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Showing results for tags 'Calvert Cliffs'.
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Yesterday I scouted Calvert Cliffs Beach to see if my friends would be able to join me on a fossil hunt there. As this was only my third lifetime hunt, I'd only been to Matoaka prior, and wanted to see if the path to the Calvert Beach was accessible enough for a friend using a cane and someone more out of shape than I am. That said, I'm not fit myself, so the 3.6-mile hike to and from the beach was not easy. However, it was gorgeous! As many people will tell you online, the cliffs at Calvert Beach are not legally accessible; the state park service has closed off access to them due to frequent landslides and therefore little beach space left beneath them to evade a fall. The cliffs there are taller than at Matoaka, making them even more dangerous, and the tide comes in closer to the beach. The remaining fossil hunting space is thus rather limited for hunting, but if you're dedicated and go during the off-season, I'm sure your luck will be better than mine! I was in the water from about 11-3, sifting in the tidal line of shell material and along sunken trees that may have trapped fossils. Attached are a couple photos of my tooth finds, and a picture of the cliff area too. Feel free to ID the teeth; I'm not great at it yet, especially when they're small! I was surprised by the tan tooth since most teeth I've found thus far have been black. Also not entirely sure what the curved tooth came from, though my guesses were either a H. serra symphyseal or a tooth from a sand tiger shark. Overall, I think I like Matoaka better, but it's hard to say from just one visit. Going to take my friends back to Matoaka or to a new location next weekend. I'll scout out Flag Ponds in December I think, then I've got a fossil club trip in January. Really really really having fun!
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These fossils were purchased by me from a friend who had received them 30yrs ago. In the box they were in was a paper that read "Miocene, Calvert Cliffs, MD. Though some have argued that they are Florida fossils...I found id's for all but a couple from: "Vokes, H.E., 1957, Miocene fossils of Maryland: Maryland Geological Survey Bulletin 20, 85 p". I was wondering if anyone could id the two left...the single fossil photos? Thanks Greg
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Hi everyone. I went to Calvert Cliffs last week & found an interesting piece of bone. I have dozens of bone fragments from the Bay, but almost all of them are linear. This one is much more rounded. It is slightly bigger than a quarter. It might be too small to identify, but I thought it was worth sharing. It doesn't look turtle-y to me, but I guess that is a possibility.
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I found this bone end along the bay in Maryland last weekend, and wondered if there’s enough there for someone to identify what beast it might have come from. It’s hollow so possibly avian? But not necessarily... Thanks for looking!
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I was going through some of my shark teeth from the Calvert Cliffs (Miocene) in Maryland, and this Galeocerdo aduncus tooth caught my eye due its somewhat unusual shape (not including the fact that it's broken on one corner). I'm wondering if it might be a symphyseal tooth. From reading past forum posts, it seems like there's a range of Galeocerdo symphyseal shapes, from symphyseals that are pretty symmetrical to ones that are less so (such as mine, if it is one). For those more familiar with these teeth than I am, what do you think? Thanks for looking!
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Which locality near the Calvert Cliffs is the most productive?
giftedsifrhippus posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
I’ve never been collecting in the Chesapeake Bay before and am gonna visit the area soon during low tide. Which locality (beach, site) produces a good quantity and diversity of fossils. I’m not fixated on finding big megalodon teeth. I’d love to find a nice *Ecophora* and maybe some dolphin teeth. Species diversity would be nice. -
A friend of mine found this bone a little south of Calvert Cliffs state park. Is there any way to tell if it was a land or aquatic mammal?
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We decided to take a vacation down to the Solomon's to celebrate our anniversary with a whole bunch of fossil hunting. For our first time out to the area, I'd call the trip a resounding success! We managed to visit the Calvert Cliffs State Park, Matoaka Beach, Cove Point & also attempted to visit Flag Ponds though the park was almost always at capacity. Our goal was to focus on shark's teeth though we wound up finding a larger array of non-shark material instead. Perhaps a reflection of the large influx of new to the hobby collectors focusing heavily on teeth? Overall, my impressions on the locations we visited/tried to visit Calvert Cliffs State Park Certainly my favorite location speaking to the overall experience. Taking the red trail (avoid the service road route, same distance but a much harsher up and down hike) gives you a gorgeous scenic 1.8mi hike through salt marshes and wetlands until you hit the strip of beach with cliff exposures The water here was clear with no jellyfish, algae or jagged rocks - such a refreshing dip when i'd take a break from beachcombing Collecting directly under the cliffs is dangerous/ill-advised as landslides do happen fairly often. While choosing to do so is at your own risk, there are many exposures and recent cliff falls to collect from I spent my time chasing after a "giant scallop" - after scouting around a bit I managed to hit the jackpot by carefully digging a couple of well preserved 5-7" scallops out of the sandy cliff falls Matoaka Beach I'd call Matoaka a solid #2, the diversity of inverts we found was impressive but we also ran into a ton of bugs on the beach along with a shore full of jellyfish which made the visit ever so slightly miserable Very crowded with a good portion of folks sifting for teeth, I spoke with a few people along the shore and most had maybe one or two teeth to show for a couple of hours of searching - knowing that I spent my time searching the shore for invert material instead There were a couple of cliff exposures along the north end of the beach, though most of what I could poke at was overly chalky and would instantly disintegrate including an almost intact ecphora Flag Ponds Calling flag ponds overcrowded would be an understatement, we visited the park 3 times on 2 different days only for it to be full. I was told there was a line of cars the moment the park opened at 9am for them to hit capacity around 9:30. Bit of a shame but good to know for the future Cove Point We were lucky to have a close friend living within the cove point community whom allowed us access to the stretch of beach there Being a private beach, Cove Point had the largest amount of fossil material available for collecting along the shorelines including an abundance of bone fragments, crab claws and ray plates The weekend's haul, cleaned up and drying - prep was easier than I expected, especially on the scallops which wound up being a lot less fragile than I expected (100% thought one or two would break on the hike out of CCSP) Cliff exposure at CCSP The fall I was prodding at, corner of the scallop is visible on the right Gorgeous molds in-situ Freshly pulled from the fall - Chesapecten Nefrens Total tripmakers - more Chesapecten Nefrens after cleanup, 2 with both valves one split in two Mystery object - iron concretion or some sort of trace burrow?
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Just trying to get a feel on what people would call these two teeth from Calvert cliffs.
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Galeocerdo aduncus/Physogaleus contortus artificial tooth set
bthemoose posted a topic in Member Collections
Below is my third artificial tooth set for an extinct shark, this time for the Maryland Miocene tiger/tiger-like shark(s) Galeocerdo aduncus/Physogaleus contortus. This adds to the artificial tooth sets I previously constructed for Striatolamia striata and Hemipristis serra. For this tooth set, I’ve presented G. aduncus and P. contortus as the same species, with the former contributing the upper and the latter the lower teeth in the dentition. The possibility that these species are the same is further discussed in a recent topic started by @WhodamanHD here; I relied on Applegate’s construction posted by @Al Dente in that thread as my model. In addition to being an interesting proposal, I don’t have the teeth to make a full G. aduncus or full P. contortus dentition (if they are separate species), so the combined approach was borne out of necessity! The largest teeth below measure about 7/8” on the slant. I haven’t yet found an upper symphyseal for G. aduncus so there’s a placeholder for that tooth in my set for now. These teeth were collected by me from Matoaka Beach over the last year or so. The full tooth set: Quadrants: Final with labels:
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Following up on the artificial tooth set I recently constructed for the Paleocene sand tiger shark Striatolamia striata, I decided to see if I could put one together for the Miocene snaggletooth, Hemipristis serra, using teeth I've collected along the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. I haven't found a great resource for an H. serra dentition, but I consulted a few different sources to get a sense for the arrangement, including Fossilguy.com, J-elasmo (which has a dentition for the extant H. elongata), and various TFF threads. The resulting tooth set is below. While I've found quite a few H. serra teeth, their abundance from the cliffs isn't anywhere near that of S. striata from the Potomac River, so this one was a bit more challenging to construct. In addition to several fairly worn teeth in my set, some that I've slotted into various jaw positions are likely a bit more fanciful than the last one. The best extreme posteriors I've collected are proportionally too large, so I also had to use less good substitutes for those positions. The largest teeth below are about 1.25" inches in length. Most of these were collected from Matoaka Beach over the last year, but I found a few of them from Brownie's Beach and Calvert Cliffs State Park. The full tooth set: Quadrants: Finally, here are some better examples of extreme posterior teeth. Both of these are a tad over 0.7" long.
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I've never found anything like this. 3 roots (1 broken)
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My son asked to be taken to find shark teeth for his birthday. We are planning a trip to Calvert Cliffs in May. Does anyone have any suggestions to make this kids bday a success?
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I decided to go through my Carcharhinus teeth, since I have no hammerhead teeth. What do you think about the one on the left?
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I was going through my collection and found this tooth in with my Carcharias (Sand Tiger) teeth from Bayfront Park, Calvert Cliffs (Miocene). It doesn't resemble the others and I wondered if it might be something else. It is 7/8 of an inch tall. Thanks.
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I have been meaning to post my Calvert Cliffs mystery bones for awhile, and I keep finding more, so I finally took some pics to share. These are all Miocene finds collected on different trips over the last 12 months. I would be grateful for any help with ID.
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I made it out to Matoaka Beach bright and early this morning on a day off. While I didn’t find a ton in the shark teeth department, I did nab my largest whale vert to date, a large ray dermal denticle, and some other nice Calvert Cliffs (Miocene) finds.
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I made it out to Matoaka yesterday before today’s snowstorm and had a successful Maryland Miocene hunt, despite a large amount of ice obscuring the shoreline. (I won’t complain about the cold after @RuMert’s trip report yesterday. ) I found an unusually high number of cetacean vertebrae and cookies (epiphyses), several Ecphoras, shark teeth, and some other nice finds. This Carcharodon hastalis tooth was waiting for me when I arrived on the beach. And this cookie was just a few feet away. Off to a good start! Heading north, the ice got progressively thicker along the shoreline, and for significant stretches covered up all of the gravels at water’s edge. But there were still a few things deposited further up the tideline from before temperatures dropped below freezing. ...including my second cookie of the day. ...and my third—it’s incomplete but is the biggest one I’ve found to date. As the day went on, the sunlight started to melt some of the ice, revealing additional fossils, such as this nice little Ecphora—the colors on these always look so much better when wet! Here’s my favorite find of the day: a small partial ray mouth plate. On first glance, this looked very much like just a seed husk in the water—I’m glad I took a closer look. I didn't find a ton of shark teeth, but the ones I found were generally of good quality, including this Hemi hiding in the sand. This is a weird one. It’s only part of a tooth (croc? cetacean?) and may not be identifiable, but has a bump/ridge across the tooth—almost like a restart of the crown. Pathological perhaps? Or maybe just a tooth design I’m unfamiliar with. If anyone has ideas, let me know. I'll post another photo below and can take additional ones from other angles if helpful. Here's a decent-sized croc (I think) tooth. Most of the enamel has worn off except for a small section on the side.
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Slow day on the beach, not finding much of anything, when right before I turn around to head back I see a perfect 4” Meg sitting in ankle deep water! Total trip maker!
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Hi everyone! This is my first post here on the forum in what feels like forever. I'd like to be active here again, and thought there was no better way to kick it off than showcasing my meg tooth! Some of you may have already seen the tooth on my Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, but I wanted to make a post on here as well. I found the tooth last week along Calvert Cliffs. It's approximately 4.1" slant height and in near perfect condition. It even has that iconic Calvert Blue color on the crown that I love so much! I've been dreaming about finding a tooth like this ever since I started collecting a few years ago, and my dream has finally come true! Check out the pictures below and the YouTube video if you'd like to see how I found it. Hopefully the first of many great finds this year!
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Recently, I haven't been having tremendous luck along the Calvert Cliffs, but I headed down to Matoaka Beach again yesterday and was rewarded with one of my best fossil hunts to date! I arrived around 10am, a couple of hours before low tide, and the Chesapeake Bay was as still as I've ever seen it in the year since I started fossil hunting. A little wave action can often be helpful to kick up fossils, so from the top of the cliffs I wasn't expecting much. But as it turned out, the water was extremely clear, which helped me find more submerged fossils than I usually find, and there were extensive exposed shell and gravel beds along the beach. Here's my first shark tooth find of the day--nothing out of the ordinary, but a good condition Carcharhinus sp. Less than an hour in, I found this nice whale tooth (my best so far) tumbling at water's edge. When you find a trip maker early on, it's a good day. And then I found a Meg (or probably a Chub)! It's missing most of the root and part of the right side, but this is my best one to date. The Meg was soon followed by this huge Hemi. It has a bit of root erosion but still-sharp serrations and measures over 1.4" -- roughly the same size as the biggest Hemi I've found to date. I love when there's a big ol' shark tooth just waiting for you on top of the sand. More to follow...
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Hi all, Something different for today. I discovered this vertebra in the surf at Matoaka Cabins roughly 2 years ago. For those of you that don’t know, the rocks here are Miocene in age and preserve a nearshore marine environment. Cetacean remains are common, but other mammals (esp terrestrial) are not. Originally I thought it was a turtle vert, but now I’ve realized that it’s mammalian and possibly terrestrial in origin. It passed the burn test, by the way. My thought is that it is from a small mammal’s tail, as it closely resembles other mammalian caudal vertebrae. I’ve included a diagram of the vertebrae of Phenacodus, which show marked similarity. It’s not from Phenacodus, though as the deposits are far too young. Does anyone have any ideas on a better or more specific id? I’m not well versed in Cenozoic mammals. Thanks in advance.
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Miocene, Eocene, Paleocene -- some cool Maryland finds!
HemiHunter posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Merry Christmas to everybody! I am just catching up posting some cool finds from a few short trips I've made recently in Maryland--going back through time--Miocene, Eocene, Paleocene. (In the interest of time, I'm only posting the highlights, not everything I found, and not all of what my kids found.) Miocene-- After some heavy rains I snuck out early on a Friday for a quick solo trip to the Calvert Cliffs. Conditions were actually not great, as the water was still a little muddy and the waves were pretty rough due to blustery winds. After a couple of hours I was not finding much and getting ready to head out (dejected) to warm up with a hot cup of coffee. But just then the fossil gods took pity on me and uncovered this awesome mako. At just over 2", it's in perfect shape and my personal best! I took a quick video collecting it to share with my kids here: https://youtu.be/SItWtdYw7SQ
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I found a couple of interesting fossil bones yesterday along the Calvert Cliffs (Miocene exposure) in Maryland. Any ideas to what these belonged? #1 - My guess is this one is a bird bone. It's smooth (inside and out) and hollow all the way through to the closed end. If this is from a bird, do you know what type of bone it is (anatomically)? And any thoughts on what type of bird it might be from? I realize that isolated and broken bones can't usually be identified too specifically, but this seems fairly large, so I'm wondering if there might be good candidates for type of bird. #2 - This spike-shaped/pointy bone is also at least partially hollow inside, though the walls of the bone are thicker/more robust than the one above. I'm not sure if the central cavity goes all the way through. I've only been able to confirm that it's a few centimeters deep, just past the longitudinal holes/borings on the outside of the bone; however, I think the cavity may extend further but is filled in with matrix (I don't have the tools handy at the moment to clean more of this out). Speaking of those holes on the outside, they're irregular/asymmetrical, and I'm guessing they're post-mortem invertebrate borings. As can be seen in the two photos on the bottom left there are two grooves on opposite sides that run the length of the bone--one of these is more distinct than the other, though the one on the other side might just be more worn. I haven't a clue what this one is, and would love to hear your thoughts!
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Below are three recent finds from Maryland's Calvert Cliffs (Miocene) that have me stumped. I'm not sure if they're all fossils, but hopefully you can help me figure that out. Thanks in advance for your thoughts! #1 - This looks like possibly coral to me, but is very different (and much smaller) than the Astrhelia palmata coral fossils that are pretty common from this spot. #2 - I have no idea on this one, but the lines on the sides made me think it could be a fossil. #3 - I wondered if this might also be some sort of coral ... or maybe just a volcanic rock? Whatever it is, I haven't seen anything similar from this area before.
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