Onslow 11-2012

Eighteen collectors attended the fossil trip to Onslow Quarry on November 30. After signing in and watching the required safety video we were escorted to the collecting area. The collecting area was small but had not been recently collected. At this particular area of the quarry the best collecting is done by digging into the top layer of dirt to reach a gravel layer that sits on top of the Castle Hayne limestone. This gravel layer has a mixed assemblage of marine and land animal remains. Since this is labor intensive, an alternate collecting method is to look through weathered piles left by previous digging activity for small shark teeth and bone and other fossils. I didn't get the chance to see what everyone had found but most people left with some shark teeth and various pieces of bone. Wyatt Plaster found a nice Carcharocles auriculatus (or possibly angustidens) tooth, Jim Tunney had a nice collection of fish and shark teeth including some Cretaceous teeth- Scapanorhynchus and a pychnodont crushing tooth .  Diane Willis found a nice matrix piece from the Castle Hayne Formation that had both Echinolampas appendiculata and Periarchus lyelli. Bruce Hargreaves did some digging and found several megalodon fragments.  I managed to find a nice Carcharocles auriculatus next to the parking area towards the end of the day. The weather was nice and we received good news that sometime next Spring we might have a whole new area to fossil collect as they are currently clearing some more land next to the current quarry location. Thanks to Martin-Marrietta Onslow Quarry for allowing us to collect on their property.