New Fossil Find Could be Millions of Years Old!

 

Wow! What a find! There’s a new townhouse development going up just down Dorchester Road from us. From experience I know that when ground around here is dug up on a large scale there may be fossils to be found.

Two Sundays ago we went over and walked around. When I spotted this smallish sandy area at the work site, I paused to give a close look. Lo and behold this round protruding object caught my eye. I knew immediately that it is a shark vertebrae. This one is about an inch and half wide. 

I have found a number of shark teeth and vertebrae before over the years in a few miles radius from where I live. Hard to believe, but the South Carolina Lowcountry was under water (today’s Atlantic Ocean) as far west as Columbia, S.C. millions and millions of years ago. 

People sell shark teeth and vertebrae online! 

Fine Fossil Find!

 

A Sunday afternoon bicycle ride was highlighted not by the frappuccinos at Starbucks but by a tiny treasure found on the way back home. 

Alesia suggested we stop and walk around a new construction site near the clubhouse and driving range at the Wescott Golf Course off Dorchester Road in North Charleston. 

We parked our bikes and walked around the small pond you see behind me. After 10-15 minutes, I spotted a shark’s tooth. It was flat on the ground and I knew right away what it was. 

Alesia snapped a couple nice photos. Click on this image to see the jagged edges of a fossil that may be, what, thousands of years old. 

I put the tooth in a small clear bag to tell it apart from the others in our collection. Most of these shark’s teeth and vertebrae were found by my sons and me years ago when we moved to Coosaw Creek. We were early settlers in this beautiful neighborhood and would go to the back of the property where new roads were being created. 

Finding fossils is fun and challenging. Sunday’s discover makes me want to get out and look for some more…soon! 

Update: November 24- Thanksgiving Day

Alesia and I returned to the Wescott site for a little pre-dinner exercise. We spotted another fossil hunter named Nathan who had been out here for about an hour. 

Wow, he found more than two dozen pieces, mostly shark’s teeth and some vertebrae parts. 

Nathan let me see what he had in his baggie. Click on the image for a better look! 

This was his biggest find so far today. Nathan told me how he and his father are experienced fossil finders, saying they have a “mini museum” of fossils. 

He found a tiny white tooth while I walked with him. 

This encounter encourages me to return to this site even though we struck out today.