First post- GMR- 2/26/10
Hi, this is my first post, sorry it’s a little late. I’m an ECU student that discovered GMR held fossils a couple years ago during an ecology lab. We were measuring current, aaaaaand I started to notice teeth peppering the gravel. Needless to say, I got yelled at for not paying attention. Ever since then, I would search for teeth in the stream on days I got bored. Recently, I’ve started to become very interested in fossil hunting. In the past, I have always simply walked the stream around the area where 5th street passes over. It’s usually less than 6 inches deep (unless it recently rained, then it’s 5 feet deep!), and there’s tons of surface gravel to view.
Anyway, I discovered this website and read some of the trip reports. You guys have some awesome stuff to post! (envy) I’ve still only gone to GMR maybe 7 or 8 times, usually for about two hours, but I will be frequenting the stream more often. Last Friday I walked around the usual area off of 5th St. from noon to about 2:30, slowly heading upstream. I immediately found a 1½ inch enchodus tooth, followed by a broken root 1½ inch broad-toothed mako, and a split sawfish rostral tooth. Later, I found a couple pycnodont teeth, along with a hundred other smaller/broken sharks’ teeth. Upstream from the 5th St. bridge maybe about two football field lengths, I came upon an area that was a natural dam of sorts. Lots of large granite rocks drew a line from bank to bank. I was tired of walking at this point, but I figured a new place with gravel is worth checking out. After a minute or two, I found the fossilized innards of some gastropod’s shell, followed by another worn root 1½ inch mako. (Also, I brought a friend along, as I learned in the past not to fossil hunt alone or one might meet a hobo that wants to show off his buck knife!) My friend then found a perfect 1 inch tiger that had no root, serrations or enamel missing. (more envy) Right before we decide to go grab lunch, I notice something stuck in between two big granite chunks. Is it toothy?... yes! – A tiger tooth for myself! It has a little enamel missing on the posterior surface, but other than that it’s nice, and a healthy 1¼ inches! After that we scanned for one final minute and then went for steak biscuits at Cracker Barrel.
Thanks to other users of this website, I now have a new area to check out that, based on your awesome pictures from your better trips, might make it fun for me to try the area between Elm St. Park and a little past the 10th St. bridge. I have also learned that most users of this site use shovels and sifters. So, thanks to someone’s article, I now have two ½” wire mesh sifters made from wire storage drawers, zip ties and chicken wire. Maybe now I can break the 2 inch tooth mark! (Below I have included pictures of this trip's findings, as well as my better findings from all of my trips.)
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