Holden Beach Diversity Of Fossils

[sixgill pete]

Please post pictures of the Eocene fossils you found. They would be something entirely new from that beach. I would especially love to see the basilosaurid tooth. Also, would love to see the Otodus obliquus, these are not known from the N.C. Eocene as it is too young. 

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:16 AM, sixgill pete said:

Please post pictures of the Eocene fossils you found. They would be something entirely new from that beach. I would especially love to see the basilosaurid tooth. Also, would love to see the Otodus obliquus, these are not known from the N.C. Eocene as it is too young. 

Okay, I already posted photos of the Basilosaurus tooth, and the "Otodus" teeth are in the upper left of my collection photo. I'll post more closeups of the Otodus. I am fairly confident the teeth are there from seeing what others found, one of my friend's found on that was over an inch long with both cusps.

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

Here's a closeup of some teeth I think are Otodus obliquus. 

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

Here is another awesome tooth one of my friend's found, according to the locals, there have been 5 inch+ fully rooted teeth found. I didn't find any of those sadly 

[sixgill pete]

@Mioplosus_Lover24

 

The teeth you are thinking are Otodus appear to be Cretalamna appendiculate, a common Cretaceous tooth from both the PeeDee and the older Cretaceous formations of North Carolina. In all of my years searching the Eocene of N.C. I have only seen 1, O. obliquus from the bottom of the Castle Hayne. The Eocene of N.C. is to young and contains O. (carcharocles) auriculatus. 

I have not heard of nor seen any Eocene fossils coming off of Holden beach. The fossil beds offshore, where the dredging is occurring are Cretaceous aged overlain by Pleistocene sediments. The deposits in Brunswick County (where Holden Beach is located) are Cretaceous PeeDee Formation and Pleistocene Waccamaw Formation. This is not to say the occasional reworked Eocene fossil could not show up as I have found an auricultaus at a PeeDee / Waccamaw formations site in Brunswick County. But is is not the norm.

 

Your pics of the "basilosaurus" tooth show an extremely fragmented tooth. What makes you think it is Basilosaurus? Could you post more pics of it from all angles. Front, back down from the top and up from the bottom. This could shed light on what it may be. But honestly, I see nothing that says it is a basilosaurid type tooth. 

 

I would also like to see more pics of the vert you found. Again, from all angles. Is it concave / convex?

 

And lastly, that is a fantastic tooth your friend found. Could you post more pics of it also, from all angles to help positively I.D. it

Edited October 24, 2022 by sixgill pete

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

The tooth was identified by Mace Brown Museum of Natural History. Here's more pictures of it.

[sixgill pete]

@Boesse

[FossilDAWG]

I assume the beach has been pretty much picked over again?  I was there in May and found some nice echinoids but did not see a single vertebrate fossil, not even a shark tooth.  That was OK as I mostly wanted some echinoids anyway.

 

Don

[sixgill pete]

1 hour ago, FossilDAWG said:

I assume the beach has been pretty much picked over again?  I was there in May and found some nice echinoids but did not see a single vertebrate fossil, not even a shark tooth.  That was OK as I mostly wanted some echinoids anyway.

 

Don

I went last week with @Plax we did great with echinoids. No vert fossils at all tho.

[Nimravis]

Like the other fossils, but love the echinoids.

 

 

[Mioplosus_Lover24]

5 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

I went last week with @Plax we did great with echinoids. No vert fossils at all tho.

Really? I found well over 500 shark teeth, most were just broken blades, but I did find a decent amount of nicer teeth. 

[sharko69]

Wowsers!!

[historianmichael]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:18 PM, Mioplosus_Lover24 said:

Really? I found well over 500 shark teeth, most were just broken blades, but I did find a decent amount of nicer teeth. 

That was my experience too. No vertebrate material or very little of it. The site is very well known now on several social media platforms. If everyone after Ian picked up 500 shark teeth and without any strong storms to expose new material since then, the site gets picked over. There are a lot of people searching that beach with only a finite number of fossils to divide amongst everyone.

[r00t2400]

On 10/24/2022 at 9:06 AM, Mioplosus_Lover24 said:

Here is another awesome tooth one of my friend's found, according to the locals, there have been 5 inch+ fully rooted teeth found. I didn't find any of those sadly 

Did you ever id this might it be stelladens? 

[r00t2400]

On 10/22/2022 at 4:56 PM, Mioplosus_Lover24 said:

Here's some close ups of my two favorite teeth. 

That first one maybe too?