Castle Hayne April 2015
I was pleased with the new area Martin Marietta provided us to hunt this year. The hunting area was rather small compared to years past but we had both Cretaceous (Peedee) and Eocene areas to hunt and found some great specimens. The April 10th trip had the advantage of hunting a spot that had only been hunted a few times. In the Peedee hill, Trish & Louis Kohler, Todd & Heather Power, Don Clements, Eric Sadorf all found mosasaur teeth. Don Clements found one of the new domed Hardouinia mortonis echinoids that have recently been discovered at Castle Hayne. Don Clements, Don Rideout and Jill Mitchell found very large slit shells (Entemnotrochus nixeus). Jill also found a near perfect Unifascia carolinensis echinoid. Trish & Louis Kohler, Oscar Jones and Don Rideout all found C. ariculatus. Don found three Linthia hanovernesis echinoids while Trish & Amber Jones found nautiloids (Eutrephoceras carolinensis). Both Don and Joanne Panek-Dubrock found Coelopleurus carolinensis echinoids. The second trip on April 24th also provided some great specimens. We were able to hunt the same spot as the first trip and then relocate to a new area. Some notable finds from this trip were: Linda McCall two Agassizia wilmingtonica echinoids, Diane Willis complete crab carapace Eocene (Wilsonimaia sp), Victor Krynicki Squalicorax pristodontus sharks tooth, Jim Tunney Nautiloid, Julie Niederkorn Archaeocete whale root portion Basiliotritus wardii ???, John Timmerman Unifascia carolinensis echinoid, Tyler Schutts Anomaeodus phaseolus tooth battery This Cretaceous fish tooth battery is the most complete Ive ever seen (please see image), Travis Seymour C. ariculatus tooth & Squalicorax tooth, Joanne Panek-Dubrock Squalicorax tooth, David Sanderson Cretaceous zip shell Rastellum (Arctostrea) aguilerae Fairly complete! Special thanks go out to David Wood and Martin Marietta for the opportunity to hunt this quarry.