details.

Cheers.

-Ken

[Ludwigia]

I'm forewarned

[digit]

A number of people that I have talked to have been chased out of there by the park ranger type people that periodically patrol that area. They get upset if they even catch you picking up a fossil from the gravel road. Makes no sense seeing as the fossils would just get driven over and crushed. I've not gotten in trouble looking for fossils there myself but then I usually go down into the drainage cuts they bulldozed off the side of the road.

Sad to hear that whoever manages that recreational area has such a strict opinion on fossil collection there. I saw signs that others had looked through the area fairly recently. There were some disturbed areas where it looks like someone was using tools to dig up and break some of the limestone rocks exposed along the surface and in the drainage cuts. Possibly some hunters have been leaving more than a minimal impact and that's been getting the managers to try to put a stop to it. It would be a shame if such a great resource would go to waste when it could be of great recreational and educational value to private (non-commercial) fossil hunters.

-Ken

[Al Dente]

A number of people that I have talked to have been chased out of there by the park ranger type people that periodically patrol that area. They get upset if they even catch you picking up a fossil from the gravel road. Makes no sense seeing as the fossils would just get driven over and crushed.

Probably the only time I got into trouble with the authorities while fossil collecting was here about 8 or 10 years ago. I had read many articles from different fossil clubs having annual collecting trips to the canal so I thought it was OK to do. I learned otherwise.

[digit]

Word to the wise. I'll try to figure out who I might obtain permission from if I ever get back to collect more echinoids from this area (or join a local fossil club if they get periodic permission).

Here is the best find of the quick (less than 1 hour) collecting trip. My wife only found a few echinoids but this was her final (and best) specimen after a bit of cleaning. Still a bit of matrix on it which I'll work on but it is a really nice specimen without any real damage to it. Not bad for a fragile little echinoid from the Inglis Formation from the lower part of Upper Eocene (some 30+ million years old).

Cheers.

-Ken

[Khyssa]

Looks good!

[JustPlainPetrified]

That was a great report and I do like the 'in situ' photos. Lets us get in on the hunt too! Thanks.

[digit]

Here's a quick update--

Not all of the echinoids found at Yankeetown were in pristine condition (as would be expected for such a fragile thing as an echinoid test). I often find white spatangoid (heart urchin) tests while diving (usually in sand and seagrass beds adjacent to reefs where these echinoids flourish). I've never tried taking any of them home. I've seen others try only to have the test dry out and then crumble to pieces. Occasionally, I've picked up a particularly interesting one underwater only to have it dissolve into a snow flurry of tiny ossicles (plates). I have friends in the Keys who have collected urchin tests and have them on display with shells and driftwood also locally collected but I don't see "fresh" tests surviving the rigors of a plane flight home from halfway around the globe (no matter how well packed).

So it amazes me that some of these fossils were obviously buried beneath the carbonate sands and muds quick enough to provide such nice preservation. Here are a couple which survived fossilization for the most part but obviously incurred some damage before being set into their final forms to wait out the eons till I found them. Below are my rogues gallery of near misses:

Cheers.

-Ken

[FossilDAWG]

In life, spatangoid urchins are burrowers that spend most of their life buried in the bottom sediment. The ones we find as fossils almost certainly died and were buried within their burrows. Any that were exposed on the sea floor were virtually always broken to bits by scavengers and wave action before they had a chance to be fossilized.

Don

[firemanjosh_c]

So I went out to the Yankeetown spoil islands last week. Had a great time. Not sure if it's because of Hermine or what, but I could have filled two kayaks full of Eupatagus antillarum. I ended up taken about two dozen perfect or near-perfect ones and a few still in matrix. Even found two Periacharus floridanus still in matrix. If anyone is thinking about a trip out there, now is the time and the pickings are good. I recommend hitting the first island, definitely the densest deposits, but I also didn't make it to the last two islands. Also saw a ton of dolphin & manatee for a great overall day. 

 

The directions I used are attached below - thanks to the Florida Fossil Hunters for the information.

Sanddollar.pdf

[firemanjosh_c]

Here's some a photo of some of the spoils. I'm still in the process of cleaning/prepping them (vinegar soak

 and toothbrush scrub). Anyone know how to get that last bit of orange/brown staining off of them?

[belemniten]

Great finds and awesome trip ! What a nice landscape ... I would like to hunt there anytime 

[digit]

2 hours ago, firemanjosh_c said:

Anyone know how to get that last bit of orange/brown staining off of them?

 

Looks like you had a great trip to the spoil piles. One of these days I want to try getting out there to see them first hand.

 

I'm wondering if the CLR liquid (Calcium Lime & Rust) might take out the staining without damaging the echinoids. You could always get a small bottle and try it out on your least perfect specimen. I know there are also iron oxide reducing chemicals they sell at the big box home improvement stores to remove rust stains where people use well water for irrigation and end up with rust stained concrete around the house. That might work too--though I cannot think of any brand name chemicals of this type. A stroll through the appropriate aisle in your local home improvement store might suggest some options.

 

If you have success with something, take photos and show your results here to serve as an aid for others.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken