its in shallow, brackish water. 



The River Bend and Belgrade 

 formations of Onslow, Carteret and 

 Jones counties contain fossils of this 

 time period, 36 million to 15 million 

 years ago. Fossils can be found along 

 the Trent River from New Bern to 

 Trenton. 



♦ Middle Miocene 

 to Pliocene epochs: 



Beneath the soils of Beaufort 

 County, the Pungo River Formation of 

 the Miocene epoch and the Yorktown 

 Formation of the Pliocene hold a wealth 

 of information about the prehistoric 

 coast of North Carolina. Lying beneath 

 more recent coastal formations, these 

 two formations are like a book that 

 might never have been opened were it 

 not for the Lee Creek Mine. 



16 MAY/ JUNE 1994 



The mine is the only land site 

 where the Pungo River Formation can 

 be seen without drilling a hole, and it is 

 known worldwide for its abundant 

 fossil finds. 



Riggs is studying the Pungo River 

 and Yorktown formations. When the 

 Pungo River phosphate was laid down 

 about 23 million to 15 million years 

 ago, the ocean was extremely rich in 

 living organisms and their remains. It 

 contained low levels of oxygen and 

 vast amounts of decaying organic 

 matter. 



The semitropical climate and vast 

 supply of food provided an ideal 

 environment for many species of 

 marine life. Fossils from the Lee Creek 

 Mine include a variety of invertebrate 

 shells, whale bones, walrus tusks, seal 

 jaws and skeletal remains of many 

 birds and fishes. 



Schneider says the ocean depth at 



the Aurora site was probably 500 to 

 1 ,000 feet. Fish fossils show that ocean 

 and inshore species were very similar 

 to those we find today. Offshore 

 species included bonita, tuna, marlin 

 and hake; inshore, there were sea 

 robins, puffers and spiney burrfish. 



Among the most interesting finds 

 from the mine are teeth from 

 Carcharodon, an ancestor of the great 

 white shark. In comparison to modem 

 great whites, which measure up to 20 

 feet in length, the Carcharodon would 

 have marked the tape measure at 43 

 feet. Think about finding one of these 

 creatures at the end of your line. 



Although sharks date back nearly 

 300 million years, their teeth are the 

 predominant fossil evidence left be- 

 hind; their soft cartilage skeletons were 

 rarely preserved. Shark teeth are 

 plentiful because sharks continually 

 shed old teeth and grow new ones. A 



