ENIGMATIC FOSSIL OCCURRENCES IN THE MURPHY MARBLE, SWAIN COUNTY, NC: A STORY OF CONTRADICTION AND CONFUSION

The discoveries in 1972 and 1983 of apparent fossils in the Murphy marble and in an overlying schist at the Nantahala Talc & Limestone Quarry have led to contradictory identifications and interpretations of the materials and have been largely ignored as paleontologically insignificant or even invalid. Since the discoveries, there has been no serious evaluation of the fossils and of their significance for the age and environmental setting of the marble and the overlying stratigraphy. Our objective will be (1) to make the geological community aware that the discovered materials and supporting stratigraphic/lithologic log data still exist, (2) that the contradictions in interpretations have not been fully evaluated and reported in the scientific literature, and (3) to revive an interest in the finds among the paleontological community. If found to be valid and identifiable fossils, these older finds may provide important supporting evidence for the conclusions made from an echinoderm fragment reported by Tull, et al (1993) in the Mission Mountain formation and/or recent radiometric age dating by Fisher, et al (2022) of the Marble Hill hornblende schist, both units that overlie the Murphy marble.