I collected ten pounds of sea shells at Edisto Beach

[MarkGelbart]

Edisto Beach near Charleston, South Carolina is a place where fossils from the early Miocene, the late Pleistocene, and the Holocene often wash ashore.

It's only a 3-4 hour drive from my house, so I decided to go there to see if I could find some fossils.

I didn't find any mammal fossils or shark's teeth which is what I was hoping for, but I did find some sea shells that might be quite old. There's no way of knowing for sure how old they are because shells from 3 different ages are mixed at this site. Carbon dating is expensive. I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars just to find out if a sea shell I collected is very old.

I found some blueish gray shells that suggest a great age--fossils are often found in bluish gray strata and they turn that color due to sediment chemistry. Plus several of these specimens have bore holes in them. Clams, worms, and urchins bore through rock, shell, and fossil. This could have only happened, if the shell had been buried under sediment for some unknown period of time.

Anyway, I'd post the pictures here, but I can't get this website's photo gallery to work. It says the size of my photos aren't correct. I posted the photos on my blog...GeorgiaBeforePeople

Check out the photo of the unbroken sea pen (Atrina rigida). It was the best specimen I collected, though probably not a fossil. The blog entry is also part travelogue--I tell about the evening I spent in Charleston.


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Mark Gelbart's Storefront - Lulu.com

[goosey]

Hi Mark, you really know your stuff - I would have never though about shells being that old. Obviously I would know to look out for fossils if I were in certain places but I shall think of shells in a new light now .

Sorry to hear you are having problems with up loading to the gallery. Have a look at this thread, it may help - take note of the sizes accepted. It is a shame people who just visit the gallery and not the forum are missing out.

http://www.wildabouttheworld.com/for...s-gallery.html

The link below is how to add your images to posts -

http://www.wildabouttheworld.com/for...rum-posts.html


If you use the search facility in the gallery and just enter the word Fossil, you will find quite a few pages of fossils which you may be interested in.

It can be found on th gallery page under the 20 recent images on the right hand side and just above the gallery categories.

[MarkGelbart]

I finally got around to uploading my images. Some of them were too big for the file size and others weren't. I don't understand why. Anyway, they're in the gallery.

I clicked on my gallery photos to put them in this post but it said no images found. ??

[goosey]

Originally Posted by MarkGelbart

I finally got around to uploading my images. Some of them were too big for the file size and others weren't. I don't understand why. Anyway, they're in the gallery.

I clicked on my gallery photos to put them in this post but it said no images found. ??

You are getting there bit by bit - thanks with sticking with it!

You need to copy and paste the image codes in to your posts, the one which says "Linked thumbnail"

I will add your images to your original post.

[goosey]

Just to bump Marks original post up the thread and get past the queries and answers.

Originally Posted by MarkGelbart

Edisto Beach near Charleston, South Carolina is a place where fossils from the early Miocene, the late Pleistocene, and the Holocene often wash ashore.

It's only a 3-4 hour drive from my house, so I decided to go there to see if I could find some fossils.

I didn't find any mammal fossils or shark's teeth which is what I was hoping for, but I did find some sea shells that might be quite old. There's no way of knowing for sure how old they are because shells from 3 different ages are mixed at this site. Carbon dating is expensive. I'm not going to spend hundreds of dollars just to find out if a sea shell I collected is very old.

I found some blueish gray shells that suggest a great age--fossils are often found in bluish gray strata and they turn that color due to sediment chemistry. Plus several of these specimens have bore holes in them. Clams, worms, and urchins bore through rock, shell, and fossil. This could have only happened, if the shell had been buried under sediment for some unknown period of time.

Anyway, I'd post the pictures here, but I can't get this website's photo gallery to work. It says the size of my photos aren't correct. I posted the photos on my blog...GeorgiaBeforePeople

Check out the photo of the unbroken sea pen (Atrina rigida). It was the best specimen I collected, though probably not a fossil. The blog entry is also part travelogue--I tell about the evening I spent in Charleston.


************************************************** ***
Mark Gelbart's Storefront - Lulu.com