A Tale of the Hunt for Fossil Shark Teeth
As someone who has been a lifelong fossil collector, I have a terrible, unforgivable sin to admit: I lived for eight years in North Carolina and never knew of the existence of Aurora, NC.
Mind you, since moving here for graduate school, fossil hunting had fallen off of my priority list, largely owing to the fact that central Carolina rocks are basically all metamorphic (melted and recrystallized by heat and pressure). And I've never been the gung-ho research-fossil-sites-and-go-hunting type. Since I began collecting while living in the Ozark mountains, it was more of a walk-through-my-parents-woods-and-see-what-fossils-I-find-today sort of hobby, with a few far-flung excursions in the mix.
Well that all changed a few weeks ago. My wife, some friends, and I spent a couple of days at Topsail Beach, NC.
Actually - scratch that - it began a few month's ago, when Christie at Observations of a Nerd reported an awesome find of fossil shark teeth in Florida, and then - like the wonderful person she is - sent me a handful of them.
Shark Teeth from the wonderful Christie (Note to Christie - they are ray dental plates - not stingray barbs - just learned that - see below)
Back to Topsail Beach, circa a few weeks ago.
I said to myself, "Self - it's the ocean - there are bound to be fossil shark teeth. You (I) will not allow me (myself) to leave this beach without finding at least one shark tooth."
So I spent all my beach time on Saturday perusing the sands for teeth.
To no avail whatsoever. I never saw one.
The next day, I began again, searching much more intently. While combing the fresh tide-swept beach, I saw a tiny black triangle amidst the shells. It was a shark's tooth!!
The filters through which my perception is sifted were now calibrated. Within the next few hours I had a nice handful of tiny teeth. I was ecstatic.
(Note for the fossil pros and beach inhabitants out there: feel free to laugh at my ignorance of what constitutes awesome shark teeth. But these were just about the coolest things I had ever found - at the time.)
Hold your applause - you ain't seen nothing yet
Tiger Sharks - grrrr...er...meow
Thus was I hooked on shark teeth.
The next necessary stops in my tale are the mountains of West Virginia and hills of Pennsylvania.
Some of you know that I will recently begin a new job at Carnegie Mellon University. As such, we have driven there twice recently. I am utterly awed by the massive amount of roadcuts through the mountains of the two states, all of which reveal millions upon millions of years of Earth's natural history in it's geological strata. I felt the fossil-hunting bug really kick up several notches while driving through those strata.
Thus, in anticipation of my move, I began hunting online for potential fossil sites in Pennsylvania. In this endeavor I discovered The Fossil Forum. Through this forum, I discovered not only a huge community of avid fossil hunters, experts, and enthusiasts, but also that North Carolina has some of the most amazing shark tooth sites in the country.
"Self," says I, "it's bad enough that you've been here so long without discovering North Carolina's fossil sites - but now you are leaving? I forbid you (myself) from leaving until you have visited these sites. Got it?"
It was decided - the July fourth weekend was my only free one from now until the move, thus I would make it a fossil-hunting weekend. I would spend Friday in Aurora, NC and Saturday at Green's Mill Run, a creek in Greenville, NC.
As fate would have it (though we will soon see that the result would have been the same with any weekend, fate or no) a dude by the name of MikeDOTB (Michael Taggert) on the Fossil Forum, was also making the exact same trip this weekend. We decided to meet at the shark-digging piles at the Aurora Fossil Museum on Friday (Note to parents in NC - TAKE YOUR KIDS HERE! Free digging teeth by the thousands to their little hearts' content). Mike said he would be there by 7AM and I would try to get there by 9AM (it's a 3.5 hour drive for me).
NOTE: See Mike's Trip Report here - he has some amazing shark teeth!
I was too excited. I couldn't sleep at all the night before. So I slid out of bed and out the door at 3AM arriving at the piles in Aurora by 6:30AM. (The piles are Pungo River Formation sediment - age ~18-22 million years - donated by the nearby PCS phosphate mine).
It was just me. Not a soul in sight anywhere. Alone - in a beautiful dawn with giant piles of Miocene sediment to sift through at my leisure.
I saw my first tooth within about ten seconds of glancing at the piles. My collection grew fast and linearly from that point onward. Before too very long, a nice man showed up to sift as well. It turned out that he was a Fossil Forum member too (runner50) - a Kansas Science teacher on a trip around the country to spread his recently deceased wife's ashes at their favorite locations (including St. Claire, Pennsylvania which has some amazing fern fossils, which he showed me). Many of the ancient teeth he was collecting were for his students/class. Despite the sadness of his tale, it was incredibly heartening to meet such a man teaching in Kansas, a place we all probably know needs good science teachers!
In "the wild"
Mike showed up later than he had planned, but as soon as he got there we hit another nearby pile, meeting a guy named Brian in the process. We chatted for quite a few hours as the three of us sifted for teeth in a couple different locations. Brian, another Fossil Forum member, gave me a dolphin vertebra among other things.
Dolphin Vertebra - Thanks Brian!!
Fossil enthusiasts are awesome people, based on the few I've met!
Mike, Brian, and Me - sifting the piles in Aurora, NC
Mike, showing how it's done with his giant 1/2'' mesh screen
The piles
I almost look like a real paleontologist. Or not...
Before the day was up I had amassed a huge pile of little shark teeth, though no lunkers had given themselves up. I had already watched in envy as Mike pulled several beautiful teeth from the piles. However, I wasn't really jealous, as I was too excited from the insane numbers of teeth I was finding with my smaller 1/4" mesh screen. After about 13 hours straight (no lunch break or anything), darkness began to loom. So Mike decided to collapse the pile we had been digging into. Wet internal sediment began falling and we both began picking through it as more fell. In about a third of a second a shiny glint caught my eye in the muddy dirt. I snapped at it like a greedy hungry chicken.
It was a big Extinct Giant Mako (Isurus hastalis)!
Extinct Giant Mako make-o me happy
Also, it had a small bit of feeding damage at the very tip (which makes it only cooler to me). Now go back and compare that to my first teeth from Topsail...
Without further ado, I give you the rest of my collection from Friday, filled with makos, tigers, sand tigers, snaggletooths, cow sharks, and even one small nearly complete tooth and some pieces of megatoothed sharks (C. megalodon and/or chubitensis).
Note: I have zero tooth ID skills, so forgive any errors. There are almost certainly teeth "out of place"! I arranged these pretty quickly.
(Click for larger)
The Multi-Million Year Old Catch
Aren't they pretty?
A few of these were given to me by Mike - I don't remember which ones. Thanks Mike! He also gave me the coolest thing I now own...keep reading.
Snaggletooths and Tigers
Sand Tigers et al
Megalodon/Chubitensis?
Makos, giant megalodon chunk, and others...
Requiems, Coppers, Hammerheads? No idea...
Broken cow sharks
Ray dental plates (for grinding munchies)
The little guys (Mike estimated ~1200 total teeth)
Did you know a single shark can go through 30,000 teeth in a lifetime?
And of course, I found some other cool stuff as well...
Shark Vertebrae
How cool is that?
Coral
Love the detail in these things!
So I had a great haul - and searing back and arms as payment to Mother Nature for her bounty. But back pain or no, we had another whole day to go.
Mike and I high-tailed it to Greenville and crashed at the Motel 6, after spending at least an hour rinsing and gawking at our fossils. Mike gave me most of his teeth, except for the near perfect ones he deemed fitting for his collection. What an awesome dude!
Then again, this is a guy who has 30,000 teeth! Also, he seemed to know every single shark species, their scientific names, whom is thought to have begat whom evolutionarily, and he could instantly tell the ID of each tooth. Oh yeah, and remember how I said "Fate" had led me to want this trip at the exact same time that Mike announced that he was planning a trip? Yeah, well, he has gone on this trip almost every weekend since January.
Yeah - he's an enthusiast alright... Thanks Mike - you rock!
We awoke the next morning and headed for the dirty, trash-filled, broken glass-laden creek running near East Carolina University campus known as "Green's Mill Run." This place is famous for yielding big megalodons and great whites (and ancient soft drink bottles and bongs). The creek cuts through layers from the cretaceous to the pliocene, so things found in it can range from about 2.5 to 145 million years old!
The story was much the same at "GMR". I found quite a few great teeth (though I didn't feel as inclined to pick up every tiny tooth after the previous day), including another awesome Mako.
This was while I was still clean...
Mike found an AMAZING great white, and lot's of other great teeth - many of which he gave to me.
Mike's Great Whites
I sat and watched an awesome freshwater eel hunting minnows in one beautifully sunny pool - a first for me. We didn't have freshwater eels in NW Arkansas (that I'm aware of).
Mike found and gave me what I easily consider the coolest fossil I now own (he already has several): the fossilized inner ear bone of a whale. What kind? not a clue.
Whale's inner earbone
We visited one particular spot in the creek that cuts through this crazy shell layer filled with huge scallops and various mollusks.
Fossil Sea Scallop (as opposed to land scallop)
Some sort of big bivalve - whole and heavy!
By 6PM my back and arms would not let me sift a single more shovel load. Thus we called it a day.
Here's the total haul from Saturday:
The GMR Catch
What would have been HUGE megalodons, a very nice Mako, and a rootless great white
The Makos and the White
The other shark teeth
Another cool fossil that exists by the millions in GMR is the belemnite. Belemnites were cephalopods related to modern cuttlefish. Only one part of it's body is normally fossilized: a calcite rod in it's body that assists in maintaining proper buoyancy. These things are just cool looking - orange and long and pointy, with a translucent character in the water.
Fossilized Belemnite guards (or rostrum)
And finally, the creek has quite a lot of pieces of whalebone:
Fossilized whale bone (and a cretaceous oyster - according to Mike)
All in all, this was by far the coolest natural history excursion I've been on (or perhaps second best behind a trip to Big Bend where I found an ammonite 4 feet in diameter - I left it there). If you read this far - I hope you enjoyed my tale. If you didn't...well... you can't see this anyway.
The total weekend haul!
Cat included for scale 
Next up: fossil hunting in Pennsylvania in the next month or two! When exactly or where I don't know. But it will be fun!
Nature Walk #4.4 – Plants & Fungi
Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals.
I've broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi (this post)
The images are highly compressed for bandwidth's sake, but you can click on the images for larger versions (and a few are much deserving of an extra click).
As always feel free to give me any species identifications where I have failed to do so or done so incorrectly.
Plants
I have next to zero skills when it comes to identifying plant species. As such, the following will consist mostly of images with no real description. Don't get me wrong - I love me some botany. However, every time I learn a new plant, at least five other pieces of information fall from my skull. I'm just not that knowledgeable on plants.
One defining characteristic of the Chapel Hill/Triangle region of North Carolina in the Spring is the blanketing of the land by invasive (but beautiful) Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinensis). This stuff is everywhere, covering large swaths of canopy, much like the invasive Kudzu (Pueraria lobata) which is also from China.
Wisteria
Wisteria
Wisteria
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) - a perennial Easter visual pleasure
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)
Heavenly bamboo (Nandina Domestica) - Okay, so this is an ornamental as well. It's still cool.
Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina Domestica)
My property has quite a few various native ferns growing wild throughout the woods. I particularly love them this time of year when the new young leaves are still "fiddleheads."
Fern fiddlehead
Fern fiddlehead
Fern fiddlehead
Fern fiddlehead
I found this tiny unknown wildflower in the woods as well (anyone care to ID?):
Unknown flower
I really love these very tiny spring flowers, also found wild in the woods. They are Azure Bluets or Quaker ladies (Houstonia caerulea)
Azure Bluet (Houstonia caerulea)
Azure Bluet (Houstonia caerulea)
Another ornamental from home - the classic early bloomer Forsythia.
Forsythia
Climbing ivy from my front yard:
Ivy
Ivy
A random pretty leaf growing on the forest floor. I found lots of these and would love to know what they are...
Unknown leaf
I took this shot just because it was really a quite lovely scene. The sun shone bright as a breeze drifted through a huge expanse of grass on campus.
Grass
A nice unfinished (and apparently abandoned) beaver-felled tree:
Beaver-felled tree
Epiphytic plants growing in a tree (technically these are probably not even normal epiphytes - the tree is basically acting like a pot, so the plants are probably in the ground for all they are concerned):
Plants in a tree
My ornamental peach:
Ornamental peach
The ground of my property is also covered in a variety of mosses:
Moss
Moss
Moss
Moss
Moss
Fungi
Finally, I found a nice set of Puffball Fungi growing on the base of a tree. I have no idea what they are beyond that...
Puffball Fungus
And that is the end of this latest collection of my observations of nature. The reason I love doing this is that it gives me the perfect excuse to do a little research and learn a little bit about the organisms surrounding me, particularly on how to identify them.
Hopefully, you all get a little bit out of it as well.
See the rest of this Nature Walk:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi (this post)
Nature Walk #4.3 – Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.2 - Birds.
I've broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals (this post)
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi
The images are highly compressed for bandwidth's sake, but you can click on the images for larger versions (and a few are much deserving of an extra click).
As always feel free to give me any species identifications where I have failed to do so or done so incorrectly.
Reptiles
One creature that exists by the thousands at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science is the turtle. If my identification skills serve me right, these are Florida Cooters (Pseudemys floridana) - though they could be one of a few different slider turtles. I really love the fact that there are turtles called cooters!
Florida Cooter (Pseudemys floridana)
Florida Cooter (Pseudemys floridana)
Cooters perched on a beaver lodge
Dead cooter. As Steve Irwin would say (in that awesome Aussie accent), "It's nature's way."
Amphibians
I just happened to look in a ditch at the spot where I eat my lunch. What did I see but hundreds of tadpoles.
Tadpoles
Tadpoles
Back in the swamp behind my house, which is currently flooded and filled with millions of chirping frogs, I came across quite a few Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans), though it was nigh impossible to get a shot of them.
Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)
Northern Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans)
Mammals
I happened to glance down a swath of land cleared for a high-power transmission line and saw a familiar lone figure staring back at me. It was a White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).
White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Of course, these are a dime a dozen at my workplace as I've shown you before. Yesterday I managed to get a good shot of a deer's backside as he looked back at me. You can even see the nubs of his little antlers poking through.
"Take a Picture - It Will Last Longer"
"Get one of my guns too!"
Also in the flooded marsh behind my property, almost every single surface was covered with the shape of deer hooves.
Deer Tracks
If I don't see at least fifty Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in a day...I probably haven't gotten out of bed.
Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Ain't he cute?
As a rare treat, I managed to spot the elusive Carolina Forest Cow (Bos notrealicus).
Carolina Forest Cow (Bos notrealicus)
And finally, in the wee hours of a beautiful Spring morn, I awoke to the bloodcurdling hungry cries (and annoying paws to my sleeping face) of three not-so-big Carolina wildcats:
The Rare White Ocelot (Felix spoiledieai)
Rare White Ocelot (Felix spoiledieai)
The Marbled Manx (Felix epililepticus)
Marbled Manx (Felix epililepticus)
The Pygmy Jaguar (Felix obnoxious)
Pygmy Jaguar (Felix obnoxious)
Apparently all three of these magnificent beasts are part of some scientific study. You can tell by the radiotelemetric tracking tags affixed to their necks.
See the rest of this Nature Walk:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals (this post)
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi
Nature Walk #4.2 – Birds
Spring is Here!
This Nature Walk edition continues from #4.1 - Arthopods.
I've broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds (this post)
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi
The images are highly compressed for bandwidth's sake, but you can click on the images for larger versions (and a few are much deserving of an extra click).
As always feel free to give me any species identifications where I have failed to do so or done so incorrectly.
Birds
Other than all the other scurrying, fluttering, swimming, and pulsing critters of the world, birds are my favorite.
I've managed to snap quite a few good bird images over the past few days (though more eluded me, such as the dastardly killdeer that continually thwarted my focusing attempts). Here are some of them.
First, the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). This bird was hanging out over by the Environmental Protection Agency (near the NIEHS). It was quite a distant shot, but turned out pretty well, considering. I am rarely able to get close enough to bluebirds around here. They're just so skittish.
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis)
This next is my favorite bluebird image ever. Today I just happened to walk by this birdhouse nestled in in the woods at the treeline (the NIEHS campus is covered with them), and I saw this single eye staring out at me. Priceless!
"Please don't eat me, please don't eat me, please don't eat me!"
And the cutest thing I've seen this spring: a Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) mother with eleven ducklings.
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Swimming among the algal mats - Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
Check out the front baby's face! - Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)
And to top it off, I even have some video:
As I've mentioned before, one of the great things about the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (and the EPA) is the large lake in the middle of campus. We are a stopping ground for all sorts of migratory water fowl, with several species appearing and dissappearing throughout the year. (see the ruddy ducks from a previous Nature Walk)
One bird that I've seen alot of this year is the Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus).
Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
So regal!
"Do I look fatter to you?"
Of course, our campus is infamous for the gazillion Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) that stalk the grounds. Right now the females are mostly nested, with the males hovering nearby - both ready to start a hissy fit (literally) if you get near the nests.
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
"Back off!"
"And you think we don't have teeth"
To truly appreciate their menacing display (more hiss than bite) you must see the video:
Don't worry - this goose was not overly stressed by me. They nest about 3 feet from the walking trail. This female makes this display probably about a hundred times per day as each jogger strolls by. It's quite hilarious actually. One has to admire their ability to keep up the front (I know of quite a few people who find them dangerous and terrifying - trust me, they are neither once you've figured out their game. It's the same as a defensive opossum: open your mouth and hiss alot - that's it).
As I was walking along, a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) plopped down right next to me.
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) coming in for a landing
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)
Back at the homestead, I captured another priceless avian expression: an American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) suddenly noticing that I had snuck up behind the feeder.
American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)
Nearby, a White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) skittered up the huge poplar tree in my front yard:
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
A Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) perched as well.
Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
Finally, I managed to capture a far away American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) scoping the farmland below for tasty treats. I grew up calling these "Sparrow Hawks," which is apparently a common misnomer - they are actually falcons (not hawks).
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)
Who says the dinosaurs went extinct?
See the rest of this Nature Walk:
- 4.1 - Arthropods
- 4.2 - Birds (this post)
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi
Nature Walk #4.1 – Arthropods
Spring is Here!
Days like these remind me what I love so much about the South...warm Springs exploding with life.
This edition of my series of Nature Walks is a big one. I took all of the following images over the past few days - some on my lunch break, some at the NIEHS campus, some at home, and some simply next to the road on my daily commute. So perhaps "Nature Walk" is a misnomer for this edition, but it suffices. Even while staring at the lake through my windows at work I am walking nature in my mind (unless I'm sectioning brains).
I've broken this post up into four parts due to the large number of images:
- 4.1 - Arthropods (this post)
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi
The images are highly compressed for bandwidth's sake, but you can click on the images for larger versions (and a few are much deserving of an extra click).
As always feel free to give me any species identifications where I have failed to do so or done so incorrectly.
Arthropods
The first thing I'd like to note is that if you haven't visited Bugguide.net before, you should check it out. It is an utterly indispensable online reference for everything arthropod. I almost never fail to identify insects using it (and it has quite a few experts and educated amateur entomologists always willing to help in identification).
My wife walked into the house white-faced a couple of days ago. She had gone into my shed for a tool. This is what she saw:
Dolomedes tenebrosus spider
"Go ahead - touch me - I dare you"
Dolomedes tenebrosus spider
It's a Dolomedes tenebrosus spider. She's a lovely beast. She keeps my shed relatively bug-free.
I saw this next spider at the pond back behind my property today. It's a Six-Spotted Fishing Spider (Dolomedes triton). Interestingly, I learned that it is of the same genus as the monster above, though they are massively different in size, color, habit, and habitat. They both belong to the family of Fishing Spiders (though the first one does not live on water).
Dolomedes triton spider
Dolomedes triton spider
While turning over some leaves, I found this brilliantly colored orb-weaver, (I believe it's a Marbled Orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus)).
Marbled Orbweaver (Araneus marmoreus)
At lunch I struggled to capture an image of this stunning beauty of a Coleopteran. It would sit still as I focused, then dart about a foot forward in a blink - I would move, refocus - rinse and repeat... It's a Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata). What luck! Two different species with "Six-spotted" in the common name (the beetle and the spider above).
Spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)
Spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)
Of course, the Azaleas are in full bloom at the homestead, and are of course covered in bees, flies, and butterflies.
Here's a Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
Next is the Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica). I know they are carpenter bees because they drill into my wood-paneled house. This is followed by hungry red-bellied woodpeckers drilling into said wood to retrieve the hymenopteran snacks. This is followed by me patching and repainting the woodpeckers' hack job. It's a semi-circle of life.
(Note: If you haven't seen it, you must check out my story from earlier today: The Carpenter Bee and Her Mate: A Heartwarming (and Dissapointing) Tale of Rescue.
Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica)
A bee (Anthophila (Apoidea) - Bees) of unknown identity (I couldn't even peg it to a family - help please? It was about half the size of the carpenter bees.
Unknown Bee
And some Ants (Formicidae) on a flower. I didn't even realize they were there until I checked out the image on my computer. It was a tiny flower.
Unknown Ants
Finally, I found a nice specimen of what I believe is a Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) ootheca (egg case).
Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina)
Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina)
See the rest of this Nature Walk:
- 4.1 - Arthropods (this post)
- 4.2 - Birds
- 4.3 - Reptiles, Amphibians, & Mammals
- 4.4 - Plants & Fungi