@LianaBrooks New BFF then launches into a 7 hour lecture about the joys of belly button lint. 😉😛

Here's an interesting thing for you:

The largest flying bird of all time (i.e., living or extinct) is Pelagornis sandersi. It stood about 5 feet tall, with an estimated 24 foot wingspan, and weighed about 80 lbs.. This bird soared over the Atlantic continental shelf 26 million years ago. I found this beast in 1983. This is the Charleston Museum's display. 👇

@LianaBrooks Other interesting thing:

You've heard the expression "queer as a three dollar bill"? Well, here's a three CENT bill, issued by the U.S. Treasury during the Civil War. Such fractional currency was issued from 1862 to 1872 due to a shortage of coins because people were hoarding them. The bills were issued in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cents. The 3¢ note was issued starting in 1863. I found this in an old family Bible at Goodwill last year. I sold it for $28.

@LianaBrooks Last interesting thing:

This is my "fossil rock" on display at the Charleston Museum. It's an example of a xenolith ("foreign stone"), where a piece of one kind of rock is found embedded in a different kind.

Here, a quratzite pebble (igneous) is found embedded in marine silt, a marl (sedimentary), telling a story that took millions of years to write. This washed down from the mountains, got tumbled in a stream, caught in tree roots (?), then washed out to sea, 100 miles offshore.

@POOetryma @LianaBrooks Neat!

I kind of miss looking for "treasures" in marl and fossil coral, down in Florida.

Awesome to see a stone that was beyond ancient when the mud around it was mud and bits of shells. Journeys taken long before people contemplated them.

@AskTheDevil @LianaBrooks My guess is it formed, probably, over 200 million years ago, possibly as long as 300M+, when the Appalachians were young, maybe still forming, and had volcanic activity going on. That would have continued until sometime after Pangaea broke up. The sediment it's encased in was deposited about 26-28 million years ago, when the coastline was over 100 miles inland from its current extent, in the South Carolina Midlands. Woulda been 50+ meters deep here in Charleston.

@POOetryma @LianaBrooks
It fills me with a sense of awe, at all the complex and enormous things happening in space, time, and matter, that we never see, that happened millions or billions of years before we were a glint in the ocean's eye.

@POOetryma @LianaBrooks And all the funny little coins in fractional denominations, too.

@POOetryma @LianaBrooks I also remember funny little coins used in the US, like pinky-nail sized, stamped on gold, that said denominations of a dollar, 4 dollars, etc. Maybe very early turn of the 1800's or so?

@AskTheDevil @LianaBrooks The smallest denomination gold coin issued in the U.S. was $5 dollars. The largest denomination gold coin minted for public use was $20. Gold coins up to $100 face value are minted today, but these are limited run collectibles that cost much more than face value.

Fun fact: The U.S. does not invalidate any money issued. All currency and coinage the Treasury has ever issued is still (technically) spendable at face value; thus, that bill is still good for 3 cents.

@POOetryma @LianaBrooks

Neat!

@POOetryma I love this, and I'm sad I missed it when I was there.

@LianaBrooks It's on permanent display, so if you decide to come back, it'll still be here, waiting on you. 😊 Who knows? Maybe, by then, they'll finally have the big leatherback turtle I found - same general area, by the airport, and same formation (so, same age) - assembled after over 40 years. If they ever finish it, that will likely go on display, as well. At 77×57 inches (6'5"×4'9"), it is (or was, at the time) the biggest intact fossil leatherback shell on the east coast.