The Meargle Went Down to South Georgia: 2nd Tivola Edition

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Boy have I been away for a good bit. Quite a lot has happened since! Hope everyone's doing all right all things considered!

 

Seeing the calamity the world is in the throes of, I decided to head out Saturday before the zombie apocalypse truly took hold here in GA. With social distancing and whatnot in effect, the options are quite limited as far as recreational activities. Thankfully, everyone's favorite activity, finding the rock-encrusted remains of life long gone is something that can be done away from prying eyes, particularly the Tivola Limestone site in Perry GA that I visited last year that produces those gorgeous Periarchus sand dollars and Chlamys scallops.

 

 

 

After a quick pit stop at a hazmat-ified Chick-fil-A and a nice drive to Perry, we found ourselves at the site for the second time. After a short walk through mild vegetation, the abandoned quarry came into view:

 

 

The rock that made up the walls seemed to be significantly darker than what we observed our first time around, a result of extended exposure to the elements.

 

After a few early finds on top of the pit's edge, we made our descent inside via a small and less steep slope hugging a portion of the wall. In the pit, 2 hours were sunk into searching. The result: a decent haul, with a lot of prep-ables.

 

The first thing I picked up was perhaps my favorite: an in-situ Periarchus pileussinensis that was mostly whole, with a number of small cracks visible that served to put a kind of emphasis on its age.

 

 

[MeargleSchmeargl]

Amongst the interesting finds I picked up, I found a Chlamys spillmani clinfieldensis scallop that appears to be articulated in that both valves are at least partially there:

 

One valve...

 

Two valves!

 

And where they meet!

 

 

There were also a good number of other Periarchus that REALLY did not want to cooperate with my efforts. A lot of the ones I chiseled out of boulders went full blown "IKEA fossil" on me, falling apart for me to put back together again upon returning home:

 

 

And the rest, many of which got the super glue treatment and could use some cleaning:

 

 

And of course, the other Chlamys finds that draw me back to this site so strongly:

 

 

All in all, a short but sweet trip to delay the cabin fever-inducing home isolation in a safe way.

[Monica]

Beautiful finds!  I love that double-valved scallop   Thanks for sharing!

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice finds! That one sand dollar looks awesome.