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Showing results for tags 'Virginia'.
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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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- 3
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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!
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Found a bone piece, maybe 2 1/2" at its longest, solid and heavy for its size. The 'bottom' is partly "stippled" (not part of the atlas vertebra, as I learned here recently). Different textures on different sides, the small protuberance is remarkable for the number of holes and channels (for blood vessels? nerve bundles?), at least one passing straight through. @Boesse you seem to be the acknowledged expert here. Do I have enough and are the photos (sorry!) clear enough to guess at an ID?
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Hello all, Yesterday I heard back from James Madison University after applying Early Action back in November. I am delighted to let you all know that I was admitted into the university! I haven't quite made up my mind yet, as I am still waiting to hear back from Virginia Tech, but I will most likely be attending JMU this coming fall semester. I am so excited to carry my journey on the road of paleontology into college with me. I plan on studying geology, likely with a minor in biology. JMU apparently gives their undergraduate students countless internship and research opportunities that many schools reserve for their grad students only. I think I will thoroughly enjoy my time at the college; I've visited several times now and I could go on forever about all the things I love about the place. My mom graduated from JMU and absolutely loved it, and still does today! She was ecstatic when we opened the acceptance letter. My plan at the moment is to attend JMU for four years, and then apply to Virginia Tech for graduate school and work towards a Master's degree and possibly even a PhD. They have an extraordinary vertebrate paleontology research team led by Dr. Sterling Nesbitt, who has discovered and described several prehistoric species including Nundasuchus! I would be honored to work with him and the rest of the team. Through fossil collecting, my fascination with prehistoric life has only grown, and I can't wait to start studying to fulfill my dream of becoming a paleontologist. Ideally, I'd like to do some field work but also would love learning how to prepare and analyze fossils in the lab with the latest technology. I think I'd like to eventually end up as either a staff member at a natural history museum, or a professor of geology at a university. Whatever happens, even if I totally change my mind and decide to pursue and entirely different career, I will use my knowledge and experience that I've gained from this forum and fossil collecting in general to help me reach my goals. Thanks for reading! ~David
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Accidental Fossil Find on Bio Field Trip to Freedom Park in Williamsburg, VA
RiseOfTheExtinct posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
On a class field trip for 3rd Block (3rd Period), we went to Freedom Park to measure slope, air temperature, soil temperature, etc. of the Northern & Southern sides/slopes of hills. In between the hill slants, there was a creek bed. Inside the creek bed, there are fossils that I just had to pick up some. I got this oyster and this other shell. It seems everywhere I go (someplace new in nature, or a field trip) I always find either a fossil shell or seashell or land shell. It's really weird, but cool, because mollusks are my favorite type of fossil. And fossils are my favorite study. I am somewhat surprised, still, when I find the shells and fossils, even though it happens every time. The white one I've never seen before, but it's hard to identify because it's broken. I wish I knew what it was...I've tried to figure it out. Actually....I have a guess. It's some kind of clam. It's a tongue shell! It's gotta be! These fossils I found in that creek. I thought it was an interesting story, so I wanted to share it.
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Hi All, Not a new member, but i just moved from NYC to Richmond, Virginia! Super excited to have space to actually store fossils and learn how to work on them (clean and prep!). Does anyone know any fossil sites in Virginia? Also, just wondering if anyone here is from Richmond or the general VA area and would be interested in going on fossil hunting trips? Thanks in advance! Cheers, H
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After a couple of trips with four or five small teeth and nothing much else, I returned to the beach at low tide after a NW wind storm and found several of these callianassid "burrows". They tend to be cylindrical with a flattened end, solid and heavy for their size, and stay with the last line of shells in the water. heavier I guess. Unlike the shark teeth, which can be almost anywhere on the beach but usually are most obvious in the wash. The burrows (brown, dark gray or black in the water) tend to be darker (mass of coprolites?) on one (bottom?) side. I found the longest (3 1/2") this trip, and although none are "beautiful" the rod-shaped coprolites become more and more obvious as they dry. Need a good north wind on this beach on the south side of the Rapp for these things to show in abundance (teeth often seem to be covered under the same conditions). Tried another beach and my eyes were overwhelmed with small (1-3") rusted pot metal pieces (not many shells) which make it difficult to find anything really interesting; will try again.
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- miocene
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Cliff Falls and Mud Slides With More Rain Coming to VA
SailingAlongToo posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
This past Sunday Mrs.SA2 and I ventured out for what was going to be my last opportunity to fossil hunt in 2018 due to my work schedule. Sunday's weather forecast was for upper 40s F, light rain - mist, 15 mph Nor'east winds gusting to 20 mph, 3 foot waves and water levels along all the rivers running double normal for this time of year due to all the recent rain and snow melt. Obviously, not ideal for fossil hunting along any of eastern VA's swollen rivers but it was the last day I could hunt this year, so we were going to make the best of it. Mrs.SA2 is quite the trooper and always up for an adventure. (I think she was just humoring me since she's off work from Christmas Eve till after NYs and plans on doing lots of fossil hunting with some of our fossil friends.) We hit the beach at high tide and hoped we would get at least some water level drop moving towards low. No such luck, wind picked up and waves started crashing the beach. We spent about 5 hours walking what little beach there was and found plenty of (several hundred) small sharks teeth, but nothing exciting, not even large broken teeth. I did manage to find a worn dolphin periotic, which are always nice to find and we pulled out quite a few Chesapecten nefrens from recent slides/falls, but that was about it. Nothing worth even posting photos of on TFF. Before hitting the beach we had discussed the cliffs being super-saturated from all the rain and recent snow, and the need for us to stay together and to pay particular attention to the cliffs as we moved along. There were even a few places we walked out in the waist deep water instead of under some nasty looking spots. On our way back to the entrance point, we stopped so she could put the teeth she was "hiding" in her mitten, into a plastic bag, as we knew we were approaching one of the spots where we needed to walk in the water. As we did that, 10 feet in front of us the cliff broke free and dropped about 4 dump truck loads of material and 2 very large trees down on the beach. Photo below from the upstream side. Thank goodness we were on the downstream side at the time it fell since you can see the trees covering the beach on the upstream side. Downstream side looked much more dramatic with all the cliff material, but smaller falls were still occurring there, so we went into waist deep water and moved around the danger area fairly quickly yet carefully. Eastern VA has experienced its wettest year on record and it's still going. We are forecast for another 1.25 - 1.75 inches of rain tonight through tomorrow night and 2 more significant rain events before years end. It will all be storm runoff as the ground can't absorb anymore water. There is standing water everywhere. I can only imagine what the Freeze - Thaw Cycle will do to all the cliffs and bluffs this winter given how saturated the sediment and stratigraphy is. This made the 4th cliff fall we have seen since March along various VA rivers.
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Was curious to see what had washed up on the beach. Weather was dominated by east winds and usually north winds bring in the most stuff. From my finds it appears that a lot of sand was deposited covering, sadly, most shark teeth. Did find several shrimp(?) coprolite "burrows" (which I had not seen much until my previous trip?) @Plax @Carl @GeschWhat Found only four shark teeth- - a medium Mako, a rootless Hemipristis, a sand tiger and a broken sand tiger (initially thought it was something more interesting, the break was polished smooth by the sand). Found my second piece of skate plate, with two teeth, but not as pretty as the first), and lots of small "whale bone". Pottery shards as well, but shells for the most part were sand covered with the presumptive teeth. Nice weather before the rains (and south winds which don't deposit much).
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- callianassid
- coprolites
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