Search the Community

I found a rare tooth from my local miocene exposure in calvert county md. Found along the choptank formation. Believed to be carnivorous dog. But not positive. Any help with a confirmed id would be appreciated

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!

Over this past weekend I took a trip to the Calvert cliffs(first time going, didn’t have much luck lol). I found this piece and was gonna see if I could get some help identifying it. I found it at bay front. Not sure if it’s anything but I couldn’t find anything like it to compare it to. Let me know if any other or different pictures would help identify it. Thanks all!

Found this today, been a while(all winter, lol!) since Ive been down to my very productive, secluded beach. Doesn't have the classic Meg shape but its pretty big. Beautifully preserved and colored as well. Would like to know which monster this came from;)

This was found on our trip to Calvert Cliffs, MD on the shore line. Dear husband thinks it's just a weird rock, but sons wanted to save it in case it was more. We're coming up with nothing with our novice search for what it could be, if anything. Any ideas or advice would be really appreciated! Thank you.

Hi all, I found these bones at Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach on my most recent trip. The formation is the Calvert Formation, Miocene, approximately 18-22 million years old. Here are my best guesses: #1: Piece of cetacean rib bone #2: Some part of cetacean flipper/hand? #3: Cetacean digit/phalange #4: Piece of sirenian (dugong) rib bone If there are any bone experts willing to lend a hand in these identifications, I would very much appreciate it. Even if you're not an expert, please let me know if you have a better idea about what these truly are. Thanks in advance.

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!

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!

New to the sport. Found these yesterday at Calvert Cliffs and along the Potomac River. Big debate was weather the largest piece was bark that had been replaced by iron of if it was just a clump of iron from the bog. Several larger pieces observed on site in the cliffs and on the beach- some said they were wood; other just "bog iron". Please critique or help with id. Thank you.

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!

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.

I found these bony fish ear bones on various trip to Brownies Beach, this one with four are I believe Sciaenops sp. The one with three are Micromesistius cognatus, and the last one with six are Pogonias sp.

Found an interesting rib-like object in the Calvert Cliffs area. It appears to have bone-like textures but I want to be sure. Is this a fossil rib fragment? If so, I'm assuming a species ID would be impossible from such a small fragment, but any ideas?

Hello everyone, I am making a shadow box for my office; before I start doing the final groupings by species and attaching said groupings to the shadow box, I could really use some help. I have made my best educated guesses (using Jayson’s website for references), but since I am a novice, I know I’ve made several mistakes. Will you you please take a look at the attached pictures and let me know if I guessed correctly? If not, will you please let me know the correct answer?

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!

Looking to find out as much about this vertebrae piece found at Calvert Cliffs, MD.

Enjoyed a nice walk at matoaka and found my biggest tooth yet.

In addition to a trip to Flag Ponds this week, I was also able to spend a couple of hours at Calvert Cliffs State Park where is found the following peeking out from the clay at the surf. I’ve been doing some research but am coming up empty. Any ideas?

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

Hi all, This tooth was found of one of my recent hunts along the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. I found it at Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. It is approximately one cm in length, relatively flat, and has multiple worn but visible bumps of enamel that could either be large serrations of some shark tooth or cusps of a symphyseal cow shark tooth. I believe it's the latter, but also recognize that it is a rather uncommon find. If it turns out to be a cow shark symphyseal, it would be my first one! Excited to see your takes on this one. I feel somewhat confident with my standing ID, but would love some confirmation. Thanks in advance!

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!

Still on the hunt before classes begin again next week. This weekend the boys and I ventured 5 1/2 hours north to the head of the Chesapeake Bay. So far... I should have gone back to Folly Beach! Lol. Some shells, neat iron formations, but no teeth yet. Brought the sifter this time but Calvert Cliffs isn’t the place for my old knees to carry much on a hike. Many people in competetion for fossil teeth. There were more people hunting on 180’ of beach 30’ wide than all of Folly Beach last weekend. Water is very cold and it is a tidal influenced area.