Castle Hayne 3-2014
Twenty seven members of the NCFC met on March 28th for the first trip of the year into Castle Hayne. Rains earlier in the week left muddy roads but provided fresh hunting areas. Most members chose to hunt the Cretaceous Peedee area in the rear of the quarry where excellent cretaceous specimens were found. Todd & Heather Power, Don Rideout & myself all found mosasaur teeth while Earl Gurtin found a mosasaur vertebra. In the crab department, Libby Smalley found an Eocene crab carapace while John Paul a crab claw. Don Rideout and Don Clements were busy finding Cretaceous crabs in concretions (Aveltemessus g.) I believe that Don Rideout found the only complete Cariculatus (sharks tooth) 2 ¾ inch!!! Don along with Dan Shuller, Earl Guertin, Eric Wilkinson, Al Klatt all found Squalicorax sharks teeth. Al even found a nice Angel Shark vertebra (Squatinah) . Diane Willis, Eric Wilkinson, and Don Rideout all found Cretaceous ammonite sections (Sphenodiscus l ). Trish & Louis Kohler found Euhrodia regusa ideali (echinoid) and along with Al Klat found a large slit shell. Harriet Angelis & Kathy Glielmi found a wide assortment of echinoids, small sharks teeth, sand dollars, brachiopods, limpet & scallop shells. Ron Krantz and George Marrier also found an assortment of echinoids, small sharks teeth and even a spinal disk! Other participants were Eric Sadorf, Glen Butler, Phil, Margarita, Alice & Alan Lankford, Joy Harrington, John Hamilton and Gerald Reel. Without a doubt the most important and noteworthy find of the trip was found by Todd Power. It appears that Todd found the most complete and best preserved Eocene or Cretaceous turtle skull ever found from North Carolina. The area he was digging in had a nice mixture of both Eocene and Cretaceous material so it is hard to tell which it came from. The lower jaw was missing but the upper skull appears to be complete!! This specimen may well be a new or previously undocumented species and merits further study and a paper. Way to go Todd!!! Special thanks go out to Doug Pope and Martin Marietta for the opportunity to hunt this quarry.