WILD SIDE 



By P a in Smith 



from earlier eras. A lucky find here: 

 a 550 million-year-old Pteridinium 

 carolinaense, one of North Carolina's 

 oldest non-microscopic animals. It is 

 believed to be related to modern, 



feather-shaped soft corals known 

 as sea pens. One of only seven 

 such fossils ever found 

 worldwide, it is the 

 only one on public 

 view. 



Scientists have come to believe that 

 the movement of Earth's tectonic plates 

 caused continents to drift through 

 various climate zones over geologic 

 time. Now accepted as a scientific 

 reality, tectonic movement was scoffed 

 at until as recently as the 1960s. 



It's believed that some 300 million 

 years ago, during the late Paleozoic era, 

 the continents moved together to form 

 one huge landmass known as Pangaea. 

 This probably gave some animals global 

 migratory range. 



ACROCANTHOSAURUS ATOKENSIS, 

 THE MUSEUM'S 1 10-MILLION -YEAR- 

 OLD DINOSAUR. 



The rare Eocambrian fossil was 

 found by an amateur fossil hunter in the 

 Carolina Slate Belt in the state's 

 Piedmont region. Its discovery speaks to 

 our planet's paleographic record still 

 being pieced together with each new 

 scientific discovery. Paleontologists 

 learn about climate change in prehistoric 

 times by studying fossils and sediments. 

 Corals are reliable markers because 

 they generally grow best in warm, 

 shallow seas. 



Schneider says the Pteridinium 

 carolinaense tells us that North Carolina 

 — and all of what we now know as 

 North America — once was in a more 

 tropical climate zone and covered by 

 warm, shallow seas. In fact, he notes, 

 when the specimen lived and died, 

 our continent was in the Southern 

 Hemisphere. 



Our journey continues as 

 we approach Mesozoic North 

 Carolina in the Triassic period, roughly 

 220 million years ago. It's the dawn of 

 the age of dinosaurs and the beginning 

 of the breakup of Pangaea. Now we see 

 large reptiles and drift lakes, surrounded 

 by fern and horsetails. Schneider says, 

 "It isn't good enough to say that ferns 

 grew in Triassic times. To be exact, they 

 are Pekinopteris ferns. Each plant is 

 based on a fossil record and each repre- 

 sents individual research." 



Most of the fossils found in North 

 Carolina come from the current Coastal 

 Plain, but the Piedmont has offered 

 up interesting and rare plant and 

 animal finds, such as a number of 

 Tanytrachelos, aquatic reptiles, from 

 a quarry near Eden in the Dan River 

 basin. Water bugs and some of the 

 oldest flies also rest at that site. In a 

 Sanford clay pit, the only intact fossil 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 21 



