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OBX-001.jpg

Last week, we went out to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for some wind-and-water sports.  Only one problem: no wind. So, we combed the beach most days.

 

It'd been a week since Hurricane Matthew tore through the Caribbean and Southern US.  The Outer Banks are not generally considered a hot spot for fossils, though seekers of modern shells love the place. When we went out, I told myself I had enough modern seas shells. I wasn't taking anything home unless it was at least 10,000 years old. That should be enough self-restraint to send me home with empty pockets. As luck would have it, Matthew carved into the Pleistocene shelf on which the islands rest and churned up chunks of shell-laden sandstone off the coast of Avon, on Hatteras Island. Some of the ancient shells are so well-preserved that I'd not recognize them as any older than a few years -most of it while they were inhabited - if not for the sandstone firmly affixed to the shells. Some were conglomerates of identifiable shells. Some are agatized. One had grown a calcite (?) crystal lattice. No empty pockets for me!

 

OBX-005.jpgOBX-002a.jpg

 

I am definitely no expert. Or local. My guess was that my finds were relatively recent. Digging around with the kind help of Abyssunder, I came up with Pleistocene era. 

 

A few other goodies from the day include:

OBX-006.jpg an echinoid sand dollar, probably Mellita sp.

 

 

OBX-007.jpgArgopecten gibbous cluster and another scallop

OBX-009.jpg OBX-010.jpgMercanaria sp. with a small, agatized bivalve embedded on on the inside

OBX-008.jpgclockwise from upper left: Astrangia lineata, an unidentifiable bivalve, Solenastea bella, and Septastrea marylandica

 

I refuse to give up my childish wonder at the world.

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