Archive for Fossil
Collecting Fossils, Seashells and Memories on Boca Grande
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I couldn’t be happier to have another Shelling Sister that just moved to Sanibel! I feel like I’ve found my long lost Soul Sister… Susan. Of course she wanted to get the whole shelling experience on the Out Islands of Sanibel…. so before I knew it, she hired Capt. Brian Holaway for a shelling trip and she invited me to go along. Weehoo! First trip with Capt Brian!
We left the dock at 8 am but unfortunately the tide was too high to find good shells at that time so Capt Brian took us about an hour north to the beautiful town of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island to show Susan a few landmarks by golf cart.
We saw the Gasparilla Island Light…
We went to the Boca Grande Historical Society…
Brian’s friend Kim showed us fossils and artifacts on display at the sweet little museum…
We went to the Port Boca Grande Light…
Then we hit the beach!
Where we sifted for SHARK’S TEETH…
Susan found a few FOSSILS like SHARK’S TEETH, fragments of STINGRAY BARBS and BONES.
Along one of the beach paths we found a NICKERBEAN VINE with the prickly sea pods that host SEA BEANS which wash up on the beaches at times.
These local gray drift seeds are called SEA PEARLS. So… now we know where they come from!
I found a few WHITE MELAMPUS shells that were only 1/2 inch to 3/4…
But Susan found the grandpappy WHITE MELAMPUS weighing in at about 1 and 1/2 inches.
UPDATE 6-21-12 – Susan H commented on Soul Sister Susan’s WHITE MELAMPUS saying “it looks as if Susan found a World Record Size (WRS) one. I’m serious, the largest size listed on Malacolog is 27 mm, which is just about an inch“.
So I got serious and dug through drawers of Clark’s dad old tools he inherited and found some very cool old calipers. Susan brought her shell over and we measured….
Her WHITE MELAMPUS measured in at 30 mm. A World Record Size shell!! Thank you Susan H for giving us a heads up on this exciting news!
I found a bivalve shell (it has a small hole in the top but it’s still pretty) that I didn’t recognize so after looking through all of my books… it looks like it’s a JUVENILE SOUTHERN QUAHOG. It has thin raised ridges that seem too delicate to be called a QUAHOG but I’m sure that’s what it is.
When we got back to the dock at McCarthy’s Marina, the MANATEES were waiting for us!
We couldn’t have asked for a prettier day so thank you sooo much Soul Sister Susan for letting me tag along and to Captain Brian for guiding our gorgeous day.
PS- Just if you are wondering…. Yes! Super Sheller Clark helped Soul Sister Susan and her beautiful family find their island home in paradise. (I know, shameless plug …but hey, do you blame me?)
Boxes and Boxes of Sanibel Seashells
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Shells, shells and more shells. Leroy can’t get enough seashells!
He loves to walk the beaches of Sanibel to collect any type of shell he can find to bring home then clean, oil, categorize and box them all up in his garage. I see Leroy on the beaches quite a bit so he invited me over to see his collection.
He categorizes them at home AND he’s a volunteer at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum to organize shell collections that are donated to the museum. See? He can’t get enough of shells. I got tickled at this next box since those gorgeous CONES were mixed together with all of the other ”UNIVALVES”. He said “I have a method to my madness… I just don’t have enough of those categories to have their own box yet since we just moved here 2 years ago”. Yep, that would take a lot of CONES to make enough for their own box… for sure!
He also likes to collect BEACH BLING! You know I love me some BEACH BLING too. This was my favorite in his collection… a PURSE CRAB that still had all of it’s legs attached.
This is kinda wild- ALLIGATOR GAR jaw bones…
Before he moved here, he used to collect GEODES from New Mexico…
He gave me a GEODE that was formed inside a fossil shell and a few yard shells. This is the first time I’ve seen a SEASHELL GEODE. Thank you so much for the tour, Leroy, and for my new “sheode”! (FYI-”sheode” is not a scientific name, I made that up- heehee)
Tam Tam Finds A Queen Conch On Sanibel
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A juvenile QUEEN CONCH is a very rare find on Sanibel…. and “our ” Tammy found one!!! If you’ve ever read the comments on any of my posts, her name is “Tam Tam From Michigan” and I finally got to meet her (in real life person!) this weekend on Sanibel and this was the first thing she showed me.
A juvenile QUEEN CONCH! You can find them in the Bahamas and The Florida Keys but it’s not often I hear of anybody finding one here. I’m so happy for her!
Like Donnie, she might be a little shell crazy too. She looooves shells so much, she even named her daughter Shell. This is Shell sittin ‘n siftin on a big pile off West Gulf Drive near Shalimar. Or maybe I should say… this is Shell shelling….
She told me that “Tammy” means “Palm Tree” in another language then showed me her new tattoo…
So of course since her daughter’s name is Shell and her name means Palm Tree…so she looves Sanibel and so do her girlfriends! They all love shelling Sanibel. This is Claudette (FL), Shell, Barb (VA),Tam Tam, Karen, Tracy (FL). You’ve met Claudette and Karen here before CLICK HERE and Karen happens to be Tam Tam’s cousin. The world is getting smaller, isn’t it? How cute are they with their i Love Shelling tee!!!
And the shelling sistahs can phoon too…. LOL…
Here are some of the other fabulous treasures Tam Tam found…
And even more…
Check this out… it’s an imprint (fossil, it apprears) of seashells formed in some sort of rock (Clark thinks it is limestone).
The cousins were having great luck! Karen found this GOLDEN OLIVE…
She and Claudette were finding lots of BITTERSWEETS on the beach too. I have found a few lately and I always feel like I’ve found quite a treasure when I see them. They are just so colorful!
Congrats again Tam Tam! Your QUEEN CONCH is quite the catch and I feel so lucky too to finally get to meet you and Shell. Oh and I want to share a poem again that Tammy (Tam Tam) wrote. I posted My Sweet Sanibel on May 12, 2010. CLICK HERE to enjoy!
Is There A Fossil Dentist In The House?
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Stingray Mouth Plates
Shelling sistah Susan S. took a road trip with her husband to Manasota Key to do some SHARK’S TEETHing at Blind Pass Park in Englewood, Florida. I couldn’t wait to see what she brought back to Sanibel. The first thing she told me “We found 250 SHARK’S TEETH!” then added “… and a guy on the beach told me these were a couple of STINGRAY MOUTH PLATES”.
Well, I guess they are. They are only about a half inch long and you can tell what they are by the little grooves. Doesn’t it boggle the mind how someone figured out what these little pieces are when they are mixed in with sand, pebbles and shell crush? They can be up to 2 million years old!
This is Susan with a hand full of SHARK’S TEETH…
Look at all the SHARK’S TEETH spread out. It’s so much more obvious that these are fossil teeth… instead of figuring out a fossil mouth plate.
This tooth was about 2 1/2 inches long and broken in half. This came from a big sucker…
Okay, now we have seen a STINGRAY MOUTH PLATE, lots of SHARK’S TEETH and remember Carla found a PUFFERFISH MOUTHPLATE when I shelled with her in Bonita…
These poor creatures needed a dentist! They lost so many mouth parts and they’re washing up all along the Gulf Coast! 
It’s always fun to learn about other types of beach bling that washes up on the shore and always fun to hang out with someone who shares the same love for it. Thanks Susan and the rest of my shelling family out there! Who else could get excited about a STINGRAY MOUTH PLATE?
Road Trip To Honeymoon Island- Part 2
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The beach on Honeymoon Island State Park is filled with rocks all along the gulf side until you reach mid island so it was fun for us to see such a different landscape meeting the water. I was especially thrilled to see creativity at it’s best! Anthony from Oldsmar, Florida designed this beautiful piece of beach art that I have named (because of the first photo) “Rock The Horizon”.
We also found more cool rocks….. fossil AGATIZED CORAL GEODES which are Florida’s state stone (who knew we had a state stone?).
These stones are around 25 million years old and the Tampa Bay, Florida area is rich with them.
Similar to finding shellers on Sanibel, I found a rocker on Honeymoon. Rebecca from Clearwater comes out to the island on the weekends looking for GEODES.
Look at this one she found. I’m starting to understand why these are so fun to collect….
This is the tip of a rock that I found embedded with lots of tiny crystals. Romans thought AGATIZED CORAL to have great healing powers.
Look at all of these gorgeous patterns and colors.
Along with the TURBANS and SHIVA SHELLS I showed you on Road Trip To Honeymoon Island- Part 1, we also found a nice variety of shells along with the rocks. Can you identify most of these shells? (click on the photo to enlarge)
And you know I loved finding my minis…
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of “Road Trip To Honeymoon Island- Part 3″ coming to your computer screen soon. heehee
Oh and BTW, I got a photo from our friends Dick and Mary who were shelling off West Gulf Drive beach access #7 yesterday. This is great news for good shelling this week.
A Barefoot Beach Morning
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Coral from Barefoot Beach
I’ve been wanting to run down to Barefoot Beach in Bonita Springs (45 minute drive) to meet shelling sister Carla Barone for quite some time. Today I got to meet her and she was everything I thought… shell crazy and sweet as pie. As soon as we hit the beach, I found all of these pieces of CORAL as we walked south to get down to the jetty at Wiggins Pass.
Fossils found by Carla
Carla loves looking for not only shells but fossils and different beach treasures. She picked up these pieces then told me the fossils in her hand clockwise from top left…. a SHARK’S TOOTH, a piece of turtle shell called a “SKOOT”, and …okay… are you ready for this one? … the mouth plate of a PUFFER FISH. Wow. I’d like you to meet Carla…
Me with super collector Carla
She loves to talk to everyone on the beach about all the fun things to collect.
Carla showing fossils to Kathy and her friend
We found out that Kathy was a first time sheller and she found this…
Kathy with alphabet cone
A perfect ALPHABET CONE! I saw the colors through her shell bag and commented on her find but she didn’t know what I was talking about. She didn’t realize what she had… until now. Then we ran into Carla’s good friend Jen who taught her about most of the fossils she has found.
Fossil collector Jen
Today she was collecting as sorts of shells and goodies.
Jen’s shell bag
Another one of Carla’s friends (she’s very popular on this beach!) Ella found this awesome SHARK’S EYE. What a cutie!
Ella with sharks eye
Then I found this huge WORM SHELL. I still can’t believe how big it is.
Wormie!
And some of his grand wormies…
Bunch of worm shells
On the way back, we saw several ssslloooooww GOPHER TORTOISES.
Gopher tortoise
So this is where Carla finds a lot of her shells.
Barefoot Beach entrance sign
So she can make beautiful whelk sculptures like this…
Whelk Sculpture by Carla Barone
Thanks for everything, Carla. It was a great shelling morning!
