Fall 1999: "Muddy Creek" book now available!
This book is of multiple interest to MGS members: not only is it a great identification guide for Eocene fauna and flora, but the specimens were collected primarily by members of our club. Editors Dr. Robert Weems and Gary Grimsley are both MGS members. The official title of the book is Publication 152: Early Eocene Vertebrates and Plants from the Fisher/Sullivan Site (Nanjemoy Formation) Stafford County, Virginia. It is published by the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, and consists of 159 pages divided into 8 chapters. There are more than 2 dozen photographic plates plus many other drawings and charts. Chapters and authors are:

1- Intro, geology, paleogeography, Dr. R. Weems and G. Grimsley.
2/3- Sharks, Rays, Dr. B. W. Kent
4/5- Fish, Reptiles, Dr. R. Weems
6- Birds, S. L. Olsson
7- Mammals, K. D. Rose
8- Fruit and Seeds, B. H. Tiffney

Although we will try to have copies at each meeting, Publication 152 can be ordered directly from:

Division of Mineral Resources
PO Box 3667
Charlottesville, VA 22903
attn: Publication Sales Office

Price is $13.00 (VA residents 13.58), and includes shipping. Make check payable to "Treasurer of Virginia" or call 804-951-6341 to use a credit card.

October 1999: A Texas Team We Support
MGS hosted five members of the Dallas Paleontological Society on the weekend of October 8-10. They were given a behind-the-scenes tour at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History by Bob Purdy, and visited several Chesapeake Bay collecting sites during their stay. Rick Smith notes that they "were quite pleased with the variety and quality of their finds and said they had a great weekend." He also notes that "several members of MGS need to be thanked for making the visit by the Dallas group a success. In addition to Bob Purdy at the Smithsonian, Mike Folmer, Debbie Burdette, and Dick Grier, Jr. were instrumental in making this interaction between our two societies a reality."

Photographs of our visitors' trip can be seen at the DPS website.

Shark Week 1999:
	The Discovery Channel and their local store will be featuring MGS member George Powell August 8 to 15 as part of their regular Shark Week series. Early word is that George will be likewise involved with Shark Week 2000. Check back for dates and details.

Jan 26 1999:
"Turning Dinosaur Theory on Its Paleobiological Tail" (New York Times on the Web).
The study of a fossil baby dinosaur named Scipionyx samniticus, found north of Naples, Italy in 1983, is casting doubt as to whether dinosaurs were warmblooded and ancestors of birds. This fossil has the best preserved fossil organs of any found to date.

Nov 1998: Enormous Discovery Reported
Sauropod dinosaur eggs and embryos encompassing about a square mile were found in Patagonia, Argentina (link to "Project Patagonia" - Los Angeles Museum) by Luis Chiappe and others. Some had the skin preserved and scales still visible. These eggs represent sauropods that grew 40-50 feet long.

Opalized Plesiosaur
A treasure from White Cliffs, N.S.W., Australia: an 8.5 foot long opalized skeleton of a plesiosaur known as Plessy Neck. It's estimated to have lived over 100,000,000 years ago in the Dinosaur Era. Currently this find is not on public display. It was too expensive for Sydney Museum to afford.
White Cliffs is about 188 miles from Broken Hill and about 65 miles north of Wilcannia (the road from Wilcannia is paved about a third of the way).
White Cliffs is the oldest and largest opal field that was discovered back on the late 1880s by a party of kangaroo shooters. Other fossil finds include an opalized belemnite and petrified wood.

White Cliffs Tourist Guide, tel. (80) 91 6607.

White Cliffs General Store & Tourist Information, tel. (80) 91 6611.

White Cliffs Dugout Hotel, tel (80) 91 6677.

Outback Treasures offers fossils, precious and semiprecious gems, cut and polished opals from local mines, jewelry and aboriginal art, etc. (618) 80 91 6634.

--Rock & Gem Magazine, October 1997, p. 20.

Muddy Creek:
Make sure you have permission from the land owner before you dig at Muddy Creek. The local sheriff is patrolling the site regularly. Collectors without the proper permission should stay away. This is a research site so please do not ruin it for the people contributing specimens. A paper on this site and its specimens is currently in progress for a near future publication.

Pfiesteria Archives:
Collectors on the Chesapeake Bay and it's tributaries should be aware of the growing Pfiesteria microbe. This microbe is showing up in more Eastern shore rivers (Pocomoke, Kings Creek and points north), and it seems to be just a matter of time before the Potomac and other rivers on the western shore will be affected. Since contact with the water is the spreading agent, collectors who wade without boots or a wet suit and use no gloves, should watch for the symptoms:

• Lesions
• Loss of memory
• Nausea

Historical data:
1991 : The first state to report this problem was North Carolina.
Per Matt Hemby, Staff Writer for News & Observer in "Experts Contend Neuse's Fish Kill Worst in State": This dinoflagellate was discovered in the Pamlico River in 1991. It's the "toxic algae" or "killer algae." Pfiesteria could survive in water temperatures as low as 55 degrees.
The Division of Epidemiology at DEHNR had reports of working with pfiesteria with eye irritation and throat irritation and neurological problems such as memory loss and irritability which according to Dr. Burkholder are symptoms equitable to someone having Alzheimer's disease.
As reported earlier in "Hippocrates" (October 1995, by Deborah Franklin), Dr. Howard Glasgow, a researcher at North Carolina State University had been exposed to the organism. A chemical agent excreted by Pfiesteria caused symptoms ranging though forgetfulness, rages, paranoia, sores; symptoms of neurological injury, including abnormal reflexes, profuse sweating on one side of his body; and physiological changes such as erratic heart beat and blood pressure, high enzyme count in his liver, and high levels of phosphates in his urine (all signs of the bodies response to neurotoxins). Once Dr. Glasgow removed himself from exposure to the organism, he slowly returned to normal health.
Oct 25 1995: The News & Observer reports: Toxic algae proved deadly in the Neuse River at Minnesott Beach. This toxic dinoflagellate called pfiesteria had just previously been found in New Bern, NC and has travelled as far down as Oriental, NC. Samples at Minnesott Beach measured 2,500 cells per milliliter; eight times higher than what's lethal for fish. Oriental has measured 300 cells per milliliter.
June 1997: The Pocomoke River, VA reports outbreak of Pfiesteria.
Sept 17 1997: Florida reported an outbreak of Pfiesteria in the St. John's River from Jacksonville down to Lake Okeechobee
Sept 18 1997: The Neuse River, NC remains a problem.

See additional information on this topic at the following sites (updated Jan 2000):