sixgill pete Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Well folks, I took a day off from the grinds of the job and made a rare Monday trip into the Waccamaw Formation of Southeastern North Carolina. I met up with a few old friends and made a couple of new ones. The new friends have been doing a traveling fossil trip and were kind enough to share a few of their finds with us new friends. Mine was this beautiful (at least to me) large Texas ammonite; anyone have an idea on the species? Anyways, we met early and took of for the site. Some of our forum members I know are familiar with this particular pit, but it was my first time there. It is well known for it's very rich molluscan fauna, the occasional great white tooth and the odd surprise. Upon arriving, I dug right in; no pun intended. This was my total take home for the day. I could have brought out lots and lots more, but many of the bivalves, I already had through gifts and others bringing me buckets of matrix. I also left countless cone and olive shells for the next person. I did find this rather nice great white, no root but very very few of the great whites from this site has roots. But it has great serrations and measures in at 1 3/8" I also found this very cool crab claw, quite a surprise. It measures at 1 3/8", the same as the great white so it must have been a large crab. I know it is hard to ID crabs from just a claw, but if you have any thoughts .............. I am in the process now of trying to ID these finds, something I am still learning how to do with bivalves and gastropods. I am going to start with 6 gastropods and 2 bivalves, some I am fairly confident of ID, others not so. Please feel free to correct any ID I may give. I will add others as I have the time to photograph and put up. So, lets get on with it. First what I believe is Fusinus (Heilprinia) caloosaensis, 1 7/8 inch a my favorite of the day. A real beauty. Euspiria sayana, 1 1/16" ......... Terebra dislocata, 1 11/16" ...... then this cool little thing. a Argopecten vicenarius cemented inside of a Anomia simplex by matrix ........... Trachycardium emmonsi; 1 3/8 long by 1 3/4 wide ....... 2 Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 1, 2017 Author Share Posted March 1, 2017 this one I am not sure. It is very muck like the T. emmonsi but rounder. In my reference, " Fossil Mollusks " Volume 2 by the North Carolina Fossil Club it matches another bivalve. Trachycardium oedalium. Any thoughts on this? Now this one, I am thinking either Busycon or Busycotypus. It is 1" long. Help!!!! These three are the opposite of the last. Busycon contrarium? They range from 1 1/4' to right at 2" We went to a different spot on the Cape Fear after leaving there. But that's for another day ....................................................................................... 1 Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Nice finds! Looks as if you did very well. I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daleksec Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Hi Don you have some Beautiful shells there, it's one of my favorite invertebrate fossil sites, that I've been to. I found cool stuff from there just by bringing matrix home to sift. Originally I just had shells from there from when Dr. Lauck Ward had collected them for me on one of( Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures) trips. but now I have lots more since my first trip and stuff Dr. Ward had collected for me. Hope to hear about your cape fear trip soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted March 1, 2017 Share Posted March 1, 2017 Great looking finds, Don. Nice variety - glad you got out, and did so well! Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted March 2, 2017 Share Posted March 2, 2017 Ever find any marine mammal material in the Waccamaw up there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcbshark Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 Nice finds Don, that GW looks like it could have come straight out of bone valley Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 3, 2017 Author Share Posted March 3, 2017 22 hours ago, Boesse said: Ever find any marine mammal material in the Waccamaw up there? Hi Bobby. As far as this site, I have never heard of any. I have heard of rare reports of vertebrae being found from other Waccamaw site. Here is a link to one on here. 1 Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 3, 2017 Author Share Posted March 3, 2017 52 minutes ago, jcbshark said: Nice finds Don, that GW looks like it could have come straight out of bone valley Thanks Jeff, it does have some very nice color. Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMP Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 Columbus County?! I need to look harder for these pits! All I've found around there are some snails and shells, but I thought they were Peedee Formation stuff. Wow great to know this stuff exists down there. Ever hear about the whale they found in Lake Waccamaw a little while back (09 I think)? They've been finding a lot of ground sloth stuff there too (there's a replica in the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington). Looks like I'll be busier next time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hipockets Posted March 3, 2017 Share Posted March 3, 2017 (edited) Thanks Don, you beat me to it. There are more Waccamaw finds in my gallery titled, Fossils from Brunswick County. Edited March 3, 2017 by Hipockets miss title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Hi Don You are pretty much spot on with your identifications. The Cardium in which you question as Trachycardium oedalium I think is T. emmonsi based upon its "spiny-ness." Also immature T. emmonsi are circular and become elongated as they grow. It makes identification on the spiny cockles difficult. Also you have Busycotypus spiratus and Sinistrofulgur contrarium. 3 "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 40 minutes ago, MikeR said: Hi Don You are pretty much spot on with your identifications. The Cardium in which you question as Trachycardium oedalium I think is T. emmonsi based upon its "spiny-ness." Also immature T. emmonsi are circular and become elongated as they grow. It makes identification on the spiny cockles difficult. Also you have Busycotypus spiratus and Sinistrofulgur contrarium. Thanks Mike. I am slowly but surely getting better at IDing mollusks. Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 @MikeR , is Sinistrofulgur synonymous with Busycon? Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 16 minutes ago, sixgill pete said: @MikeR , is Sinistrofulgur synonymous with Busycon? Sinistrofulgur is the left-handed whelk. All other Busyconidae as well as the vast majority of all gastropods are right handed. "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted March 4, 2017 Share Posted March 4, 2017 Also see link for Sinistrofulgur taxonomy WoRMS "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixgill pete Posted March 4, 2017 Author Share Posted March 4, 2017 1 minute ago, MikeR said: Sinistrofulgur is the left-handed whelk. All other Busyconidae as well as the vast majority of all gastropods are right handed. Thanks Mike. Making pencil changes of the genus in my copy of the NCFC book. Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt behind the trailer, my desert Them red clay piles are heaven on earth I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers May 2016 May 2012 Aug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 Oct 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted March 13, 2017 Share Posted March 13, 2017 On 3/1/2017 at 9:47 PM, Boesse said: Ever find any marine mammal material in the Waccamaw up there? I have some small cetacean vertebrae from Nixon's Crossroads SC. Most of what is in my locally assemblage from there looks like Waccamaw (should be upper there) and Goose Creek Limestone. You're welcome to the verts if you can use them. PM me your address. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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