Search the Community

Yesterday I followed the stream that starts in my backyard to the bay. Went north a bit and saw what looked like a piece of lignite in a small slab of cliff about to fall, tapped it with my machete(needed for clearing brush, spider webs, maybe a copperhead Lol!) and it made an unexpected clink instead of the mush that lignite usually is. My extraction method would probably make you guys puke but yes, I used my machete to slice until free. It was high tide, waves splashing against me and cliff, also had two impatient boys and two dogs in tow so it was quick and dirty. Anyway, it ended up being a pretty large bone. Probably whale/dolphin rib, maybe flipper?? IDK... Looks like some sort of joint at one end. Kinda wonder if a whole skeleton is buried in the cliff????

Found this little item in my rock bar that has me stumped. Has too much form to be a "concretion", but not enough to try to get a bone ID. It came from a Maryland Creek in the Arundel "formation" Potomac "group".

Any idea what this is? Arundel Formation, Maryland, Lower Cretaceous.

I have been working on a chunk of dried matrix from Matoaka. As I dusted it off with a brush, I noticed this mesh-like material. The photo is magnified 4x, & the mesh is estimated at 4 cm across. It looks very thin & fragile, so I am not sure if I should try to remove it or just leave it be for now. This is the largest chunk that I have at home, so you know it will kill me to leave it like that. I also found a tiny little ecphora & a tiny crab claw in the same matrix, so I know it is good material. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Arundel Formation. Maryland. Lower Cretaceous. What say you?

Thoughts on this?

I packed up my gear and wandered along the Matoakan cliffs for my thousandth time now (that's what it feels like) and had a half decent day. I found two teeth with guesses for both that I want to ask y'all for conformation, and some weird scute type things. Scutes: Tooth One: Thresher? 1/2 inch in size Tooth Two: Baby Meg or Silky? Final Finds Thanks Guys! I may also add that I felt so miffed when someone pulled up a big meg from a clay boulder I was going to go to next. Its like the Shark Tooth gods are against me. What sacrilege have I committed?

Since I am brand new to Miocene fossils, I’m hoping the Fossil Forum community can help me identify the following fossils I found at Flag Ponds over Labor Day weekend. Group 1 - Cetacean or impressions left by invertebrates?

Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA. I just discovered this forum when I was searching online in an attempt to ID some fossils I found yesterday. The first time I ever came across a fossil on the beach was two years ago during my first trip to Flag Ponds Nature Park in Maryland. I found maybe 10 tiny shark teeth. Even though I grew up in Maryland (close to DC) and lived less than an hour's drive from the Chesapeake Bay, I'd never really visited the western shore of the Bay and was ignorant of the stories that the cliffs and waters there had to tell. Last year, I discovered Brownies Beach and made two trips there last year, once in the spring and once in the fall. This year, I made one trip to Brownies and just yesterday, made my second ever trip to Flag Ponds. That's literally the extent of any fossil hunting I've ever done. As you see, I have very little experience, but I think it's fair to say that the bug has bit me and I now have a lingering fascination with the natural history of the area and the creatures that once roamed there. So far, I've only ever found tiny or smaller fossils-- tiny teeth, small bits of bone, and many, many questionable bits that I've kept until I've determined if they are "bone or stone." I'd really like to find some nice sized teeth this year, like a mako or hemi (or...dare I dream...bigger!) and hopefully some interesting bones. I'm looking forward to meeting you all, learning, and sharing! From yesterday:

I'm Cody from Maryland me and my wife Cayla have been Shark tooth hunting at Flag Ponds Nature Park in Maryland for almost a year. We started out really slow. Had no idea what we were looking for but after the first few trips it gets easier and easier. Even though our favorite collection site is 2 hours from our house we try to make it there every weekend.

Splitting some mud stone/ shale from Arundel f and found this little beast. Shale is a misnomer too. But it was a noticeably "layered" piece of float in the College Park area. it is small. The fibers are from a q-tip, so maybe 1/16 of an inch, or slightly larger. Hard to photograph because of the dark background. Added 2 from a different device.

Hi everyone. I found this tooth at Matoaka on Saturday, August 25th. It tinks when I tap it on china, or up against shark teeth. It is hollow. Fellow fossil hunter, JPC, suggested it is a mammalian canine tooth. Question is, which one? Any suggestions? The ruler is in cm. It looks basically the same on both sides.

Hello everyone, I don’t know if I put this in the right place, mods and admins feel free to move it. I am getting jealous of the transitional Otodus and auriculatus I am seeing from the Potomac. These, I assume, are from the Nanjemoy Formation. While every now and then some of this will wash to the Paleocene aged Aquia Formation of Purse state park, it is not reliable. I’d like to hunt Maryland’s Eocene so I can cross that off my list. Now there is also the secretive Old Church formation which exists, but I have not heard much about it. Are there any sites that are accessible by land? Regrettably, the family car has no attachment area for a boat carrier, and a kayak won’t fit in it (and I’ve never kayaked the Potomac so I don’t know how fast the currents are). If there is a person to contact to ask for permission, I’d be fine with that. Any leads would be appropriate, typically I’d take matters into my own hands but info is scarce and the geologic map shows the overlying Pleistocene and Holocene deposits rather than the Eocene. Don’t hesitate to PM me. Thanks!

Hello everyone, I apologize for the delay in making my report, but my latest trip was delayed by an upper respiratory infection. I took this past week off from work, with plans to visit both Matoaka and Flag Ponds, but then the virus hit and so goes the best laid plans of mice and fossil hunters. By Thursday, after four days of long naps and lots of fluids, I decided I was well enough to make the hour and a half drive down. I also thought that some sunshine would do me good. The day was gorgeous, not the normal, swampy heat that my home state of Maryland is known for. We call it, 'the air that you wear.' Surprisingly, the crowd was small. for such a beautiful, sunny day. I arrived at the cliffs around noon. High tide was around 9:30 that day, so while I would have preferred to go earlier, I waited for the tide to roll out a bit. The waves were a bit stronger than I expected, so I am glad that I waited. It was not a day for teeth because I found nothing other than a few tiny lemon shark teeth. But after meeting Igotarock and seeing her report, I had shells on my brain more than teeth this time. Whodaman, I was not feeling up to going all the way up the beach to the second cliff, but I have been eyeing it up for weeks. It is on my list for a cooler day or maybe a day when I can get an earlier start. The material that fell down a few weeks ago at the first run of cliffs is still revealing gems. On my way to the fall, I made the mistake of slipping on the clay ridge at the base of the cliffs. I know that area is very slippery and I try to avoid it, but I stepped up on it for a minute because the sun had dried it fairly well so I thought I was safe and I wanted to look at a very large clam shell. On my way back to the sand, my feet both went out from under me at the same time. Fortunately my bum hit the sand and not the harder clay. I banged my left wrist up a bit and it was very sore last night, but no permanent damage. After sitting for a bit and making sure there was no real damage that would keep me from going on, I made my way to the fall, found some promising chunks and put them in a bucket that I had brought along with some bubble wrap. Tonight, I got out the toothbrush and the dental pick and revealed this,

I have found a few well preserved Ecphora Gardenrae around Calvert Cliffs, Maryland but nothing substantial. I also managed to find some large pieces of Ecphora so I decided to purchase the following large Ecphora Gardenrae, the state fossil of Maryland, from a dealer that is local (Virginia). This was found from the St. James river and is from the Miocene. The second to largest was found along Calvert Cliffs, Maryland and the smallest is also from Calvert Cliffs. Beautiful specimens. Both of the purchased shells are from sites that are now off limits to collecting. Sadly a lot of good sites are now closed.

I will leave this for your interpretation without comment.

I will leave this without comment also, for your interpretation.

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.

Part three to my safekeeping series. These are some of my finds from the middle Devonian Mahantango Formation of Maryland. Unlike the other formations I posted about, this one is pretty well known for it's fossil contents, so I will keep the introduction and background brief. For those who don't know the Mahantango is a middle Devonian aged marine shale that's part of the Hamilton Group in Maryland. For the most part it's fauna is dominated by brachiopods, but occasional gastropods, tentaculitids, and other animals show up as well. It was deposited in a shallow inland sea with the depth of the sea varying over time. This is only a small fraction of what I have, but it's some of the best. Image 1: Spiriferid brachiopod, Mucrospirifer mucronatus? Image 2: Some odd fragment (possibly trilobite related?) with a M. mucronatus. Image 3: M. mucronatus.

This is a retcon of an earlier post I had. Cambrian fossils aren't something one thinks of when they think of Maryland fossil hunting, and perhaps for good reason. The Cambrian rocks of the state are poorly exposed, those few areas where they do outcrop usually being gobbled up in urban sprawl. Compared to sites elsewhere like in Utah or York, Pennsylvania, the Maryland Cambrian is also rather barren. You could probably count on both hands the number of macrospecies in the entire early and middle Cambrian section of the state. But this rarity only makes collecting in it that much more interesting! Luckily for me I'm pretty close by most of these formations, so I have a decent knowledge of the area and outcrops, but even then it took a decent amount of time researching and scouting to find a site. The most recent formation I visited was the Araby Formation. Up until the mid 20th century the Araby was considered part of the Antietam Sandstone further west in the Blue Ridge, but after some more studies done on the formation it was found that it's lithological character was distinct enough to warrant it being a separate unit. Whereas the Antietam is a white quartz sandstone (much like the Oriskany I posted about yesterday) deposited in a beach-like environment, the Araby was deposited in deeper water (compared to the Antietam) and is more a mixture of siltstones, shales, phyllites, and slates. Together with the Antietam the Araby has some of the oldest fossils in the state dating back to the early Cambrian period some 540 million years ago. This makes it the oldest formation in the Frederick Valley. For those that don't know the Frederick Valley is a predominantly limestone syncline in west central Maryland (I consider it western Maryland, but most people probably wouldn't). At it's core is the early Ordovician Grove Limestone (which has practically no fossils), and on it's flanks are the late Cambrian Frederick Limestone (fossiliferous in parts, but those parts are very rare) and finally the Araby Formation. The Araby takes up positions along the far flanks of the valley, and it's eastern boundary with the metamorphic rocks of the Westminster Terrane marks the Martic Fault (no Washingtonians you don't need to worry about a San Andrea, from what I've read the Martic has been inactive for a long, long time). Due to it's sediment type and that of the surrounding rocks, the Araby is also a minor ridge forming unit, holding up the series of hills that flank Frederick Valley's eastern edge. These hills are nicely visible from the grounds of Monocacy National Battlefield, which is also of interest for marking the site of the northernmost Confederate victory (July 9, 1864 for those who're curious) in the Civil War. This ridge forming aspect means that, although very thin and covering a very small area, the Araby Formation has multiple exposures throughout the Frederick Valley. Some of the better ones are visible along I-70 just east of it's crossing over Monocacy River (an MGS team found some trilobites there) and MD-355 as you drive through the woods before hitting Araby Church Road (I believe the namesake for the formation is actually the Araby Church). In terms of fossils the Araby is almost exclusively dominated by the trace fossil Skolithos linearis, an annelid worm burrow. Other fossils found in it, however, include echinoderms and Olenellus sp. trilobites. As another aside the Cash Smith Shale, once held as an independent formation, also has trilobites and I believe inarticulate brachiopods reported from it, however it is no longer considered an independent formation but rather a member of the Araby Formation. Almost all of my fossils were the worm burrows, still cool but for everyone's sake I won't constantly repeat what they are this time around. Image 1: The largest burrow I've found. I originally thought it was a genal spine from a trilobite due to it's size. Image 2: Cross section of a burrow, outlined by the iron oxide stain. Image 3: Another burrow, this one roughly outlined by the iron oxide. Image 4: The large tubular structure covered in iron oxide (you might be noticing a pattern here with the oxides and burrows. I can't say definitively if they're connected in some way, but oftentimes you'll find the one with the other).

I have been looking at this and can't decide if it's something or not. I leave it to the experts. Personally I thought concretion until I saw the belt. It looks like a squashed acorn, but I don't believe there were oaks in Lower Cretaceous. Thoughts? No, it's not a human artifact.

I don't throw around the word "best" casually, but I think it's safe to say that my recent trip was one of the best in all my years collecting, if not the best. I spent the better part of five or six hours collecting at numerous different sites across western Maryland ranging in age from the lower Devonian to the lower Mississippian, so this is part one of my posts (for simplicity's sake I may include photos of most of my other finds from these sites even if I didn't collect them last go around). The trip started off okay. I visited a couple of my oldest sites that are some small roadside exposures of the Oriskany Sandstone and Mahantango Formation. These sites produced decent material in the past, but over the repeated years of collecting I seem to have worn them out as this time all I found were some brachiopods (including a decent Mucrospirifer sp. from the Mahantango site). I'll talk more about these finds later, but afterwards I found time to visit a new site in the Brallier Formation. By this point it had started to thunder, and while driving to the site the rain started to come in and fog filled up the valley. I thought it was the end of my trip, but as I got to the site it was pretty much dry. My best guess is that I was simply hearing a storm from way off in the distance. The site I visited, as I recently learned, might actually expose two different formations: the Brallier Formation and the Foreknobs Formation. The difficulty in discerning between the various upper Devonian formations in Maryland is multifold. First off, the MGS doesn't differentiate the Harrell, Brallier, and Scherr Formations, even on their most recent geologic maps. Second of all the literature around these deposits is scant and very dated. Most still use the (now) incorrect Woodmont and Chemung Formations, which further exacerbates problems as the Woodmont Formation consisted of the current Brallier and Scherr Formations, making it difficult for an amateur like me to really tell just which fossils occur in either formation. On top of this the contact between the Harrell, Brallier, Scherr, and Foreknobs is mostly gradational, so the differentiating layers lithologically is next to impossible as the beds gradually blend into one another. Generally speaking the Harrell is a dark shale with a fossiliferous limestone (the Tully Limestone) demarcating it's base, the Brallier is mostly dark, fissile shale with interbeds of siltstone, the Scherr is mostly lighter colored shale and siltstone with some sandstone beds, and the Foreknobs is a mixture of gray shales, red shales, conglomerate, sandstone, and siltstone. A guide fossil for the Brallier is the brittle star trace fossil Pteridichnites biseriatus, which was the fossil I originally set out to collect and found in the darker shale. Generally speaking the brachiopod genus Cyrtospirifer sp. in particular C. disjunctus is a guide fossil for the Foreknobs, but I believe this genus also occurs in the Brallier Formation. I found both fossils at this site, the brittle star in the dark shale and the brachiopod in a reddish siltstone, and considering the transition in rock types (one end of the site was just dark, fissile shale and the other had significant amounts of conglomerate and siltstone with shell beds) I think it's likely that the upper end of the cut was in the basal Foreknobs Formation and the lower end was in the upper layers of the Brallier Formation. As such, all of my trace fossils are from the Brallier and almost all of my other fossils are from the Foreknobs. The Brallier Formation is a late Devonian turbidite unit that was deposited in fairly deep water as the Acadian Mountains eroded. It is mostly unfossiliferous, but does have the occasional pelycopod, gastropod, and trace fossil (these being the most common). Ammonoids are also reported from the Brallier. Like I said earlier I originally came trying to find the brittle star trace fossil Pteridichnites but I ended up finding some other very interesting trace fossils. I picked up two of them because I had seen images of similar looking things from the Pennsylvanian of Alabama which I believe @Rockin' Ric labeled as resting traces from horseshoe crabs. These are late Devonian, deep water marine in origin, not terrestrial/freshwater from the Pennsylvanian, so I don't really know what they could be. Perhaps from some other arthropod? Anyways I also found some brittle star traces, including a group of what look to be four or five Pteridichnites biseriatus oriented in life position as if it were an imprint of the brittle star body. Image 1: Pteridichnites biseriatus Image 2: A group of four poorly preserved P. biseriatus Image 3: Unknown arthropod (?) trace fossil Image 4: Unknown arthropod (?) trace fossil If any of you guys know what the last two fossils are, please feel free to let me know.

Thoughts on this beastie. Has a little brother on the bottom too.

Found this today at Purse State Park, MD. Is this an ichthyosaur tooth? A whale tooth? I have nooooooooo idea.