Castle Hayne 10-2013
Twenty-eight members of the North Carolina Fossil Club were greeted by cold and dreary weather on Friday, October 25th to try their luck fossil hunting at Castle Hayne. By 10 AM we had the paper work filled out and headed into the quarry where we had a brief delay to wait for a piece of heavy equipment to pass by (Front end loader carrying the motor to their dragline!). They proceeded to take us to the back of the quarry, a new area for the club to hunt! This area was mainly Cretaceous Peedee with some patches of Eocene limestone. Not long after we started hunting the sun came out and the day turned perfect for hunting fossils. Cool and sunny!!! Eric Sadorf found the nicest Ariculatus with both cusplits, a complete root with just the tip broken off the end of the tooth. Its great to see a nice rick again since our hunting areas have been reduced so much lately. The Cretaceous material provided some great finds. Amber Jones found her first mososaur tooth along with Wyatt Plaster. Four Mosasaur teeth were found in total! Wyatt also found a complete Sawfish tooth as well as Don Rideout. Don also found a Anomaeodus phaeseolus tooth (Cretaceous fish) & Squalicorax pristodontus (Cretaceous shark). Trish Kohler had great luck with her ammonite section, Squatina hassei (angel shark vertebra), a nice squid beak and a H. mortonis (Echinoid)! Libby Smalley found a nautiloud and ammonite section. Special thanks to Libby for her help monitoring the group. This can be a dangerous quarry! Harriet Angelis, Kathy Glielmi, Mike & Ken Troutman & George Marrie all found a nice assortment of echinoids, bracheopods, and small cretaceous sharks teeth. Phil & Margarita Lankford were there with their two children, Alan & Alice. I think it was the kids first time fossil hunting. Crystal Lublin and her son Jaden found a nice assortment of small sharks teeth, echinoids and a four inch vase coral. Other members were Diane Willis, Rufus Johnson, Mike Bruff and Oscar Jones. I had a great day with one Mosasaur, some nice Squalicorax pristodontus and three H. kellumi (one pristine). Special thanks again go out to Martin Marietta and Doug Pope for the opportunity to hunt this special quarry.