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Showing results for tags 'Virginia'.
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Okay, I concede early on that this may be abiotic, but I just have this gut feeling that it's not an accidental pattern. I found this on the banks of the Potomac River in Virginia. The geology there is mostly early to mid-Miocene clays with a Pleistocene terrestrial bog iron layer on top of 40 to 80 ft cliffs overlooking the river. All fossil-bearing. This looks like clay, but I'm not positive that it is from the Miocene layers. There is a row of tiny lumps all about the same ship and almost in a contiguous line. One is just a little offset.
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Hello all. Looking for some help/advice. Heading to Williamsburg, VA this weekend and am looking to do a quick morning of fossil hunting for shark teeth, maybe 3-4 hour time window. Does anyone know any general spots that are accessible to public. Was gonna do York river state park but they only allow you to keep one fossil. Chippokes is close but it looks like it takes a while to get across it around the James. Was hoping to find somewhere right near Williamsburg or on way back towards SW Va. Any help is much appreciated.
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Out of action for a bit, but figured a good time to post what I have been collecting since coming back from Singapore summer of 2018. Starting with sandtiger shark teeth, since they are the most common here. Really like the little hook cusps which I seldom see on both sides on the biggest teeth. Cusps are most prominent (but often nubs) on the lateral(?) medium sized wider, root teeth. Symphyseal teeth are not that rare (wish they were cowshark!); often I think one is a split tooth until I examine it carefully; the roots are distinctive. The small teeth may include a few that are not sandtiger, but I'm thinking since they are most common, many of the non-descript small teeth probably are sandtiger. Scale shown for all the teeth in first photo is in cm.
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From the album: Calvert Cliffs
Baleen Whale Phalanx Bone Parvorder Mysticeti Miocene Virginia -
From the album: Calvert Cliffs
Scapula found on the beach at cliff base. I can't find anything in the fossil field guides, but a comparison of scapula bones from extant animals shows a close match between this and a turtle's scapula. Miocene Calvert Group Virginia -
From the album: Virginia Miocene
Ecphora sp. Miocene Choptank Formation Virginia -
Don't know what they are (tried to get scans of both sides). One looks like a tiny mako/great white, no serrations, but is probably something else? One is cracked. Several 'leaning' ones are missing much of their roots
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Hello all, So i've recently come into the possession of this chunk of bone, and based on the size, porosity, and locality (York River State Park) I believe it's a whale bone (Miocene-Pleistocene in age, likely a mysticete). My question is, which bone exactly is it? It seems to have some fairly distinctive features that seem to lend towards identification, but after around two days of research i'm stumped. I'm thinking it could be anything but some vertebral element, but i'm not sure. Any help is greatly appreciated.
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I found this a few days ago along the Virginia side of the Potomac River along a miocene cliff. It's mostly if not all Choptank formation. Any ideas about a genus? Grid is in inches. Looks like maybe mature dolphin tailbone, but it's so small???
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I found this scapula this weekend along the Potomac River in Virginia. It's a vertebrate. That's all I know for sure. Most of the cliff next to the beach where I found it is miocene marine, but the very top is pleistocene terrestrial. The grid is in inches.
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Spent a cold, soggy day on a private trip along the Potomac yesterday. The mud was so saturated that we were sinking up to our knees where the sand met the mud at the base of the cliffs. It was totally worth it! Came home with treasures untold until I finish unpacking. I know there are some really nice whale vertebrae in there, including the one below. There are also a couple nice Ephora snails and what looks like maybe an echinoid -- really rare for the area if it is! My daughter found a couple snaggletooth shark teeth that are actually iridescent and blew me away! Here's a video report of the trip: Sorry I can't say specifically where this is. They are having problems with uninvited guests already.
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Tried to get out before the ice storm in search of cowshark teeth (found none and hunted hard). Lots of small sand tiger teeth, including a crooked one and a symphyseal, and lots of split teeth. Lots of drum teeth, (the dull side is more interesting than the glossy side). Four angel teeth that stand up on their triangular base, two whose root is damaged. Two or three mako (broken). Lots of small triangular teeth (dusky, bull, gray? not sure what all they are). Lots of batoid/ skate teeth, but no stingers or denticles. One whole vert and a small disc echinoid. Lots ofsmall 'whale bone' and bits to go through. Not what I was after, but quantity if not quality was good.
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- angel
- drum teeth
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While collecting at a location in SE Virginia which produces a mixture of material from the Eocene Nanjemoy Formation and late Miocene/early Pliocene Yorktown Formation, I was shocked to find what I believe to be a cretaceous Globidens sp. anterior tooth fragment. My only explanation for this would be that it must have been redeposited into the Eocene beds and finally exposed with rest of the material. The texture is classic Globidens. The only other species with a slightly similar texture found within these formations (though still markedly different), would be Squalodon sp., however if the tooth were more complete it would clearly prove to be hollow with a conical interior consistent with squamates like mosasaurs. The fragment is approximately 7/8" x 1/2". This is the first bit of possibly cretaceous material I have found from these exposures, so it would be quite interesting if the general consensus is a Globidens sp. Your thoughts would be much appreciated! Thanks, Ash
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Headed to the beach hoping the weatherman was right and could get to the edge of the shells piled at the shoreline just out of reach. The wind was predicted from the SW, but was calm then switched to the NE, and the tide stopped falling. The temperature stayed about 5 degrees lower than predicted as well. Couldn't get to the line of shells where I expected the bigger teeth should be, but with the wind causing a slow wash, teeth started appearing and I got a good variety, colorful and in good shape, though no big ones (and no cowshark, think I lost one in the wash). Will post the whale vertebra tomorrow after it dries. Weather is supposed to be warm tomorrow, may try another beach.
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- cetacean vert
- coral
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Has been about 38 F (~4 C) or less since Sat morning and I was getting cabin fever. The tides are running high for the beaches, east wind blowing in the water. So I decided to go to the creek in pouring cold rain (45F, 7C); the creek was icy cold. Was probably stupid, it was difficult to work some new spots in water high over my ankles and both waterproof shoes eventually filled with water. Both quality and quantity of teeth were low. However I was lucky and found TWO nice cow shark teeth (without roots), a small mako (no serrations) along with the usual sand shark spikes and some small gray shark teeth. No angel shark and few drum teeth? Hopefully will turn up when the water quiets down.
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Even though the tide sucks and it was difficult to get up early with dark cloudy skies, it is WARM (though the water lags behind), so I had to get out. The tide lines of shells had been spread out more evenly on the beach and I hoped to find stuff there. But first I walked the incoming tide with surprisingly little to show for it (three sand shark, one decent tiger shark and three shrimp coprolite burrows (still drying). Lots of small "whale bone" pieces. Also a flat piece with scales(?) almost painted with enamel, that is flaking off?? (I default always to turtle.) Walking the beaches I was disappointed; possibly the lack of sunshine and the black bits of leaves and wood just overwhelmed my teeth spotting abilities (i'm half blind). I decided to root around where I had found my half of a megalodon a few days ago, wishful thinking, and while no meg I found a nice 2" mako lying out in the open . Don't think it was there a few days ago. Hunted the rough stuff high on the beach hard but nothing else interesting. But the nice weather and mako and shrimp coprolites turned it into a decent two hour trip trip.
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Have been trying to find shrimp coprolites at several beach sites. After a few good outings, have been coming up empty. Was looking forward to getting to a beach after our latest (unexpected) snow with a week of warm weather ahead. Of course the low tide is small this week and both am and pm are in the dark. And the wind which was predicted to be from the west (blow-out tide) was from the east (our low tide this morning was actually higher than high last week's full moon). So arrived early, tide coming in fast but no breeze and no "wash" along the beach. I found a mako and the partial winged fish(?) vert immediately but fairly soon could not reach the shell edge in my boots. Several walks up and down the beach water line yielded a few small teeth. There was a huge amount of stuff-- leaves, small black pieces of wood, lots of mostly oyster shells; visual overload!-- in tide lines deposited along the beach. I gave up on the wash and wandered around picking up some small pieces of whale bone, and discarding lots of rusted metal, and rock-like chunks with scallop impressions. I noticed something leaning against a bush far up on the beach (actually guessing skate plate) and found my 'best' megalodon tooth this year, split in two and tipped but about 3" (I had heard there were no megs on this beach from several friends, but I've found several pieces; maybe they meant no "whole megs". The oyster tongers and scallop dredgers get them, possibly that's why my tooth was broken cleanly in two.) Serrations are there but a bit worn. Not much, but still fun. The two makos are pretty but small, the others are small and worn. Given conditions I was very happy with the hunt, better than my last few outings.
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- mako/great white
- miocene
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Found in my driveway in Annandale, VA. It actually looks a little like wood but is hard like rock. I'm not getting excited but a rockhound friend suggested i run it by you-all. Let me know your thoughts.
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Brand new to fossils here, and hope I’m following the rules of this forum. I recently collected some rocks from the creek behind my house in for my fish tank. I noticed that one of them has fossilized remains (I’m not sure I’m using the correct terminology here). More specifically, this was collected at (38.8069171, -77.1493230) on the surface of the creek bed in Alexandria, VA. The surrounding rocks were of all colors, shapes, and sizes. I’ve taken a picture and used my unsightly finger for scale. Could anyone inform me of what I’m seeing? I tried some google searches but was admittedly unsure how to search for this. Thank you!
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Hoping to get out before the weather turned colder, headed to the freshwater creek; the water was still high and extremely cold. I was surprised when I reached "my" cowhark teeth spot to discover that someone have shoveled deep into the creek bank leaving a gaping hole; not sure if they hauled the sand, dirt and gravel away or if they just dumped in in the creek to separate stuff in the abundant flowing water. I scratched around anyway and found stuff (like always) but no cowshark and no big teeth, only a few angel shark teeth and drum teeth. There were lots of small broken ecphora laying around in the creekbed; found one nicer one though missing it's tail-tip. A few small coral clumps, an interesting oblong vert, and tiny teeth, many with cusps. I became tired of sifting with no striking rewards, so I picked up some shells which I usually avoid (they often don't survive the trip home); will post on the ID section since I'm curious what they are. Guess I''l have to find some new spots.
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One of the problems with beach hunting in Virginia is that the colonial period in the 1600s and 1700s had more people and more traffic than today, and there are lots of "modern" bones and teeth mixed in with the other stuff. I found something which I originally thought was a tooth (there was light black enamel stippled all over it). It is not heavy or thick like most fossil bones I find. It has a very distinctive face/head (about an inch across) with shallow "crosses" on each side and a deeper cleft in the middle. One part of the cleft is a circular hole that leads into a channel that may have supported blood vessel/ nerve bundles? So many people here deal with bone I am hoping someone will recognize it. Thanks.
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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.
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- bone claw?
- miocene
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I've had this hanging around the house for a while, and thought I'd see if there's some suggestions for getting the limestone/ coral and barnacle growth off this rather large Ecphora (about 5 inches). Read about water with vinegar or bleach, but that sounds way too harsh. Thanks.
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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!
