Carolina's climate again was tropical, 

 and sea level ran high. Florida was 

 submerged; the Gulf Stream flowed 

 across Florida, Georgia and lower South 

 Carolina; and most of North Carolina's 

 Coastal Plain was underwater. The late 

 Eocene was marked by global cooling. 

 Glaciers formed at each of Earth's poles 

 and sea level lowered. 



David Campbell, a graduate student 

 in geology at the University of North 

 Carolina at Chapel Hill, comes from a 

 family of geologists and fossil hunters. 

 Specializing in fossils of the Eocene 

 epoch, Campbell recently identified 20 

 new species of mollusks and a new 

 genus of snails from the Eocene's Castle 

 Hayne Formation laid down 54 million 

 to 36 million years ago. His hunting 

 grounds are limestone quarries near 

 Castle Hayne. 



These quarries contain a rich 

 diversity of invertebrates: bryozoans, 

 sea urchins, sponges, brachiopods, 

 scallops and oysters. The aragonitic 

 mineral in the shells of many inverte- 

 brate species from the Eocene have 



Hundreds of species 

 of fossil plants, seaskells, 

 tones and teetk ranging 

 from a few thousanc. to 

 80 million years old 

 can be collected from 

 Tar Heel riverbeds, 

 road cuts, beackes, 

 quarries and mines. 



eroded, making identification of species 

 difficult. 



In identifying a newfound species 

 that has been extinct for millions of 

 years, Campbell looks for multiple 

 samples of fossils, trying to piece 

 together a complete specimen like a 

 puzzle. Taking all he knows about the 

 internal and external characteristics of 

 this shell, he combs literature dating 

 back to the early 1800s for evidence of a 

 similar find. 



Strict criteria on naming zoological 

 species require that the person making 

 the discovery prove that the species is 

 indeed a new find. It must be given a 

 name that has never been used before. 

 Naming a species is a little like doing a 

 title search on a piece of real estate, says 

 Joe Carter, a geologist at UNC-Chapel 

 Hill and Campbell's adviser. 



Vertebrate fossils from this epoch 

 include remains of ancient whales, 

 sharks, stingrays, turtles, fish and 

 40-foot long seagoing snakes, ancestors 

 of the boa constrictor. 



4 Oligocene and early 

 Miocene epocks: 



This was a time of rapid global 

 cooling and receding sea levels. Marine 

 fossils were not as abundant. Oysters, 

 scallops and barnacles are the fossils 

 that mark these epochs on the geologic 

 calendar. Most notably, oysters grew up 

 to 12 inches long and formed bar depos- 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 15 



