modern shark can shed up to 100 teeth 

 each month. 



Teeth from the Carcharodon can 

 be 6 to 7 inches tall. During the summer 

 scientific cruises off the North Carolina 

 coast, geologist Riggs explores offshore 

 outcroppings of these Pliocene forma- 

 tions on the ocean floor. Divers compete 

 to see who can bring up the largest 

 shark teeth, he says. 



Fossil remains of whales, seals and 

 walruses at Lee Creek Mine show teeth 

 marks from Carcharodon or an occa- 

 sional tooth buried in bone, evidence 

 this great shark was abundant and 

 hungry. It may have been the demise of 

 this shark's food source that caused its 

 extinction. 



* Pleistocene epoch: 



During the Pleistocene, life-forms 

 in North Carolina began to look very 

 much like modern species. Species 

 dating to this period, 1 .6 million to 

 100,000 years ago, include those of 

 warmer climates, such as manatees, and 



COASTWATCH 1 7 



Fossilization usually 

 begins when the hard 

 parts of an organism 

 become embedded in 

 mud or covered by sand 



from a river, lake or 

 ocean. These hard parts 

 may remain unchanged 

 for millions of years, 

 despite changes in the 

 surrounding sediments 

 that compress to form 

 limestone or sandstone. 



mammoths and mastodons of cooler 

 climates. Fossils from horses dating to 

 the Pleistocene have been found across 

 the eastern Coastal Plain. 



Early Pleistocene fossils are found 

 in the James City and Waccamaw 



formations. Fossils from the James City 

 Formation, including an assortment of 

 marine mollusks, can be collected along 

 the Neuse River, southward from James 

 City in Craven County. Vertebrate 

 fossils from this epoch have been found 

 at the Lee Creek Mine. The Waccamaw 

 Formation contains mollusks, corals, 

 echinoids (sea urchins), bryozoans, 

 barnacles and shark teeth. 



One interesting Pleistocene fossil 

 find includes three sloths discovered in 

 Wilmington by an amateur fossil collec- 

 tor. These fossils represent some of the 

 oldest — 1 .5 million years old — sloth 

 remains found on the East Coast, 

 Schneider says. More recent sloth 

 fossils are frequently uncovered in 

 Florida and Georgia, but these remains 

 date back only 100,000 to 500,000 

 years. 



Later Pleistocene fossils can be 

 found in the Flanner Beach Formation, 

 along the Neuse River from the Trent 

 River to the Cherry Point Marine Base. 

 These fossils include bivalves distinctly 

 modem in appearance. 



