A fossil assemblage from the wicomico formation in Berkeley County, South Carolina

Both megafossils and fossil Foraminifera have been obtained from unconsolidated sediments of the Wicomico Formation, which underlies the Penholoway terrace, a coastal feature that formed when the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean stood about 70 feet higher than at present. Some of the fossils are Tertiary species and are assumed to have been derived from rocks of that age; the others are species commonly found in near-shore deposits of Quaternary age as well as in present-day south-Atlantic coastal waters. The Penholoway terrace in this area is shown to have been formed during a pause in marine regression from the Wicomico stand, when the sea stood near 100 feet. The relation of the Wicomico and Penholoway terraces to other coastal terraces suggests a Yarmouth age for the fossil-yielding beds.