My 2022-2023 Holden Beach Experience

[Echinoid Express]

Hello all! I've been getting ready for the Aurora Fossil Festival (and working on my new display cabinet), and have been going back through my Holden Beach finds. I wanted to share a compilation of my visits to Holden Beach, North Carolina from 2022 to 2023. I have gone 5 times since the replenishment project occurred there: April 2022, twice in October 2022, February 2023, and April 2023. While I was mostly picking up the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids, I found a little bit of everything out there. There was so much that I couldn't include everything, so I stuck with the best of my finds. It's truly amazing what all can be found washing out down there!

 

I am still fairly new to fossils in general, and I'm far from confident in my ability to I.D. a lot of things. That being said, I have tried my best to identify what I could. Any corrections or advice is more than appreciated! I can also take additional pictures if anyone wants a better look at anything here.

 

Here are all my sharks teeth. I am not great with the I.D.s on all of these, but I do know the names to a few varieties. I have tried to group them together by what little I know, and by appearance if I'm unsure. Lots of great white and crow shark teeth were to be found.

 

April 2022, October 2022 and February 2023:

This one in particular is my favorite shark find of 2022. It's the largest Great White tooth I've found, and aside from a small chip off of the side and the tip it's in really good shape. It's right at 6 cm (2.36 Inches) long, but I have no doubt it would have been longer with the tip undamaged. (April 2022)

April 2023:

A modern Sand Tiger tooth snuck in as well.

Now for my absolute favorite tooth, my only mostly intact Megalodon tooth that I've found to date. This one is right at 9.52 cm (3.75 Inches) long in it's current condition. (April 2023)

On to my Hardouinia mortonis, this is a group photo of my best finds from all trips. The Holden Beach ones get fairly large compared to some of the quarry finds I've seen! I have several well over 5 cm (~2 Inches) in diameter.

These are specimens with minor pathologies. The apical disc sometimes is "dented" on these specimens, and I've found a few with "peanut" shaped petals. (Various trips)

This is a specimen with a more moderate pathology. the whole shape is unusual, and one petal is turned at about a 20-30 degree angle towards the posterior. (February 2022)

These are some of my current "project" echinoids. Due to being found on the beach, they tend to be saturated with salt. while I try to manually remove some matrix periodically I give them a good soak in water for a few days, then leave them out to dry and see if salt crystals are still forming. Sometimes it takes a few tries to completely rid the salt. This batch has some Hardouinia mortonis of some pretty varied shape. (Various trips)

These are mostly Mosasaur teeth, though there may be a few crocodilian teeth snuck in there as well. I'm not exactly sure which species of mosasaur these are, there are some distinctly different shapes to some of them. (Various trips)

I found plenty of Mosasaur teeth without roots, but only one root without a tooth! The kind folks at Aurora helped me identify this, I wasn't sure what it was. (April 2022)

I never got this one identified, but it's definitely a piece of some jaw with a tooth root. Perhaps also Mosasaur, but I'm not sure. (April 2022)

Of course there was also plenty of Exogyra to go around, and way too many to photograph! This is a small cluster of them in the matrix, and the largest intact specimen I found, at around 10 cm (~4 Inches) long. (Cluster from April 2022, large one from October 2022)

(*EDIT 6-18-23 with proper I.D.) These are Cretaceous Prehepatus harrisi crab claws. All but one came from the April 2022 trip (the darker is from February 2023).

These are Pleistocene Equus teeth I found in April 2022. There was a much smaller fourth fragment as well I didn't photograph.

This is one of my favorite finds: a Pleistocene Odocoileus antler fragment. It resembles a modern White-Tailed Deer antler fragment! (April 2022)

A very large bone fragment from April 2022. Not sure what from, almost looks like a vertebra. Around 9 cm (3.54 Inches) long.

A Rhombodus binkhorsti tooth, my only one found. (April 2022)

 

Other Ray teeth and barbs (Various trips)

My first and only Pycnodont mouth plate fragment (April 2023).

Some sizable shark vertebrae. (Various trips)

Some Sawfish rostral teeth and a few select Enchodus fangs / jaw fragments. (Various trips)

Some Sea Robin skull plates. (Various trips)

Some turtle carapace fragments, and possibly a Crocodilia Dermal Scute (Various trips for the turtle fragments, April 2023 on the scute)

This is an interesting bone fragment that, according to the folks at Aurora, might have signs of a shark attack or feeding due to the triangular groove on it. (April 2022)

Plenty of steinkerns to pick up! (Various trips)

While I found a few isolated casts of ammonite chambers, this is by far the largest and best one. I'm not exactly sure what species, but after reading my NCFC book I'm leaning towards Sphenodiscus lobatus. (October 2022)

Unknown vertebra, pretty heavily worn. About 4 cm (1.57 Inches) long. (April 2023)

My Sirenia vertebra. (Thank you @Boesse for helping me confirm this!) (April 2023)

The folks at Aurora have said this is likely a young Mastodon molar fragment. I've seen even smaller fragments with a similar shine and color that might also be some kind of Proboscidea tooth fragment. (April 2022)

A fragment of some unknown echinoid. It doesn't resemble Hardouinia to me, it almost looks more like a fragment from something in the Spatangoida Order. I'm not 100% sure on it though. I wish there was more of it to look at! (April 2023)

And last but not least, a couple of Sirenian rib fragments. (April 2022)

Bonus pic: These are my favorite Hardouinia mortonis specimens. I had someone at work etch me out the plaque on a laser.

Edited June 18, 2023 by Echinoid Express
Proper I.D. on crab claws. Previous edits were mostly format fixes.

[frankh8147]

Nice finds!! Quick question; are there any holes in the unknown vertebra? Im wondering if it could be Plesiosaur..

[JulieNC]

very cool I love holden that is where I spend over 4 months a year at great finds

[JulieNC]

very cool I love holden that is where I spend over 4 months a year at great finds.  I am wondering is this a tooth root also?  looks similar to the one you have?

[Echinoid Express]

1 hour ago, JulieNC said:

very cool I love holden that is where I spend over 4 months a year at great finds.  I am wondering is this a tooth root also?  looks similar to the one you have?

 

 

 

I'm not sure, but it definitely looks very similar! There seems to be some tooth remenant there.

 

4 hours ago, frankh8147 said:

Nice finds!! Quick question; are there any holes in the unknown vertebra? Im wondering if it could be Plesiosaur..

 

Thank you! On the vertebra, there appear to be some little holes or divots on the sides, but the whole thing is pretty worn out. Another thing to note is that one end is concave, while the other is convex. 

[traveltip1]

Great finds

[frankh8147]

I'm thinking Mosasaur for that vert.

[Echinoid Express]

27 minutes ago, frankh8147 said:

I'm thinking Mosasaur for that vert.

 Huh, interesting! I never considered that. I'll have to bring it over to Aurora this weekend and show it to some folks there as well.

[Fin Lover]

Nice finds!  This is a good reminder that I definitely need to make a trip up to Holden!