Search the Community

Help requested identifying these shark teeth from Calvert Cliffs. After a while, I find some teeth look similar to others. Thanks!

Title mostly explains it. Are these biological or geological. The black one is from Summerville, SC, while the other one is from Calvert Cliffs.

This is my first post here so I’m not exactly sure of the formats but I found a possible bone that I am unable to identify. I found this at Calvert Cliffs and have never found anything like it. It could just be a stone but it seems like a very unique shape and structure/composition. Ask if more images are needed because the end is broken off and the internal structure is complex.

Hey guys, Me and a few buddies are heading to the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland to hunt for some teeth in a week or so. We are planning on staying near the Calvert Cliffs State Park and hunting around Brownies Beach. This is really the only location we know about. We were hoping someone could point us to some other spots as well to check out while we are there (we will be there 2 days). As of right now, our plan is to hunt all day, both days, so we should have plenty of time to hunt more than one area. Any pointers toward locations not too far away would be greatly appreciated! We are coming from NC so we aren't very familiar with the area other than whats very well known.

This fragment was found at Bayfront Park, where the Calvert Formation of the Calvert Cliffs is exposed. It is only about 1/2 inch in length. It is almost perfectly flat on the top, with one line running down the middle and several smaller scratchlike lines running approximately perpendicular in either direction. The middle line seems to be a wall-like structure that goes through the entire cross section as it is visible on both sides. The bottom of the object has many tiny pores, that when viewed from the side appear to be the tops of tube-like structures. I am really stumped on this one. It looks somewhat like a broken section of a ray mouthpiece, but I’ve found hundreds of those and this is unlike any of them. I’m wondering if it may not even be a fossil because of the near perfect flatness of the top side. It definitely doesn’t match anything on the resources about Calvert Cliff fossils on the internet. If anyone has an idea about this one, I’d love to hear it. Because as of right now, I’m pretty clueless. Thanks!

So i dont post all the time anymore but as we approach the end of the year i always like to organize my finds and do a calendar. Well here are my finds for 2018 not a bad year and a found my benedini which is the rarest of the rare for Calvert. If anybody is interested in a calendar let me know i'm all done except for December still trying to find a couple more good finds! Hope everybody had a great 2018 and here is to an awesome 2019!!!!

Hi Everyone, I'm a new member. Thrilled to be part of the forum! You will probably see me post things about fossil collecting in the mid-Atlantic. Looking forward to learning more about the hobby from everyone! Cheers Matt

I'm pretty new to fossil hunting/collecting, and I am sure that I will have many questions...but I also know how to use this thing I call the Google Machine to do my research, so I hope to avoid asking too many questions that a simple search can answer. I'm a tobacco pipe maker, shark tooth hunter, and have a side gig as a professor (since something needs to pay the mortgage). I got hooked on hunting for sharks teeth about a year ago when I went to visit family and spent the afternoon at Venice Beach, Fl. I don't live close to the beach, so I only have time to look for small triangles along the shoreline a few times per year. I'm excited to get to know the members of the forum, learn from your experiences, and share my mishaps!

Hello all, I am delighted to inform you that I am not dead, although my horrendously lengthy absence from this forum may have suggested otherwise. I am fully aware that I had already committed to being more active after taking a short hiatus a little while back, but I simply fell out of the habit of logging in and posting on this site, mostly due to my extremely busy senior year schedule. I have truly missed posting and sharing my experiences with you all, and I could not be more glad to return. Although I may have been inactive on this forum, I was certainly NOT inactive whatsoever in terms of fossil hunting. I have been on several trips since I last posted. In fact, I've probably nearly doubled my collection. At the beginning of the summer, I decided to purchase a Pelican Mustang 100x Kayak in order to reach remote areas of the Calvert Cliffs that are so frequently cited as remarkably productive. I affectionately named the kayak the H.M.S. Serra, after my favorite prehistoric shark species, Hemipristis serra. Over the course of the summer, I took her out on the Bay many times in search of large shark tooth fossils. I may have failed to find a Meg, but I found some incredible fossils that I gladly added to my ever-growing collection. Below you can find pictures of some of my finds from my various kayak trips to the Calvert Cliffs over the summer, as well as a picture of my beloved Serra. Some of my best finds from all these trips include large Hemis, a perfect 2-inch hastalis (pictured in my hand), lots of cow shark teeth, a crocodile scute, a large Lemon straight out of the matrix, and my first ever Ecphora! I truly had a very productive summer! I couldn't be much happier with all of my finds (unless of course I found a Meg...) and I can't wait to continue hunting in the coming months. The H.M.S. Serra likely won't be out on the water until it gets warm again, but there's still plenty of hunting to do at local sites on foot. In fact, I've already been on a few trips since putting her away for the colder months. I will make trip reports for those soon, and you won't want to miss them! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy my future posts! Hoppe hunting! ~David

A couple of old finds from Calvert Cliffs. I'd like to be certain on the ID of both. Top one has enamel-like quality on one side. Seems to have broken off the other side. Are they different types of sting ray barbs? Thanks!

Hello all, I found a small tooth (0.75 inches long) this week at Brownies Beach (Calvert Cliffs formation, Maryland). It was in the water along the shoreline, as the tide was coming in. I assume it's a sharks tooth, but I haven't been able to make even a decent guess at the genus/species from looking online at photos and lists of features. I would greatly appreciate any help identifying it! If the photos below aren't sufficient, please let me know and I'll try to take better ones. Thank you!

[WARNING: As is my custom, this trip report is exceedingly long, verbosely worded, and copiously illustrated with photos.] (It may be a good idea to find a comfy chair and grab a drink and some popcorn.) Since Tammy's retirement earlier this year, we've been busier than ever. We finally made it to Iceland this summer and saw dozens (if not literally hundreds) of waterfalls in that geologically interesting country. While talking about waterfalls ("fossar" in Icelandic), Tammy had realized that I had somehow not yet seen Niagara Falls. Tammy did not do a lot of vacation traveling when she was younger but had visited Niagara several times in her youth. She decided it was high time I experienced the power of Niagara. It could have been a simple trip--a flight up to Buffalo, a day out on a boat getting drenched at the base of the falls, and home again with little more than a long weekend invested. Somehow though, I have a remarkable knack for constructing enormously detailed travel itineraries--and this trip was no exception. Our anniversary month is October and so with the prospect of some multi-chromatic autumn foliar displays we decided that we'd plan a roadtrip that included Niagara Falls as its underlying motivation. It didn't take me long to realize that there are a lot of great TFF members up in the New York and Ontario area. Additionally, some members from the Virginia/Maryland area suggested meeting up during our last roadtrip through the Carolinas but that trip was already lengthy and involved. Perhaps, I could combine visits with a number of TFF members along the way and do a roadtrip down the Eastern Seaboard? As I started contacting prospective members to get the idea kickstarted, the starting point of our trip changed and we tacked on several extra days to the start of our trip. My brother and his wife had just bought a new house in the north side of Chicago. He decided that since all of the family holidays (Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas) were already claimed by other family members that he would start the tradition of Oktoberfest at their house--first Saturday of October. The itinerary for our trip was still in its early stages so we were easily able to incorporate a trip up to Chicago and link it to the start of our roadtrip. We considered flying from Chicago to Buffalo and picking the rental car there but the cheaper airfares were (not surprisingly) at rather inconvenient times (who wants to check into a hotel in the wee hours of the morning?) but an alternative soon presented itself. Since one of the places we'd hoped to visit along the way was the Devonian Hungry Hollow site in Arkona, ON, we'd have to backtrack west if we started in Buffalo but it would be conveniently along the route if we simply picked up the rental car in Chicago and started the roadtrip from there. This also allowed us the opportunity of visiting the small town of La Porte, Indiana where Tammy lived at one time. Things were falling into place. Of course, that is not to imply that my roadtrips are in any way quickly improvised--I think I spend as much time planning them as I do driving them. Starting the trip in Chicago allowed us both to visit family and work our way through all of our favorite food groups (authentic Chinese, Indian, Middle-eastern, and deep-dish pizza ) before gorging ourselves on lots of tasty German food and Oktoberfest-themed adult beverages at my brother's new place. Finally, we were ready to start rolling some miles (and kilometers) onto our trip odometer and we picked up the rental car and got underway. We planned on making London, ON for our first night and since it turns out it is only a mere 6 or so hours driving from Chicago, we had a bit of time to drive through La Port. It had been nearly 40 years since Tammy lived there and (as expected) much of the area was barely recognizable and not much as she'd remembered it. There were a few landmarks still in place and it didn't take us long to find the house her parents owned in town. The main floor was the Chinese restaurant they owned and the second floor above is where they lived. It's always interesting indulging some nostalgia and visiting places from the past. After a bit of driving around town we picked up the highway and in time crossed the border into Canada at Port Huron. We got to bed late that night but we had one of the longer driving days behind us already. On the road again--and a stop at a childhood home in La Porte.

I have been at a conference for my work in Baltimore all week. My conference ends tomorrow and then I plan to go get a rental car and head south to the Chesapeake Bay area to do some hunting or wherever else I can find to hunt. Even just getting out to hike in a nice quiet place would be nice if tides are too high to hunt the beaches. I will be leaving Baltimore around noon and returning home on Sunday noonish I think. I can't remember my departure time, but it is in the afternoon. I have not worked out any of the details other than rental car and a possible low budget place to stay. The most affordable I found was in Lexington Park area. I have not figured out tides and all that. I am a tad nervous. As a single woman in Texas I think I can handle myself out in the wild. I am not sure about the Chesapeake Bay area. It does not seem so remote. I am not sure if there are areas that are unsafe for a woman to be alone in. I have never hunted this type of environment before. When I go hunting in Texas I know what to watch out for. I usually go to very remote places where I rarely ever see anyone. Rattlesnakes, water moccasins and wild hogs are my main concerns when hunting in Texas. I know what to take and what to wear. So, I would appreciate any input with regards to what to look out for, how to be safe, where to find tide info and what not to do kind of stuff. Comments appreciated.

Miocene, probably mammal bone. Hoping for some clue to the animal. Doesn't look like a piece of cetacean vertebra, but obviously has the hole for the spinal cord. HELP!!!!

Found this on the beach at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland. Miocene period. Need help identifying. Any ideas?

Freely available from the Smithsonian online. https://scholarlypress.si.edu/store/new-releases/geology-and-vertebrate-paleontology-calvert-cliffs/

Hello! I found this bone at Brownies Beach (Calvert Cliffs MD, Miocene) and have been trying to figure out what it is with no luck. Anyone know? All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Frank

Who wants to play "name that ecphora! first one up is from choptank formation I believe. I didn't take field notes cause I'm a rookie.

New fossil hunter located in Calvert County Maryland. My main interest is finding ecphora shells.

I apologize for the picture...I don’t have the tooth with me to take a better one. Just curious if anyone knows what kind of shark the larger tooth belonged to? It’s 1 and 1/2 inches tall and was found on the beach at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland. It’s the only one i’ve found where the base of the tooth is as wide as the top so i’m curious what kind it is. The edges are smooth.