A H C ROL RT IN O A N The Newsletter of the North Carolina Fossil Club www.ncfossilclub.org F O B S U ANUS SIL CL J 2014 Number 4 2015 Spring Calendar John Everette (1932 - 2014) January John Everette died at home from complications of a pulmonary 18 NCFC Meeting - NCMNS, 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh. disease the night before the Fossil Fair in November, 2014. All 1:30 pm, Level A conference room. Speaker: Alison of us who knew John join Sallie, his wife, and children Ty and Moyer, “Looking for Fossil Feathers” & “Dreadnoughtus Valerie and their mates in grieving his loss. The fullness in which schrani” (see below right for more on Alison). he lived his life enriched the lives of so many others. John is February remembered as: Everyone’s good buddy…family man…mentor…architect… 28 Schiele Museum Fossil Fair - 1500 East Garrison Blvd., bridge player…ski instructor…church worker…knowledgeable… Gastonia, NC 28054. 9 am to 4 pm. Contact: Tony Pasour, outdoorsman…gardener…bar-b-cue specialist…chat room [email protected] participant…founding member of the North Carolina Fossil Club March and author of its original By-Laws and Rules of Procedure… 15 NCFC Meeting - NCMNS, 11 West Jones Street, Raleigh. competitor…rock hound…geode cutter…squirrely…Indian 1:30 pm, Level A conference room. Speaker TBA. artifact collector…first out of the chute at Lee Creek…Rocky April Point and Castle Hayne trip leader…Riker box salesman… 25 Norwood Arbor Day and Fossil Fair 10:00 - 4:00 jokester and self-proclaimed “mean, lean, sex machine”. (tentative) Contact: Ruffin Tucker at 704-784-1672 or Joy Herrington [email protected]. John and I hunted Rocky Point (a lot) back in the good old Ediacaran Fossil Field Trip, Jacobs Creek Quarry, days. In fact, I originally introduced John to the quarry. Before 2081 West Slate Mine Road, Denton, NC 28239. Dates to the rock-on-the-rental-car incident, we could enter at 7:30 and be assigned according to weather and mine conditions in leave at 4:30, Monday - Friday. Coming from Raleigh, this meant February and/or March, 2015. When dates are advertised then that we could actually spend more time hunting than driving, contact: Ruffin Tucker, email: [email protected]. certainly not the case now. Of course, in those days we could also actually endure the physical demands of hunting 9 hours and driving 4, certainly not the case of late. John found the first Hexanchus agassizi tooth ever collected in North Carolina on one of those trips. It is now in the NC Museum of Natural Sciences collection. He also located a spot in the quarry where the Comfort Member of the Castle Hayne Limestone was exposed and was able to collect several exceptional examples of the very rare Galeocerdo eaglesomei and Serratolamna koerti teeth. Many of you got your introduction to Rocky Point and Castle Hayne under his tutelage; he generously shared his extensive knowledge as trip leader to those quarries for many years. The Club will continue and with it, so will John, simply because he shaped so much of what we are. Richard Chandler Rita O. McDaniel (1942 - 2014) Rita was an off-again, on-again member of the Club for many years. Older members will remember her as a guide and extremely dedicated collector at PCS. She lived in Murrells Inlet, SC. Alison Moyer (January Speaker) Originally from Langhorne, PA, Alison got her B.S. at Drexel University (Philadelphia) in 2008 and moved to Raleigh in August 2010 to start her Ph.D. with Mary Schweitzer. She expects to finish August, 2015. She was lured into paleontology (from medicine) by Dr. Kenneth Lacovara who invited her to join his group in Patagonia, digging up Dreadnoughtus. She met Dr. Schweitzer at a seminar at Drexel. President’s Note Hanson Quarry 9/25/2014 Another year has come and gone. 2014 brought us many Seven crazy NC Fossil Club members showed up to hunt changes, challenges and accomplishments. After a decade and Hanson Quarry after it rained several inches the day before. The a half in the works, we proudly rolled out Volume I, “Fossil road in was a slippery, sloggy mess. We had to ditch all the cars Invertebrates & Plants” in March, and Volume II, “Fossil at the entrance to the collecting area and only take up the trucks Mollusks”, in September – two of our four part Fossil Volume and 4 wheel drive vehicles and even then, our leader, quarry series (thanks to Richard Chandler and the CD-ROM board’s manager John Warlick, nearly got his truck stuck on the way up tireless efforts). We then started up an on-line store on our web to the parking spot! We trudged to the collecting area and got to page and began accepting PayPal orders (thanks to Mike Bruff work. Todd Power found an awesome whale bulla; Terri Thomas and his computer expertise), and now receive orders from around a nice white shark tooth and an interesting crab claw; George the world (yes, we did get one from Europe…). Marrier cleaned up with a nearly intact large whale vert, several We met many new friends and bid fond farewells to a few as white shark teeth and really nice Chesapecten. I can’t remember well. New faces joined the ranks of the established Field Trip who found the seal bone and nice crab claw, but they were really Leaders, with Libby Smalley taking on Onslow and Belgrade, cool. The collecting turned out to be better than I thought it Gustavo Pierangelini for GMR, James Bain stepping in for would be, but we all ended up looking like mud puppies by the the November cook-out and Deborah Young for a last minute time we left. Still – it was better than staying home and cleaning November ad-hoc trip to Onslow. Eric Sadorf not only handled house!! the May Aurora Fossil Festival, but covered the November Fossil Hanson Quarry 10/29/2014 Fair at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh as well. Thirteen plucky NC Fossil Club members turned out for a We made a number of changes to the by-laws and Rules of perfect fall day of collecting the Yorktown Formation at Hanson Procedure in 2014, mostly to bring us into the 21st century, and Quarry in Rocky Mount. We have only been coming to this were aided in this endeavor by Joy Herrington, Diane Willis locality since April, but it is fast becoming a favorite. Though and Trish Kohler tirelessly going over the wording to make there is less to be picked up each time we go (the collecting area sure it was just right – and this was on top of their other club is small), wonderful things still keep popping up. responsibilities, which are NOT small. At least a couple nice white shark teeth are found each trip, as Joanne outdid herself at both book roll-out parties, with well as loads of fish vertebra and whale bone fragments. Toss in a awesome food and drink, going over and above her usual duties couple crab claw sections, some really big Chesapectens, oysters, as Secretary and “meeting snack provider”. Emmons’ Fish Teeth (which are not teeth at all), fish skull parts, Rick Bennett plied his talents as an artist to provide us with the occasional bird bone, sturgeon scute, whale bulla, whale vert, fabulous cover art for our two new Fossil Volumes (despite a and/or seal bone and this site never ceases to amaze. It is small nasty bump on the head). enough that the rest of the collectors are usually within earshot of Our club continues its tradition of outstanding outreach each other, so the camaraderie is excellent too. with members like Ruffin Tucker, Jonathan & Kathy Fain, Joy The site probably needs some time to weather after this trip, we Herrington, Trish & Louis Kohler, Joanne Dubrock, Diane Willis, picked it pretty clean. Looking forward to hunting there again in James Bain, Mary Boulton, Richard Chandler, Charlie & Pam 2015. Linda McCall Causey and Roxada Story being joined by Don Clements, Don Rideout, Todd & Heather Power, Terry Denny, Viktor Krynicki, Rufus Johnson, Tracey Hale, Dominick & Cathy Bettini, Ramona Givens, (and I am sure I didn’t remember everyone) displaying at places like: the Scheile Museum (Gastonia – February), Science Olympiad (March – Joanne), Norwood Arbor Day & Fossil Fair (Norwood – April), Dino Egg Hunt (Durham – April), Aurora Fossil Festival (Aurora – May), Mini Fossil Fair (Rankin – September), Discovery Place (October – Charlotte), NC Museum of Natural History Fossil Fair (Raleigh – Nov). Toss in our extra events like the two Aurora Picnics, the COA Convention in August and the NAPC Convention in February and it’s been a busy year. Then of course there were the field-trips to all the usual places and to a few Out-of-State places as well: The Smithsonian (Linda – April), Utah (James – June), Alabama (Jim – October), Oklahoma (Linda – October)and there was more than enough collecting going on. What all this is intended to say is that a Club is a reflection of its members – their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes, dreams and aspirations, and OUR Club is great, because its members go above and beyond to make it so. It is an honor and a privilege to be your president and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing me to represent you. Fantastic sturgeon scute, Linda McCall’s hand Have a wonderful Holiday Season and see you all next year! Linda Oklahoma Trip Castle Hayne Trips Just a few hardy souls made the trek from North Carolina to During the fall, two collecting trips were scheduled to Martin Oklahoma in October for the 4 day hunt (Linda McCall, Lynn Marietta’s Castle Hayne quarry.