. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Fossil Finds COLLECTING HISTORY Peter Harmatuk of Bridgeton scooped up a handful of dirt, sifted it through his fingers and picked out a pointy gray shark's tooth. "This is from a sand shark. It's about 10 milhon years old," he says, examining it with the casual eye of an expert who'd seen others hke it a thousand times. For nearly 28 years, Harmatuk has been digging up history in North Caro- lina, helping to piece together the puz- zles of its past. His findings, and those of other fossil hunter
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Fossil Finds COLLECTING HISTORY Peter Harmatuk of Bridgeton scooped up a handful of dirt, sifted it through his fingers and picked out a pointy gray shark's tooth. "This is from a sand shark. It's about 10 milhon years old," he says, examining it with the casual eye of an expert who'd seen others hke it a thousand times. For nearly 28 years, Harmatuk has been digging up history in North Caro- lina, helping to piece together the puz- zles of its past. His findings, and those of other fossil hunters, provide impor- tant clues to the weather conditions, rock formations and animals that exist- ed in the area over a 20 million-year period that spanned four geologic for- mations (Pungo River, Yorktown, Croatan and Post Croatan). Harmatuk spends most of his time sifting through the rubble at the Tex- asgulf Chemicals Co. in Aurora. In this canyon-sized pit in eastern North Caro- lina, the petrified remains of hundreds of species of fish, shellfish, plants and animals lay scattered across the dirt like toys in a game room. The mine, in a way, is a collector's playground. Harmatuk says 85 million sharks' teeth are dug out of the dirt in a 24-hour period. And since the mine opened in the early 1960s, 70 different kinds of fish, 24 kinds of porpoises and 24 species of birds have been uncov- ered. "We keep finding new stuff all the time," says Harmatuk. Just recently, collectors found new whale and por- poise species. Of the 2,300 feet of sedimentary lay- ers in Aurora, only the first 100 feet are exposed in the pit. Most of the fossils uncovered are from the Pungo River Photo by Sarah Friday. Peter Harmatuk formation and later, says Rusty Walker, former manager of pubhc affairs for the Phosphate Corpo- ration in Aurora. In the Pungo River formation, most evidence reveals bottom dwellers like worms, clams, brachiopods and shrimp-like animals, says Walker. What colle
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
