A HOT, HUMID & SWEATY Weekend in Eastern NC

[SailingAlongToo 546]

This past weekend my wife and I, a few friends and a few other fossil hunting fanatics braved the sweltering heat and humidity that is eastern NC summer. Forecast was for temps in the low - mid 90s F, high humidity and 50-70% chance of showers and thunderstorms. This was our 3rd attempt at accessing a Cretaceous deposit along one of the rivers after 2 unsuccessful attempts earlier this spring due to high water. With many of the eastern NC rivers running higher than normal so far this summer, we wanted to take advantage of a lull on this particular river, since there is no guarantee a tropical storm/system won't flood us out for an extended time period at any point from now through late fall. Even though we knew we were going to be hot and sweaty, harassed by mosquitoes, biting flies & gnats as well as the possible snake or 2, we had to take what low water we could get. We were all drenched in sweat (and sand / mud) the entire 2 days we hunted.

 

Coming along on its inaugural fossil hunting trip was a new photo scale cube custom made by Ray/ @aerogrower for Mrs. SA2, in pink. She was quite surprised when a box addressed to her showed up a few days before the trip and it contained her very own cube, in pink. When I explained that its a 1 of a kind, she was even more excited. Even more importantly for me, Mrs. SA2's new, pink cube proved to have "the magic" that so many TFF members have come to expect and enjoy in Ray's cubes. Here are a few photos of it beside the massive, almost complete Deinosuchus rugosus vertebrae I found on Sunday morning. These photos were taken right after it was found and given a preliminary rinsing off. Note how nice the cube looks with pink paint. Mrs. SA2 was not impressed with my muddy finger prints on her new cube and promptly cleaned it off before the last photo.

 

 

 

 

It is by far the most complete and largest Deinosuchus vert in our collection. Once I finish cleaning it  and the other goodies we found, I will post some more photos. Quite a few teeth and verts of Deinosuchus and other crocodile species were found by the group as well as the normal massive amount of Squalicorax, Scapanohrynchus and Carcharias teeth. Numerous Cretaceous fish teeth and even a few Hadrosaur teeth and 1 theropod tooth were also found over the weekend.

 

What we didn't expect when we made the trip, was for the wildlife to be so determined to keep the fossils away from us. Here is a photo of a big crayfish holding onto a sharks tooth. Determined little thing so we traded him a clean getaway for his tooth. 

 

 

One of our group even snapped this photo along the river bank while she was scanning for fossils. Of course, its all fun and games until you slip on the sloping, wet clay and fall face first at the snake you are attempting to photograph. (YES, that really happened.)

 

More to come......

[wt080262 11]

Me and my daughter were out yesterday also. We were trying one of the local streams, no fossils but some indian artifacts. I had stopped for a minute to drink some water and when my daughter came over she caught a black racer that was sneaking up on me. Mosquitos this year are horrible. We are going to try another spot soon.

[jewelonly 49]

Enjoyed your report and congrats on your finds!! Love the pic of your determined crayfish! He is probably telling the others of his kind about you taking his shark trophy. 

Leah

Yay, for Mrs. SA2's pink cube from @aerogrower!! 

[Spinosaurus 54]

that crayfish is very funny 

[SailingAlongToo 546]

2 hours ago, jewelonly said:

Enjoyed your report and congrats on your finds!! Love the pic of your determined crayfish! He is probably telling the others of his kind about you taking his shark trophy. 

Leah

Yay, for Mrs. SA2's pink cube from @aerogrower!! 

 

Thanks Leah. She let me use it for the photos but quickly put it back in her backpack, after cleaning it again. 

[ynot 7,091]

Glad You got out and also that You shared the trip here.

Nice finds too!

[RJB 2,360]

A shark tooth fossil hunting crayfish?   Thats a first.  

 

RB

[SailingAlongToo 546]

Here are more photos with the fossils cleaned up a bit more.

 

The Deinosuchus rugosus vert. with neural arch cleaned out.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some photos of a smaller crocodile species vertebrae.

 

  

 

The photo below shows examples of some of the sharks teeth we found. Top row are various crocodile species teeth, 2nd row from top are Squalicorax sp., 2nd row from bottom are Scapanorhyncus species and bottom row are Carcharias species. We literally had 1 1/2 ziplock freezer quart sized bags full of the various teeth with a few shark and fish verts sprinkled in.

 

 

Here are photos of a piece of hollow, thick walled bone we found, probably some type of dinosaur limb bone. Unfortunately, the jagged end looked very "fresh," as in my shovel made it. Even more unfortunate, we didn't find any more pieces of the hollow, thick walled bone.

 

  

 

 

More to follow.....

[SailingAlongToo 546]

Here is a bone I need some help with identifying. Various suggestions on the beach included dinosaur toe or finger bone, but I'm not convinced. It doesn't look broken anywhere.

 

   

 

[Darktooth 2,870]

Great report, pics, and finds! 

[Fossil-Hound 483]

Wow those are some nice finds! Huge crocodile vertebrae!

[SailingAlongToo 546]

27 minutes ago, Fossil-Hound said:

Wow those are some nice finds! Huge crocodile vertebrae!

 

Jason,

I'm happy to send you an assortment of Cretaceous teeth & "stuff" in the package with the other "thingy" I got you at the Aurora Fossil Festival. 

 

Just need your new address, the 1 without "fire on the mountain."

 

Hopefully, I can find you a nice Ecphora in the next 3 weeks or so, to include in the package.

 

Cheers!

[aerogrower 125]

Awesome finds SA2 and Mrs SA2!! I told you I put a little extra magic in that pink cube lol. That vert is even nicer all cleaned up. Congrats.

[Fossil-Hound 483]

17 hours ago, SailingAlongToo said:

 

Jason,

I'm happy to send you an assortment of Cretaceous teeth & "stuff" in the package with the other "thingy" I got you at the Aurora Fossil Festival. 

 

Just need your new address, the 1 without "fire on the mountain."

 

Hopefully, I can find you a nice Ecphora in the next 3 weeks or so, to include in the package.

 

Cheers!

 

Yay! As soon as we buy a home, get our pod, and I can unbox my fossils I to will send you a package of some beautiful Eldredgeop ranas.  When you find that nice Ecphora make sure Mrs. SA2 doesn't see it! The new address is:

 

553 N Bald Mountain Dr.

Alpine, UT 84004

 

I owe @gavialboy @Kane and @FossilDudeCO fossils but alas all my stuff is in a big pod and is still in Maryland roughly 2,200 miles away from me!  I'm not giving anyone the address to my pod in fears of getting all my fossils snatched! 

[FossilDudeCO 584]

Oh you better watch out!!

@JohnBrewer seems pretty handy with that Google Earth when looking for @RJB fossil sheds

As mentioned in that post, I will bring the bourbon and a shovel! Who else will join me on this adventure!?!

 

[JohnBrewer 1,673]

1 minute ago, FossilDudeCO said:

Oh you better watch out!!

@JohnBrewer seems pretty handy with that Google Earth when looking for @RJB fossil sheds

As mentioned in that post, I will bring the bourbon and a shovel! Who else will join me on this adventure!?!

 

Hehehe.....

[Ludwigia 4,562]

Thanks for the thoroughly entertaining report. The finds look great as do the crayfish and the snake. The frog doesn't look to hot though

[Fossil-Hound 483]

2 hours ago, FossilDudeCO said:

Oh you better watch out!!

@JohnBrewer seems pretty handy with that Google Earth when looking for @RJB fossil sheds

As mentioned in that post, I will bring the bourbon and a shovel! Who else will join me on this adventure!?!

 

 

No!!!!!  Not my fossil stash!!!! 

24 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for the thoroughly entertaining report. The finds look great as do the crayfish and the snake. The frog doesn't look to hot though

 

[Fossil-Hound 483]

On 7/18/2017 at 8:35 PM, SailingAlongToo said:

 

Jason,

I'm happy to send you an assortment of Cretaceous teeth & "stuff" in the package with the other "thingy" I got you at the Aurora Fossil Festival. 

 

Just need your new address, the 1 without "fire on the mountain."

 

Hopefully, I can find you a nice Ecphora in the next 3 weeks or so, to include in the package.

 

Cheers!

Lol the one without the fire on the mountain!  Home inspection was successful tonight. Moving in early September! Wait till you see my new office!

[Plax 701]

On July 18, 2017 at 9:23 PM, SailingAlongToo said:

Here is a bone I need some help with identifying. Various suggestions on the beach included dinosaur toe or finger bone, but I'm not convinced. It doesn't look broken anywhere.

 

   

 

long thin well tumbled vert of some sort is my guess. ornithomimid? (keep in mind I'm guessing)

[Plax 701]

was also reminded of a supposed Varanid  vert from there that ended up being Halisaurus. The length to width proportion of the centrum sans processes might fit Halisaurus.

  Noticed there were no yangaensis morphs in amongst your squalicorax. They must drop out in one of the earlier sequences of the Tarheel. Wish we could separate the various aged Tarheels on sight instead of needing microscopic examination.