THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 4, 1996 TAG: 9610020207
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: RANDOM RAMBLES
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: 75 lines
It is, says Brian Kramer, like an eternal Easter egg hunt. And the older the ``eggs,'' the happier Kramer will be.
We're not talking hens' fruit here. We're talking fossils. Kramer, a third-grade teacher at Portlock Primary School, is a dedicated fossil hunter. He says you can feel just as excited as a kid tracking Easter eggs when you're looking for a fossilized piece of the past.
And he hopes lots of Chesapeake families will join him tomorrow when he leads a Family Fossil Safari into the semi-wilds of Deep Creek. You can register at any community center until 9 tonight and get the map you need. More information is available until 5 p.m. at 382-6411.
The turf the safari will explore sends a message about what Chesapeake was like two million years ago. The earth was going through what scientists call the Pliocene Epoch. The whole eastern United States was under water. That helps explain why a guy digging a well in my front yard found oyster shells 80 feet down.
Because what's now dry land (and strip shopping malls and fast food joints) was once under water, the fossils found in the Deep Creek area are 80 percent marine critters. Like shellfish, sand dollars, crab shells, shark teeth and whale bones. Yes, says Kramer, you sometimes find horse teeth and other fossils of land animals. That's because they lived on the coast and could have been carried downstream in floods or heavy rains.
But, no, dinosaur fans, fossils of your favorites won't be found at the two million year level. Dinosaurs were wiped out about 65 million years ago. Nobody knows why, except that someone back then probably blamed the liberal media. Kramer gets a trifle miffed when people talk dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs all the time. He thinks they get a lot more attention than they deserve. As an educator, TV and movie scenes of man and dinosaur together really yank his chain. Man didn't show up until only about a million years ago, when dinosaurs were long gone.
A Chesapeake native, Kramer says he always liked to dig in the earth to see what he could find. His mom got used to seeing him come home encrusted with dirt and toting his latest treasure. While he got stuffed in the tub, the find got stored in a box in the garage. Most of the contents vanished over the years, but Kramer still has an old bell he shoveled up. His dad sandblasted it and discovered that it was a beautiful piece of brass.
About six years ago, a friend told him about a place in Deep Creek where fossils abound. Kramer went there and got hooked on excursions into the prehistoric past.
``I felt like I was walking back in time,'' he says. ``The location is a natural barrier to sound and I felt alone, surrounded by a sea environment of two million years ago. I walked and walked and looked and looked.''
The scientific name for the study of fossils is paleontology. Go ahead, astonish your friends by telling them that Virginia has an official state fossil. It's a shell called the Jefferson Scallop. I could be wrong about this, but I think the official state fossil of North Carolina is Sen. Jesse Helms.
Just kidding there, conservatives, lest you mount a plot to make me extinct.
But Kramer isn't kidding when he waxes enthusiastic about the fun of fossil hunting. He's even writing about it. There's a publication called Fossil News, and he contributes a monthly column aimed at kids.
Rain or shine, the Family Fossil Safari will explore Chesapeake's past tomorrow. Exactly where is Kramer's secret because the owner of the property only gives permission for serious projects. ``I'll start with a brief lesson in the paleontology of the area,'' Kramer says. ``The families will understand that what we see now is not the way things always were. They'll know, too, that there's more to fossils than dinosaurs.
And Kramer absolutely does not talk disappointment for the hunters on the safari. ``I give an unconditional guarantee that they will find some kind of fossils. It's a very rich area.''
There's a true opportunity here for families and their children to get a piece of the action, a real hands-on learning experience.''
It sounds like a lot of fun, but I am battling dismay. I mean, from what Kramer says, the Flintstones cartoons are not accurate history. Good golly, if you can't trust Fred and Barney and Dino, who can you trust? by CNB