Diver Up!!

The advent of hand-held recording devices, and Al Gore’s invention (the internet, of course), have certainly had an impact on fossil collecting. Shared knowledge and shared experiences are a just a couple of impacts that come to mind ---- so DW, crew, and myself decided to try our luck at the Edisto. I was informed of a cleared area near the river, and thought maybe some Native Indian artifacts may have been uncovered. DW showed me fosspitality and agreed to a quick land hunt. I geared up to hunt and well, one of my collecting techniques may someday surface (pun intended); luckily I scored a nice chert spear-tip. The heat got too much, fossperation (courtesy of Megamouth) set-in from the blazing sun, and into the dark waters of the Edisto we went….there were not many new gravel beds apparent so fanning was in order. After a few hours I ran into some nice layers stacked…a reformulated layer on top of the Ashley lens…some decent shark teeth, a small, but almost perfect fish bill, and one angy out of the layer with a pitted root (bummer). The next spot was more course gravel, and I saw what looked like a turtle shell upside down…as I examined it hydraulically I realized it was an elephant tooth…DW informed me that I had found my first Gomphothere tooth (not whole but still sweet!). I searched this spot hoping for more elephant material; no such luck but I managed some more shark teeth and a nice piece of pottery. The last spot had a nice mix of gravel and some Ashley; myself and DW were rewarded with a squalodon teeth and more teeth…I bagged three whole teeth from this spot. Pretty good day in the river and some Moes’ topped of a glorious day!!

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