South Carolina Oligocene snorkeling

[flyg]

I took advantage of the gorgeous weather to get in my first "serious" snorkel trip of the season today. With air temps in the high 80s and water temps in the 70s F., a nice afternoon low moon tide, and a long rainless stretch I figured conditions would be pretty good. I proceeded to my standard marine Oligocene place. I set out to make a long paddle to a new site I've had my eye on, stopping for quick surface searches at a couple of places along the way. I decided to stop at one of my old favorite spots and just stick my face in the water. Water was low, but not the lowest, clarity was good, and the water was cool enough to be refreshing. I could have wished for more direct sunlight, but perfection is seldom found in real life. The site looked so nice with the clear water I decided to park there a while. I ended up living there in that 100 meter stretch, face down, for 2.5 hours until I was shivering with numb fingertips. I passed on most of the tiny teeth, random turtle material, worn vertebrae, bivalve molds, chunkasaurs, etc. and just aimed to cover ground and pick up the nicer stuff. As usual, the really big teeth eluded me. I picked up one large turtle plastron frag, a nice gastropod steinkern, and an intriguing chunk of what I think is a femoral trochanter. I found the standard Carcharias, Isurus, Hemipristis, spp. teeth and a few heartbreaking fraglodons. What made the day most special were the lovely little 3-5 cm C. angustidens teeth that kept turning up. I ended up with a nice handful of (for me) very nice condition angustidens that made me really happy. Too bad about the lack of biggies and missing out on the new spot, but for me this was a great way to start the season.

 

G

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Beautiful pictures of a very lovely looking area. 

Great finds too, some of those teeth are excellent. 

Not a bad start to the season at all. 

[sixgill pete]

That is a great haul of O. angustidens.

[Innocentx]

What a beautiful place with a great amount of teeth. Very curious about the white flowers if you know the name.

[Dan 1000]

Looks like you had a good trip. Nice teeth! 

[henpecked]

Thanks for sharing. Nice scenery and some great finds.

[Miocene_Mason]

That looks awesome! Nice haul!

[Fruitbat]

@Innocentx  the white flowers are Hymenocallis sp.,the 'white spider lily',  They are native to the southeastern USA and down to South America.

 

Looks like you had a great trip, flyg!

 

-Joe

[flyg]

41 minutes ago, Innocentx said:

....Very curious about the white flowers if you know the name.

I've been interested in this myself. I'm no botanist, but I'm certain they are in the group with the common name spider lily, almost certainly a species of Hymenocallis, probably Hymenocalis caroliniana. I've seen the very similar shoals spider lily, H. coronaria, in the Piedmont areas of Georgia and South Carolina, USA, where they are a species of concern due to loss of habitat resulting from dam construction. What I've observed about these lilies is they don't tend to bloom all at once, but each patch tends to have just a handful of blooms, whereas the H. coronaria tend to bloom all at once in really magnificent mass displays. So that's a start for your research.

 

Thanks all.

 

Just saw Fruitbat's reply. Looks like I was on the right track.

 

G

[ynot]

That is a nice tropical garden You get to hunt, and such nice finds.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

 

I would be ecstatic with just 1 good O. angustidens in My daily finds.

[HoppeHunting]

BEAUTIFUL angies  

[Jazfossilator]

Beautiful teeth! A good day indeed

[Innocentx]

Thanks @Fruitbat, @flyg for the flower ID. I was thinking Ipomoea, but from further research, I see these plants are quite different.

[old bones]

Great pictures and lovely teeth! What a good day you had.

[ToothMan]

Wow really nice finds!! Thanks for sharing. Love those angustidens they are really beautiful teeth. Wish they could be found in my area!

[Gizmo]

2 hours ago, ToothMan said:

Wow really nice finds!! Thanks for sharing. Love those angustidens they are really beautiful teeth. Wish they could be found in my area!

You can find them in Maryland.

[Ludwigia]

If I want an angustidens, then I have to look for it on the web That looks like a much more pleasant way of searching.

[Ludwigia]

By the way, a lot of you are writing "O." here. I thought the widely accepted up-to-date version is "C.".

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Killer daggers! 

[ToothMan]

On 5/14/2018 at 1:11 AM, Gizmo said:

You can find them in Maryland.

Really? Whereabouts? I need one for my collection!! Ive just never seen one so I assumed they werent found by me. At least I havent found them typical in the formations I generally search.

[Darktooth]

Great report and pics! Awesome finds!

[ToothMan]

On 5/14/2018 at 1:11 AM, Gizmo said:

You can find them in Maryland.

After some research, I found that they are indeed recorded in the Calvert Formation! I did not know, now I just have to find one!

[Coco]

On 14/05/2018 at 7:33 AM, Ludwigia said:

By the way, a lot of you are writing "O." here. I thought the widely accepted up-to-date version is "C.".

Yes, "C." for Carcharocles... If I don't make mistake.

 

Coco

[Miocene_Mason]

1 hour ago, Coco said:

Yes, "C." for Carcharocles... If I don't make mistake.

 

Coco

 

On 5/14/2018 at 1:33 AM, Ludwigia said:

By the way, a lot of you are writing "O." here. I thought the widely accepted up-to-date version is "C.".

It’s has been revised again, with the finding of Meglolamna it was found Otodus is a Paraphyl without including Carcharocles. Anyway, Otodus is the currently (for the time being) the proper name.

[Coco]

Thanks !

 

Coco