Search the Community

I wasn’t expecting much from this weekend adventure, been having a dry spell with the last few hunts and a lot of misses. Gave it the good OL’College try again and oh did it pay off big time with finding not one but 2 teeth in extraordinary condition on back to back days and 2 different epochs vastly separated from each other geographically which is really cool. Time traveling but without the DeLorean! (Front and back photos of the larger tooth) 2 & 5/8 inches from tooth tip to the larger side of the root; which would be about 66 mm.

I have a single shark tooth from an Eocene Cook Mountain Formation location in Newton County, Mississippi. I would like confirmation or correction on the ID, please. My best guess is Striatolamia macrota, but I could easily be very wrong. Unfortunately about half the root is missing and I'm not sure whether a nutrient groove was present of not. The blade is clearly not serrated. Total height is a hair under 2.1 cm and restored width is estimated at 2.1 cm also. Any and all help would be appreciated. Here are three pictures to show the shape (scale bar divisions are cm): And here is one close up view of the one remaining cusplet: Thanks for looking. Mike

Two sets of two rocks. Both from the marine eocene of Catalonia, Spain. Probably just some weirdly eroded rocks but just in case...

I'm a bit new to this, so this might be a stupid question but here we go. I found this on marine Eocene deposits in Catalonia, Spain. Could this part of a crab? Or maybe an echinoderm?

Hi All, I'm very new to the world of fossils and already have a question... This fossil was found among the rocks on a beach in Anglesea, Wales (UK). From trying to research, my best guess is otodus obliquus (upper L8/L9) going off crown size. However, I can't find any info about finding these in the UK - all the ones I've seen similar are from Morocco. Is Anglesea a possible location for these sharks or is my ID way off? Thanks in advance!!

Hello These are the adventures of myself and my dog Millie as we hunt for fossils and history along the Peace River. Our mode of travel is our 12’ Indian River Canoe, Balance. Im a 4th generation Polk county native, and Millie comes from a long line of Colorado ranch dogs. We do everything together. Including work, as I am a farrier for my day job, and the farm owners are more excited to see Millie than me! The goal of this journal is to document the learning along with the adventures. To go below our sieves, and learn why the river is presenting as it is. Other members have already posted pictures and info on every fossil I’m likely to find, but the river can still teach me/us why the hole I’m digging is delivering specific materials. Understanding what happened before what happened, happened. That’s what I want to know! Millie and I have been gifted this river and the ability to run it at a moments notice. That’s not the case for everyone. Even with access I still only get out for a morning or so a week. So this journal will also provide an avenue for those who can’t just jump in the boat with us. Jump in through this forum and help out along the way when you can/want. The more we learn the better the treasure!! Jp & Mille LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN! Season opener - Oct 2023 water depth day of - 8’ and falling. Like most things I’m impatient about, starting Fossil hunting this year was rushed. Millie and I ran head on into a river that’s a solid 3’ too high for me to handle any real working conditions. There’s places to work. We just haven’t found many at these depths! Yet!! After work arrived and we got started towards the river. Late arrival and definitely some dark water running ahead but at this water height you just gotta keep the boat in the middle. Got in late but just in time for a welcome back from the Peace! We woke up ready! Well, I did. Camp and my “Field Office” ready. Now to get wet! Because of the water depth I tied leashes to all the heavy tools and tied some extra pool noodle to them. That way I could drop them and just pull up the leader. Brought the “Velvet Touch” probe. No stopping us now! “What” I was after wasn’t an option this trip. I had only two available spots in mind that would be under 4’ deep. Both those spots are in a very recent deposit that I’ve been getting lots of Pleistocene and some Pliocene mammal material from. I ended up finding the time frame expected, and possibly an extinct sand shark nursery area. The river had sifted one spot completely away during the last flood so I was left with only one place to put in effort! At 4’ it was at my cap for height. I’m 5’6’’ and I could only dig 2 feet down before I ran out of shovel. So I had to figure something out. First I tried to fill the sieve on the River bottom and lift it up. FAIL! never got it to stay put long enough to do anything productive before I’d loose it and it would pop up down stream pulling on the leash. Next I tried to lift the gravel to the sifter on the surface. There was so much water the shovel load was gone before I broke the surface! FAIL! At a max depth of 2 feet down I wasn’t going to be learning much about the geography or layers I needed to work through. So I shifted gears and decided to focus on just the top 2’ as effectively as I could. The third try ended up succeeding. I would loosen the riverbed into a loose filled hole that had collapsed on itself and then use my scoop on a pole thing to transfer the loose material up to the surface. Not the best method but I’m grateful to have been able to stand there all day. I’d work forward 3’ and over 1’ then back again. All at 2’ or less deep or I’d go under. I suppose if I feel like moving a bunch of river bed again we could come back here and go deeper! One of my questions about this area is what is it old enough to find within it? Another trip! Here’s the gratuitous highlights shot! Not a bad day! The alligator tooth got a yell but the sand tigers and mammal teeth got me really excited. Millie and I were exhausted and COLD! I learned a few things this weekend to put in the journal. Before that. Let’s eat! Steak for me and steak for Millie. Yumm. Lessons: 1. I need appropriate clothes. Like wet suit stuff. Can’t be under water like that all day again. I got chilly and had to warm up several times. 85deg out too! What I wear is fine for knee deep wading but definitely time to upgrade the wardrobe. (I did try my new dive boots and that was the only part of me that wasn’t cold) 2. Regular shovel handles are way too short. Amend as needed to your stature. I need a 12’ handle to dig a hole in this water. So I’m out! 3. Jack, (Shellseeker) is insane!! This was my first time hunting this deep and it’s right in his sweet spot. You’re an animal! He tried to assist my tool tuning but until you run out of shovel that’s a new feeling to adjust to. 4. At two feet deep this area is where I will come for younger land aged fauna and I can expect the standard peace river sharks teeth assemblage with a higher than usual volume of sand sharks teeth. This was a great day hunting and I learned a lot. Maybe not about what my intended question was or the areas I’ve been thinking of but a ton about gear and technique! KEEP THE FAITH AND TRY TO DO GOOD!! Jp & Millie Here are the finds from this trip and some info used to figure out the unknowns. sand shark and some Hemi Serra Peace River mix fun and unique things - The mammal molar ended up being a Giant Tapir. By shape and size 3rd or 4th premolar. No root. Should have given it away. Mixed bag bottom to top of left- Gator tooth gator tooth Crappy Barbra’s incisor Canine- size 22mm broken suggest coyote or smaller domestic dog. 25mm would be the target. Tiny molar - it’s broken but by the face and measurements it’s most likely a rodent. Camel type tooth frag. Upper right - various tiger shark species to identify with Florida fossil hunters PDF middle - two deer horn buttons. One I already had but these were found 5 feet apart. Same deer?!? Bottom right- Eocene snail and crab shell fragments. Those are 37.5 Mya.?? Snail identification was general to the Ocala formation results of similar snail species.

This was an interesting find in the NJ Eocene/Miocene streams. Its been ID as an historic horse tooth, though it really looks pretty fossilized. Any other thoughts? Wonder how old it actually may be.

I'm new here, so firstly: Hello! I've been collecting a lot of fossils on the south coast of England this summer, but identifying these 3 has so far eluded me. These were all collected loose on the beach. Hopefully the photos are good enough to give a fair representation.

Found in Andalusia from what I’ve been told the Eocene epoch, I’ve looked online and I can’t find anything. I’m new to doing this so any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

One week fossil collecting trip out west, my sixth time in the past six years. Flew into Denver. Rented a car and headed down to Castle Rock where I spent the night at a motel. Next day drove up to Florissant Fossil Quarry. It was Wednesday and they're normally closed during the week in September, but I made special arrangements for a few hours visit. Compared to my two previous visits there, didn't do as well. The other times, I was there for the whole day, this time was just for three hours, and they had had a considerable amount of rain recently and so the shale was more crumbly and more difficult to split. Here are some of my finds. Plants:

Hi all, I have some teeth I'd like some input on. Sorry for the photos, working on improving my current photo setup. First, these teeth from the Demopolis formation of Mississippi (Late Campanian). I'm guessing Serratolamna for some of them but they are a bit different than the typical ones from here. They're quite variable teeth. Tooth 1: Tooth 2: Tooth 3: Tooth 4: These teeth are from the Moodys Branch Formation of Hinds County, Mississippi (Eocene, Bartonian). Tooth 5: Hypotodus verticalis? Tooth 6: Brachycarcharias lerichei? Tooth 7, 8: Abdounia enniskilleni? Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate any thoughts.

Hello, I'm from Austria (Europe). And this is my first time here on the forum. When I was 10 years old, in addition to the dozens of bones, I also found a cave bear canine tooth (tip with end of enamel: almost 4cm with root 6cm) in the dragons cave near Mixnitz in Styria. I never made such a great find again: that was the end of my short excavation career. In the last years I've only bought small things: trilobites, amonites and this week I stumbled upon the fish. I bought the petrified fish as a gift for a special occasion. Indicated from the dealer: fossilized fish (Pricacara liops), Green River, Wyoiming, USA, Tertiary, Eocene, approximately 42 million years. Size Fossil: 40.5 cm (I measured the body axis, not the matrix). Matrix (rock slab): 45,5 cm (length, upper longer edge) x 28,5 cm (average) At first Priscacara liops seems wrong to me because it is smaller. In't it? Priscacara serrata grows to about 37 cm tall?! And unfortunately I don't know exactly how big the Priscacara hypacanthus will get. BTW: In my opinion the body shape doesn't fit either. Question 1: Which fish is this actually? Question 2: It seems to me that the beige matrix (plate) was helped with paint. Please see the photos with the arrows. In one place, paint or a piece of rock seems to have chipped off (as long as it was just beautified), that's not so tragic for me. Question 3: Is the fish a real fossil, in your opinion? So that you can get an idea, I have put up unedited photos (except for the arrows + text). I also photographed the back of the matrix (stone slab) and also the edge; also a few detailed shots. Thank you in advance. Greetings, Rod

About a year ago I made a post where I made a post on the forum where I shared some of my more interesting fossil insects I had found at the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado. For those uninitiated, the Florissant Formation is an Eocene (Priabonian Stage, ~34 Ma) lägerstatte notable for exceptional preservation of plant and arthropod fossils. My original post can be found here: One of the fossils I showed off in that post was of an insect larva which I had interpreted as a fly (order Diptera) larva, speculating that it may be a botfly larva because it possessed setae which resembled those of a botfly. I had never been super confident in this interpretation, and over the last year I’ve showed the fossil to several knowledgeable friends, paleontologists, and entomologists. What has emerged is a different consensus that I am much more confident with (and is far more intriguing than what I had originally thought!): this fossil is in fact the dorsal view of a caddisfly larva (order Trichoptera). There are several anatomical characteristics present which I had failed to notice initially. To start, I was viewing the fossil backwards. I had interpreted that anterior end as the posterior end and vice versa. Once I had this corrected, it became clear that the insect’s head and thorax are both clearly definable and both eyes are visible on the head. Additionally, small portions of the legs are visible sticking out from the thorax as well. I originally did not see any legs which had informed my original interpretation, but in this fossil most of the legs are tucked underneath the body and not visible. Here’s the fossil. The anterior end faces to the left. Here’s a picture of a modern caddisfly larva sans its protective casing. It is oriented in the same fashion as the fossil, for comparison: Caddisflies are closely related to butterflies and moths (order Lepidoptera) but they have larvae which live in bodies of water. Many caddisfly species’ larvae build little casings out of silk and pebbles/debris to protect themselves, but this is not universal. The larva seen here is not within a casing, so it either died in a rare instance in which it was not in its case or it is of a species which does not build cases. Adult caddisflies have been reported from Florissant, as have fossils of isolated larval casings, but I was unable to find a description of a body fossil of a caddisfly larva. Not to say one doesn’t exist, they just seem to be obscure. So there you have it: a really interesting and unique find from this fossil locality. Just needed another half dozen or so sets of eyes to figure out what was actually going on there!

Hello everyone, Recently just purchased this Auriculatus tooth from the Qsar-el-sagha Formation in Egypt. Whilst making a label for it I have learnt that there is a lot of debate on what genus it belongs to. The two options being Charcharocles and Otodus. It is my understanding that American Paleontologists believe it is from the Charcharocles genus as it has serrations (Otodus not having serrations). In juxtaposition eastern European Paleontologists believe that serrations vs non-serrations is not enough evidence for it to be consider a species of Charcharocles and believe it is a species of Otodus. Case and Cappetta (1990), the review of the Eocene fauna in the Fayum Depression of Egypt (where this tooth comes from) calls it a Charcharocles however several people have told me it does indeed belong to the genus Otodus. Was wondering if anyone here has followed this issue more closely and could inform me if there was now an “accepted” genus. Thanks in advance, Josh

Hello! Over the past half year I have been collecting shark teeth on the Belgian north sea coast from dredged sand. I have gathered the ones that are complete and identifiable to figure out specifics but the mackerel sharks prove difficult. Luckily I have a page with multiple species from the specific beaches and deposits I visited. (Onderkaak = lower jaw, Bovenkaak = upper jaw). However, this does not include all of the possible species. Many are from the ypresian, the vast majority are eocene of course. This should narrow it down immensely already. My resources are limited though. I have front-back views of my teeth collected and have given them numbers for easy differentiation. I’ve also tried to sort similar ones together. I think most of them could be striatolamia macrota but there are subtle root shape and tooth size differences that I have 0 experience with. I hope more knowledgeable shark enthusiasts here can help with this. I also added some quick side views to showcase that no. 1 and 11 do have a curve to them whereas most of the others are either perfectly flat or pointing slightly up (when lying down with the flatter side underneath). With eocene shark teeth ID, my biggest issue is always not knowing if tooth differences are merely related to placement in the mouth, or if they are actually differences between species. I will provide closeup sideviews of specific teeth if necessary for ID.

Hello all, from Monmouth county NJ and have been an avid waterman my whole life. Just recently have gotten into shark tooth hunting with my kids and we have done a good amount of exploring and have uncovered some really specials pieces of prehistory. Looking to grow our collection and knowledge as well. Look forward to being part of this group

My girlfriend and I found this ray tooth plate the other day at the bridge, was wondering if anyone could get a positive ID on it? Below are 3 pictures one with a ruler for scale and 2 nice pictures of it on top of some petrified wood I found in town.

Hello all, this is my first post, and is an ID task. I found this on Braklesham beach, which has a few offshore Eocene clay deposits rich in shark teeth and Ray pallets, as well as turtle carapace. I'm not sure what this is, but it is very similar in size (1.5cm) and shape to squid beaks I have dissected in biology, and was wondering if it might be the beak of a cephalopod. I'm sorry for the poor photos, I'll try get some better ones with my camera. All the best, Tsav.

Hello! I just completed my second trip out to Point A Dam in River Falls, AL and found a couple of interesting things that I cannot seem to ID. Due to traveling, I only took a few pictures and had to use a coin for scale before moving to my next destination, so I apologize for the lack of quantity and quality of my photos. When I get time, I can take more images of the samples below upon request. Thank you! 1: I’m leaning toward Angel shark (?) 2: Legitimately do not have a clue… Maybe stingray related as it is long and cylindrical but it has confounded me. It does have a hole through the center that was difficult to image, presumably for soft tissue. 3: Once again, I don’t have a clue. The bottom of these pieces are smooth and concave below the central “peak.” 4: Miscellaneous pieces. Very well could be nothing but figured I may as well post them.

Dear FossilForum members, I'm an aspirant fossil hunter and thought I'd reach out to you to possibly help identify this recent find (7 images attached, approx. 21cm x 7,5cm x 2cm), found in an Eocene layer (UK, Hampshire Coast)...flat, curved and ‘channels' running down the center of (concave) back (image 02)...could it be a rib? Any (comparative) insight you may provide would be much appreciated. Regards & thanks

Found this tooth in the vertebrate layer on my second Whisky Bridge (Lutetian, Eocene) hunt like 6 or so months ago. I just assumed it was a fish tooth, so I didn't put too much research into it at the time. Found it again while packing today and now I'm wondering what it is. I can't find any similar Eocene fish teeth in my Googling. Now that I have some marine croc teeth under my belt, I'm starting to wonder if this could be one even though I've never heard of croc material from the site. The tooth is about 9.5 mm tall and 1.5 mm in diameter on the base. It has deep striations that are densest and most uniform on the lingual side. The striations persist on the labial side, but are less dense and deep. It has a sigmoidal curvature labiolingually and two prominent cutting edges. Feel free to tag anyone who knows a thing or two about the site! @jkfoam @Jared C @erose @JohnJ Thanks!

Below are 10 crocodile teeth from the Ypresian age of the Moroccan Phosphates, none of which have been identified. I've numbered them to make it easier to keep track of them as they all look rather similar. Thanks in advance for any proposed IDs Othniel

Took my brother out this Sunday to do some fossil hunting in Monmouth County, NJ. Rainy day, but it didnt stop us from spending a good 5 hours in the water. We started out at Big Brook, and spent most of our time there. Everything from the Belemnite down were my finds, which included a Crow Shark tooth (Squalicorax), a few Gobblin Shark teeth (Scapanorhynchus), several Enchodus teeth, a small section of Ratfish jaw (Ischyodus), couple crustacean claw pieces, a Mosasaur tooth fragment and an unidentified jaw fragment (brown piece, bottom right). Coin is 21mm. The items left and right of the coin were found in a different area in Monmouth, with deposits from the Eocene and Miocene. This was my first time here and I had a great hunt despite being there for only about an hour. Definitely need to go back and spend more time here. Big thanks to another collector for helping me with ID's. I believe the large teeth are Sand Shark (Carcharias). The teeth L & R of the coin are Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo) and the smaller tooth to the left Lemon Shark (Negaprion). Unsure of the small tooth to the right. The Sand Shark tooth to the left is my largest tooth find to date, despite missing the root, measuring in at almost 3cm. Gives me hope there is are complete examples that size in the same area. Thanks for looking, and feedback good/bad is always welcome!