It's been over three months since I've edited this file. Certainly nothing news worthy has appeared on the Lee Creek front. A spring season has not been ruled out, so most of us are hoping for the best but not permitting our expectations to get too high. The American mindset certainly changed soon after my last report. I for one found great escape from geopolitical reality whenever my lens focused on a shark or batoid tooth.

Very little has changed on the website. Bill has added some more dentition images (up to 59 now) and a few miscellaneous pages updated, but most of my time has been spent on data/specimen collecting and research. It will be some time before these efforts work their way to a website.

Fred Clouter's Sheppey Fossils now includes a series of excellent shark tooth images, be sure to make a visit, it's worth a bookmark. The 'web links' page has been purged of many URLs that have disappeared in recent months. I hope that this is not the beginning of a trend, worthwhile information is now gone.

Have a great Holiday Season!

Summer's come and gone with nothing interesting or hopeful out of Aurora — unfortunately, this is now the norm.

The website's been busy even if nothing might jump out at you. There are new Pathological Tooth & Tooth Scanning pages, a few more added to the Sharktooth Hill section and miscellaneous updates resulting from Purdy et al (2001). The dentition slide show has certainly grown, with over 50 shark dentitions now included.

Fred Clouter tells me he'll be soon adding the full shark fauna to his London Clay (Sheppey) page. I hadn't been by Jim Craig's Gault Clay site for some time. Besides being an excellent website there are some great Albian tooth images there.

Well, I bit the bullet and invested the time to incorporate Purdy et al (2001), aka Lee Creek III fauna, into the website's listing. It will probably need some touching up, but I think it should summarize the results reasonably well. See: non-carcharhiniform, carcharhiniform or batoid pages.

Out of Print. Bob Purdy tells me that 2500 Volume III copies are gone, a record for a Smithsonian publication. How to get one now? Purdy suggests you write your congressman.

Just returned from the AES meeting at Penn State, which was excellent (as always). There were a few paleontological talks. Shelly Applegate presented The Origin of the Lamniform Sharks and argued that Carcharias was the most primitive lamniform and that the Jurassic genus Palaeocarcharias should be afforded the ordinal rank of Palaeocarchariformes. Michael Gottfried presented The Megatooth Shark; Myth, History and Science which argued the 'Carcharodon' megalodon position. Light but very interesting/amusing was Ray Troll's talk on his art and Paleozoic sharks.

At the meeting, Friedrich Pfeil was selling his books, and more of his titles are now on sale. I finally obtained his new e-mail address (100417.1722@compuserve.com), so you might want to take the opportunity to pick-up some of these important texts. Visit their website at www.pfeil-verlag.de or get more details in the Available Books section of this website.

Laurent Candoni has updated his website to include the Lower Lutetian (Eocene) fish fauna from Val-d'Oise, France. This site is excellent and well worth at least one visit.

I finally got my Lee Creek III volume yesterday (haven't even looked at all the pictures yet). Over the next couple months, the Lee Creek species pages will be updated to also include the Smithsonian opinions. At first glance, there are some species to be added and others that may be identified differently.

I received confirmation from Curtis Ormond that there would be no Fall season, he wrote,

I am writing in regards to the fall hunting season [at the mine]. I know everyone is waiting patiently to find out if there will be one or not. Unfortunately I have had to cancel the fall season. Simply put, we do not have an area large enough to hunt in and will not have one by September. I know that this is disappointing news to all of the collectors (trust me I have grown to love fossil hunting and meeting all of the wonderful people so this news is disappointing to me as well). Please do not take this as news that we have stopped hunting completely, I see no reason why we cannot have a spring season in 2002. No matter when we start, I assure you that we will resume the hunting trips just as soon as possible.

I would appreciate it if you could post this message on your web site so that all the other hunters will know as much as possible. Please let them know that ... I will be getting information out about upcoming seasons as soon as possible. — Curtis

At the Fossil Fair, the word was that there would be a Fall Season starting in October. I heard today, that an official announcement will be going out that will cancel these plans. I'm sure that we all hope this information is incorrect.

Volume III is out, and those that have received their copies seemed pleased with it. I still await my copy.

Cindy Muston pointed out that I never passed on the results of Fossil Fair. According to Pat Young, "Fair went great! Most people ever on the streets and in museum. All the fossil dealers said they did a great business...The Raffle tooth was won by Jim Antrobus of Hobucken, NC. He bought his ticket on April Fool's Day. The raffle tooth and the auction together brought in nearly $6000.00 for the museum. Money will be used to replace the upstairs windows ...[and] put in dentition displays in the "Shark Room". Our goal is to get as many fossil dentitions as we can or have room for. Displays will include a picture of the shark, some written information and a modern shark jaw, if the shark is still with us. Dr. Jay Goldberg of Virginia is heading the project."

John Schack wrote in with some good links you might like to try. The Geological Evolution of Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic Region is very informative, TopoZone can now provide an Aurora topomap, and some kids put together a Red Hill site. He also reminded me of Dr. Gon's trilobite website which is excellent although I've never mentioned it.

From the time I began using Cosmopolitodus on the website, I've needed to respond to numerous e-mails. To save time, and with the help of David Ward and Mikael Siverson, the long overdue genus page has been added.

It looks like Volume III will be released this month. I'm awaiting details on how it can be ordered.

John Schack dropped a note to point out a couple good URLs. One is Professor Karl A. Wilson's New York Paleontology and the other was the USGS Professional Papers website. John recommends 1622 (.PDF) and 1612 (mixed .HTML & .PDF) on the Chesapeake Bay impact crater. These papers contain very good stratigraphic information.

Bob Lyons contacted me to say that he has started to prep the porpoise skull from last weekend. "The majority of it is encased in a ball of matrix that rolled down the hill, but the occipital condyles are visible and intact, as is the parietal region. One auditory bulla is still present but cracked (now mostly repaired). The rostrum is mostly missing, and I'm skeptical about whether any teeth are present in the remaining portion. I won't know for sure, however, until I've prepped it out of the matrix." Bob will shoot some pics when he's done and they'll be uploaded for viewing by those interested. The URL will be linked from here when images are available.

Larry Decina noted that he saw at least 6 whale teeth last weekend including his squaladont molar and incisor.

The AMNH has put-up a nice photo-site on that recently reported theropod dinosaur with feather-like structures from the Yixian Formation -- it's well worth a short visit.

A beautiful day, temperatures in the high 70's and a good breeze, greeted the DVPS and some leftover NCFC members. Pat reports that the collecting was not prolific, but the finds were quite varied.

There's no question about who did best today. "Bob Lyons found a porpoise skull in outstanding condition in Yorktown clay. Although the mandible was missing, the skull and ear bulla and other parts were visible. It truly was an awesome sight." It seems he also carried out 2 three-inch megs and an upper marlin bill.

Three to four inch megs were also found by Mike Marr, John Everette, John Arthur, and Rita McDaniel. Laura Hahn settled for a 2-1/2 incher, but it was supplemented with a Carcharodon carcharias (two more great whites were found by Chris Storck). John Keklak found a Hexanchus lower, Rita McDaniel a Bramble, Tim Wendler a large piece of ray mouthplate and Larry Decina a Squalodon molar.

"All the others seemed to have quite a good number of makos, hemis, and tigers. And of course, there was the caravan of whale verts and other bones. It seemed everyone knew it was the end of the line for that area and they were committed to saving as much as possible before the flood. Collectors everywhere should applaud them."

I'm sure many of you would like to join me in thanking Pat for her excellent reporting this season.

Saturday and Sunday were both booked. The N C State, Beaufort Maritime and Cape Fear Museums all experienced "so-so" collecting on Saturday. A few nice megs were found — Richard Brezina a 4-incher, Jeff Greaser a beautiful tooth in matrix and several others (Mike Bobay. Gary Greaser, Chloe Barnett & Laura Bottomley) returned with two to three-inch class specimens. Cow shark teeth were spotty, but Gary Greaser managed to take home five.

Sunday's access was shared by the Cape Fear Mineral and Gem Club and the Dallas Paleontological Society. As on Saturday, collecting results were minimal at best. Shawn Hamm managed to come out with a 4-3/4" meg and Gary Thorne a 4-3/8 incher. Smaller specimens were found by Marilyn Sutton, Jane Fagerstrom, Gerald Bogan and Ed Swiatovy. Pat's 'sand dollar-of-the-day' award went to Jane Fagerstrom. As always, it seems there is no end to whale vertebrae or those willing to carry them out.

Overall, (Pat goes on to say) "there are still lots of nicer teeth coming out — makos, cuviers, and Hemipristis. ...most people seemed happy just to be on hallowed ground again, to renew old friendships and make new ones." (The bottom line is,) "It appears that the site is just worked-out as far as surface collecting goes -- some of the nicer finds were revealed as the result of being kicked up by another fossiler."

This season's final 'slot' will be filled by the Delaware Valley Paleonto- logical Society (I made my first trip with them). We all wish them "good luck" and recommend they learn from the recent oversights of others and BRING LOTS OF FLUIDS — it's been damn hot in the mine this month.

It's nice to get a real enthusiastic report from Pat. A couple weeks back, Becky mentioned that she'd found a small but un-collected area. Water conditions precluded access to groups until this weekend, and it looks like the Maryland Club lucked-out. Seventy of their members had the day to themselves, and although reaching 90 degrees, few appear to have left with anything other than a smile on their face.

Anyway, Pat provided a long list (which will shortened) and noted that tooth condition was generally better than on previous trips,

Megs appeared to be plentiful. She awarded most "beautiful" to Larry Spangler's blond, shield-shaped, 4-1/2-incher although Marshall Drecchio's perfect 4-3/8" tooth was a close second. Rita McDaniel & Melvin Gulotta shared three 3-1/2-inchers. Smaller megs were found by: Russell Byers (1), Marshall Drecchio (1), Will Edmonds (2), Marco Gulotta (1), Melvin Gulotta (2), Chris Hurd (2), Bill Killen (1), Cheryl McGowan (1) and Olaf Vermculen(1). The "Heartbreaker" award were shared for two 5-inchers — Ruth Rarick (half a tooth) and Edwin Huizinga (tooth in five pieces).

A few larger (2" +) C. hastalis teeth were taken by Charles Shyab, Bill Killen, Bill Leonard & Chris Hurd. Russell Byers & Becky found Hexanchus teeth and for a change no brambles. Whale material included Squalodon teeth (Will Edmonds & William Douglas), Whale bulla (Will Edmonds & Russell Byers) and porpoise bulla and periotic bones (Charles Shyab & Russell Byers). Becky and William Douglas shared in three bird bones, Edwin Huizinga found a croc tooth and Marco Gulotta a marlin vertebra. I'm sure other interesting material escaped Pat's attention.

Pat would like me to let you know that she's "opening the museum after the last bus comes out each day. If anyone wants to bring things for the auction, I will be able to take them in the parking lot."

If you've never had the chance to attend, this is one great event. To me, it's getting the opportunity to speak with various experts and other friends that rewards the long (550 miles in my case) drive . However, the material that's on display and the auction, could well justify the investment of time and gas. Each year there's a raffle, and this year's prize is a 6+ inch C. meg. It has a bit of patch-up work, but it would be a welcome addition to most collections.

Eric Woody checked in regarding the April 7 visit. He too found the collecting tough and resorted to the 'close and personal' approach. He was rewarded with a carpometacarpus (bird wing), fish jaws and some nice molluscs (i.e., Trivia floridana & Calliostoma philanthropum pontoni). One must remember, that although this website focuses on shark and ray teeth, Lee Creek produces great molluscan material which is often overlooked.

Pat Young has provided great reports this season so this week it's presented without my usual spin and editing.

"On Saturday, the American Fossil Federation and a Washington, DC gem and mineral club visited the mine. The day started out breezy and comfortable but quickly turned hot. (I think most people wished that they had brought more water.) The mine opened up two more 'rows' to collecting but they were not very productive — quite a lot of sand and limestone. Collecting was mostly nose-to-the-ground. Dave Lekson found a nice 4-inch meg. Three-inchers were found by Dave Lekson, Jeff Sparks, Gary Thorne and Becky Hyne. Les Heinzl found a 2-1/2" Parotodus tooth that was in great shape. Bill Heim took home the sand dollar of the day. Rita McDaniel found a complete whale bulla with barnacles attached to it, yet another example of a still water environment .The "nose-to-the-ground" award goes to Ken Young who found a small Whitetip reef shark (Triaenodon obesus), 4 barracuda teeth, a small Isurus retroflexus, two Anomaeodus phaseolus teeth (one barely 1/8" long) and three ray teeth (species undetermined). Results are truly showing the strains of heavy collecting."

There's no rain in this week's forecast for the mine, so the Maryland Club better bring knee-pads. It's probably a great time for those that haven't collected smaller teeth, to consider taking back sand, particularly from those great Pungo exposures.

I've received a good image of that big (6-3/8 inch) meg tooth that is being raffled off at the fossil fair. I'll have it (and ticket ordering information) posted in a couple days.

A little slow getting this week's News posted, but was busy trying to track down the basis for various reports and speculation that has made its way to the website. Of most concern was a rumor that the mine would close to collectors in early April. There appears to have been an underlying element of truth to this story. It seems that mining conditions and mine were such, that Operations felt that an immediate closure (to collectors) was called-for. The Public Affairs office struck a deal that would allow those awarded a visit a chance to collect. When this all happened, I don't know, but those with May slots generally got moved to Sundays in April. So the good news is that no one should lose his or her opportunity to collect. However, there's a negative double whammy. First, this Sunday collecting doubles the pressure on the exposure and second, access to "Site I" has been lost due to flooding, so only Site II (the Yorktown-Pungo River area) can be collected. If you aren't familiar with collecting at Lee Creek, this means: Saturday collectors should pray for rain and Sunday collectors better wear knee pads (you'll be collecting the smaller items from the Pungo River).

Anyway, what did happen last weekend? Saturday, the Calvert Marine Museum, Hatteras Fossil Club and the Georgia Gem and Mineral Club were in the mine, and on Sunday, a group made-up of collectors originally slotted for May. Since only one area was collected, it's strange to report that the Sunday group appears to have done better. Only heard about a couple 3-inch & a 4-inch meg, a bramble tooth and a cast of a whale brain on Saturday. Yet Pat Young reports that on Sunday, Clayton Smith found an almost perfect 5-incher, Paul Murdoch a 4-incher, Vincent Nichnadowickz a beautiful 3" golden brown meg in limestone matrix (Pungo River) and Glenn Bolick three associated sperm whale teeth.

So, good luck if you're scheduled in and let me know what your group found.

The week's nor'easter created great expectations in all. Visting this weekend were the NJPS, the last contigent of the NCFC and the DWFC (six Brits and three collectors from Belgium). The day dawned chilly but matured into a beautiful sunny day — mid-70s, but with sand-in-the-eye gusts. We were brought to Site II (see March 14) and the 'sticks' were moved to add an additional hill of tailings to the collecting area. With the help of the week's storm, the available collecting area was excellent. The major drawback, as I could see it, was the collecting density — a third less people would have better suited the site (but tell that to those who wouldn't have come).

Overall, I'd judge this weekend's results as good. The abundant Pungo exposures provided the quantity and the Yorktown, the size. John Gramm found a 5-1/4" meg, Steve Ames a five and I saw another four incher and a number of smaller ones. Five brambles were reported, including two by David Ward and Guy Van den Eeckhaut. Cow sharks appear to have been common, including two beauties by Dana Kubinski and a great Hexanchus found by Jeremy Branfoot. Niel Morris found a peccary molar and a Georgia man, a horse tooth. Arlene Castleman had a couple nice bird bones and a terrific squalodon premolar. Most collectors seem to have left with a decent selection of material. At day's end, whale vertebrae remained uncollected — a sure sign that collecting was pretty good.

With rain and the continuing rotation of collecting areas, it would appear to be a worthwhile season. Visitors should place a high priority on catching the first bus in and be prepared to be collecting on one's knees before noon.

Finally a report that sounds like the old days -- should hear a bit of bragging by the Tampa Bay Fossil Club (welcome back) and the East Coast Fossil Club. Pat Young reports that the collecting imitated the weather - sunny, mid-seventies and a light breeze (otherwise near perfect).

Larger megs are now being reported, two 5-inchers (one by Mark Owens) and a couple more 4-inchers (George Lee had one). Pat noted a few examples of other lucky collectors. Tampa Bay member Linda Spaulding found an isolated seal molar and later another with jaw attached. Mark Saunders found 4 Notorhynchus lowers, a squalodon molar and a huge Hexanchus lower. DeWayne Varnum took home a giant & pristine sperm whale tooth, two large pieces of ray mouthplate, a croc tooth and a nice Carcharodon carcharias. Included in Dave Whitney's finds was a 2-3/8 inch Isurus hastalis tooth. It seems D J Kurtzman had the day's unique find, "he dumped the fill out of a whelk and a crab was inside — carapace complete, both claws, and the apron. Preliminary ID is female Galenopsis."

For those still to visit, safety is a continuing issue. A couple recent incidents (not collecting related) have raised the mine's concerns. It would appear safe to say that following the rules is more important than ever. They have increased the number of radios used by collectors and are stressing that one should "never collect without having someone in sight" and that it's "imperative that no one goes outside the marked boundaries".

Pat Young has kindly offered to keep us advised of weekly activities -- stepping in for Candace Holliday who proved so helpful in the past (thank you Candace).

It seems that week two proved less productive than the kick-off weekend. The NCFC collected Site II on Saturday. (Unlike Site I which largely exposes Pungo marl, Site II "is mostly Unit 1 and Unit 2 Yorktown with some nicer Pungo marl and a fair amount of Croatan.") For those unprepared, Saturday's cold and windy weather took the luster off the experience. Pat heard of a few good finds, the largest meg measured in at about 3 inches. It does seem Ramona Krailler did well — "two beautiful otoliths, a bramble tooth and a nice squalodon incisor". Mike Milton found a perfect echinoid, but the general report was less than newsworthy. Pat says this area is usually good, producing "some great sand dollars ..., lots of seal (jaws w/teeth and single teeth and bones), and quite a few squalodons in great shape." The NCFC overflow visited on Sunday and collected Site I. The weather and collecting were better than Saturday, but no details were available of the results. It would appear that this site-rotation will continue throughout the season.

The draglines are currently operating at the edges of the old embayment -- many layers are absent and others show evidence of very shallow and still water (perfect megs and sand dollars covered with barnacles and bryozoa).

As in the past, if you want to share personal experiences after a weekend's collecting, please drop me an e-mail -- the more perspectives the better.

Well I can finally provide a Lee Creek News article that doesn't morn it's closure or ramble on about various off-topics. Yes, collectors walked those hallowed grounds last weekend. Not being one of the Aurora elite, I must rely on a second-hand input for this first collecting weekend of the millennium. Reporting on the weekend was Kim Greene, a longtime contributor to the website (Cretaceous of North Carolina) and a friend.

Peering out at tonight's winter storm, I can only imagine the pent-up excitement that pervaded the bus as it sat in the parking lot. Gone would be the boasts of the last weekend's finds -- it would have been anticipation, thick enough to cut with a knife. The traditionally tedious drive, insulated by inter-collector B.S., was likely more quiet -- what had changed? Did the more jaded visitors still exhibit a propensity for politeness and patience when the bus stopped? Kim didn't tell all.

Looking out at the accumulating snow, those collectors had great weather. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be called very good. It was overcast and in the 50's; light rain in the morning growing heavier in the PM. The collecting area was smaller than the last couple seasons, but as Kim said, "big enough for 70 people to collect without falling over each other."

This first weekend's visitors (Aurora and Grand Strand Clubs, Smithsonian and a few others) collected an area that included flats and hills (to about 20'), a better topography than in recent years and it showed little evidence of recent collecting. The area included good Pungo and Yorktown exposures. Word has it that a different area will be available next weekend for the North Carolina club. It had higher hills and seen some collecting, however, it's been bulldozed and might be exposing new material.

Flares are out, but collectors must now stay six feet from water (I'd rather carry flares). There is some new reg. on wearing safety glasses, which will be provided by the mine if necessary (Rx eyeglasses OK).

So, how was collecting? W.C. Mozingo came up with three megs (2.5 - 3"), Melissa Manwaring, Laura Norris & Louise Slate each found two, and others (Eric Thompson, Pat Young & Brian Hempy) with singular examples. Eric Thompson also found three bird bones and John Powell another. Rita McDaniel managed a couple gator teeth to accompany her cow shark material back to South Carolina. Becky's three cow shark teeth included a pathological, which nicely complimented her bramble tooth. Mako, tiger, whale & porpoise teeth were abundant. Laura Norris found a nice myliobatid mouthplate (4-5 teeth), Kim Greene an incomplete billfish rostrum and Ellie Rouse a large piece of "amber" & a Squalodon incisor. The list is not complete, but it would be fair to say that the mine is open and producing!

To me, this is a very sad day, I'm a racing fan and this year's Daytona 500 had a bittersweet last lap. In Hockenheim, on my birthday in 1968, a similar tragedy snuffed out the life of my then hero - Jimmy Clark, today it was Dale Earnhardt -- pardon me for going off topic.

Well, I got my slot, March 24th -- it's wonderful! Rumor has it that older areas will be openned for collecting and that they may change from week to week. I'm unsure if I will do my traditional micro collecting or take the opportunity to surface collect — looking for the big one.

Laurent Candoni has made some major additions to his website and a visit is an absolute must. This site has the potential of being one of the great ones (to fossil shark tooth collectors).

Henri Cappetta and Dick Grier have been working on an alternative list for the Potapaco fauna from Virginia. Their conclusions differ on certain items from that of Kent and the identifications currently included on this website. Although I've only had a peek at their conclusions, certain items appear to be valid. When published, those observations will be included in the Nanjemoy section.

Well, it appears my cynicism was mis-placed, the NJPS got its date, so those other clubs that registered should now know as well — Good Luck All!

The website face lift is proceeding well. This coming weekend I'll start uploading revised pages. The content has changed little, but the underlying html and JavaScript is greatly modified. Cascading style sheets are now being employed which means the browser bar has been raised to JavaScript 1.2 (in other words, if you're not using at least IE or NN 4.0 the pages wont look right).

The Otodus-Carcharocles evolution slide-show is now up, and most of the website additions have been to the dentition slide-show — nearly 30 are now illustrated.