Cape May New Jersey Coral and Big Brook Finds

[Pagurus]

After waking up to snow in our yard back home in Massachusetts my wife and I are enjoying a week of great fall weather on our New Jersey vacation. Since nobody in their right mind would vacation without a bit of fossil hunting we threw a few shovels and sifters in the car before we left and stuffed a pile of ziploc bags into our suitcases.

 

We waded through Big Brook yesterday and made few finds, though not as much as we had hoped. I'll post these soon.

We spent the previous day at Cape May, enjoying the warm weather strolling along a sandy beach near Cape May lighthouse ...  

 

      

 

 

... and picking through the surf-tumbled stones of Sunset Beach.  

 

 

 

 

We found one large coral on the sandy beach and several water-worn corals among the rounded stones of Sunset Beach. While there are Pleistocene formations offshore, I believe these corals are from a much earlier period and transported later by glacial activity and runoff. Correct me if I'm wrong. 

 

 

Just off the beach sits the wreck of the SS Atlantus, a concrete ship built at the end of WWI and later grounded by a storm as it was being towed to Cape May in 1926. There's not much of it left anymore.

 

 

 

 

[sixgill pete]

Mike great pictures. I have not been to cape May since I was a teenager, and that was a year or two ago.  The coral is very cool, I think the biggest piece is probably pPleistocene, it looks very similar to some of the fossil corals we find on the beaches and rivers here in N.C. occasionally. The other corals could be older. However, I am no expert nor can I even hint at an I.D.

 

Snow huh? In October, yuck. As a teenager my father was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Weymouth and we lived in Plymouth. On Halloween day that year (1975) we went to the movies to see Jaws. Went in sunny and chilly, came out the ground was covered with snow. 

[Fossildude19]

Yep. That's New England, for you. If you don't like the weather, wait around 5 minutes, ... it'll change.

 

Mike thanks for the report and pics - glad you found some time to get out places.

Regards,

[sixgill pete]

10 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

Yep. That's New England, for you. If you don't like the weather, wait around 5 minutes, ... it'll change.

 

 

I thought that was North Carolina. 

[ynot]

Glad You could do some fossiling while on Your vacation.

Thanks for sharing!

Tony

[Castle Rock]

Only my guess, but the larger piece of coral looks a lot like the coral found along the Calvert Cliffs in MD.  Astrhelia palmate?   Dave 

[lissa318]

Nice coral and what a pretty spot to vacation!!!!  I would have brought tons of "just rocks" home btw...  lol

[Pagurus]

@sixgill pete Thanks for looking, Don, and the comment on the coral. That sounds reasonable. I enjoyed winter when I was a teenager, but not so much now.

@Fossildude19 We didn't like the weather, Tim, so we drove to New Jersey. 

@ynot Thanks, Tony. I hope you find some collecting time too.

@Castle Rock Thanks for your input on the coral, Dave. I found some at Calvert Cliffs a few years ago, I'll have to compare them. I thought the Calvert Cliffs coral was miocene? NJ and MD are pretty close, though, so there could be a very good reason to find the same coral in both places. I will look into it.

@lissa318 I couldn't quite fit "tons" of rocks into my car, Lissa, but it was certainly heavier on the way home. I did scoop up a gallon or two of those pretty tumbled stones. They're not quite as shiny when they dry, but still attractive. I was thinking of putting a few in a tumbler with some polish to see if they'll shine up, though my old tumbler is gone now. It might be a good excuse for a new one.

 

P.S. This is my first try @ using the AT symbol. I hope I didn't break the internet.

[Pagurus]

I unexpectedly made it to Big Brook (New Jersey, Cretaceous) three times this past week, and enjoyed every minute of it. The weather was pleasant, the finds were fair, and the company was outstanding in her field. Actually, the company was out standing in the brook.

 

We planned a stop at the brook on our way south but didn't expect to get back again.  It was a convenient rest stop, though, only 20 minutes off the highway, so we made another visit on the way home. Our rest-stop visits only lasted an hour or so, but we found a couple of small shark teeth on the first stop and I collected some potential micro-matrix on the second stop, anything that fell through a quarter-inch sifter and was trapped by a small window screen. I'm looking through that now and finding lots of burrows (worm? ghost shrimp??) but not much else so far. I'm still looking.

 

While on our vacation we did decide to drive on up to Big Brook again so we could spend a few hours there. We hiked upstream between the two bridges and had a little more luck than on our quick trips, though nothing was as plentiful as we've found in the past. I came across one nice Exogyra oyster ...

... and we both found some broken belemnite (Belemnitella americana) rostrums:

 

 

I found what I think are Squalicorax teeth...

 

 

... and my wife found a few more shark teeth, I'm thinking Archaeolamna and Cretolamna and others.

 

 

 

We made a few finds I can't identify at all ...

 

 

 

...and a couple of pointy things that might be crab pincers?? :

 

 

 

Lots of burrows, either worm or shrimp I guess ...

 

 

...and one intriguing item that might be just a concretion. 

 

 

 

We found a few stones with holes like these.

I'm thinking they were burrowed into by a mollusk of some sort, but I'd love to hear what you think, or know.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

Mike

[Carl]

"We made a few finds I can't identify at all ... " - I think these are all rocks/concretions but it's a bit hard to tell from the photo.

"...and a couple of pointy things that might be crab pincers??" - Yes, definitely crustacean.

"Lots of burrows, either worm or shrimp I guess ..." - Burrows, root casts, concretions, or maybe even rusted pieces of iron.

" ...and one intriguing item that might be just a concretion. " - Yep.

"We found a few stones with holes like these." - These might be borings of lithophagid clams, especially the perfectly circular ones.

[Pagurus]

@Carl Thanks for taking the time to comment on my finds, Carl. I hadn't thought of root casts for my "burrows." I'll bet a lot of them, especially the tiniest ones, are just that. Some actual burrows too, and I'm sure you're right that a few are concretions and bits of iron. That stream sure does offer up some strange-looking concretions. I was certain that "intriguing item" was a dinosaur egg .  Thanks again.

 

Mike

[Carl]

My pleasure!