A Refined Return to Surry County, Virginia (10/6/23-10-8-23)

[Echinoid Express]

Hello again everyone! After a quick trip out to Holden Beach with some minimal finds, I was left with some indecisiveness on the location my next fossil hunt, I was presented with the opportunity to go back to Surry County, Virginia to hunt the same locality as I did back in August. I was a bit unsure if I wanted to make the trip again, as I had a fairly rough time during the last trip with some stomach issues, and I had felt I had a decent enough haul from that time. However, after Tropical Storm Ophelia went through the area dumping a lot of rain and the forecast was predicted to be much cooler than August, I decided to make the return. I can say with certainty I am very, very glad I made this trip! I was also given the opportunity to stay on site this time as well, which was really cool, and I made a few new friends with the fellow hunters that were also staying there. This is once again very picture heavy so hang in there once again.

 

A small note, I had previously though all of the fossils were from the Yorktown Formation, but I was corrected on this; the site is primarily Late Miocene Eastover formation, with a fair bit of Early Pliocene Yorktown Formation, with the cobbles from the Cambrian Swift Run Formation mixed in in places.

 

Starting again with some pictures of the site, not much had changed in two months, aside from some of the cliffs collapsing partially, which unveiled some new, fragile bivalves. The sand they had put on the beach that covered some of the material had been washed out a little bit, so there were more fossils and Cambrian cobbles at the water line than previously. It was particularly rainy on Saturday morning, but as the day went on it warmed up to a comfortable temperature, and became sunny. It was very breezy this time around, so the waves were particularly rough the whole weekend, which helped expose more fossils on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was once again plenty of cool wildlife in the area as well!

 

 

 

 

This unfortunate fellow was struck by a propeller and washed onto the shoreline late Saturday night. The damage was mostly on the side lying in the sand. This was the first time I've ever seen a sturgeon outside of an aquarium setting. I reported it to a researcher at VCU, who collected it the next morning. He told me it was a male, estimated to be 30 years old. It was around 1.676 meters (5.5 feet) long.

 

 

I was able to hunt one particular spot in the area where the exposure was fairly close to ground level as well, here is one small look at that exposure.

 

And as a brief glimpse into my finds, here was one such find in situ!  (Courtesy of one of my fellow hunter friends I met during the trip)

 

 

I don't have a particular order to show off this time around, but I'll start with my absolute favorite of my finds this trip: Ecphora! I was a little bummed out last trip that I was unable to locate one, but I lucked out big time this trip. The quality of them is all over the place, but I found a few that were especially good, including the one I had pictured in situ. The one in matrix was found accidentally when I was doing UV light hunting (Which I'll talk about in a bit).

 

 

This was my favorite one! It's around 11.43 cm (4.5 inches) long, and 8.89 cm (3.5 inches) wide. A very small bit of the outer edge of the opening did break off while I was handling it after this picture was took, but fortunately I had some strong adhesive handy and was able to get most of it secured back in place.

 

 

On to the UV light hunting, I spent a few hours after dark hunting for calcite and calcite-converted mollusks. I found quite a number of calcite clams, as well as some pretty good crystals as well. Two clams in particular had some fairly decent calcite crystals growing inside fractures between the two valves, which was really cool!

 

 

 

These are two small clusters growing on some material. These were particularly luminous with the UV light, much like the crystal-covered clams.

 

Here is a calcite-replaced Turritella on the right, and on the left is an odd-shaped chunk of calcite. It almost looks like the shape of an Ecphora shell's lower half, which makes me wonder if it could be a calcite cast of an Ecphora interior.

 

Here are a few large coral chunks right after I has washed them off. (Septastrea marylandica?)

 

A couple of scaphopod "tusk shells" (Dentalium attenuatum) with a lustrous, double-valve Pandora clam.

 

Some fairly intact Turritella shells. (Turritella subvariabilis?)

 

I found quite a few nice double-valve Chesapecten this trip. Some show up in the UV light at night, which helped me find them. However, some of the larger specimens had a lot of erosion or biological damage to them such as bore holes, so they would fall apart when I tried to clean them.  I still ended up with a decent number of them, so it all worked out in the end. The leftmost specimen has a bit of calcite on the outer edge.

 

Here is my largest Chesapecten next to my smallest once again (the large one is about 17.78 cm, or 7 inches, wide).

 

Some large clam tubes I found. (Kuphus fistula?)

 

A few gastropods of decent quality with a double-valve oyster and a Crucibulum limpet. (Crucibulum grande?)

 

This Naticidae shell (Lunatia sp.?) is fairly large, probably my favorite gastropod aside from the Ecphora! Unfortunately, it's extremely fragile, so I refuse to move it until I get something set up for coating my specimens. Because of this I haven't measured it properly. There is a smaller specimen in the opening underneath.

 

A half whale vertebra alongside some different rib fragments I found. One of the friends I made found a fairly sizeable, nice quality whale vertebra.

 

I found this nice tympanic bulla with only a small bit of damage. Definitely better than the one I found in Green's Mill Run!

 

I found this micro crab claw dactyl while cleaning a different specimen. Some areas had microfossils inside of larger specimens, depending on how the preservation was.

 

I finally found shark teeth as well! The white mako is around 5.715 cm (2.25 inches) long, and if the marbled one had it's full root it would be even longer. I found the bottom four purely by accident while getting the coordinates of the deceased sturgeon early that morning. One visitor found a half Otodus megalodon or Otodus chubutensis tooth with beautiful serrations.

 

I found a lot of Discinisca lugubris brachiopod shells this time around, particularly in the area where the calcite was common. Here is one with some calcite to the left of it.

 

There were a lot more Skolithos to be collected this time! The first specimen was given to me by the man who put the whole hunt together, and the second one was one I found later. These particular specimens are nice because they are visible both as cross sections and from above / below, whereas usually it's just one or the other.

 

 

I found a new type of scallop this trip as well, Placopecten! These are also extremely fragile, so they're currently on-hold and sitting in one spot until I can get some better preservation for them.

 

This one I'm a little unsure on, I'm thinking a Cliona sponge but it might also be a bryozoan colony. It's on a fragment of Chesapecten with a lot of sponge bore holes. (I'll make a post with better pictures in Fossil I.D. later when I get time.)

 

The last on my major finds, these are some intact clams, and they are a lot more durable than the last ones I found! I can handle these to a higher degree than the other ones I found without them falling apart on me. I still want to get some kind of preservation on them. Someone at the hunt recommended Krylon clear coat, I'll have to experiment with it on some other specimens.

 

And as a bonus, these are not my finds, but one of my cabin neighbor's finds. This is an regular echinoid he found, as well as a plate he found containing a fragmented Mellita sand dollar. While I found the very small fragment attached to a Chesapecten, according to the man who set up this hunt he's never seen a sand dollar like that found in the locality, making it a first.

 

That's all for now! Nothing new on the Triassic spots, but I'm closing in on one, and the other is looking promising for next January once hunting season has passed.

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by Echinoid Express
Added some more names, more details

[historianmichael]

Those echinoids are superb! I had no idea you could find them at that site.

[Tidgy's Dad]

What wonderful and diverse finds!

My favourites are the brachiopods and the scaphopods.

[Echinoid Express]

2 hours ago, historianmichael said:

Those echinoids are superb! I had no idea you could find them at that site.

 

They are definitely cool! I had seen a couple of low grade specimens that the man in charge of the event had brought as examples of what could be found prior, but this one was especially nice. I am not sure what species it is, I'd have to dig into it a bit more. I had also wondered before if Mellita aclinensis occurred there in any capacity aside from that one small, weathered fragment I had, but now there's proof of it! The man who found these specimens was really nice, we talked for a bit before we all had to leave. He said he usually finds at least one specimen there each trip he goes, and he was kind enough to give me some pointers as to where to look for them, so I'll have to see if I can snag one the next time I can get up there.

 

2 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

What wonderful and diverse finds!

My favourites are the brachiopods and the scaphopods.

 

Thank you! They are really nice, you don't see brachiopods very often compared to the bivalves. I believe their full name is Discinisca lugubris. I can't remember what he said about their composition exactly, but the man who puts this hunt together mentioned that one valve was made of a softer material that did not normally preserve well, hence why they show up as a single valve most of the time. Most of the ones I found are in the tough matrix where the calcite was, although I did find one loose specimen last time. The picture I attached is a small chunk with several specimens in it, I picked up a few like this. The scaphopod tusk shells are also neat, although I didn't pick up quite as many this time around. I think I was too focused on finding Ecphora! I believe they are Dentalium attenuatum. Like a lot of the Late Miocene stuff, they can be quite fragile sometimes.

[FossilNerd]

Wonderful report and finds. Thanks for sharing! 
 

I agree with you. That Ecphora with the barnacles attached is a real beauty! 

 

Thanks for showing the in situ pictures as well. I always like seeing how other people in different areas find their fossils.

[Echinoid Express]

1 hour ago, FossilNerd said:

Wonderful report and finds. Thanks for sharing! 
 

I agree with you. That Ecphora with the barnacles attached is a real beauty! 

 

Thanks for showing the in situ pictures as well. I always like seeing how other people in different areas find their fossils.

 

Thank you! I have my new friend to thank for that photo, I was too busy being excited to remember taking pictures, haha. I'll have to try doing that more often, some were particularly challenging to get free intact, such as that Ecphora, the large Ecphora with the hole, and the Naticidae shell. Another in situ one I do have is the large Placopecten; if you look in the picture with the exposure at ground level, you can spot it in the lower center!

[SPrice]

@Echinoid Express ...if you ever get another chance to find a huge Chesapecten shell like the one above and would be willing to part with it via trade or sale, please contact me. I'm a sucker for Lions Paw shells. This one is a shell shop purchase at Holden Beach and the Sea Biscuits are from the beach this summer. 

[Andúril Flame of the West]

12 hours ago, Echinoid Express said:

That's all for now! Nothing new on the Triassic spots, but I'm closing in on one, and the other is looking promising for next January once hunting season has passed.

 

 

Great trip report and amazing finds! The ecphoras and the bivalves featured in the last photograph are fantastic specimens. Since you mention hunting in the Triassic, are you searching the Newark basins in North Carolina? I've heard of some interesting fossils that have come from the Pekin Formation and other Triassic locations down there. If you do not mind me asking, have you had much luck in the Triassic? Up here in the Culpeper Basin of northern Virginia the Triassic finds are quite sparse - but it does not keep one from trying!

[Newbie_1971]

Amazing trip! Congratulations on some amazing finds! By the way those mushrooms were edible/choice ... research "chicken of the woods".

[dsaavedra]

That's some very cool stuff but I must say, I think the sturgeon is the coolest find of all. They are not common

 

That Ecphora you found is beautiful. Rare to find them with the tip intact!

[Bjohn170]

43 minutes ago, dsaavedra said:

That's some very cool stuff but I must say, I think the sturgeon is the coolest find of all. They are not common

 

That Ecphora you found is beautiful. Rare to find them with the tip intact!

Seriously! It’s such a shame they don’t make their way up the Chesapeake Bay in the numbers they used to. I usually only hear about one being caught a year, either around Great Falls or the Conowingo dam.

[Echinoid Express]

On 10/14/2023 at 9:26 PM, SPrice said:

@Echinoid Express ...if you ever get another chance to find a huge Chesapecten shell like the one above and would be willing to part with it via trade or sale, please contact me. I'm a sucker for Lions Paw shells. This one is a shell shop purchase at Holden Beach and the Sea Biscuits are from the beach this summer. 

 

I'll definitely keep it in mind! That scallop looks very similar to one I bought there myself when I was a boy. I absolutely love Holden Beach, I have to get back out there this Fall or Winter. However I want to go to the Crystal Coast or Outer Banks as well, I am trying to track down some modern echinoid specimens; the rare and slightly elusive Rhynobrissus cuneus. They sometimes appear in larger numbers after cold snaps.

 

On 10/15/2023 at 12:19 AM, Andúril Flame of the West said:

 

Great trip report and amazing finds! The ecphoras and the bivalves featured in the last photograph are fantastic specimens. Since you mention hunting in the Triassic, are you searching the Newark basins in North Carolina? I've heard of some interesting fossils that have come from the Pekin Formation and other Triassic locations down there. If you do not mind me asking, have you had much luck in the Triassic? Up here in the Culpeper Basin of northern Virginia the Triassic finds are quite sparse - but it does not keep one from trying!

 

Thank you! The Triassic stuff has been very slow; I know a few reputable spots but they're either inaccessible due to lack of permission or somewhere I don't feel I should be treading alone, haha. One spot I might be able to visit this coming January is literally five minutes down the road, but I don't want to interrupt the owner's deer hunting. It's a heavily mixed exposure of Pekin conglomerate so I don't know if it's any good, but there was coal found near there long ago so it might have something. The other is a well known but fairly depleted spot, I think I have a go-ahead on it so long as he lets me in but I have to call this week to see. The spot is also severely overgrown and buried from years of inactivity so it'll be tricky. It's got a lot of Pekin plants, so we'll see if I can nab some. My main goal at the end of the day is to get a few different Chatham-Lee-Moore area Deep River Basin fossils, partially as a display piece to show off some "hometown" fossils, and to provide a local museum with some specimens, as they have an exhibit on the local mining operations, and the occurrence of fossils is pretty heavily tied to them. I have a singular specimen I was given by Dr. George Oliver out at the Aurora museum. Aside from the Deep River Basin, I have collected a very small sampling of shale from the Dan River Basin, but the only thing I found were a couple of possible fish scales.

 

 

 

On 10/15/2023 at 8:28 AM, Newbie_1971 said:

Amazing trip! Congratulations on some amazing finds! By the way those mushrooms were edible/choice ... research "chicken of the woods".

 

Thank you! We figured the more orange ones might have been that! The family from the RGMS told me about those last time I was up there. If I could digest mushrooms I would have loved to try them, but alas, my stomach does not fancy them! They are quite beautiful to look at though, and they make great landmarks while walking the area.

 

On 10/15/2023 at 12:50 PM, dsaavedra said:

That's some very cool stuff but I must say, I think the sturgeon is the coolest find of all. They are not common

 

That Ecphora you found is beautiful. Rare to find them with the tip intact!

 

Thank you! The tip being intact is really cool, the larger, mire damaged one also has a decent one. If the tail was completely intact and the opening wasn't damaged it would be nearly flawless. My friends I was hunting with managed to find a fairly pristine, smaller specimen in the same area with a more "yellowish" color. The sturgeon was really cool, it's a shame I found it in such a condition. I don't think I've ever seen one outside of an aquarium before. The researcher came by just after sunrise to collect him, I wanted to be sure he got to it before the turkey vultures found it (they tore up a large carp within a very short timespan the prior day). The side facing the ground was extremely torn up from a rudder collision. The fish was older than myself, which is odd to think about! I hope they can protect those fish for years to come, they're such a cool, ancient lineage. There were a couple of gar that had also washed up as well, one also looked like it was hit by a boat.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

16 hours ago, Echinoid Express said:

I am trying to track down some modern echinoid specimens; the rare and slightly elusive Rhynobrissus cuneus. They sometimes appear in larger numbers after cold snaps.

Cool ! I am also very interested in recent sea urchins...

 

Coco

[Andúril Flame of the West]

21 hours ago, Echinoid Express said:

Thank you! The Triassic stuff has been very slow; I know a few reputable spots but they're either inaccessible due to lack of permission or somewhere I don't feel I should be treading alone, haha. One spot I might be able to visit this coming January is literally five minutes down the road, but I don't want to interrupt the owner's deer hunting. It's a heavily mixed exposure of Pekin conglomerate so I don't know if it's any good, but there was coal found near there long ago so it might have something. The other is a well known but fairly depleted spot, I think I have a go-ahead on it so long as he lets me in but I have to call this week to see. The spot is also severely overgrown and buried from years of inactivity so it'll be tricky. It's got a lot of Pekin plants, so we'll see if I can nab some. My main goal at the end of the day is to get a few different Chatham-Lee-Moore area Deep River Basin fossils, partially as a display piece to show off some "hometown" fossils, and to provide a local museum with some specimens, as they have an exhibit on the local mining operations, and the occurrence of fossils is pretty heavily tied to them. I have a singular specimen I was given by Dr. George Oliver out at the Aurora museum. Aside from the Deep River Basin, I have collected a very small sampling of shale from the Dan River Basin, but the only thing I found were a couple of possible fish scales.

 

 

 

 

 

Alas the Triassic hunting is also very slow up here. There is some good stuff to be found in those rocks - if only they weren't so elusive. I look forward to seeing your future finds .

[Echinoid Express]

On 10/16/2023 at 2:46 PM, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Cool ! I am also very interested in recent sea urchins...

 

Coco

 

Very cool! My collection is very small so far, but it's coming along. I'm hoping I can get luck and find multiple specimens of that species up there.

 

21 hours ago, Andúril Flame of the West said:

 

Alas the Triassic hunting is also very slow up here. There is some good stuff to be found in those rocks - if only they weren't so elusive. I look forward to seeing your future finds .

 

Thank you! I'll be sure to post any notable finds here. I might try to get some more Northern NC Shale at some point as well, I think my sample size was too small to find much of anything before.

 

On the topic of the Virginia finds, this is omething I forgot to include in the main post that was a pretty cool thing we found up there. There were these chunks of bog iron ore mainly in the areas containing the calcite specimens. These ores had little geode structures inside, of which I cannot remember what they are called, but they also had impressions and casts of the Miocene / Pliocene fossils in them as well. This was one hollow specimen with several impressions and casts on it.