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Trip Report - 7/26/2019 - Morris Island Guided Trip, Charleston SC


FossilizedShoe

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On Friday I went on a guided trip fossil hunting on Morris Island through Charleston Outdoor Adventures, a chartered trip and rental company operating on Bowens Island. I must say I was thoroughly impressed with the operation as a whole. Their guides were friendly and knowledgeable, and I would highly recommend their service to anyone looking for a guided adventure in the Charleston Area. Anyways, we departed Bowens Island on a large Carolina Skiff for a 20 minute zip through the salt marsh before landing on the northern end of Morris Island. I remember that everyone slowed down looking for shark's teeth, but the guides kept up the pace because they knew we wouldn't find anything yet! But as we approached the jetty rounding the curve of the island, I began to see the familiar triangular shapes of teeth. One guide led the pack, while the other brought up the rear. The smaller kids would stick close to them because they'd circle any tooth they saw with the broom handles each of them carried. I typically stuck near the back of the group just because I moved slower than most of the rest of the group because I was looking for fossils, which I certainly found in abundance. Sometimes it surprised me how large of teeth had been walked past by 15-odd people already. Interestingly, unlike some of the fossiling sites along Charleston's coasts, the teeth here were not deposited as a result of beach renourishment with dredge material, but rather they were eroding out of some small cliffs further down the beach. As we got closer and closer to it, we'd find larger and larger teeth. One of the guides told me a story about how one of his friends had found 4 associated shark vertebrae in the cliff face. I found myself a nice angustidens or two, a partial porpoise tooth, and some larger but beat up teeth. Both of my little brothers had a great time and found some great teeth, and overall this was a great experience. 

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I think this may be a nice Trigonotodus alteri, AKA cusped Giant thresher. Nice finds!

 

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“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Looks like you had a lot of fun. I just pulled up their website and I will have to stop there one time when I am down in Georgia. Thanks for the post.

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2 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

I think this may be a nice Trigonotodus alteri, AKA cusped Giant thresher. Nice finds!

 

4391AE91-833A-4229-B0A9-4413C33C0A55.jpeg

At first I thought it was just a beat up posterior C. angustidens, but upon closer examination I think you might be right. It's the lack of serration and the shape of the cusp that gives it away. I've taken some more pictures and included them below. Sorry about the reflection of my phone in the close up, I had to use a magnifying glass. I'd love to hear what some people with more experience with this species has to say.

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Edited by FossilizedShoe
just forgot a period
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Very cool. Those are fantastic finds. I really like paddling out of Bowens Island. While Morris Island beach is not renourished, per se, the island is a dredge disposal site and essentially the entire high ground of the island is composed of dredge spoil. The eroding cliff you reference is probably the remains of a spoil retaining wall. There are no Oligocene exposures above sea level out there. Regardless, it is a very cool place. Thanks for the report!

 

G

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Looks like a cusped thresher to me. Awesome finds! I'm headed to Charleston next month, so maybe I'll give this a shot.

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