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I know it kinda stinks but this is my collection. This is all i have left from hundreds of fossils because they got lost when i moved

Got tired of being cooped up. I had to get out for a few hours.

I drove down to Mulberry Phosphate Museum to see if it was allowed to sit and hunt. I knew the Museum was closed but the gravel pile was OK and no signs.. also drove to the peace river and threw the rod a couple of times. Wore my mask, only 1 couple there when I arrived and they left and just me. Found shark teeth and some ray teeth. Made sure to wear my mask. This is the finds from today. Everyone Stay safe, I see states beginning to open beaches and other places. Keep digging!

Hello from South Carolina! Originally from Germany, I grew up in Eichstaett, Bavaria, in walking distance of the Jura Museum, a Natural History Museum located in the Willibaldsburg Castle. I remember visiting the museum being fascinated by the original archaeopteryx fossil. The areas surrounding Eichstaett are full of quarries. The limestone is harvested for commercial purposes and used in its original condition or polished as wall covering, floor covering, steps or window benches. As kids, we used to have fun looking for small fossils in polished limestone. I have always been fascinated with paleontology and archaeology. However, my professional career ended up in a different direction and brought me to South Carolina twenty years ago. I love looking for fossils at the beach during vacation and I am so exited that I found this forum when I was looking for an answer to one of my finds!!!

I recently moved to Florida and I am paleontologicaly (I know I didn't spell that right or if it's even a word) frustrated. I bought a special screen rake to hunt for sharks teeth on the beach. Before I had a chance to use it, we went on lockdown. I haven't done much in the way of fossil collecting or prepping the last few years and was looking forward to getting set up in my new garage and going over boxes of new fossils to ID and prepare. The problem is that all my fossils and equipment is in a storage unit just a few miles from the house and my wife won't let me get them. We are on lockdown and the matter how much I beg and plead she will not let me leave the house. So I just thought I'd vent to my fossil buddies on the forum. There, I feel better already. Here's a thought. 20 years from now the country will be run by kids homeschooled by daytime drinkers. Lord help us. Tom

On this my 79th Birthday, I have a desire to reconnect with some fossils that I found while in high school near my home at the time in Ellwood City Pa. Those fossils are long gone donated to schools. I recall finding a number of brachiopods and what I believed to be a shark tooth (never had it formally ided) If anyone has a collection from the Vanport, I would be delighted to see pictures posted and maybe when life resumes trade for some fossils. The Vanport was used in making Portland cement and there were a number of companies. Later in life I tried to collect again but the quarries I knew were filled in. I tried looking on line to see fossils from the Vanport but I did not have any success. Any information anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. Stay safe out there.

I'm new to fossil hunting and already know that I'm way over my head. I find that This hobby unlike the other habits I have had over the years takes far more brain power than I have at this stage of my life. I'm still trying to figure out how you guys can look at a rock and tell if there is a fossil in it or not. I find that I'm more fooled than actually finding something that's worth hauling out of the woods. And let me tell you I have dragged some big bags of rock off those hills I have been hunting for the past few months. I started out just looking for arrow heads along the many creeks that are leaching out of the banks of these Chesapeake Group formation hills but soon became so fascinated by all the broken shells all over the place than I was collecting arrow heads. As I sat there wondering where all these pieces of coral and shell came from it dawned on me that I needed to do some research. Sadly, it seems that the more I find out the less I know. Since then I have done more reading than at anytime of my life. I've read this whole site probably 6 times and every now an again something sticks out and makes sense then I read the next post and it all becomes a big blurred mass of big fancy words that have no meaning. Well at least to this old country boy anyway. I've gone from walking the gentle rolling creek beds looking for arrow heads, to picking up odd looking rocks and giving each one the lick and burn test or smelling each one for signs that it may be the prized poop fossil some folks seem to be so fascinated with. Needless to say I have a pretty good sized rock garden in front of my shop from rocks that for one reason or another didn't pass the poop test. I have collected a lot of bone fragments that I truly believe to be real fossilized pieces of bone and I have several that I'm not sure of. I'm going to post a couple pictures from around the site with a few of the pieces I have dragged out the woods just to see if there is someone out there that could tell me if I am wasting my time and should find something else to do with my life I have left.

Hi Could you please identify these fossils that I found at Beltinge Beach? I think they might be shark teeth, I would really like to know what shark teeth they are. Appreciate the help. Kind regards Lil' Tooth

We got a large donation of STH fossil material from @JBMugu recently. I have been working from home for a week now and this has given me time to break down the large amount of material. There has been lots of sorting, some light cleaning, and quite a bit of time at the microscope as he gave us quite a bit of micro matrix to go through and that can be pretty time consuming. I thought it might be fun to go through the donation and show the progress we have made in sorting through so many fossils. This donation is so large that we got fossils that will not only bolster the displays and give us loads of give away teeth for the kids but we also have some trade material from this as well. We not only got a huge boost to the shark programs but the marine mammal program was boosted and even the dinosaurs got a lift from a bird bone. The first step was going through each item that was already set aside. Easiest part lol Next we sorted through the large bags of shark teeth to separate the complete/mostly complete teeth from the broken ones. Then we sorted through the complete teeth to separate by order and then family/genus. Once we had done all that, the material got a further sorting based on items being used in displays, giveaways, hands on fossils, and potential trade teeth. After we got those basic sorting out of the way, I began sorting through the micros. Hardest part but the most fun for sure. I also sorted out a few teeth for our good friend @Tay Francis and he will be getting some of micro matrix too. We got some incredible teeth. We got a 2" Cosmopolitodus hastalis upper and a huge lower tooh ( a bit of root restoration but really awesome) plus loads of smaller teeth from various positions. We got loads of really pretty planus teeth including a couple of large ones, 1.75" inches. I found a few Isurus desori and they may be my favorites so far. 8 that I can say with some degree of confidence are desori. Gorgeous colors. We got a beautiful lower Hexanchus and found a small partial lower. We got a couple of really nice Hemipristis teeth and found two symphyseal teeth. We got a partial STH Meg and a giant 6" east coast Meg. Plenty of Galeocerdo and Physogaleus teeth. We found quite a few Carcharhinus teeth. I need to take a closer look to get the specific ID's. We also got a very rare and awesome Echinorhinus tooth !! We got excellent batoid material and have found plenty in the micros. The marine mammal teeth are awesome. We got a fantastic Cetacean vert and a small bird bone. Jesse also included some great matrix pieces for us to show the kids too and a beautiful shark vert. The micros have been a really pleasant surprise. I have found about 10 Heterodontus teeth so far which is more than I had thought. The colors on the Squatina teeth are awesome. I love the Tope Shark teeth. We have found a couple of really interesting teeth. We found one that according to Elasmo would seem to fit the Triakis type tooth that can be found in STH micro stuff. We found one that I am 99% sure is a Scyliorhinus tooth. We found one that looks like it might be an Alopias tooth. Not sure on the ID on it but it is an interesting tooth. I have found far fewer Mustelus teeth than I thought but I have found two so we can add that to our display. I think we have found at least one example of all batoids. We even found a tiny shark vert ! We are still processing micros and will not be able to show off the displays until we get more rikers lol We want to thank Jesse for his generosity and continued support of what we do. This improves what can we do and how we do it. It will also allow us to further improve our collection through a trade or two which we really never get to do. Enjoy the pictures