Digging with Frosty......
Work once again brought me to the GMR area (Kinston) last Friday. Explained to the wife I really didn’t want to fight the Friday evening Raleigh rush hour traffic back, but she was no fool and knew what I was fishing for. So with a “forged” kitchen pass I spent the night in an area hotel with dreams of 3” great whites in my screen. I wasn’t hoping for much considering I found my biggest tooth (2-3/4 inch Carcharocles auriculoatus) in addition to my second largest tooth / largest Carcharodon carcharias (2-1/2 inches) on my last trip at the Run. As long as I found something in good condition or unique, I knew my fossil cravings would be satisfied.
I pulled into the playground / baseball field lot around 7:00 a.m. and parked the only vehicle to be seen. I geared up and was off to uncover some buried treasure. Still being a creature of habit, I made my way to my secret location….lol (10th Street Bridge). This was the area of GMR that attracted me since discovering the GMR fossil cornucopia on http://www.ecphora.net/mgs/gmr.htm. And yes…it still continues to attract me in addition to giving up its bounty.
On my way there I noticed something rare in this neck of the woods… a snowman. I hoped this was a good omen. I decided to work the tunnel again with my graduated screen basket; however, this time in conjunction with my smaller screen 1/4" screen to see what finds went through my 1/2 inch screen on my prior dig. Right off the bat I found what I believe is my first pathological tooth, a great white with a fat old root and some tip feeding damage. If the tip was intact, it would have measure 1-3/4 inches (in addition to a little help from a tooth stretcher). I’m thinking it’s pathological because the tooth has a unique torque like twist to it. Now that I was satisfied with a decent find, the other fossils found would be just icing on the cake.
While scooping gravel in the tunnel I notice a “round” rock that kept eluding my shovel. I thought to myself that this was a uniquely shaped round rock. So I stopped shoveling and fished it out of the water. I couldn’t believe what I thought I found and verified it when I brought it out in the light, my first whale caudal (tail) vertebrae that measured exactly 4 inches. If the tunnel was frozen it would have made for one hell of a hockey puck.
Later I found a very cool piece of bone material with predation marks all over it. The side bite still showed the serration marks in the groove, so I am assuming great white feeding. The upper marks were about 1” apart so based on dentition measurements on www.elasmo.com I’m thinking is was about a 10 footer.
Also found my largest in addition to being a heart breaker (damaged root) goblin shark (Scapanorhynchus texanus) that just went over 1-3/4 inches.
I also found an antique green glass “D-patent” Coke bottle from New Bern, NC (produced from 1938 to 1951). FYI…The birthplace of PEPSI is located in New Bern, North Carolina and was first invented by Caleb Bradham in his pharmacy in 1898. New Bern is the second-oldest town in North Carolina (1710). The oldest town is Bath, incorporated in 1705. It had a little feeding…I mean sipping damage on the bottom. But other than that and in addition to being rolled in the gravel for who knows how long, I thought it was a cool find. Plus less future broken glass down stream (got about 3 small annoying cuts this trip). Also found a cool piece of drift wood / tree root that was hollow.
In all I found about 200+ beaters for the nieces and nephews and about 20+ decent smaller / intact ones along with the usual haul of belemnites, a beautiful small GW, some pycnodont teeth, some whale ear bone (tympanic bulla) partials, some rays teeth, a small unidentified fossil (recently posted in the forum section), various bone material, shells in addition to a yellow marble and 8 cents for my daughter. No lucky penny finds this trip, but all in all I have no reason to complain.
Was hoping to meet up with my friend Gerald aka “Reeltooth”; however, his phone went unanswered in his truck (he parked by the 5th Street lot). Exhausted, I didn’t want to roll the dice and trek downstream to see if he made it so I decided to call it a day that mid afternoon. Swung by the 5th Street lot and left a note on his truck. I later received a return call on my way back home that revealed his dig also went “ok”….. two GW’s that totaled just shy of 5 inches. You do the math. I swear he is part bloodhound and can smell teeth through the water.
I assume I identified most of my finds correctly. Apparently the “toads” (Otodus obliquus) I found on my last trip were identified wrong and upon further review by Daryl, in conjunction with his secretive band of veteran GMR collectors / associates, e-mailed me the correct ID.
Safe and fruitful digging to all…..
Brad
aka “Brachiomyback”