bockryan Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Long overdue to post about some of my NC finds from earlier this year! First up was a very exciting trip to the NC Triassic to look for a variety of plant fossils, which were my first Mesozoic plants. Beautiful white coloring on some of them as well, the matrix is extremely soft (you can easily scrape it with your finger nails) so I've done some experimenting with how to best consolidate them without damaging the visual effect. Not a ton of variety at the site, but they are abundant and sometimes surprisingly well preserved. I have found Otozamites hespera and Otozamites powelli, as well as a few other kinds of plants. I also disturbed a "hibernating" lizard, initially I was concerned that my digging had injured him, but after a some time in the sun he scampered off seemingly no worse for the experience. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bockryan Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 On the way home I stopped by the famous GMR in Greenville, NC and came away with one very nice tooth as well as some other interesting finds and a bucket of worn/broken teeth. I stopped when I saw my credit card floating in the stream, as I had dropped it while searching - that was a close enough call that I decided I had had a lucky enough day! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bockryan Posted April 18 Author Share Posted April 18 Lastly, we had a separate trip to Holden that started off very slow, with very few finds on the first day. The second day got off to a much better start, with the nice half crocodilian scute and many more teeth. The last find of the day was my first mosasaur tooth, not a huge one but well preserved and sticking out of a patch of sand that probably 100 people had walked over that day. I have spent a lot of time in Big Brook and Holden looking for one, so was very pleased. The collected finds from this trip also include a number from another trip to GMR, which is honestly becoming my favorite hunting spot, despite the distance from DC. Ryan 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Good report and pics. I didn't know that you could find plant fossils in North Carolina. Just another reason to make me want to move there! 1 I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bockryan Posted April 19 Author Share Posted April 19 48 minutes ago, Darktooth said: Good report and pics. I didn't know that you could find plant fossils in North Carolina. Just another reason to make me want to move there! If it had more Paleozoic outcrops, North Carolina might be the best overall state for fossils on the East Coast. It does have some very early stuff (Ediacaran) that I have not explored at all and then the Mesozoic and Cenozoic material is extremely diverse and abundant. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjohn170 Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 Looks like an amazing trip! Such cool diversity between the sites, great finds all around. Thanks for sharing! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old bones Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 Nice finds! I like your mosasaur tooth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now