DEFINING AND ANALYZING A BONE BED FOUND IN KINGSTREE, SOUTH CAROLINA

Within the city limits of Kingstree, SC, a fossiliferous layer is exposed along and adjacent to Clapp Creek, a tributary of the Black River. This layer contains a variety of shark, fish and reptilian teeth as well as scales and bones which span the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) through the Early Quaternary (Pleistocene). Due to the high concentration of vertebrate and phosphatic material present, this fossiliferous layer is referred to as a bone bed. A bone bed is a lag layer within which the vertebrate material represents more than 5% of the supporting matrix.

The bone bed along Clapp Creek is found in unconsolidated sediment and is approximately 15 cm in thickness. The vertebrate material is dominantly represented by the Paleocene/Ecoene Black Mingo Group. The Black Mingo Group is composed of the Rhems Formation, Williamsburg Formation, and the Fishburne Formation (Weems & Bybell 1998). At Kingstree, the Rhems and the Williamsburg formations are present. The lithology of the sediment is highly phosphatic and contains abundant amounts of quartz sand and small amounts of heavy minerals. The sediment and fossils, which are found in the Kingstree area, suggest that the paleoenvironment was a nearshore, coastal environment. The worn and abraded condition of the phosphate pebbles and the mixing of the vertebrate material indicate storm deposits and reworking of the material found in this area.

The purpose of this research project is to define the morphology, depositional environment, and faunal composition of the Clapp Creek bone bed. In addition to defining and describing the bone bed, the wide temporal range of the faunal elements will be addressed. It will also be determined if there is any statistical variance of faunal composition throughout the bone bed. The lateral extent of this bone-bed is currently unknown and continued investigation may determine the origin and extent of this remarkable unit located along Clapp Creek in Kingstree, SC.