WAS HELD ON MAY 28-29 THIS YEAR (Memorial Day weekend each year)

May 23, 2009

Photo of phosphate excavation equipment in the park across from the Museum

Sharks Page 16

AURORA FOSSIL FESTIVAL

Here's Heidi at the fest, and a surprise meeting with a website customer she invited by email to come that CAME!  Moe said he's really glad he came.

Extinct toothed whale teeth

Associated fossil crocodile upper/lower jaws

A second set of croc jaws

AURORA, NORTH CAROLINA

AURORA MUSEUM

Plenty of information to identify the fossils you find, and general rules to respect the area and others:

Glenn, next to the huge great white shark jaw inside the museum:

A new fossil toothed whale exhibit, not from the phosphate mine, is a great display.  The museum purchased it for $40,000, dated to the Miocene age, 5-23 million years old. Undetermined Odontocete species, excavated by Matty Swilp, South Carolina.  Whale measures nearly 15 feet long (20 feet when alive), closer to a relative of the modern sperm whales rather than the "shark toothed" whales.  It apparently had a hard life - its teeth were very worn, and there is evidence of healed rib fractures on the left side and gouges in some of the bones perhaps bite marks:

Edestus heinrichi

AURORA FOSSIL FESTIVAL 2005

Was held on Saturday, May 28, 2005

Here's the Aurora Fossil Show in Aurora, North Carolina - held every year in this small town.  There's a phosphate mine close by that produces thousands of shark's teeth and other fossils that are collected as a by-product of the phosphate mining.  For the show, they bring dump loads of the dirt from the mine to a "sand pile" in the center of town.  For the Festival, the people can dig all they want and keep what they find!  Awesome finds too!  Across from the "sand pile" is the Museum, recently renovated, that will knock your socks off...enjoy the journey!

Glenn (above) is actually on a pile of the phosphate gravel outside of Chocowinity NC

Another happy camper (judging by the color of his rear) from the fossil dig!  Dad said he could take the pail full of phosphate with fossils home if he could carry them to the car!

What fun to dig fossils for free with the family to help!

Adults have just as much fun finding fossils

One little girl made her American Flag part of her fossil dig

The annual Fossil Auction that benefits the Aurora Museum - great stuff!

This young man REALLY took advantage of the pile of phosphate in looking for fossils in the pile...

Another enthusiastic fossil pit "diver" ADULT with a dirty behind that we KNOW enjoyed the show and found some great fossils too! ...

(Above) Here's a little sweetie that enjoyed the fossils in our booth at the show - and WE enjoyed the shark backpack she had.  It turns out this was a gift to her when she had to go into the hospital for her fifth brain surgery.  A great gift for a tough little trooper.

Above is a good example of an Aurora megalodon tooth.  Only the portion showing above Ken's hand is what was found, the rest was restored by a master.  So it does not have the same value as an original tooth but sure is a beauty!

AURORA NC FOSSIL MUSEUM

A list of Man Eating Sharks

 Photographs of the phosphate mine and a model of a cross section of the mine showing layers of fossils.

Ore being slurried for pumping.  This material is FULL of fossils that get sucked into the transport tubes up to 11 miles long

A great summary of the mine operation and the fossil layers found there:

Below is our great Fossil Identification showcase in our store (now in our home).  Some are unusual fossils, others are more common fossils found right here on our own Myrtle Beach and surrounding areas.  Folks came from near and far with their fossils to find out what they are.  We've got reference books to back up the display as well, we're delighted to see what everyone has found.  (See the Weirdest pages for a great Weird Museum we've set up of our MOST unusual collections).

FOSSIL TURTLE HEADS on Myrtle Beach?

For those of you, such as our good customer here,  who have found these "fossil turtle heads" on Myrtle Beach, particularly after a big storm or from dredging, we've got bad news for you...

It's actually the 60 million year old fossilized snail (or rock-like cast) formed by silt that replaced the snail from an extinct Cucullaea, which is a mollusk similar to a modern-day Ark shell.  Here's a photo of the full shell (below) so you can picture the "turtle head" inside it.

The April 3, 1997 

Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC) ran an article entitled:

"Man identifies Strange objects found on Beach".

The essence of the article is that along with thousands of sand dollars, whole seashells and other sea treasures that waves have sucked off the ocean floor and deposited on the beach, there have been hundreds of casts of clam shells from 60 million years ago.  Sometimes you can find one with the shell still on it.  People think they are fossilized turtle heads.  Another North Myrtle Beach resident, Richard E. Petit, a research associate with the Smithsonian Institute, said the molds were formed inside Cucullaea, a mollusk that became extinct in this part of the world around 60 million years ago.  The rocklike forms people are finding on the beach that look like miniature stone turtle heads were formed when the empty Cucullaea shells filled with fine silt, which hardened over the millennia.  Eventually the shells broke off, leaving only the rock-like casts.  The casts have a spiny ridge on the rounded top-side, an indent that looks like the place where a spine might attach and a line that looks like where the mouth would close.  That is why they resemble fossil turtle skulls.  But sadly they are not.

Was October 25, 2008 this year

Here's a link with more details on the Fair, and directions:

Every year, the Fossil Club sets up their collections at the Ocean Lakes Campground in Surfside SC (southern Myrtle Beach).  The Smithsonian has fossil ID experts there.  The Aurora Phosphate mine people are there with material for kids to dig in (photo below).  You will see below -  fossil I.D. photos I took of some member's collections including Bob Johnson's, an incurable fossil hound here in South Carolina. Also visit the Nature Center around the corner for many local fossils collected, displayed and identified.

Bob Johnson's other passion is collecting vintage hearse cars (Our young customer in blue is in this photo with Bob)

Belemnite (squid pen)

Hydracodon jaw

Crab claw

Fish gill bones

Jaguar canine tooth

Manatee jaw fragment

Marlin dorsal spine

Mastodon teeth

Ray dermal skutes

Sawfish rostrum fragment and rostal tooth

Woolly mammoth teeth

Associated baby woolly mammoth ivory, teeth and bones

Eagle claw, capybara tooth, elk jaw

Pygmy sperm whale, wolf teeth, bear teeth, Mosasaurus teeth

Eocene Whale teeth, gator teeth, bison teeth

Toothed whale tooth:

Drum fish jaw & upper mouthplate

Black bear teeth

Capybara teeth, deer teeth

Teeth of Peccary, Giant beaver, seal

Tapir teeth & jaw

Ground Sloth teeth, and claws with toes

Beaver teeth

Seal heel bone and flipper bone

Dog tooth

Muskrat jaw with teeth

Camel tooth and leg bone

Rhino tooth

Mink jaw fragment with teeth

Puffer fish

Bonita fish nose & skull

More noses

 

Sturgeon skute

 

Llama teeth & toe bone

and mating horseshoe crabs

Allosaurus claw