Castle Hayne Quarry Trip Finds

[Daryl McEwen]

I spent about six hours in a quarry in Castle Hayne, NC last weekend and found my first rics and a few other interesting unknowns. The only teeth I found intact were very small but I did manage to pull a large heavily eroded tooth out of a runoff gully wall of mostly compact clay. I still have much to learn about spotting geologic layers but I believe most of the stuff I was finding is from the early cenezoic. Here are a few photos of my best finds. Could anyone help me ID the last three? Are they reptilian, sawfish, or something else?

and can anyone tell me what this is? I have a friend who has a more intact and much darker version of this. It looks like a bone to me but this find makes it seem more like a cast from a shell.

Here is a link to the other photos of what I found.

NC Oct/2009 collection

[worthy 55]

Number 2 & 3 pictures look like Cuda teeth not sure on the others.

Edited October 7, 2009 by worthy 55

[ozzyrules244]

Your last picture is of a Ichyrhiza Mira (saw tooth shark rostral ) its missing the tip

[ozzyrules244]

here's a picture of them hope it helps

[ozzyrules244]

your first picture looks like a broken ric

[Daryl McEwen]

Hey, thanks for the replies. I was pretty sure that the big one was a ric missing the majority of the root and w/o the cusps but the narrow blade and serrations sort of gave it away. I found another nice but unfortunately broken ric while I was there with one side cusp and most of the root intact. I have a photo of it on the link above. Does anyone know what color or type of earth megs can be found in in Castle Hayne? Or even if they are usually found there? The quarry desk person I spoke to at check-in told me megs are found there but I saw no evidence. All the fossils I found were in large piles of dark-gray colored earth.

[siteseer]

Hey, thanks for the replies. I was pretty sure that the big one was a ric missing the majority of the root and w/o the cusps but the narrow blade and serrations sort of gave it away. I found another nice but unfortunately broken ric while I was there with one side cusp and most of the root intact. I have a photo of it on the link above. Does anyone know what color or type of earth megs can be found in in Castle Hayne? Or even if they are usually found there? The quarry desk person I spoke to at check-in told me megs are found there but I saw no evidence. All the fossils I found were in large piles of dark-gray colored earth.

You can go to elasmo.com and click on "faunas," then "Castle Hayne" to get a nice overview of the Middle Eocene teeth from there. You can find Late Cretaceous teeth too (ex. Ischyrhiza mira rostral tooth you showed).

There is also on older publication on the fossils of North Carolina.

That's great that you can get permission to collect at the quarry. So many productive areas are no longer accessible.

[brsr0131]

Congrats on your finds. I collect this quarry fairly often. Looks like that Ric would have been realy nice what a shamer.

Ozzy is right about the last pic being Ischyrhiza mira rostral tooth.

The middle pictures look to me Mosasaur with the first one being just the core.