A fossil hunting discovery, gift from a Great White shark

Dewayne Varnam, a sanitarian at the Brunswick County Health Department, spends his workdays evaluating sites for septic systems and new wells. On weekends he digs deeper, searching for fossils millions of years old.Varnam credits his seventh-grade teacher at Shallotte Middle School, Ann Ellis, with lighting the spark that began his lifelong passion for fossils.

Ellis brought a collection of fossils to school, and when Dewayne picked up a trilobite she explained that it was 500 million years old. This was heady stuff for a seventh-grader. For the next few days he pondered the concept of 500 million years.The following Saturday, he and a friend, Keith Galloway, rode their dirt bikes to the area that is now Lockwood Folly Golf Links and searched for fossils."Extra credit was what I was thinking," Varnam admits.

They found lots of old sharks' teeth, and his friend found a great white shark's tooth. "It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen," Varnam said. He now has a mako shark's tooth from that site, framed and hanging on his wall.Varnam never stopped fossil hunting after that experience. He went on to study geology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1983 he joined the N.C. Fossil Club, and in 2000 he helped organizethe East Coast Fossil Club, which now has 75 members.

He has served as vice president of the East Coast club since its inception.The club has frequent digs in the spring and fall at a phosphate quarry in Aurora and a limestone mine in Rocky Point. In the summer, members go to creeks in North and South Carolina to sift for fossils. Occasionally the club sponsors trips to Alabama and Mississippi. The club supports the Aurora Fossil Museum in Beaufort County. Members swap fossils to add to their personal collections, and they share their finds with professional paleontologists.

At Varnamtown, where he lives with his wife, Cheryl, 5-year-old daughter Danielle and 10-month-old son Drake, Varnam often "fossilizes" his gravel driveway.He plants fossils in the driveway so that Danielle can learn to spot sharks' teeth and echinoids, commonly known as sea urchins or sea biscuits. She has been searching for fossils since she was a toddler.Varnam plans to take her on her first club dig in the fall.He shares his love of fossils with other kids, too.

Recently he made a display of fossils listing their scientific names, common names, ages and the countries of origin. He gave the display to Mrs. Cumbee to share with her fifth grade class a first-grade teacher at Virginia Williamson Elementary School to share with her class.The students were so enthusiastic about the fossil study that they also learned to draw the fossils and shared their knowledge with a class of second-graders. Mrs. Holbrooks' second grade class. The students' interest led to a schoolwide fossil fair.Varnam explains why he likes to share his fossil knowledge with school students. "It reminds me of when I was in the seventh grade."