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ClearLake

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Last week my wife and I took a trip to North Carolina; first to visit some relatives in Raleigh, but then to head to the coast and check out the beaches and find some sharks teeth, etc.  While I had read that the NC beaches were not exactly the area with the highest volume of teeth, we had not been there before and wanted to see the area and I knew that we should at least be able to find some.  I had hoped to visit at least one of the quarries near the coast for some older material but had learned from a quarry operator and additional info from @sixgill pete that all the quarries that are often available for fossil hunting were still closed due to flooding from last seasons hurricanes.  There have been numerous posts on here about other trips and we have lots of distinguished members from NC and nearby that are way more familiar than I am with the area and its fossil offerings, but I thought I'd give you my impression as a first timer to the area and what to expect. 

 

The weather was fine our whole trip, pretty chilly in the morning but pleasant in the afternoon.  It is January after all, this is not south Florida, but then we weren't in a deep chill like our more northern friends have been recently.  Dress appropriately and it was great walking the beaches.

 

We started in North Topsail Beach and walked the beach from the 210 bridge to the New River inlet in a couple of segments and found this collection of teeth.  Sorry about the scale, that was all we had with us.  For those that are not familiar with the goldfish cracker, it is about 2.25 cm or just under 1 inch in length.  These teeth are just found on the beaches and come from the somewhat local Pliocene and Miocene aged sediments.  You can see a couple of nice teeth in the middle and several more well worn or fragmentary pieces.  I'm still learning my shark teeth, but the two in the middle appear to be a Sand Tiger and a Snaggletooth (Hemipristis).  The big piece is interesting (and was by far the biggest we found on the beaches), I'm not sure if it is a Mako, a Great White (no apparent serrations but it is pretty worn) or even a piece of a Megalodon (its pretty thick and heavy).  

 

Next we went a bit south to Topsail Beach and walked a good bit.  We found this group of teeth down there (second pic).  Another very nice Hemipristis and a variety of other, smaller teeth.  On our last walk on North Topsail, a gentleman showed up just after us and found a beautiful 2" tooth just where we entered the beach.  We had turned right and he turned left and there it was!  Darn, just missed that one!!

 

01North_Topsail1.JPG

02North_Topsail.JPG

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Next we headed a bit more south and visited Wrigthsville Beach where we just found a couple small teeth.

 

 

03Wrightsville_Beach.JPG

Edited by ClearLake
I made a mistake
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Not a bad haul at all.:)

The Hemi is really nice, shame about the one that got away.

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Next we moved further south and went to Carolina Beach.  In the picture previously posted, the tooth on the upper left was a really nice find!  (I mistakenly put this picture up with Wrightsville, these were really found in Carolina Beach).

 

We also visited Kure Beach and found a few teeth (second pic).

04Carolina_Beach.JPG

05Kure_Beach.JPG

Edited by ClearLake
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We went to Fort Fisher which is just south of Carolina Beach.  A very nice state park with some remains of a Civil War fort.  Also, right by the park on the beach is a coquina bed that is exposed at low tide.  Its pretty neat, as the only rock you are likely to see in that part of the state (outside of a quarry).  The park has over six miles of nice beach to roam, but on the day were there, not many sharks teeth.  The picture below is what we found after walking 3 miles down and 3 back.  Is was a very nice walk, but only six partial teeth to show for it, one per mile!!  Not good odds.

06Fort_Fisher.JPG

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And finally, we come to the last part of the trip.  We had to be back to Raleigh to catch our flight, but it was not until the evening so we decided to detour up to Aurora and visit the Aurora Fossil Museum and check out their Pits of Pungo that others have reported on.  What a pleasant surprise!!  Even though I had read about the museum and visited their website, it was a real treat.  Such a fun little museum in the middle of nowhere (sorry, no disrespect to those that live nearby).  It was just such an oddity to see this museum taking up the better part of Main Street in what truly is a nice little one horse town.  If you are ever anywhere near this area, plan to go there, we really enjoyed it.  The Director/Curator Dr. Oliver was a delight to talk to!  We only had a little time so we spent about two hours sifting the material in their pits.  I could have done that all day!  While the previous day we had walked six miles for six teeth, here we roamed about an area less than a basketball court in size and found a cornucopia of teeth.  See below.

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While my wife disagrees with me, I found the invertebrates there very interesting also.  She says I wasted my time picking them up and should have just focused on sharks teeth, but I'm an invertebrate guy at heart!  The picture below shows what I found.

Here are my Id's based on the 1987 Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, that @MikeR had suggested in a previous post.  Thanks for that link!

1: Cyclocardia granulata

2. Astarte concentrica

3. Glycymeris americana

4. Noetia limula

5. Anadara aequicostata

6. Plicatula marginata

7. Urosalpinx suffolkenesis

8. Turritella beaufortensis

 

The four items along the upper right I'm not sure abut yet.  The uppermost looks like a sponge I have seen somewhere before, but I haven't had a chance to dig that up yet.  

08AuroraM1_LI (3).jpg

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22 minutes ago, Wolf89 said:

Those goldfish are remarkably well preserved!

They sure are, the preservation of color is spectacular!!  :D

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52 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Not a bad haul at all.:)

The Hemi is really nice, shame about the one that got away.

Thanks!

Yes, isn't it often about the one that got away.

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24 minutes ago, ClearLake said:

Thanks!

Yes, isn't it often about the one that got away.

Oh, yes.

Well, you did very well altogether, Mrs ClearLake too! :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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1 hour ago, ClearLake said:

We went to Fort Fisher which is just south of Carolina Beach.  A very nice state park with some remains of a Civil War fort.  Also, right by the park on the beach is a coquina bed that is exposed at low tide.  Its pretty neat, as the only rock you are likely to see in that part of the state (outside of a quarry).  The park has over six miles of nice beach to roam, but on the day were there, not many sharks teeth.  The picture below is what we found after walking 3 miles down and 3 back.  Is was a very nice walk, but only six partial teeth to show for it, one per mile!!  Not good odds.

06Fort_Fisher.JPG

Two bottom ones on the right are barracuda not shark

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3 minutes ago, Wolf89 said:

Two bottom ones on the right are barracuda not shark

Oh, is that so, very interesting.  Thanks  I wondered about those because you will see in one of the other pictures there are about a half dozen of them.  They all seemed very similar for broken shark teeth cusps.  I'll have to read up on barracuda teeth.

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Nice haul! Big difference in quality between beach and quarry material :fistbump:

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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1 hour ago, ClearLake said:

The four items along the upper right I'm not sure abut yet.  The uppermost looks like a sponge I have seen somewhere before, but I haven't had a chance to dig that up yet.  

The sponge-like fossil is a bryozoan, most likely Stylopoma spongites. Need clear photos of the black object. The two rod shape things might be urchin spines but need clearer photos to be sure.

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I am guessing that the goldfish is it the original species from the Pepperidge farm formation. It could be extra cheddar but I'm betting on original.

 

Nice trip report and finds. Thanks for sharing with us.

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14 hours ago, Al Dente said:

The sponge-like fossil is a bryozoan, most likely Stylopoma spongites. Need clear photos of the black object. The two rod shape things might be urchin spines but need clearer photos to be sure.

Thanks.  Yes, I was also thinking sea urchin spines for the rod like things.  I don't think they have the characteristic "tip" but I will take a closer look and post some better pics.  I will look up that bryozoan, thanks.  The more I look at the black object, the more I think its just a phosphate nodule that looks vaguely like a Pennsylvanian brachiopod.  :D

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6 hours ago, smt126 said:

I am guessing that the goldfish is it the original species from the Pepperidge farm formation. It could be extra cheddar but I'm betting on original.

You are correct!!

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