Old Dock May 2016

We had a beautiful sunny warm day to collect ~2mya fossils from Old Dock, meeting first at the Master Mart on Rt. 130 and caravanning to the site. Libby Smalley expertly lead the trip when Linda McCall took the day for family matters, and Diane Willis wrapped it up at the end of the day. There were 17 of us collecting from 10:00am to 3:00pm, including four children. No mishaps occurred, the children all had a great time, and only one black snake was reported.

Many nice specimens were found, including coral, bryozoan, some large tulip shells, lightening whelks, other conchs and whelks, large clam shells (as well as many many smaller species), spindle shells, cones, olives, drills, venus, nutmegs, spiny jewel box shells, oysters, and lots of shells in general. Elizabeth found a whole sand dollar! Nate and Ken each found nice ~1” shark teeth, as did Terry with her somewhat smaller bull shark tooth. Jonathan prized his “chunks of everything” finds! Diane and Joe each found crab claws. Perhaps the most surprising find was Terry’s ~3/4” round regular echinoid in perfect shape!

Rowan, Libby’s son, found two spiny jewel boxes, dozens of olive shells and several encrusted chunks of matrix. In searching for the micros, Libby found a few tiny murexes and other gastropods. She and Rowan both found three fish skulls. He sure had fun with all of us! Libby wishes she had snapped a picture of the beautiful alive crawfish Joe found. It was red/orange and large!

Diane Willis