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I had a good weekend on the river this past Saturday and Sunday. I did some fishing and scouting for new dig spots. I have yet to find my own place where 1. no one else knows/digs that I am networked with 2. that produces decent quality and OK quantity. Saturday evening that was checked off from my fossil hunting bucket list, though. I plugged down the river in my lil 14' jon boat, saw some shells atop a bank that looked familiar to the fossil pecten in edgecomb county and made a quick dash to the shore! I had quite the struggle among the brush and trees between myself and these barely visible shells - but I made it, grabbed a very nice C. madisonius with some little barnacles atop of it. As I'm climbing down I spot something embedded in the rock/hardened clay and got so excited I literally laughed out loud. MEGLADON TOOTH! -This I was not expecting, but welcomed! I pried it out, really neat color and sadly chipped away about a third - but still in good condition and a promising sign as I looked around and also found two beautiful little great whites almost pearly white! Such unique colored teeth for this part of eastern NC as normally my finds, like GMR, are darker grays and blacks and then you have the aurora teeth and hour east that these appeared more like in color but still different. I would love to know the minerals responsible for this coloration here. Anyhow, I returned with my Good digging partner, Rick, Sunday and we found a few more things that were alright. More to explore - more to come I'm sure!

Spent most of the day Saturday in the water at Green Mill Run. There were soo many small teeth to be had under .25". Some super nice smalls. Found some meg chunks. The highlight for my daughter was finding the 1.5" great white. Exhausting, but good day!

Just a couple more.

Good evening all. We headed out for Greenville, NC to hunt Green Mill Run this morning. Headed out from NJ (across river from Philadelphia). We stopped off at Conowingo Dam in northern MD to take a few photo. My daughter with her driving permit in hand did a great job driving through Baltimore and D.C. (Proud dad moment!). We bypassed the hotel and jumped right into the creek just before 7pm knowing we were only going to get about an hour to scope out the area. I had only been in the creek once before about two years ago with George Powell. It was a short but awesome day in the water. However this was my daughters first time. Some of you might recall we tried this trip together a couple years ago when we were rained out and I blew the engine in my Explorer while here in Greenville. So far things are going infinitely better! Will post an update after a full day out tomorrow. Native American pottery

Found this big chunk of what I think is petrified wood in North Carolina blue ridge mountains. If it is petrified wood is there any way to identify the genus or species I was thinking about trying to enter it in the fossil of the month topic since I actually found it less than a month ago. Thoughts on what it is?

At the recommendation of a fellow member I'm reposting two of the teeth I found a few weeks ago at Oak Island, NC to help get some more feedback on what they might be. I've added a couple more shots, one of the underside as well. Both have serrated cutting edges, and I had previously thought that the bottom tooth was just a straighter more symmetric looking Bull/Dusky/silky tooth vs. a tiny looking meg tooth. Top one I have no idea, but was given some good possibility of an extinct white shark predecessor. Any input is greatly appreciated!!!! Original pic is at the bottom.

Just got back from a week with the family at Oak Island, NC and wanted to post some of the teeth I found. I was hoping to get some IDs from the resident experts! I'm fairly certain of the sand tiger, tiger, and some of the bull shark/dusky shark? teeth. Any labels would be greatly appreciated!!!!

I found this in a gravel bed at Greens Mill Run (GMR) Yesterday afternoon. I am thinking it's Bison, but would like confirmation and also assistance with which species and possible age. It's fossilized (tinks like a rock when tapped on a metal shovel) so I want to assume it's not modern but I suppose I cannot rule out the possibility of it being colonial? the range/mix of material at GMR might make this difficult - as I found it with shark teeth and whale bone much like everything else - even horse teeth.

Found in raw Micro-matrix from the piles at the Aurora Fossil Museum in 2014. I can't seem to find anything like it for comparison and identification. The grid is quarter inch squares... Help would be greatly appreciated! -Bill

I am clueless as to what this is? It is 2 5/8 inches in length and 2 1/2 inches wide. On the side showing where rounded, you can see what appears to be scaley skin pattern. On the reverse not pictured, I can see what appears to be bone fissures. I am thinking maybe 1/2 back spike of dinosaur, petrified turtle head, shark tooth? I found it in Fayetteville, NC in new construction zone where they have a giant sand dirt pile from digging 2 retention ponds. I also found two arrow heads here. Maybe, human bone? Here is the reverse side of the piece I found above. I couldn't get both photos on same post due to MB limit.

Took a trip last Friday to a quarry that has exposures of the Eocene Castle Hayne Formation and the Cretaceous PeeDee Formation. First let me say it was hot!!! Did I say it was hot? During the day many of us spent extra time in the cars/trucks with the a/c running and drinking extra fluids. The forecast temps were for the high 80's and low 90's, but down in the bowl of the quarry with no wind I believe it was in the high 90's low 100's. However the finds were very good. Almost everyone found at least one Hardouinia kellumi echinoid, several nice enchodus teeth were also found. I saw several crab carapaces along with abundant H. mortonis and Echinolampas appendiculatta echinoids. A massive C. auriculatus was found that in my opinion if the tip was there (feeding damage) would have been close to 4 3/8 inches. Lots of smaller Eocene teeth were found along with some Squalicorax. A multitude of brachiopods were found also, a few different species too. As far as myself I found plenty of brachiopods, Plictoria wilmingtonensis and 2 other species I am working on I.D.ing. Plenty of H. mortonis and E. appendiculatta. I also found one H. kellumi and a very uncommon high domed H. mortonis emmonsi echinoid. Also a beautiful, but small enchodus ferox tooth; a nice small Eocarpilius carolinensis crab carapace and a very nice Entemnotrochus nixus gastropod (slit shell). A few decent teeth and a smattering of other items. H. mortonis on a natural pedestal H. kellumi H. mortonis emmonsi in this last pic the emmonsi is on the left to show the difference in the dome Eocarpilius carolinensis Enchodus ferox tooth Entemnotrochus nixus gastropod and the best of the many H. mortonis

Sunday, 12/18/2016, will be a day documented with great detail in my personal memory bank. As you read this, keep in mind, I am one of those people who remain in constant awe of the world around me; curiously exploring every little detail, often finding excitement in the things most would consider average or common. Every Trip I’ve made to Greens Mill Run these past three years has been one of such joy, excitement and inspiration – regardless of what treasures (and junk) I had found or imagined to find. 12/18/16 9:15 AM – I arrive to my usual parking spot, which I frequent most weekends and week day evenings through the spring summer months that the sun lasts long enough to get a few screens in after getting off work at 5pm. I am seriously addicted and will never be ashamed to admit it! ( of course, I miss the occasional weekend to go on fossil trips with groups in other places OR because of lil pesky hurricanes, like Matthew, flooding me out). Rain, cold, heat nor physical discomfort can keep me from going at least one day out of a weekend to get my dig on, and most of all – to find my peace of mind within the tiny spot of nature found near the heart of a small city. I meet up with my favorite digging friend, Rick – who was in shock of the damage the city did along GMR to clear out the fallen trees within the creek. They had been clearing a wide road to fit a back hoe an extensive distance deep into the woods, just beside the stream, to remove the multitude of fallen trees left behind by Matthew. While they may have destroyed the beauty and protection of the banks – I do owe them some thanks for breaking up a couple banks in the process, releasing treasures! We poked around and walked up stream slowly, heading towards I place we both wanted to hit up, a spot I didn’t have time to get into last weekend. I knew there were still things to be found - I had spent about 20 hours total there two weekends ago and still kept finding stuff. Within the week days since the weekend prior, they removed the fallen tree I wanted to dig by, pulling it up out of the stream. As I walked up, looking over the damaged bank and released potential, I look to my right (at 10:00 am) and cannot post here the exact words that came out of my mouth – but I will elude to it .. “Holy…” and Rick, right behind me, immediately sees what I’m looking at, exclaiming “I .... hate you” jokingly. I wouldn’t have believed it and neither would he had one of us came upon this discovery alone. Laying there in the clear water, glistening in the sun as it rested on hardened clay, was my very first complete, serrated and large Megladon tooth. She is a true beauty. We snapped photos in the water, where she lay, and then in hand – texting them to a couple people, bragging etc – it being quite "the find". It only took about 3 years of consistent trips to finally find my very own GMR meg in remarkable condition of such size!! I kept digging. I found an AMAZING great white two hours later and a few smaller GW, Mako, Crow, tiger etc that are common for GMR (but still exciting to me each and every time I see one in my screen!). Leaving around 2 pm, the love story of Mr. Ash and his first remarkable Meg followed. We went home, I had a shower and my Meg had a bubble bath (I’m mildly OCD and have to disinfect everything I bring home). Then, we went out for dinner, my Meg and I (oh and the GF) to celebrate! I wanted steak – we went to Ribeyes (AMAZING STEAK FYI). I got us a salad, but Meg said she doesn’t eat rabbit food and would wait for the main course. Meg was a bit testy with the cook when they informed her that they do not serve Whale, but we settled on a nice medium ribeye. Julie, my lovely lady with such kind heart-ed tolerance for my fossil obsession, drove us into the sunset, my meg and I – hand in..tooth…holding it..erm – to get a milk shake from Arbys. We ordered some chocolate shake goodness and we headed home! True love. (my GF getting slightly jealous at this point as I never share my shakes with her) And finally, after such a long exciting day – we got tucked in for a good night’s rest before meeting all of my coworkers the following morning. Any fossil lover can relate to the pure excitement and euphoria of their first meg find. I hope you can appreciate the visual representation of what loving a Meg, found after searching for so long, would be like J

So I didn't know where to post this, but figured fossil hunting trips would be a good spot since the kids were doing an indoor fossil hunt! Today I did my annual class for the Western Interior Paleontological Society (WIPS) Kids Club. It is always a hit, but due to scheduling I was unable to make the February class and did this one in May. May tends to be a smaller group because of the nice weather and vacations, but we still had a great time! The adults even wanted to get in on this activity and I was more than happy to help! The worst thing that happened was I forgot to take lots of pictures! I took (2) 5 gallon buckets of matrix, one bucket from Peace River, FL and the second bucket from Aurora, NC. I talked to the kids about how fossils in different locations can be similar (ie. shark teeth!) and we explained the importance of labeling your finds! Each person was given (1) 5-ounce cup of matrix from Peace River, and (1) 5-ounce cup of matrix from Aurora. We set up microscopes and laptops an allowed the kids to photograph their 5 favourite finds. We set out books, posters, and print outs to help with the identification part. They then loaded these photos on to a USB and have some very nice detailed photos to take home with all of their finds. That's right, I let them keep EVERYTHING! One kid found a cookie cutter tooth, full root and all! I don't even have one in my collection yet! Aside from keeping everything they found I made sure to send each kid home with a small 125mL bag of each matrix, and 5 various fossils from my Peace River hunting trips ((3) 25mm+ shark teeth, a dugong rib, and a turtle piece.) I shared with them my preferred methods of hunting and encouraged them to try their own! All in all it was a great day with lots of very nice finds! Thanks again to @Sacha for sending me Peace River matrix for my classes!

I will be out at GMR in Greenville NC. Anyone interested is welcome to come along. I will have a small group with me.

Looking through some material from Kinston NC collected at the base of the Donohoe Formation. Looking for help on the items I haven't had much identifying. #8 I'm thinking are various corolite?

Hi all, Found this tooth in Eastern NC. I haven't explored this particular site much yet but so far it has produced Miocene-Pleistocene. I can't seem to find a good match for this one. I'm thinking camelid or cervid but I haven't found anything quite like this tooth in NC. Scale is in inches and the crown measures 1.36" in length. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Could someone assist in determining if these two items are an Enchodus or Xiphactinus? I found the larger one this past Saturday and the smaller one a few weeks ago, same general area at GreensMill Run in Greenville NC. Found these among whale bone, great white, tiger and crow shark teeth and a couple sharks of likely mastadon tooth - obviously a nice mix from a huge time span. I assumed enchodus until a friend mentioned the Xiphactinus, which I didn't even know was an option yet, so I would also appreciate detail on how I can discern between the two in the future - characteristics etc. 1. 2. and I also have several of these, ranging in size/condition some with enamel etc - this one as I'm taking photos I realized the tooth part of it might not actually be what I was thinking for this one, but the rest have the more rounded tooth, anyhow, are these jaw pieces with broken teeth like those above to be identified?

All ideas and SWAGS welcomed! Found in the surf at North Topsail beach in North Carolina. Aprox 70 mm, 2.75 inches. Appears to have some feeding evidence (cuts in bone). Partial whale vert?