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Found 19 results

  1. Here is a brief report from one of our latest forays into Calvert County, MD. The well-known stretch of shoreline along the western Chesapeake Bay is loaded with Miocene fossils, with the Calvert, St. Mary's, and Choptank formations progressively exposed along a ~24 mile stretch of beach and cliffs. We found an Airbnb in Lusby, MD which was not too far from Matoaka Lodges, which seemed the best bet since the nearly 2 mile walk to the beaches at Calvert Cliffs State Park is impractical for our family at this time. Covid-19 and Maryland's onerous private land regulations can make it tough if not impossible to access some of the other municipal beaches along the coast. For example, Brownies Beach, Dares Beach, Cove Point, and Flag Pond are all restricted in some way to town or county residents only. Matoaka Lodges however will grant day-pass access for a small fee, and the beach is from my experience very diverse and productive in its fossils. We spent a total of 5 hours there, employing an 1/8" sieve and also simply walking the surf line. The largest tooth pictured here actually washed up at my feet as I was surreptitiously bending over at the same time. Most of the rest were found with the sieve. Most of these are shark or sting ray teeth and a few turtle shells plus some of the smaller items I could not identify. A local told me that porpoise teeth can be found there also. This lot comprises the smallest fossils found; in addition to these (mostly) teeth and shell fragments were found a large and diverse sample of vertebrate fragments, corals, miscellaneous other fossils (snails, mollusks, etc.) which I will post in the follow-up report to this one. Having spent some time at some of the other sites along Calvert Cliffs this summer, I would say based on the diversity, number of fossils, and time spent collecting, that Matoaka is definitely worth the return trip.
  2. hokietech96

    Brownies Beach 1-15

    Went to Brownies for the first time Wednesday. Met up with @searcher78 and had a good time looking stuff. It is completely different then what we have in Jersey. The cliffs are really amazing. Enjoy the pics. Appreciate any feedback on the pics. Thanks as always. what could have been a nice Mako my first hemis ever! front and back of what I think is a piece of cow shark?
  3. It was a nice day for shark tooth hunting with another TFF member. I was hoping for larger teeth, but it was mostly small teeth.
  4. As an early Christmas present, I ordered some waders and they came a couple of days ago. It was obviously time to fossil-hunt. We made it out to brownies pretty quickly. Fortunately, there weren’t that many people there, and we rounded the point after a quick search of the area near the entrance. We promptly found a couple nice fish verts and a couple broken shark verts in the spoil piles right near the cliffs. We continued along the cliffs, searching every crevasse for the elusive meg, checking the gravel for makos and the like. Pretty far down we turned around as the tide was coming in. As we walked back along the beach, I looked down to grab a nice tiger. Lo and behold, the “tiger” was actually a symphyseal cow! It was broken with some bits missing, but it was still the rarest thing I’ve ever found! Grateful to the fossil hunting gods, FA
  5. Petalodus12

    Possible fish jaw from Calvert Cliffs

    Hello all, Today I was hunting at Brownies Beach (Maryland, Miocene) and found a rather strange piece of bone. To me it looks like the rostral portion of a jaw with false teeth but I’m honestly not sure about what it is. Maybe Wahoo material? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. ~Zach
  6. Darktooth

    Maryland trip 9-28-2019

    This weekend family had to drive to Maryland for my son Dylan's Marching Band competition in Annapolis. We drove down Friday evening after I got out of work. The crazies were out in full force during the drive down, but we managed to arrive safely despite the reckless driving that we witnessed. Dylan's school did not perform till 6:30 PM Saturday evening, so the plan was to do a hunt at Brownies for a few hours then meet my parents for lunch, then go to the Naval stadium and watch the other schools perform until my son school performed. After a rather good breakfast at the hotel we headed to Brownies. We were staying in Bowie, so we were only about 35 minutes away. When we arrived around 8:30 there were about 8 cars in the lot. We got our gear and headed out. Originally the forecast was calling for Full sun and a high of 85. So I was expecting to roast while out there. Instead it was overcast with a nice breeze, so we stayed cool the whole time we were there. There was a fair amount of people on the beach already, slowly working their way around to the cliffs. Low tide was set for around 10. The level was already decent when we got there. I noticed alot of trees were down since I had been there last which was a few years ago. Because I had my family with me, I wasnt sure how far down we would go. Once we got a little ways around the corner we began some sifting. I won't bore you with all of the petty details. But I will say that the finds were mostly small and broken. That being said, I think we all had a pretty good time. The weather was nice, moving around the debris was not too bad, and the surrounding was peaceful. My wife made the best find of the day with a decent, cetacean tooth. I was a bit jealous. She found it by digging deeper into a spot that I had already dug. It is different than the other cetacean teeth that I have found myself or have seen come from there. Devin found a few small teeth and some shells. He also grabbed a crab claw, horseshoe crab carapace and fish vert, all which are modern but he didnt care. There where alot of dead horseshoe crabs for some reason. I myself found small teeth, bone fragments, and stingray plates. We stayed till around noon then had to get going so we could meet my parents for lunch. On the way back I could not believe the amount of people back at the main beach there looked to be 100, all of which were searching with sifters! Any ways we ended up going to Fat Boys Crab Shack for lunch. The food was surprisingly good considering the outside of the building was not much to look at. Then we headed over to the Navy Stadium and watched bands perform. After my Son's school performed we had to head home. We didnt get back till 2am. Needless to say I am exhausted today. We found out later, that his school won the competition for their section and for overall. So we are pround! Here are my finds.
  7. RandyB

    Calvert formation unknowns

    Not sure what shark(?) tooth this is, has very heavy root on a small (quarter inch squares) tooth Tiny fish(?) tooth, tough to photograph well with my equipment. Tooth is about 3mm long, less than 1mm wide Not sure what this might be. About an inch long
  8. My wife and I took a trip fown to Maryland late last week for a little calvert formation hunting at Bayfront park. As i mentioned on another post we got to the beach at quarter to 7am and had the place to ourselves for a while. Nobody was there to collect our access fee so we walked down to the beach just after low tide. One set of footprints were just above the surf line but i never did see who made them as nobody passed us either direction all day. We both found a couple of small teeth on our walk from the enterance to the corner that juts ou. My wife decided to stay in yhe corner and screen while i walked further south. For me it was a very slow pick of small shark teeth and a small cetacean tooth by the time I returned. My wife found a small cetacean vert where she set up to screen. More smalls than i remember from my last trip, or maybe we were just better at spotting them. She found her first Squatina subserrata tooth. Here's our finds, scale on the right is in inches: Close up of some of the smalls, these are under a quarter of an inch and we were lucky they stayed in our screens (and that we saw them): Makes me think I should try a multi layered sifter stack just to see how much micro material is falling through.
  9. Over the past few months work has been crazy (although in a VERY good way) and I haven't had the time to post summaries of my past few trips to the Calvert Cliffs formation. Long stories short, I was able to get down to the cliffs on a few occasions between Feb-April 2019. Most of the time I was able to go when tides were good, however on my most recent trip they were horrible. I've met a lot of awesome people along the beach and developed many good friendships...in fact I think that 95% of the people I met have been extremely friendly, genuine, willing to give advice, and just plain good people, which is something I love about this hobby. I was even able to talk the wifey into coming down once...of course she loved it, and of course she found a larger tooth than I ever have. About half my trips were to Brownies and the other half were to a private site that I have access to. The beaches have changed dramatically over these few months with numerous falls and spills, which highlights the importance of keeping your head on a swivel and always respecting the cliffs. On one occasion I made the 3 hour trip just to turn around about 2 hours later because the cliffs were so unstable. Hopefully we have a dry summer, the piles get a chance to wash out, and the cliffs become a bit more stable. Anyway, enough rambling. Below are some pics of my better finds from the two sites, I hope you enjoy them. No complete Meg yet, but I hope that changes when I make another trip down next week!
  10. HoppeHunting

    Hop 5 03/30/19

    1. Hemipristis serra: One of my first teeth of the day, found in the water. Small, but nice colors and perfect serrations. 2. Carcharias cuspidata: Flawless sand tiger. Symmetrical and super sharp, with both double cusplets intact. 3. Galeocerdo aduncus: Gorgeous tiger, almost looks like a G. cuvier because of size. Very nice root to crown contrast. 4. Odontocete tooth: Little porpoise/dolphin tooth with a long, thick root. In very good condition. 5. Ecphora sp.: A very nice small Ecphora, nearly complete, just missing the white part at the top. Rare to find more than a fragment of these at Brownies. Cast your votes! The poll will end in three days, on April 4th at 3:00 p. m. EST. Hoppe hunting!
  11. HoppeHunting

    Bayfront Park 03/30/19

    Hey everyone, A few days ago I finally got back out to Bayfront Park. According to the local forecast, it was going to be a cloudy day, but there was enough space in the sky during the sunrise for the sun to peek through and create a marvelous display of colors. I always love the scenery at Brownies, and that day was especially beautiful. The tide was relatively low when I arrived, but since I got there just after peak low tide, the water was rising for the entire time I was there, and it rose much faster than I would've liked. I didn't find any big teeth, but overall still had a great day collecting. I hope you enjoy my YouTube video of the hunt, embedded below. If you haven't already done so, please subscribe to my channel, leave a like on the video, and drop a comment as well to let me know what you thought! Thanks for the support! With the weather starting to finally warm up, I will hopefully be able to get out more frequently. Hoping for some low tides. Hoppe hunting!
  12. Hi all, For whatever reason, I never got around to posting this. After a relatively unsuccessful day at Bayfront Park back in 2018, my dad showed me this tooth, unsure of what it was. He said he had found it while sifting in the creek that runs under the bridge near the entrance of the park. I had never really bothered trying around that area because it was so far from any cliff exposures, but I suppose he proved that some of the best finds may be where you least expect them. The second he pulled out this tooth, my jaw dropped. It is a FLAWLESS cow shark symphyseal. I hadn't had a single one in my collection until then. I've never seen a better symphyseal than this one, not in a museum or anywhere online. It's absolutely perfect, with exquisite symmetry and phenomenal preservation. Undoubtedly the best tooth my dad has ever found. Although I was a bit jealous that he found it and not me, I was at the same time ecstatic because all of his finds go towards my collection. This beauty is one of my most prized teeth, as I am yet to see a more perfect specimen. The pictures do not do it justice in the slightest. It was found a while ago, but I thought you all would still like to see it. Enjoy!
  13. Hey all, The Calvert Cliffs have been falling left and right recently. Countless cliff slides have led to plenty of new material becoming accessible on the beaches, but the unstable cliffs also call for extra caution. I decided to return to my favorite winter hunting location, Bayfront Park, to try and take advantage of the cliff falls. I thought it would be a good opportunity to film my first YouTube video, which I have been wanting to do for a while, so I brought my new handheld camera mount. Peak low tide was exactly at sunrise, so I woke up at 4 a.m. in order to arrive at the beach before then. Early mornings can be rough, but if you're getting up to do something you love it's a whole lot easier. When I got to the parking lot, it was still very dark and I actually had to use my phone's flashlight to hunt for the first few minutes before the sun began its ascent into the horizon. It was a very cloudy day, so unfortunately I wasn't treated with one of the gorgeous Brownies sunrises. Within 10 or 15 minutes or searching, I found one of the biggest teeth I've ever found at Brownies, a huge 2 inch mako in perfect condition. That's when I knew it was going to be a good day. Not too long after that, I stumbled across a circular object slightly covered by sand. It looked like it could be some kind of vertebra or possible a "cookie" (dolphin epiphysis), but there was only one way to find out. When I tried pulling it out, it didn't budge. I pulled harder. As it still wouldn't come out, I realized it must be much larger than it appeared on the surface. Throwing aside the rock next to it, I finally pulled out a beautiful cetacean vertebra! I've always wanted to find one, especially after running into a guy who found a dozen of them on my last Brownies trip, so I was ecstatic. I continued finding some very nice teeth. I also found another cetacean vertebra, this time a very different shape but in very good condition. Despite the harsh temperature and dangerous cliffs, there were quite a few other hunters out on the beach. At one point I ran into a man who had found two perfects Megs, each one about 2 inches. I hoped to find one for myself, but had no such luck. Regardless, I was extremely content with everything I found and began to make my way back to the car. This trip was one to remember, not only because of the awesome finds, but also the fun experience of filming the video. I kept this trip report rather short, because the video covers the detail I usually go into, and then some. Anyway, I've wanted to become a fossil hunting YouTuber pretty much ever since I began hunting, but I just never really got around to it until now. I love watching YouTubers like @addicted2fossils, and I hope others will find my videos to be entertaining and educational as well. I've posted the link to my video below, and I would really appreciate it if you would take a second to like the video, leave a comment, and subscribe to my channel. I'll be putting out many videos like this in the future. I have some very exciting trips coming up, including hunting at a private creek site and going to the annual Aurora Fossil Festival in NC! Stay tuned. Hoppe hunting!
  14. eannis6

    Mystery Shark Tooth

    Hello everyone. I know it is unconventional to make a second post about a fossil shark tooth I found a year ago, but it is the single most controversial tooth that I have found. Depending upon who I ask an opinion of, the response I get is that it is either a posterior hastalis tooth or a posterior Megalodon tooth. I’ve had many people say both, and I want to know if anyone here has the experience to settle this once and for all. If there are any experts on posterior teeth, please chime in. A little bit of background may help the identification. This was found in the surf of brownies beach, directly in front of the walking path down to the beach. It has no dimple on the gum like many posterior hastalis teeth do, and it has no evident serrations like Megalodon teeth usually do. It is wider than it is long, the blade has a slight curve to the left. It appears to have what I believe to be a bourlette. Anyway, if you found this tooth, what would you think it is? I’d like to settle this once and for all.
  15. Found this nice symphyseal cowshark tooth brought back in material from Brownies Beach from May 2017. Took over 18 months to go through all the material.
  16. After just over a year of fossil collecting, I have finally found my first Meg! On Thursday, the first semester of my senior year came to an end. The next day, Friday, school was closed for a teacher work day. I figured I'd make the most of my day off by heading out to Bayfront Park. What better way to celebrate making it through the first half of senior year? I though that because it was a Friday, and rather cold, not many people would be out on the beach because they'd either be at school, work, or home because of the weather. I was right. When I arrived at a little before noon, there were only a few cars in the parking lot, and not all of them were fellow hunters. I slipped on my waders and made my way down the path, shovel and sifter in hand. Funny enough, I never actually sifted a single screen, because I didn't need to. I had no idea the tide was going to be as low as it was. But boy, was it out there. Even with a few hours before peak low tide, the entire beach was exposed and the water was calm. I stopped briefly at the cove area that people so often underestimate, and within five minutes of stepping onto the beach found a perfect little cow shark tooth laying right out in the open. That's when I knew it was going to be a good day of hunting. The tide was probably the one of the lowest I've ever seen at Brownies, so I had plenty of ground to cover. Trying not to get ahead of myself, I made sure to still walk very slowly and scan over the ground thoroughly. After about an hour, I was walking down near the water on a part of the beach that is normally submerged when I stumbled across a large tooth, half buried in the sand. My heart stopped when I spotted it. It clearly had signs of a bourlette, so I immediately knew I was looking right at my first ever meg. I pulled out my phone and began recording. I prayed that it would be whole as I carefully pried it out of the sand. To my delight, it was mostly complete, with flawless serrations and an intact tip. It had a bit of damage and it was missing the actual bourlette (must've fallen off), but I didn't mind one bit. I cleaned it off and spent marveled at the amazing tooth I had just found. I couldn't believe what was happening. After calling my friends and family and sending them the video, I carefully wrapped the tooth in tissue paper and aluminum foil to insure that it would make it home safely. There was no way I was throwing that tooth in my waders pouch like I do with the rest! I would have been more than happy if I hadn't found a single other tooth that day, but that was not the case. I continued south, and kept looking towards the water, hoping for some other nice finds. I found a fair share of decent makos, and another large but beaten up cow shark tooth. I eventually ran into a man named Scott who was hunting for the first time ever, and he showed me his backpack full of cetacean verts, including a very large whale vert. He told me he had been there since before sunrise, and hadn't had much luck with teeth, but clearly was finding verts left and right. I of course answered his question, "Any luck?" with a prompt "Oh yes, I hit the jackpot today." He congratulated me on my first meg, and we talked for a while more. He was a really cool guy, and I enjoyed helping him identify some finds and learn more about the cliffs. After my exchange with Scott, I went farther down the beach, finding more decent teeth and a few verts. At one point, I saw what was clearly another megatooth in the sand, and held my breath as I unearthed it. Unfortunately, it was only the tip of what was most likely a very large tooth. A true heartbreaker, but with everything else I had already found I couldn't complain. As the tide began to come in, I decided to head back to the entrance and make my way home. I caught up to Scott again, and we talked about my plans to become a paleontologist as we walked back up to our cars. I can say with some confidence that this was my best Brownies Beach trip ever, and perhaps even my best trip ever, period. I ended up finding a meg (although it's technically a C. chubutensis I believe), some very nice makos, a few complete cow shark teeth, hemis, sand tigers, a lot of tigers, a ray barb/spine, and a lot of fish and shark verts. I honestly don't think I could be much happier with my finds, and I am beyond thrilled to add my first megatooth to my collection! As far as a public site like Brownies goes, this is considered an extremely productive day, especially considering I only really hunted for about four hours, compared to my usual 6-7+. 2019 is certainly off to an amazing start; this is only my second hunt of the year! Thank you so much for reading my report, and here's to many more megs in the future! Here's a link to my YouTube video of finding the tooth. I will eventually be making full length videos of my hunts in the future, so please subscribe to the channel if you like! Thank you all. Also be sure to check out the Hop 5 post that will be up soon, and cast your vote for the tripmaker. Hoppe Hunting!
  17. HoppeHunting

    Bayfront Park 01/04/19

    Happy New Year, everyone! I was able to sneak in one more hunt before my winter break ended. I kicked off 2019 with another trip to my favorite winter location, Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. The tides and weather looked favorable, not too cold and relatively low tide very early in the morning. I came more equipped than ever, complete with my new hunting gear that I got for Christmas, including a pair of chest waders (finally!), a sling pack, and a hat from the Calvert Marine Museum with an awesome Hemipristis design. I was one of the first to arrive, and quickly made use of the waders by rounding the cove that can be virtually impossible to pass without them. My waders feature a large mesh zipper pocket on the chest, and that proved to be remarkably useful. No more carrying around tupperware to hold my finds! I stepped foot on the beach about ten minutes before sunrise, and I was blessed with a gorgeous display of colors as the sun shone through the clouds. A few fellow hunters passed me, but I kept my head down and walked slowly, carefully examining every inch of the beach. I was finding a good deal of smalltooth sand tigers with awesome cusplets, but nothing too big for the first hour or so. Even though the majority of teeth found here are small, you can get some pretty stunning colors, not to mention the mind-blowing quality of preservation of some of the teeth. Even after millions of years, the teeth are still sharp enough to cut you fairly easily. That's something that never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, I soon stumbled across a larger tooth laying right out in the open, high up the beach in the dryer sand. It was a very pretty Isurus desori, a mako shark tooth! I happily dropped it into the pouch and kept moving. I continued to find small and medium sized teeth for the majority of the morning. At one point, I picked up a complete dolphin epiphysis, or "cookie" as many collectors call them. I had found a few fragments of them at this location before, but this was my first one to be fully intact. I found it increasingly difficult to navigate the beach as the tide came in, as there were many fresh tree falls and cliff slides due to the recent weather conditions. I decided to call it a day at around noon, so in total I hunted for about 5 hours. My haul consisted of a plethora of sand tigers, many tigers and requiems, a handful of small hemis, a few makos and hammerheads, one broken cow shark tooth, a few odontocete teeth, ray plates, the cookie, and a nice gastropod shell. A pretty typical Brownies haul. I ran into a few other collectors, none who seemed to have found anything incredible, but I always love talking fossils with fellow enthusiasts! I was even able to identify another hunter's find for her, which I always thoroughly enjoy as well. Overall, I had a very nice first trip of the new year and couldn't think of a better way to wrap up my winter break before heading back to school. Thanks for reading my report, and please check out the Hop 5, posted below. I'm starting something new with my trip reports in 2019! I HOPPE you'll enjoy! Sorry, I just can't help myself when it comes to puns. Hoppe hunting! ~David
  18. Yesterday (January 2nd) was only my second trip to Calvert Cliffs. I'm pretty new to fossil collecting, but thanks to the wonderful advice and reading the greatly informative posts from members such as @Darktooth @FossilsAnonymous @WhodamanHD @racerzeke @KimTexan and @paxhunter I had a lot of success and it was a much more productive trip than my first. Below is a brief summary and some pictures of what I found: I woke up, put on a few layers clothing, and had my coffee at 3:45am. After my morning pipe (tobacco...I actually make briar tobacco pipes as a hobby) I got in my pre-loaded truck and headed south at 4:45am. I made good time on the drive down as I hit 695 and got around Baltimore before the morning rush. At 7:10am I arrived at Brownies Beach and pulled in to a parking lot with only two other cars in it. After putting on my full waders, I grabbed my sifter and headed towards the beach. I planned this trip so that I could arrive midweek and get there early enough to catch some of the low tide (tides times were not friendly this week, but I start teaching classes next week so it was this week or wait until spring). Sunrise was at 7:24, but there was more than enough light to see...and what a sight it was. When I entered the beach area the tide was way, way out. I couldn't believe how far out it was, as it was past two small sandbars (if I get my GoPro video edited I will post it). Once I was on the beach I headed south towards the cliffs. I hurried through the beach area because I wanted to be by the cliffs with the tide so low. I know I missed teeth along the beach, but I wanted to get to the cliffs with the tide being so far out where I could hopefully find some larger teeth than what are common at the beach area. As I neared the end of the beach I ran into one woman who was there just to relax and walk on the beach. We said good morning and I knew who one of the two cars in the parking lot belonged to. Once I went around the point and turned my eyes close to shell line and started looking. Because of all the wonderful advice from this forum I had a much better idea of what I was looking for and how to best look. After a few minutes I had some ray plates, very small teeth, and my first ever vert. It wasn't even 7:30 and I knew it was going to be a good day. As I made my way down the shore line that I figured had been pretty well picked over from people being off over the holidays, I remembered a forum member saying 'you need to look in the places that others don't'. I approached a fallen tree that I remembered from my first trip a few weeks ago, and with the tide being so low almost the entire tree was exposed so I got down on my hands and knees and started looking at some of the gaps between the tree and sand...then it happened. You know when you day dream and picture yourself finding a great tooth or fossil? Well that's what happened as my eyes saw a pristine Mako just laying there (pictures below). I know its not a huge tooth or a meg, but to me being new to the hobby this was completely awesome and a trip maker. I think I still have a smile on my face from finding it. As I continued down the beach I collected many more teeth from various sharks. I couldn't believe it when I found an awesome cow shark tooth (my second trip maker) laying out in the open about 8 feet up the beach. Beside it was another good tooth as well that went in my pouch. Around 10:30 I ran into a very friendly gentleman and we chatted a bit. We talked about the weather and the cliffs, what he had found (a few hemis), and he told me a story of a fall he had witnessed a few years ago that was too close for comfort. A chunk of clay the size of a car fell and nearly crushed him, but luckily he heard some soil falling and he ran straight out into the bay right before the cliff fell. Although the clay chunk did't hit him, the water threw him up into the air when the clay hit. His friend who was a down the cliffs said he heard it and it sounded like a car crash....I didn't get this gentleman's name but I feel like I read his cliff fall story on here, so if you know who it may have been please let me know. I continued south until the tide started coming in pretty far and I thought it best to head back towards the beach since I didn't know how far it would come in or how high the water would get. I continued my search along the way back and made it to my truck around 2pm. I took a short break, ditched my sifter, texted my wife, checked email, watched a truck with two high school kids pull in to smoke a pipe (although this one wasn't filled with tobacco), and headed back out for one more quick trip down and back as the tide started to go back out. It wasn't until about 3:30pm when two more local fossil collectors came up behind me and we said hello and chatted. All in all, I only ran into 3 other collectors during the day so there was not a lot of competition (although I do like the interesting conversation). After finding a few more teeth and interesting fossils dusk approached and I headed back to my truck. After putting my gear away and changing into some dry clothes I started my trek north after a fantastic start to 2019. Below are some pictures of my finds from the day. I know what many of the teeth and other fossils are, but if you can ID something that a newbie like me probably wouldn't know then please do so as it will help me get better with this hobby. Thanks!
  19. Fossildude19

    Maryland finds

    From the album: Fossildude's Finds

    Chesapeake Bay - Brownies Beach.

    © © 2012 Tim Jones

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