Search the Community

I purchased some Ptychodus teeth and I can not determine the exact ID on my own. They are smaller than P. whippeli or P. mortoni teeth I have and bigger than the single P. anonymous tooth I have though that is the species I originally though, and still think these are. They are from the Kamp Ranch section of Eagle Ford in Texas. I consulted a very well put together ID guide here but am still just not sure what I have, other than nice Ptychodus teeth lol Any help would be appreciated.

Hello, found this tooth in the Round Mountain Silt formation in Bakersfield this weekend. The tooth had serrations, but they are worn down. At first I thought the tooth was a small meg, or a large hemi. Upon closer inspection it does not seem to fit either of those species well. The root is not consistent with that of a meg nor a hemi. Now I am thinking it could be some kind of Requiem shark. What do you guys think?

Here are two teeth from a fairly recently (2011) described Scapanorhynchus species from the Upper Cretaceous Santonian in New Mexico. Scapanorhynchus puercoensis has a dentition similar to S. lewisii and was likely very similar. My son and I do classroom science presentations about fossils and our shark program features Scapanorhynchus. He used the lewisii as the basis for his illustration and now we can actually provide teeth that are a closer match to that than S. texanus likely was. This also allows him to draw S. texanus in a more Sand Tiger like form which we both think it was. I put quite a bit of research in our programs and we strive for accuracy so I am really digging these teeth !!!

Last week my wife and I took a trip to North Carolina; first to visit some relatives in Raleigh, but then to head to the coast and check out the beaches and find some sharks teeth, etc. While I had read that the NC beaches were not exactly the area with the highest volume of teeth, we had not been there before and wanted to see the area and I knew that we should at least be able to find some. I had hoped to visit at least one of the quarries near the coast for some older material but had learned from a quarry operator and additional info from @sixgill pete that all the quarries that are often available for fossil hunting were still closed due to flooding from last seasons hurricanes. There have been numerous posts on here about other trips and we have lots of distinguished members from NC and nearby that are way more familiar than I am with the area and its fossil offerings, but I thought I'd give you my impression as a first timer to the area and what to expect. The weather was fine our whole trip, pretty chilly in the morning but pleasant in the afternoon. It is January after all, this is not south Florida, but then we weren't in a deep chill like our more northern friends have been recently. Dress appropriately and it was great walking the beaches. We started in North Topsail Beach and walked the beach from the 210 bridge to the New River inlet in a couple of segments and found this collection of teeth. Sorry about the scale, that was all we had with us. For those that are not familiar with the goldfish cracker, it is about 2.25 cm or just under 1 inch in length. These teeth are just found on the beaches and come from the somewhat local Pliocene and Miocene aged sediments. You can see a couple of nice teeth in the middle and several more well worn or fragmentary pieces. I'm still learning my shark teeth, but the two in the middle appear to be a Sand Tiger and a Snaggletooth (Hemipristis). The big piece is interesting (and was by far the biggest we found on the beaches), I'm not sure if it is a Mako, a Great White (no apparent serrations but it is pretty worn) or even a piece of a Megalodon (its pretty thick and heavy). Next we went a bit south to Topsail Beach and walked a good bit. We found this group of teeth down there (second pic). Another very nice Hemipristis and a variety of other, smaller teeth. On our last walk on North Topsail, a gentleman showed up just after us and found a beautiful 2" tooth just where we entered the beach. We had turned right and he turned left and there it was! Darn, just missed that one!!

the wifey and I did a quick trip today that yielded some nice finds....was a really nice day for the middle of winter...thought id share some pictures from today..:)

We found these teeth in Malta where fossils are quite rare. This is my first find so its quite exiting to know what they are. After some research I have a feeling they are Megalodon but I would like someone to confirm my conclusion. I am able to post some more pics if required. Thanks in advance Jezz

Hey guys! I actually missed a week of uploading, but Cris and I got back at it and went to one of our new creek sites for some more exploration! Unfortunately, we gave it a good go and didn't find anything great. So we literally went after dark to some of our trusty old road sites where fill material is used as road fill. This turned out to be an absolutely amazing decision, and ended up being one of our best hunts on the roads to date! This video is chock-full of weirdness, and great finds! Give it a watch when you get some time

Went out Wednesday, expecting a super low tide. When I arrived I saw exposed sandbars everywhere, but there was also ice everywhere, the beach was frozen out 50 yards, ice covered (spectacular but I have had issues with wet phones, so no photos) and I quickly gave up and headed home. Tried again a few days later after warmth and rain. The tide was very low but everything seemed sand covered. There was a line of shells at the wash and I walked out 20-30 feet where I normally cannot go in my boots and picked up a few medium size chunks of whale bones, but mostly the beach seemed devoid even of much trashy stuff and no teeth. The water was super cold the beach above the tide line was frozen and pickings were scarce for the first hour. Started to leave but as the tide started in I started finding a stray tooth and other stuff here and there. Lots of small "whale bones", some dense and solid as rock, others cancelous bone and three "shrimp coprolite burrows". Found an old piece of deer skull with a hollow portion of antler attached. A porpoise tooth. And a tooth, claw or bone (?) with longitudinal fine enameled stripes, somewhat hollow on the other side. I'm sure more was moved by the storms last week, just need the layer of sand to be washed out.

Hello everyone, I will be visiting the Washington DC area, and want to take a trip to the Potomac to hunt for some shark teeth. Can anyone suggest a good area, and possibly some gear to wear this time of year? I normally wear a wet suit and waterproof boots for this sort of thing and stay relatively warm, so I'm not too worried about the cold. I am looking for a spot with easy access, and preferably not private property, unless someone is willing to let me search on their land. I have never been to the Potomac before, so any suggestions are welcome! Thank you!

I was revisiting some of the shark teeth I've found on previous adventures in order to make a list/catalog of the vertebrate species present in my collection. I found a few teeth which I believe could come from notorhynchus or hexanchus and I wanted to confirm that with members on the forum. I was looking at some of my teeth from the spoil pits of Aurora, NC and the Peace River, FL. 1. Deep rooted specimen with what looks like what would be the first crown preserved. Found in Aurora. About 2 cm from top to bottom, 1 cm wide. 2. Unsure about this one, initially thought it was a tiger shark, but it's rather long at the base and doesn't have the curved root like your average tiger. Found on the Peace River. About 1.4 cm wide and .75 cm from top to bottom. 3. This is the one I'm least confident about, but the root is very wide. 1.4 cm wide and .8 cm from top to bottom.

This was such a fun hunt y'all! Cris and I went to a site we haven't hunted since our second ever fossil hunt together, which was YEARS ago! This was a place where Cris buried me in dugong bones because we found so many! The trip back to this site was quite successful. I found an amazing tooth, Cris steals it and hides it... It was a great time! Check our the video if you are interested and have some time

The plane tickets are purchased and the sifter and 'Florida Snow Shovel' have already arrived in Cape Coral! My in-laws have a place in Cape Coral and the wife and I visit them every year in early March. Last year we went to Venice Beach and I totally got hooked on fossils and sharks teeth. Living in the Pennsylvania, I don't get down to Florida often, but I have been able to make it to Calvert Cliffs twice this winter. While I did find some very small teeth the last time (my first time) at Venice Beach, just south of the pier I am hoping to find some better spots. I am not looking for anyone to reveal any personal sites or honey holes, but I hope some forum member can chime in and and let me know some decent places to look. I know we will for sure be making a family trip to Venice Beach for a day, but I also hope to be able to steal a day on my own for fossil exploration. Any information or tips would be much appreciated. I will get a permit prior to the trip, and the in-laws gracefully took down a sifter and scoop for me when they left a few weeks ago. There is nothing like examining your finds while sipping some Wicked Dolphin Rum and sitting on the canal!

Hello from Chico California. My son and I are starting an education non-profit that combines fossils, original artwork, and fun science presentations. I originally started this after a back injury forced me to retire from outdoor science education and habitat restoration. I got a job in a museum with a small fossil collection and I got hooked. I say we do not collect fossils, they are educational material to us, but I have really gotten into the fossils far more than I expected. Our first program is about sharks as we did have a small collection of shark teeth which we are expanding. I am really getting in to the marine mammal fossils. It is such a remarkable evolution and there is so much work to do in classification and identification that it adds that extra bit of fun from a discovery aspect. Anyway, this site is a fantastic resource and I look forward to learning more while hopfefully making a few friends here !!

In the small country of Belgium there is a city called Ostend, which lies near the North Sea and thus has a harbour. To boost economy and oversea trade they build great stone walls so bigger ships can easily make their turn to get into the port. This walls are made of limestone rocks. Since I go looking for shark teeth a lot on the beach I wondered if there were any fossils to find there. And yess, I was lucky I never expected to find fossils from probably Carbon era in the rock walls of our harbour 1) Caninia cornucopiae, a solitary coral 2) leptaeana sp. 3) bryozoa, fenestella sp. 4) brachiopod, spirifer sp. 5) trilobite piece 6) brachiopods (Thanks to my good friend Anthonie Hellemond for determination and dating the rocks probably from Carbon era. I just knew they were fossils, I only recognised the trilobite and the spirifer ) and the last two pictures are sharkteeth I found on the beach.

First time on the forum. Went to Bakersfield with my family and my sister’s family for 2 days. Found a bunch of shark teeth including a Benedini.

Happy New Year, everyone! I was able to sneak in one more hunt before my winter break ended. I kicked off 2019 with another trip to my favorite winter location, Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. The tides and weather looked favorable, not too cold and relatively low tide very early in the morning. I came more equipped than ever, complete with my new hunting gear that I got for Christmas, including a pair of chest waders (finally!), a sling pack, and a hat from the Calvert Marine Museum with an awesome Hemipristis design. I was one of the first to arrive, and quickly made use of the waders by rounding the cove that can be virtually impossible to pass without them. My waders feature a large mesh zipper pocket on the chest, and that proved to be remarkably useful. No more carrying around tupperware to hold my finds! I stepped foot on the beach about ten minutes before sunrise, and I was blessed with a gorgeous display of colors as the sun shone through the clouds. A few fellow hunters passed me, but I kept my head down and walked slowly, carefully examining every inch of the beach. I was finding a good deal of smalltooth sand tigers with awesome cusplets, but nothing too big for the first hour or so. Even though the majority of teeth found here are small, you can get some pretty stunning colors, not to mention the mind-blowing quality of preservation of some of the teeth. Even after millions of years, the teeth are still sharp enough to cut you fairly easily. That's something that never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, I soon stumbled across a larger tooth laying right out in the open, high up the beach in the dryer sand. It was a very pretty Isurus desori, a mako shark tooth! I happily dropped it into the pouch and kept moving. I continued to find small and medium sized teeth for the majority of the morning. At one point, I picked up a complete dolphin epiphysis, or "cookie" as many collectors call them. I had found a few fragments of them at this location before, but this was my first one to be fully intact. I found it increasingly difficult to navigate the beach as the tide came in, as there were many fresh tree falls and cliff slides due to the recent weather conditions. I decided to call it a day at around noon, so in total I hunted for about 5 hours. My haul consisted of a plethora of sand tigers, many tigers and requiems, a handful of small hemis, a few makos and hammerheads, one broken cow shark tooth, a few odontocete teeth, ray plates, the cookie, and a nice gastropod shell. A pretty typical Brownies haul. I ran into a few other collectors, none who seemed to have found anything incredible, but I always love talking fossils with fellow enthusiasts! I was even able to identify another hunter's find for her, which I always thoroughly enjoy as well. Overall, I had a very nice first trip of the new year and couldn't think of a better way to wrap up my winter break before heading back to school. Thanks for reading my report, and please check out the Hop 5, posted below. I'm starting something new with my trip reports in 2019! I HOPPE you'll enjoy! Sorry, I just can't help myself when it comes to puns. Hoppe hunting! ~David

I have always looked for shark teeth on folly and Morris island in Charleston SC and I've had very good luck on Morris but I have not found a whole meg yet just broken pieces. I want to expand my sites and start looking in creeks and rivers but I do not know where to start researching good sites. Everytime I Google a spot though I do not get much information. Any advice on places to start?

Hi All! I am an avid shark tooth hunter and live on Hilton Head Island. I found a really nice tooth during my daily walk this afternoon, and I would love some help identifying it!! It's approx. 2 inches with beautiful coloring... Is it a great white? They are common to the Port Royal Sound area, where I found it... Thanks in advance!!!

Went to look for shark teeth the other day on the potomac, md side. Found small teeth, and also a rock that looks interesting. Has some crystal or something on it. Any one have any ideas?

I have found three of these teeth and am wondering what type they are. I am thinking Hammerhead but with serrations it would have to be greater hammerhead. These teeth come from Galveston Island and I believe theme to be Pleistocene. We find several types of Carcharhinus species of teeth on the beach along with lemon, tiger, sand tiger and have seen a couple of great whites that another hunter has found. These teeth are much more robust than the Carcharhinus teeth and the nutrient grove is deep and long. Any help is appreciated.

Yesterday (January 2nd) was only my second trip to Calvert Cliffs. I'm pretty new to fossil collecting, but thanks to the wonderful advice and reading the greatly informative posts from members such as @Darktooth @FossilsAnonymous @WhodamanHD @racerzeke @KimTexan and @paxhunter I had a lot of success and it was a much more productive trip than my first. Below is a brief summary and some pictures of what I found: I woke up, put on a few layers clothing, and had my coffee at 3:45am. After my morning pipe (tobacco...I actually make briar tobacco pipes as a hobby) I got in my pre-loaded truck and headed south at 4:45am. I made good time on the drive down as I hit 695 and got around Baltimore before the morning rush. At 7:10am I arrived at Brownies Beach and pulled in to a parking lot with only two other cars in it. After putting on my full waders, I grabbed my sifter and headed towards the beach. I planned this trip so that I could arrive midweek and get there early enough to catch some of the low tide (tides times were not friendly this week, but I start teaching classes next week so it was this week or wait until spring). Sunrise was at 7:24, but there was more than enough light to see...and what a sight it was. When I entered the beach area the tide was way, way out. I couldn't believe how far out it was, as it was past two small sandbars (if I get my GoPro video edited I will post it). Once I was on the beach I headed south towards the cliffs. I hurried through the beach area because I wanted to be by the cliffs with the tide so low. I know I missed teeth along the beach, but I wanted to get to the cliffs with the tide being so far out where I could hopefully find some larger teeth than what are common at the beach area. As I neared the end of the beach I ran into one woman who was there just to relax and walk on the beach. We said good morning and I knew who one of the two cars in the parking lot belonged to. Once I went around the point and turned my eyes close to shell line and started looking. Because of all the wonderful advice from this forum I had a much better idea of what I was looking for and how to best look. After a few minutes I had some ray plates, very small teeth, and my first ever vert. It wasn't even 7:30 and I knew it was going to be a good day. As I made my way down the shore line that I figured had been pretty well picked over from people being off over the holidays, I remembered a forum member saying 'you need to look in the places that others don't'. I approached a fallen tree that I remembered from my first trip a few weeks ago, and with the tide being so low almost the entire tree was exposed so I got down on my hands and knees and started looking at some of the gaps between the tree and sand...then it happened. You know when you day dream and picture yourself finding a great tooth or fossil? Well that's what happened as my eyes saw a pristine Mako just laying there (pictures below). I know its not a huge tooth or a meg, but to me being new to the hobby this was completely awesome and a trip maker. I think I still have a smile on my face from finding it. As I continued down the beach I collected many more teeth from various sharks. I couldn't believe it when I found an awesome cow shark tooth (my second trip maker) laying out in the open about 8 feet up the beach. Beside it was another good tooth as well that went in my pouch. Around 10:30 I ran into a very friendly gentleman and we chatted a bit. We talked about the weather and the cliffs, what he had found (a few hemis), and he told me a story of a fall he had witnessed a few years ago that was too close for comfort. A chunk of clay the size of a car fell and nearly crushed him, but luckily he heard some soil falling and he ran straight out into the bay right before the cliff fell. Although the clay chunk did't hit him, the water threw him up into the air when the clay hit. His friend who was a down the cliffs said he heard it and it sounded like a car crash....I didn't get this gentleman's name but I feel like I read his cliff fall story on here, so if you know who it may have been please let me know. I continued south until the tide started coming in pretty far and I thought it best to head back towards the beach since I didn't know how far it would come in or how high the water would get. I continued my search along the way back and made it to my truck around 2pm. I took a short break, ditched my sifter, texted my wife, checked email, watched a truck with two high school kids pull in to smoke a pipe (although this one wasn't filled with tobacco), and headed back out for one more quick trip down and back as the tide started to go back out. It wasn't until about 3:30pm when two more local fossil collectors came up behind me and we said hello and chatted. All in all, I only ran into 3 other collectors during the day so there was not a lot of competition (although I do like the interesting conversation). After finding a few more teeth and interesting fossils dusk approached and I headed back to my truck. After putting my gear away and changing into some dry clothes I started my trek north after a fantastic start to 2019. Below are some pictures of my finds from the day. I know what many of the teeth and other fossils are, but if you can ID something that a newbie like me probably wouldn't know then please do so as it will help me get better with this hobby. Thanks!

As the year comes to a close i decided to do a bit more collecting at one of my favourite Australian sites: Beaumaris near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Once again i travelled down and stayed at a motel near the beach for three days (27/12/18 through to 29/12/18). This trip is a sequel to the previous two trips i have made here which are also posted on the forum: Jan 2016 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/61248-fossil-hunting-holiday-in-victoria-australia-dec-2015-jan-2016/ Feb 2017 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/71996-fossil-hunting-holiday-at-beaumaris-australia-feb-2017/ Beaumaris is a significant site with both marine and terrestrial fossils from the latest Miocene aged Beaumaris Sandstone Formation (5 - 6 million years old), which crops out in distinctly red-coloured coastal cliffs and also in offshore rocky reefs. An impressive diversity of both vertebrate and invertebrate fauna occurs here, and the Melbourne Museum has put together a neat PDF of the fossil diversity for those unfamiliar with the site (https://www.bcs.asn.au/fossils_of_beaumaris_2015-02.pdf). My plan was to collect every single low tide across these three days, and sleep during every high tide. Yes, this meant going out collecting in the middle of the night too! My main interest was to collect shark teeth, however they can be tough to find here and are certainly not as common as at many other sites internationally that the people on this forum would be more familiar with. This often seems to be the case with Australian vertebrate fossils. It does however make it quite rewarding when you do eventually find them! The first day of searching (27/12/18) proved to be rather disappointing. I finally got to try snorkelling for fossils, which is a popular method here for finding things exposed along the seabed, but alas after about 3 hours in the water i had not found any bones or teeth. I was unable to locate the nodule bed where most of the vertebrate fossils originate from, which i think played a part in my lack of success. The seabed was also quite sanded over and it was hard to see much. I was definitely out of my element here, but it was also a lot of fun to get close to some of the local marine life, including stingrays! I decided to return to land collecting after not doing very well in the water and when i did so my luck changed greatly. The next two days and nights of land collecting (28/12/18 and 29/12/18) proved to be much more successful and i even got to meet two TFF members on the beach (coincidentally)! @Echinoid and @Tympanic bulla were also out looking, and we had a nice chat before they headed off to continue snorkelling. I then spent most of my remaining time on the beach flipping rocks and examining the pebbles up close, ultimately finishing the trip with a total of five shark teeth which i was very happy with! Carcharodon hastalis tooth as found. 24mm long. Large Carcharodon hastalis upper anterior tooth, as found at 2 am (with a head-torch) on 29/12/18. Measures 56 mm long. I had long been waiting for a tooth of this size! Carcharodon hastalis posterior tooth as found. 15 mm long. Another Carcharodon hastalis posterior as found. 13 mm long. And a small fragment of cetacean bone. Worn pieces like this are the most common vertebrate fossils at Beaumaris. Pictures continued in the next post

I am offering up some Lee Creek micro matrix up for trade. I looking to trade mainly for other micro matrix, nothing that can only be sorted with a microscope please. I will entertain other offers as well. Adam

Hey all, it looks like even with the heavy rain I will still be able to make a break out at low tide, I figure it should be safe enough if it’s low tide because I can stay closer to the waves and away from the cliff. Just wanted to have an epic hunt at the end of 2018. I will probably do a Matoaka-Brownies combo hunt and try to get out there by 11 when the rain has died down a bit. not really expecting to find anything big. Still, it never hurts! Any of you heading out? Cheers, FA

Hello fellow fossil hunters and merry Xmas! I am a fossil hunter in northeast Florida and here am town until Thursday this week and would love to do some hunting and meet some hunters in the area. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have heard that the construction sites in the Venice and Parrish area have been quite rewarding. And any time you all are in the jacksonville area please feel free to hit me up for some hunting on my turf! I found this meg 2 weeks ago (my first meg!!!)