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Fuquay-Varina Independent, Wednesday, October 12, 2011 – 1B
U12 Flames: Columbus Day Classic Soccer Champs
One of the more important
parts of North Carolina’s (recently
fragile) economy is the tourism
industry. When hurricanes strike
or floods impair the tourism industry,
the entire state feels the
effects. It is because of this that
when something relatively new is
added to the list of tourist attractions
in our state, our government
takes a lot of interest in this new
source of income.
Visitors to our state come in
search of relaxation, sun, golf,
fishing and hunting and other
outdoor oriented sports but it is
a little unusual
when the visi-
tors come to
North Carolina
in search
of something
that is literally
millions
of years old
and is of great
interest to a
selected few
scientists.
One of the
focal points
of this new
source of the
tourist’s dol-
lars is the shark tooth hunter.
The epicenter for this growing
industry seems to be centered
around the small eastern North
Carolina town of Aurora where a
large Canadian mining company
by the name of Potash Corporation
(PC) now operates the Lee
Creek Phosphate Mine. Originally
coming to North Carolina
some 50 years ago as Texas Gulf
Sulfur (TGS) the mining of the
valuable phosphate ore from this
Beaufort County site has changes
ownership several times over the
years. Potash Corporation (PC) is
the current owner of what has become
known as the “largest phosphate
mine in the world.”
While this huge Canadian
company (one of the ten largest
companies in Canada) collects
the valuable phosphate ore from
deep underground it uses massive
equipment to strip-off the overburden
of fossils and other assorted
lesser valuable resources.
Much of this “overburden of fossils,”
while not of any use to the
mining company, becomes known
as “reject rock” and is a source of
great interest to historians and archeologists
because it is a source
of information about the plants
and animals that existed on this
planet millions of years ago. Of
particular interest to many are the
untold billions of fossilized sharks
teeth that are being uncovered as
the mine digs up even more of the
Beaufort County landscape to get
at the phosphate ore.
Several years ago the little
town of Aurora decided to capitalize
on the natural resources
of fossils being dug up from the
nearby mine and use this as a
tourist attraction. A small but
well-done fossil museum was
begun in Aurora and the visitors
started to visit the town with visions
of dinosaurs and other prehistoric
animals in their heads. A
full-blown Fossil Festival followed
and Aurora began to attract worldwide
acclaim as being a Mecca for
fossil hunters.
It seems that several European
and countries have become really
enamored with this source
of fossils with particular interest
centered on the millions of years
old shark’s teeth being uncovered
near Aurora. In increasing
numbers these specialized fossil
hunters are traveling from around
the world to visit Aurora, North
Carolina seeking fossils and, in
particular, shark’s teeth. Over
the past few weeks three visiting
tourist from Holland (the Netherlands)
have been digging through
the rocks and clays of Eastern
North Carolina and adding literally
thousands of shark’s teeth to
their already huge collections of
these fossils.
Two of these visitors, Cor de
Visser and Willhem Zanderink
were very high-ranking police
officers in Holland while Hans
Kamphius, a geologists, was the
Director of the Mineral Museum
in Borculo, Holland. The three
shared a common goal of gathering
shark’s teeth and other fossils
from the Pungo and Yorktown
Formations at the Lee Creek
Phosphate Mine owned by the
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan,
Canada.
Hoping to have gained some
limited access to actually enter
the huge open pit mine owned
by the Potash Corp. mine at Lee
Creek in order to dig for fossils in
some of the layers of overburden
known to hold vast numbers of
fossilized shark’s teeth, the visitors
were frustrated by the very
restricted access to this area. The
recent visit by Hurricane Irene
and the resulting flooding had
left not only the mine itself but
the surrounding countryside in
disrepair so their digging expeditions
were limited to digging in a
huge pile of reject rock owned by
the A-Wall Bulkheading and Dock
Construction Company in Aurora.
The three Hollanders would rise
early every morning, don their
coveralls and boots and, with
loads of suntan lotion and insect
repellant on hand, proceed to the
reject rock pile and begin their
search for shark teeth. Literally
crawling over and through the
thousands of tons of fossils and
clay their work was backbreaking
and eye-straining as even the tiniest
of teeth were added to already
bulging collecting bags and held
for the evening’s sorting out and
classifying their finds.
Every individual species of
shark’s teeth is unique and by
closely examining the teeth the
sharks exact species can be determined.
It is not unusual for the
collectors of sharks teeth to discover
an entirely new and, until
now, unknown, species of shark
from over a million years ago. For
the shark tooth collector, making
such a discovery is the ultimate
thrill. I suppose one could compare
this to a coin or stamp collector’s
finding a very rare coin or
stamp.
Once a new species of prehistoric
shark is discovered the
new scientific name of the shark
usually reflects the name of the
person who discovered this new
species and may refer to the place
that the new species was discovered
and also might reflect something
that’s unique to the new
species. For instance, the massive
(Est. 90 feet long) prehistoric
great white shark goes by the
scientific name of Carcharodon
megalodon. (Carcharodon=genus.—
megalodon=species. megalodon=
a Greek word meaning “Big
tooth”). Should a modern day
shark’s tooth collector identify a
fossilized shark’s tooth here in
Eastern North Carolina belonging
to a hitherto unknown species
of great white shark it might be
named Carcharodon bubbadon
in honor of the discoverer of the
FVAA U12 Flames Red brought
home the gold over the weekend.
The girls, coached by Larry
Henson, went undefeated in
four games, scoring 17 points
and allowing only 1 goal. Pictured
in the top row from left
are Coach Larry Henson, Olivia
Baez, Carissa Olivares, Hannah
Nutt, Amanda Claudio, Amanda
Sales, Abigail Burke; bottom
row, Sarah Frost, Kristin Davis,
Jordan Kaplan, Alexis Noel, Angelina
Anderson.
contributed photo
Outdoorsmen Visit Eastern N.C. To “Hunt” Shark’s Teeth
In the
outdoors
Fred
Bonner
Warriors
place
in national
tourney
The Fuquay-Varina Tri County Warriors
girls Basketball team placed
second in the 10th Grade USBA
National Tournament held late
summer in Myrtle Beach, SC. The
Warriors played a hard fought final
losing to the Mid State Magic out
of Greensboro, NC. Pictured from
left are: sitting, Brisha Gilbert, Attiana
Miller, Armoni Guy; middle,
Camille Baker, Jalisia Campbell,
Tiana Hunter, Kiyana Stokes; top
row, HC Charles Baker, Shebria
Kersey, Maya Banks, Assistant
Coach Andrew Bass.
contributed photo
photos by Fred bonner
This fossilized sharks tooth may look small but, after carefully
identifying it, it could turn out to be from a prehistoric
shark of a species that is entirely new to science. These
fossil hunters are as dedicated to their sport as many
whitetail deer hunters are to their chosen sport. Finding
a rare tooth, systematically determining its origins and
former owner’s identity and assigning to it to an entirely
new scientific name is one of the goals of these rather
unique “hunters.”
new species. After their day’s digging
the Hollanders would retire
to the Hickory Point peninsula
community of Isle Vue Beach
where they would have supper
and spread their day’s findings
on a table to begin to clean and
sort the shark’s teeth by species.
Each hunter had a well written
and worn identification key to the
species of prehistoric sharks and
magnifying glasses aided them
in the intricate work of pinning
down the exact species of sharks
that originally owned the teeth.
The hundreds of teeth were then
placed on heavy zip-loc bags and
made ready for transport back to
Holland.
As I watched the three Dutch
fossil hunters pack their suitcases
with heavy fossils and ready them
for their flights back to Holland
I wondered just how they were
going to get around the weight
limitations an the airlines. I don’t
think they would have worried
even if their excess baggage
fees had amounted to thousands
of dollars. Those shark’s teeth
were headed back to Holland with
them.
It’s very understandable that
Potash Corp. wouldn’t allow these
scientists to actually get into the
open pit phosphate mine near Aurora.
The American mining laws
are very strict when it comes to
safety within the actual mine but
it would seem reasonable if some
“special” piles of reject rock could
be set aside for scientists or tourist
that travel from across the
Atlantic Ocean to collect these
valuable prehistoric relics that
could be unique to our area. With
a lot of emphasis being placed on
jobs and the economy these days
we need the tourism business to
go along with the Canadian heavy
mining industry. The Aurora Fossil
Museum does a good job of answering
some of the educational
needs of school children and the
average fossil collectors but the
potential for bringing into our
state some heavy-duty scientists
might add a lot to bringing in the
tourist’s dollars we so desire.
Maybe if we could discover a new
prehistoric shark species through
it’s fossilized teeth and give it a
new scientific name of Carcharodon
pcsodon it might spark more
interest in Potash Corp in keeping
its public relations interest on
an even keel.