April Fools Day Trip in VA

[SailingAlongToo]

April Fools Day I took my wife, our buddy and his son @Daleksec and 2 local Paleontologists on the boat along the Pamunkey River for a little fossil hunting and stratigraphy lesson. Unfortunately, we had heavy rains the day before which drove up the water level a few feet and kept us from exploring the site where Daleksec found his February VFOM .

 

Here are 2 photos of Daleksec's and his dad's finds, all collected in about an hour. This was a new spot for me that I had never collected before but the Paleontologist who is the stratigraphy expert put us right on the spot. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! The first 3 teeth found were pre-megs in less than 5 mins. This area we collected is Lower Calvert Formation (Miocene) sitting on Old Church Formation from the upper Oligocene.

 

 

 

We also hit another spot that has a nice Piney Point exposure from the middle Eocene with Old Church and Calvert above. @Daleksec collected some of the oysters from the Piney Point and found this in the matrix when he cleaned everything up. Pretty impressive. He also found a sand dollar but destroyed (and I do mean DESTROYED) trying to remove it from the matrix. Remember @Daleksec, patience my young apprentice, patience. :-)  Perhaps @sixgill pete or someone else can help identify it.

 

  

All in all, not a bad day on the water. If I'm honest, any day I get to spend fossil hunting with my wife is a great day. I'm very fortunate that she has the same passion, though i do remember a time when I had a 10 handicap in golf.

Obviously, we will be exploring the new spot some more in the near future. Don't worry @MarcoSr, I will definitely show you the new spot, after I blindfold you of course. :-) If @sixgill pete ever makes it up this way I would show him too, with the blindfold of course.

 

Cheers,

 

SA2

 

 

[Darktooth]

Thanks for the Report! Nice finds, I am glad you all had a great time.

[MarcoSr]

Jack

 

Looks like a great site!

 

Marco Sr.

[sixgill pete]

Jack, as Marco said it does look like a great site. One of these days, I guess I will have to make a trip. A far as the echinoid, the identifying features are pretty well covered up. If it is from the Eocene, like you said, I would guess Coelopleurus. 

[SailingAlongToo]

Don,

Thanks. Thats a good start. I will make sure it comes to Aurora so you can see it.

 

Jack

[sixgill pete]

Looking forward to seeing it, and you Jack.

[jcbshark]

Nice finds, well done