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A couple of weeks ago now I stumped upon several outcrops of the Early Pleistocene Waccamaw Formation in South Carolina. I have been able to identify the various mollusk that I found except for these last three gastropods. Either the resources I have found don't include an example that matches these specimens or it was just too close of a call. I would love to get some opinions on what these might be. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much! #1- Petaloconchus sculpturatus? #2- Ilynassa sexdentata? #3- Phrontis sp.?
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A few months back I won an auction from @sixgill pete and part of the lot was a bag of matrix from the Waccamaw Formation in Columbus County North Carolina. The Waccamaw Fm. is a marine sand and shell hash that has been correlated numerous different ways with a varying range of ages applied to it in the past, but as it is currently interpreted, it is Pleistocene in age (Gelasian and Calabrian Stages or Upper Blancan to Irvingtonian if you prefer the NA names) and found in South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina. The bag was chock full of molluscan goodies and I am steadily working through the identification of those. One thing that caught my eye amongst all the shells were these little saucer shaped bryozoans similar to Lunulites except that most had a little grain of sand at their center. They are small (generally 2-3 mm in diameter, largest one is 7 mm across), but there were several hundred of them. After staring at them under the microscope for long enough, I recognized that there were at least two different types in here. Here is a shot of my sorting tray with all of them in there. A quick check of the two great publications I have from the North Carolina Fossil Club gave me some excellent pictures but three different names. A check of WORMS showed me that only one of those names was currently accepted so I began my search to see what was what knowing full well that bryozoan identification can be difficult and involves a lot of terminology that I am not well versed in (I have to admit, when ID’ing my collections, I am prone to lump the Paleozoic bryozoans from a given locality in one container and just be satisfied with that). A search of threads on the Fossil Forum led me to a couple where they were mentioned, but no defining pictures or ID’s. Here are a few pictures of what we are dealing with and I will apologize right from the start for the poor quality pictures. I really have to get a better setup for taking microfossil pictures since I tend to deal with small stuff a lot. I have decent microscope where I can look at them, but it is not set up for pictures. These are the two more easily identifiable forms, the picture on the right shows two of the same species but in one you can see the sand grain that is the starting point for the bryozoan, it sometimes gets covered or lost in growth and/or fossilization. So, after gathering and reading through a bunch of references from the early 1900’s onward I think I have the correct ID and most current name, but am open to any suggestions from those familiar with these little creatures. At the very least, hopefully this can serve as a helpful guide to someone who may have come across these, but struggled to put a name to them. There is a great publication by Canu and Bassler (1923) called North American Later Tertiary and Quaternary Bryozoa which provides lots of information, plenty of descriptions and enough illustrations to find both of the forms I had recognized. Specifically, they identified a species called Cupularia denticulata from the Waccamaw Fm and its description matched the form on the right above (just to make things interesting, there was another genus of similar bryozoa called Cupuladria, yes, just one letter different – ugh!). From this publication I had a potential name for the two types, could see where the names in the NCFC publications were coming from, and just had to track down what had changed in the intervening almost 100 years.
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- bryozoa
- cupuladriidae
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Pieces of these are very common at this site, however complete specimens are very rare to find. This is the 3rd and by far the best specimen I have found at this site. References: The Echinoid Fauna of the Lower Pleistocene Waccamaw Formation and Upper Pliocene Goose Creek Limestone of South Carolina, USA, with a description of a new Encope species. Adam S. Osborn and Charles N. Ciampaglio, 2019. Scutella caroliniana, Ravenel, 1841. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia Day, ser. 1, vol. 8, pg. 333 Mellita caroliniana, Ravenel, 1848. Echinidae, Recent and Fossil of South Carolina, pg.4. Mellita caroliniana, Tuomey and Holmes, 1857. Pleiocene Fossils of South Carolina, pg. 8, plate 1, figure. 4 a-b. Mellita caroliniana, Clarke and Twitchell, 1915. U.S. Geological Survey Monthly 54. Pg. 204, plate 91 figs. 1a-b, plate 92 figs. 1 a-b. Leodia caroliniana, Cooke, 1942. Paleontology, Vol. 16 no. 1 page 2. Mellita aclinensis, Kier, 1972. Upper Miocene Echinoids of the Yorktown Formation of Virginia and Their Environmental Significance. Pgs. 11-12 plates 6&7 figure 1
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- sand dollar
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An unusual find, at least to find one complete. Often these are found as pieces of single valves.
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- north carolina
- razor clam
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Another nice double valve bivalve from Columbus County. Common as a single valve find, but very uncommon with both valves.
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- clam
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Campbell lists M. permagna as an extinct subspecies of M. campechiensis. Typically longer and less inflated than the extant species.
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Avery nice double valve cockle. Single valves are not uncommon at this site but double valvers are very uncommon for this species.
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- pleistocene
- bivalve
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Single valves are an extremely common find at this site. However, this is the first double valve specimen I have found. A very interesting looking little bivalve.
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- clam
- pleistocene
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Colected at a private sand pit in Columbus County N.C. A beautiful little example of this tough to find species. Very fragile.
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- pleistocene
- slipper shell
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A very nice little gastropod. The marl pit this came out of produces very well preserved gastropods and bivalves. An uncommon find, but not rare.
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- north carolina
- pleistocene
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This little clam, though rather common; is nice to find in great condition. This particular specimen is one of the nicer ones I have found in this location.
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- pleistocene
- calm
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Self collected from a bucket of matrix brought home from a marl / shell pit in Columbus County NC. A very nice specimen.
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- waccamaw
- pleistocene
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From a Columbus County N.C. shell pit. A great specimen.
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- nc
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A very nice bivalve that grabbed my attention.
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- tff0dr070cc
- pleistocene
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This nice little left handed whelk was one of several of these I found that day. But was by fare the nicest.
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- tff0dr069cc
- nc
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This small specimen is right at 1" and has magnificent preservation.
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- tff0dr068cc
- waccamaw
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This beautiful little tulip shell was found in a shell pit in Columbus County N.C. Uncommonly found complete and unbroken, this is one of the better specimens I have found.
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- tffodro67cc
- gastropod
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Example of stacked individuals.
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- calyptraeidae
- pleistocene
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