masonboro37 Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) I have been researching tube worms. Learning as I go, eventhough teeth are my new interest. I am not familiar with the tube worm aspect. I am almost sure this is a hydrothermal tube worm in sulfide, Vestimentifera. Not really able to do proper measurements, but I think you may agree the cavity is intact. There are other smaller intact worms in the rock aswell. Found on the edge of a jetty at Wrightsville Beach, NC. I tried to find info concerning tube worms at WB and other sites and I found very similar specimens. If this is a hydrothermal tube worm, may be Creataceus? Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks! Edited February 21, 2012 by masonboro37 Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I dunno, i see some bryazoans and brachiopod parts in there. Cole~ Knowledge has three degrees-opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition. Plotinus 204 or 205 C.E., Egyptian Philosopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 I am not seeing any partial valves or partial shell of a brachiopod. Just the worm. Where do you see this? Maybe I am missing something. Thanks. Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I see the tube worm stuff you are refering to, and am pretty sure your identification is correct. I marked in yellow what I think are brachiopod shells and in red what looks like bryozoans that once encrusted portions of this. I could be seeing it all wrong though. I am a noob even though I have been on the forum for a couple years. Just like to throw my 2 cents out there from time to time. If I am wrong here maybe someone will learn me. Good luck, Cole~ Knowledge has three degrees-opinion, science, illumination. The means or instrument of the first is sense; of the second, dialectic; of the third, intuition. Plotinus 204 or 205 C.E., Egyptian Philosopher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) Cole, I appreciate your information. I am looking at the areas you have marked and reviewing my books. Thank you. Edited February 21, 2012 by masonboro37 Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 You might find some articles in this section of my PDF library to be of interest. -Joe Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako-mama Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I suspect that rock is of Oligocene age-assuming it washed up from the ocean at Wilmington. If I am looking at the relevant fossil, it closely resembles the boring clam . We often find these openings at Aurora, although the clam shell is usually disintegrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako-mama Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I'm not sure if this publication is listed in fruitbat's library-but it's quite useful and available online- Stratigraphic Revision of of the Middle Eocene, Oligocene, and Lower Miocene-Atlantic Coastal Plain of North Carolina It's in pdf form-Geo Survey Bulletin 1457-F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruitbat Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 mako-mama....that article was NOT linked in my PDF library but it is now! Thanks for the heads-up! -Joe Illigitimati non carborundum Fruitbat's PDF Library Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Looks like a piece of bored New Hanover Member of the Castle Hayne Formation. The jetty at Wrightsville beach is made of the Peedee formation also. Similar rocks were also used as rip rap at fort fisher before they decided to cover most of them up with granite. Have seen lithophagous mollusk borings as fossils in the rock or they can be modern. Some of what I see on the rock looks like modern material. Mako Mama is right on regarding boring clams and is correct about the Oligocene being the outcropping rocks just off shore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Considering the condition of the bivalve in the tube, I think it is a modern shell of a lithophagous ("rock-eating") bivalve. These, like the related shipworms, bore a tube into rock; the tube is usually liked with some kind of shelly material as well. Amonst the fossil forms, the tubes are common but shells are rare. It would be quite unusual to find a set of articulated valves sitting in an otherwise empty (not matrix filled) tube in a fossil specimen. The "brachiopods" Cole refers to look like oyster sprat to me, at least some of them do. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Thank you everyone for all the information! Mako-mama, I have been researching boring clams. I have been able to find a picture of a cast of a Rocellaria burrow. I have also looked closer at the rock (which I should have done in the first place) and all it's little prize's trapped in and on it. Cole is very correct! There are areas of byrozoa which I think are Lunulites distans and Centronea microphora. There are also areas of coral, one of my favorites, Septastrea marylandica. Here I thought I had a vent tube worm. Well, mistakes help to create wisdom! Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yep, boring clams are not at all boring! You've got a great attitude, learning to ID all those critters. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 ...mistakes help to create wisdom! In that case, I r a scary wise dude! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeR Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Another thing that you have to consider is the depositional history of the rocks in North Carolina. Although the state is very rich in fossils, it is not a geologically dynamic area. Sediments have been extending from the fall zone since the Upper Cretaceous and mostly sub-tropical to tropical open-marine or back bay deposits. Deep sea deposits that would have thermal-vent organisms are rare to start with and to my knowledge unknown in the Eastern US Cenozoic. Mike "A problem solved is a problem caused"--Karl Pilkington "I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit." -- Mark Twain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Another thing that you have to consider is the depositional history of the rocks in North Carolina. Although the state is very rich in fossils, it is not a geologically dynamic area. Sediments have been extending from the fall zone since the Upper Cretaceous and mostly sub-tropical to tropical open-marine or back bay deposits. Deep sea deposits that would have thermal-vent organisms are rare to start with and to my knowledge unknown in the Eastern US Cenozoic. Mike Thanks Mike, I will take the depostional hx of NC rocks into account. Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mako-mama Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 masonboro, If you can get a firm grip on fossil bryoxoan id from nc, you could become one of the most valued members of this forum! That's a study can make you get old fast. No fossil deep sea sediments have been reported-the max known depth approx 300-600 ft. That would be about where you'd be fishing today to get into a good catch of tilefish. Since you appear to be just starting your fossil/geology interest, you might find it intersting to know that Pitt County, Eastern NC is home to a granite quarry! Apparently in the distant past a magma dome formed but never erupted. At one time that quarry was open to collecting, but no longer is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masonboro37 Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 Mako-mama and MikeR, I have be studying NC coastal plain formations. It is little confusing at first and I want to be sure I am on the right track. So, bascially the coastal plain has had many advances and retreats of the ocean. When the Cretaceus period began to end, there were areas of marl and then the Pee-Dee foramation began. Pee-Dee ( not the area near Montgomery Co, NC which I first thought ) is the deposites of dark-grey almost green sand, but still considered Cretaceus. The Pee-Dee formation is where I would find mollusks, turtle, echnoids and shark teeth. By the time the Pee-Dee formation changed the ocean retreated again. So, NC coastal plain was above level. Now its time for the Castle Hayne Formation, Eocene. Assuming the coastal plain must have been covered by ocean because I could find bryozaons, echinoids and bilvalves and other goodies. Now comes the Oligocene period which was mentioned about my sulfite boring clam specimen. This is what I am trying to understand:Eventhough I found the sulfite rock at Wrightsville,Beach NC, would it still be considered Oligocene, part of the Trent or Belgrade formation, Paleogene? I get the 3 major formations I think: James/City, Yorktown and Pungo River. So basically, if I am in an area with sediment layering and I see grey clay and a bivalve in it then most likey this would be York Town Formation, Pliocene. I am assuming some of the shells I find at the beach or in the sound would fall under the Surface Flanner Beach Formation? Then again, the shells have been tossed around from layers of sediment. When I find a black/grey bilvalve or gastropod, then it must have been deep in a sediment which had changed it's color. This is where I am confused again. I found an Oliva gastropod the other day which was very dark grey. So, would the gastropod have been in Pungo River sediment or modern Flanner Beach? Oliva gastropods have been found from Upper Cretaceus to present, so I assume it could be any epoch. Whewwww I need some help here, I think. Please let me know if I am getting close to understanding the formations to better ID finds. Thanks, Libby Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plax Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 In my humble opinion your rock is a piece of the jetty that originally came from one of the local quarries. If you google "Castle Hayne Formation, New Hanover member" you may get a handle on the rock type. Same rocks are at fort fisher. NCFC has a field trip to the local quarries coming up this spring. You should join them. The members will be happy to educate you and are great folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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