Search the Community

Any ideas on this little tooth? C. hastilis or something else. Found in California, Monterey Formation.

This is an unusual geological hazard. The start of the San Andreas fault is hit by the 'slow one': Sunken sinkhole of bubbling mud is moving across Salton Sea destroying everything in its path. The Daily Mail, November 2, 2018 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6343583/The-bubbling-stinking-mud-pool-cause-chaos-San-Andreas-fault.html A San Andreas fault mystery: The 'slow-moving disaster' in an area where the Big One is feared by Alejandra Reyes-Velarde and Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times, November 1, 2018 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-niland-mud-pot-20181101-story.html A Gurgling Mud Pool Is Creeping Across Southern California Like a Geologic Poltergeist By Laura Geggel, Live Science, November 2, 2018 https://www.livescience.com/63998-mud-pool-creeping-across-california.html Geyser Emergency Project - Fact Sheet http://www.icphd.org/media/managed/newsrelease/Geyser_Emergency_Project_Fact_Sheet.pdf Someone needs to to tell the reporters and officials that mud pots / springs are not "geysers." Some papers: Lynch, D.K. and Hudnut, K.W., 2008. The Wister mud pot lineament: Southeastward extension or abandoned strand of the San Andreas fault?. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 98(4), pp.1720-1729. https://authors.library.caltech.edu/12061/1/LYNbssa08.pdf https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article-abstract/98/4/1720/341930 Mazzini, A., Svensen, H., Etiope, G., Onderdonk, N. and Banks, D., 2011. Fluid origin, gas fluxes and plumbing system in the sediment-hosted Salton Sea Geothermal System (California, USA). Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 205(3-4), pp.67-83. http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Mazzini_JVGR_11.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027311001405 Onderdonk, N., Mazzini, A., Shafer, L. and Svensen, H., 2011. Controls on the geomorphic expression and evolution of gryphons, pools, and caldera features at hydrothermal seeps in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field, southern California. Geomorphology, 130(3-4), pp.327-342. http://folk.uio.no/hensven/Onderdonk_GeoM_2011_Salton_seeps.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X11001838 Yours, Paul H.

Last week I had the opportunity to go on a Bakersfield dig for Miocene shark and mammal fossils with @caldigger @Kurt Komoda and @MrR We had a good time. While there I found a tooth that I'm not exactly sure of. I believe it's a toothed cetacean (whale) and am leaning towards a Sperm Whale but am not sure. Any ideas? The tip of the crown is busted but most of the tooth is intact. Please help me identify this one.

Hi everybody, I recently leased a piece of land that contains the round mountain silt formation (shark tooth hill). Part of the deal with the landowners was to donate a portion of the finds to museums or schools. Does anyone know of any institutions that would be interested in accepting sharks teeth and other fossils? I would need a formal letter of acceptance to provide documentation. Please let me know, thanks Jesse

Hello, Im sorry but have no experience in fossils or geology. I was hiking around Rainbow Basin in southern california high desert near Barstow. I found this in a wash. It doesnt look like any rock I have seen. Not sure if it is a fossil or anything at all. It is about 23 centimeters long and 18 centimeters wide. If you could please help it would be appreciated thanks.

Hi all. New to this site, actually found it from a video on YouTube that had the creator in it. Not sure how old that video is, but either way it led me here. I'm new to this sort of stuff so keep that in mind if we do converse in the future. I actually recently got back in to fossils thanks to some YouTube videos that came up in my feed and would love to find some some day. Used to have one as a kid that my grandmother found on a beach. Just some trilobites in a small rock, but I was a kid and didn't really think keeping a "rock" was a great thing. Boy was I wrong cause I would have loved to see that thing now. Anyways, if I ever get a chance to find some fossils someday I'll share what I can. Thanks for letting me join.

@Boesse While cleaning shells from the Pliocene deposits at Capitola I came across this dolphin tooth ~17 mm. Any ideas on a more specific identification? Thanks Mike

All Would anyone have access to the following? PALAIOS (2007) 22 (6): 630-641. INFLUENCE OF SPATIOTEMPORAL SCALE ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PALEOCOMMUNITY STRUCTURE: LATERAL VARIATION IN THE IMPERIAL FORMATION OF CALIFORNIA CORY M. REDMAN, LINDSEY R. LEIGHTON, STEPHEN A. SCHELLENBERG, CHRISTOPHER N. GALE, JENNIFER L. NIELSEN, DONALD L. DRESSLER, MARY K. KLINGER Thanks in advance! Mike

Hey guys, So I found this and I thought maybe it looked like a turtle flipper? Also, a side question. Is it possible for pigment to still be present in fossil turtle scutes? Thanks for your time and help!

Found this small tooth on a recent trip to California. My guess is great white but it so similar to C. hastilis but with serrations. Could this be transitional tooth or is this Great White?

Hi everyone, I’m new to this community but have always had an interest in fossils and artifacts. This week I was in So California for work and walked down to the beach one night and found this. It looked like a large shark tooth but it didn’t look like images online. I’ve seen Megalodon teeth before and this looks like a petrified version. If it’s just a rock, that’s okay too. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Greetings. I have a lot of photos I’d like to share and get some feedback on, assuming there is not a unanimous agreement that the specimens you see in this photo are purely Geological in origin... I found them, and many more, within the geographical boundaries of a Jurassic age rock formation in Northern California that is listed primarily as meta volcanic rocks. Considering that information, please tell me if you thinking I’m barking up an imaginary tree here... If you are uncertain, let me know, and I will post more pictures... Thanks for your time! -Quinn

Hi, I'm from California and have been interested in fossils and dinosaurs for years, but was recently able to go on a dino dig in Wyoming where my interest grew! Then I found this forum online and thought it would be a good way to learn more and get help identifying when I start finding fossils here in California. Does anyone know of any sites in Northern California?

Hello, I am Richard from Chinese Camp CA. I live atop the Mariposa Formation which is late Jurassic. I try to go fossil hunting every weekend. The quality of fossils is not great, but I regularly find ammonites and buchia, and less often belemnites (and a few oddities I haven't identified). I was born in England and found an ammonite when 5 or 6. I've loved fossils since them (I'm 50) and take my son out hunting for them regularly. I spent 11 year in the US Navy on submarines, and the last 20 at a research lab. To all of you: Best of luck collecting, learning, and enjoying fossils! Richard

Hi all, Very new to fossils, but stumbled upon this. It was found on the shore in Long Beach, CA. Wondering if yall could help. Thanks!

Hello from the land of the Monterey Formation of the Miocene. I'm interested in all fossils, but mostly one's I can find myself!

Found a bunch of petrified wood up in the California Sierra Nevada foothills around 8500 ft After going over them this is one of 2 that stuck out as different. It is 3 1/2" long with rounded edges. Any ideas what it is? Thanks in advance Harry

I have been here at the forums for quite sometime now ( I think since I found my first fossils on a trip to Missouri close to 20 years ago?!) Work and life has been very busy and had prevented me from anything more than online hunting, you tube video's, and the lack of actual sites close to where I currently live. (Currently I live above the San Joaquin Valley, in a small mountain community named North Fork. I have had wonderful years here hunting arrow heads and various rocks and minerals, Have found many crystals at the old gold mine sites which are numerous over in Mariposa county next to me, and have had a great time up here! However, I took a trip to Missouri many moons ago to help a family member relocate out here to Nevada, which is when the unexpected happened. When we went to rent the moving truck to begin loading, my mom went inside to handle the rental, and as per my "norm" I took off walking across an open fields with, eyes to the ground,, towards the back of the lot and behind the row of trucks parked ready for rent, towards the railroad tracks. I was finding different minerals and such and then by chance I kicked over a plain down rudy clay looking rock, when I noticed it had a pattern to it. I looked closer and it was a plant fossil ! I was ecstatic, and thrilled does not even begin to cover it. I found several more all of different varieties when I began to notice what the 'commonalities' were with the ones I was finding. From that point on I was hooked! I made several trips back there just for the rock hunting and had found many wonderful 'treasures' which I cherished. I then began to explore more of Missouri to see what else there was to find in this state, and lets put it this way, the first thing on my bucket list is to return to Missouri!!! It got even better, after having my eyes opened so to speak as when we left there we headed to a ranch to spend the night that was owned by family back there. They have an 80 acre ranch. When we got there and I stepped out of the truck, I looked down and could NOT believe my eyes. There were fossils just laying around and exposed all up and down the dirt road which lead from the highway and into the 80 acres. I hunted for the rest of that evening and found more treasures. I have never forgotten that trip, and like I said I plan on gong back there one day before I die, and attempt to find more of those little treasures which made so darned happy so many years ago....and the family back there still owns the ranch too! I have since retired due to disability (heart) and find I have more time available than money naturally, so I am here to begin exploring what is available or close by where I live now, and also any near Fernley NV.. where I spend several months at at time there helping my Mom. I have small amounts of silver in quartz rock, (no gold yet though) many heads, awesome crystals, but my real desire is to find more fossils! So if anyone has any information or recommendations for me I would love to know about them! I am aware of the fossils found down in the Valley at the old landfill dump site in Madera, (wooly mammoth bones, sabre tooth tiger etc.) and I have heard of a dry creek bed somewhere down around the town of Dos Palos and of course Shark Hill and the Ernst Quarries and Ant Hill which is now closed. However its a vast area there, with miles and miles of open high desert area, which leads me to hope that those are not the ONLY areas where one can hunt for sharks teeth and other sea life fossils. Here's to hope! and forgive my long winded introduction but I am happy to be here once again and I'm looking forward to getting to know other members here. Thank you! Debra

Hey guys, I dont really know what this could be, maybe just rock, but the color, shape, texture made me think twice - specifically the curved smooth bottom, sharp sides that curve strangely and just the shape in general. At first glance i thought it looked like a meteorite because of the flow-line'esque texture it has in some parts and the bottom side was smooth with little holes with some thumb print 'ish indents, and its darn heavy. But then it also reminded me of some marine mammal and large reptile fossil bones I've seen on here while perusing so I thought I'd ask. Also because of some other things I have found, which I want to ask about as well but dont want to spam all at once. Actually I'll post two of the other things too Found in Menlo Park, California about ~12" inches in ground, maybe slightly deeper. Menlo Park is considered Pleistocene/Holocene alluvial but there have been cretaceous foraminifers found in the towns surrounding Menlo Park. And then there was the paleoparadoxia found during the excavation of the Stanford Linear Accelerator as well, which is about a mile away from me, and they are from the Miocene I believe. Also after reading the USGS geological map survey of my area it seems that theres out crops from every time period, mostly due to the gazillion faults in SF bay area. So Im not really sure what I'm living on. Anyways.. The second rock looks like it has a mouth and some teeth which I found interesting. The third looks like a shell on the one curved end, but also like a saurapelta armor plate I've seen in photos before. Appreciate any thoughts, and if it is rock, do you know what kind? Thanks for your time and feedback!

Hi there! I'm a botanist who bought a cool ammonite at a rock show as a present for a friend. I ended up keeping it, and have since gotten quite a few others. I'm interested in getting better at identifying ammonites and joined this forum because there don't seem to be many ammonite ID resources available, and I am itching to figure out some of my mystery specimens. I am also planning a trip to the high desert east of the Sierra Nevadas to look at wildflowers and fossil beds next spring and would love some recommendations.

Hi there! My name is Karah , I am from Southern California. I found this forum while searching for information about raptor eggs. I am hoping to find out some information on them, which I will post soon. I have recently gained an interest in fossils, I collect mostly coins and crystals. However some of my crystals are formed on fossils such as stromatolite. I am excited to be part of the forum and learn more about fossils!

Hey guys and gals, While this isn't a fossil, I was wondering, if any of you had the time, could you help me ID this bone, as many of you are good at that sort of thing and I am clueless. Found in Menlo Park, CA. Still doing yard work when I have time and I came across this. Thanks for your help in advance! Hope everyones having a good day.

Any mineral collectors on the forum ever heard (or collected) "rainbow" obsidian in the northeast corner of California? I just happened upon this link and I find the stuff fascinating (and beautiful): http://www.geologyin.com/2017/08/california-rainbow-obsidian-is-natural.html They make mention that it is possible to collect a set amount at various mines in the Modoc National Forest. It would make for a great reason for a trip to this area. Wondering if any here on the forum have checked this out yet. Cheers. -Ken