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I_gotta_rock

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Happy belated National Fossil Day! Hope I'm not overstepping from bounds by posting this, but a few people on the forum have asked me how to get out to the one accessible spot left at the C and D Canal in Delaware. It's tricky to find and doesn't look like much when you first get there.

 

I am leading a trip out there this Sunday for Delaware Nature Society as my somewhat belated, but more publicly accessible, National Fossil Day excursion. We are going to be out on the plain that is a the spoils from the canal for a couple hours looking for treasures, but it won't take more then a few minutes to find your first fossil out there. You are welcome to stay and play until sunset if you like. The web site says "Families with children ages 7 and up," but this does not mean that adults with no children in tow are unwelcome, only that the terrain isn't really good for shorter children. The cost for non-members is a whopping $18 per person. You can keep anything and everything you find. People come home with buckets of Belemnites, oodles of Ostrea (well, Agerostrea), and generous numbers of gastropods. Occasional Echodus and shark teeth are also around, but pretty rare in this spot. You can see some of what I've found out there in my album. The matrix is loose sand. Just walk around and pick stuff up! We'll clear a spot of weeds and do a little sifting, too. Register online today. https://www.delawarenaturesociety.org/DNS/Events/Registration/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=F17066AS#.Wd9iJUzMz6c

 

While you're at the DNS visitor center to meet for the trip, you can stop inside and see the displays I'll have set up about Fossils from Delaware and beyond. How well can you tell a fossil from a modern shell or a pseudo fossil? Ever looked at a fossil shell under black light before? See the variety of fossils and ages to be found in our tiny state. Or, if you're not going on the trip but just want to explore with smaller folks, sift through the kiddie pool, for canal fossils I collected earlier this year and for Florida shark teeth donated by the Delaware Museum of Natural History. While I'm around I'll be preparing some matrix from Maryland with my handy dental picks. The visitor center activities are free, but trail fees for the rest of the property apply. The visitor center activities will be open Saturday and Sunday, 9-4. For directions, visit www.delnature.org.

 

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

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@Plax, not what I expected at all!  I didn't hold my breath about folks walking into the visitor center. They all come to hike. But, we had 60 people come play in my mini museum over the weekend while I was on duty, plus a couple of overnight groups that just happen to be there and were welcomed to explore the room. 

 

As for the canal, I was out there about six weeks ago and there was a trail to my honey hole, dirt road through the center of the field and space between the tall weeds to see the ground. Who knew annuals would spread so much in a few weeks? My honey hole path was complexly overgrown to the point that I could not find it. Had to blaze a new trail. The dirt road was all grass, but fortunately pushed down recently by trucks thanks to the Corps of Engineers study going on. Still, 10 people went home with loads of the usual finds and had lots of fun doing it.

 

 Here are a few pictures, but there is so much to show that I made an album for it.

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

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Hi @I_gotta_rock!

 

That is a huge fossil in that little girl's hands!!!  Is that a bivalve?  Or a gastropod?  Either way - very nice!!! :drool:

 

Congrats on hosting what looked like a great event!

 

Monica

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2 hours ago, Monica said:

Hi @I_gotta_rock!

 

That is a huge fossil in that little girl's hands!!!  Is that a bivalve?  Or a gastropod?  Either way - very nice!!! :drool:

 

Congrats on hosting what looked like a great event!

 

Monica

It's an oyster, Exogyra cancellata. It's one of the more common fossils there, but this one was enormous when it was alive. This is maybe 3/4 of the shell. The edges are all broken off. 

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

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interesting how that sediment has oxidized over the years. If that's Reedy Point the color was gray back in the 70s.

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8 hours ago, Plax said:

interesting how that sediment has oxidized over the years. If that's Reedy Point the color was gray back in the 70s.

Actually, it got covered. They dredged again in 1980 and buried it. Someday, itvwill he gack down to the level of the gray sand. They keep removing sand for construction projects. The south side is now a huge pit.

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

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