Anything happening in the South East USA in December?

[Alex Murray]

Hi y’all,

I’ll be travelling from Australia to the South East USA (NC, SC, GA, possibly FL) in December, and although I know it is going to be cold, I was wondering if anybody knew of any digs happening in those areas that would be happy to take a tag along?  I’m experienced in fieldwork with both micro-fossils and macro-fossils, and I’m currently completing my honours thesis here in Australia.

Thanks!

[Lisa Lundgren]

Florida is actually perfect during the winter for fossil hunting! The Montbrook Fossil Dig from the University of Florida might be of interest to you. @rnarducci was the volunteer coordinator for the dig last year, she might have additional info to help. Here’s a write up about it: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/montbrook/

Also for Florida: The Florida Fossil Hunters ( @cindy-lockner @bonnie-cronin) , the Paleontological Society of Florida ( @proth), the Southwest Florida Fossil Hunters ( @cferrara), and the Tampa Bay Fossil Club all go on a lot of field trips during that time.

For Georgia, @ashley-quinn and @thomas-thurman from the Paleontological Association of Georgia might have leads.

For South Carolina, @rboessenecker and @sboessenecker are from the Mace Brown Museum in Charleston and might have ideas.

For North Carolina, it will be colder, but there’s so much good paleo up there. @lcone  @lmccall  @julie-niederkorn and a bunch of other folks can help point you in the right direction!

This is just off the top of my head, so if anyone else has ideas, suggestions, or comments, jump in! @bmacfadden, @vperez, @jeanette-pirlo?

[Lee Cone]

Hi Alex,

I, too, would recommend the Montbrook site in the winter months.  It involves collecting for the U. of Florida, but it is well run, welcoming to all levels of amateur and professional paleontologists, and prolific in fossils of all types.  Large complete turtles are common.  When I was there my favorite find was a juvenile gomphothere tusk.  The Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, FL is a must, if you go to Montbroook to fossil hunt.

In NC traveling to the far eastern point of the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, NC offers collecting that you can keep from their “pit of pungo” by sifting the gravel reject material.  That fossiliferous material is mine reject donated to the museum by the phosphate mine in Aurora.  Occasionally large mako teeth (1-2 inches) and megs ( up to 2 inches) can be found, but more commonly the teeth are smaller (<1 inch).  The museum also offers great displays of shark, whale, and other miocene-pliocene marine fossil material.

Mine access for collecting purposes in both North and South Carolina is either non-existent or extremely difficult to access, due to liability issues.  In the low country area of South Carolina I collect by diving the rivers, but you must have a Hobby Divers License and December is not exactly ideal for scuba diving. LOL.  Now summer- that’s a different story!  If you go to Charleston, SC, I would highly recommend the Mace Brown Museum.

Hope this helps

[Alex Murray]

I’ll give them a look, thanks guys!

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