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Showing results for tags 'Virginia'.
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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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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
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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
- shrimp coprolite burrows
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Went into the woods and hunted the creek some, major rain shuffled stuff up. Found a whole scallop, the two shells together for a million years but fell down with my bucket, broke the pectan apart, broke one, and also two partially broken ecphora are now wholely broken (fortunately I'm not broken). May have lost a few teeth as well. Found at least one broken cowshark (possibly three?), and several angel shark teeth, a few drum (probably more when the other stuff in the bucket dries) and mostly tiny teeth. The most interesting find was a black vertabra with weird paired processes on each side. Lots of water in the creek, but a nice day for hunting!
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- cowshark
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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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- cliff fall
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Went out after the snow here, not expecting much. Found a dozen or so small teeth (one small mako?), a flat (porpoise?) partially hollow tooth, some coral on a scallop, skate teeth and a nice piece of stinger, and-- finally-- a bunch of shrimp coprolite burrows (had not seen any in a longtime, but the storm deposited several; posted photo on that thread). Bunch of "whale' bone" chunks. A fun day.
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This is a fossil of unknown origin, it was allegedly found burried in sand near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia; or possibly on the banks of the James River. The previous owner believed it to be an intervertebral disc of some kind of whale. It is clearly fossilized and has some areas encrusted with a sand like mineral. It also has a few spots where a shiny black mineral has been deposited. Can anyone provide an identification and possible an estimated age?
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I often find small rocks(?) like this (sorry forgot the scale penny, but about 1 cm X 1 cm X 0.5 cm), which look like a jumble of distinct rod-like structures stuck together in a matrix. Since they are common was curious what they might be, whether precipitated mineral or something once alive? Thanks in advance.
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Does anyone know of any fossil spots in or around Chatham VA? Also can anyone tell me if the solite quarry is open to fossil collectors? Thanks
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Tried a different beach on the Rapp. Not many shell fragments, lots of gravel and small rusted metal pieces. Found three tiger shark teeth, but no others (odd, don't usually find those). Looking for an ID on the 3" bone in the photos below. When in doubt I guess turtle, but my nephew who was really into fossil hunting 30 years ago, guesses dolphin neck or tail?
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After an extremely successful and enjoyable first trip to the Miocene of Virginia, my dad and I decided to give it another go when we saw that another guided trip was being held in late October. Our first trip resulted in my two biggest teeth ever, massive mako and huge hastalis. This time around, there weren't as many people on the trip, which is typically a good sign because it means less competition. The conditions, however, were brutal. It was very cold, and on top of that there were extremely fast gusting winds that made the river look more like an angry sea. Luckily, the tide was remarkably low while we were there, so there was a TON of ground to cover. I ventured south in search of some large shark teeth, and was successful to an extent. I talked with a woman who showed me a decent meg she had just found, but that was just about the best find I saw all day. Although I didn't come away with anything spectacular this time, I still got a respectable haul consisting of lots of hemis, some decent makos, a couple massive Chesapectan, and more of the typical Miocene finds. A big thank you to @SailingAlongToo again, for his instrumental role in organizing and supervising the trip. Already can't wait to head out again. I know there's a meg out there somewhere with my name on it. I'll find it one of these days. Thanks for reading! ~David
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- guided trip
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Howling wind and deep ice cold water, but figured the creek bed would protect me from the wind (it did) and cold (not so much). Less hunters out. Don't usually post casts/steinkerns but this gastropod(?) has two small fossilized worm like things on it (probably need to get a better photo than the scan). All the rain has washed shells everywhere (lots of 5" to 7" scallops/ pectans everywhere; didn't see any whole ecphora, the only shells I usually pick up. Frilly oysters were everywhere as well; top half is neat). Most of the teeth I found was small or broken or both; three cow shark, one decent with root. Four(?) angelshark and several others, lots of spikes most missing their cusps, small triangular most with faint serrations, and a bunch of glossy drum teeth (photo is of the other side). Broken verts. When other stuff dries, may find something else interesting.
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- angelshark
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Had a southwest wind and a slight blowout tide (wind southwest). Found lots (30+) of small teeth in the 'wash' but nothing else but small whale bone pieces and some pottery shards (lots of rusted metal and glass as well along with glass and wood and leaves). Water was really cold. One decent (1 1/2") mako; although numbers were unusually good for the beach, nothing all that interesting or spectacular.
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- miocene
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Pickings were slim on the beach. I did find my first ever skate plate, or fragment thereof (the non-tooth side is more interesting, hopefully will inspect possible plates more carefully now). Found a black mammal tooth fragment (guessing cow, but maybe too little left to ID. One whorl remaining on occlusive surface side, but did not scan well. ) There is a small bone piece (definitely not shell) with a reddish overlapping thin scale? have no idea really; I always default to turtle. A few ugly sand tiger spikes (not shown)
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- broken cow tooth
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This was found at a Miocene fossil site along the Potomac River in Virginia. Its appearance and shape leads me to believe that it is a fish tail, and the concave section with rings similar to that of fish and shark vertebrae would support this. It has a rather smooth texture and unusual light brown color. It is nearly 2 and a half inches from tip to tip and one inch wide. I am hoping for confirmation that it is in fact a fossilized fish tail bone. Furthermore, I'd love to know the species or genus of fish that it comes from if that is possible to determine from just this fossil. Thank you!
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Stuff from the beach, could be any age. The tooth could even be human? (maybe two watermen had a gentlemanly disagreement?) The tooth has no root and is roughly cuboidal. (penny diameter is 0.75 inches= 19 mm). The pyramidal "bone" has an 'enamel' surface on two sides, bone-looking third, and the most interesting side has a hole with three holes/channels in this hole (wouldn't photograph well with scanner). Initially thought the small piece with enameled holes was shell but doesn't look or feel right (maybe coral, anemone, sponge-- have no real idea). Any help with these three would be appreciated.
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Made a final trip into the woods prior to opening of deer season here. Don't think they'll bother me if I avoid disturbing their game a few days before hunts. We had a lot of rain and shells and bits were everywhere in the creek. Surprising that I didn't spot much in the creek bed, but screening yielded the usual small stuff I find (eight angel shark teeth and a bunch of drum teeth-- tried to stand then flip over--, pieces unfortunately of two cow shark teeth, lots of sand tiger shark spikes, tiny teeth). Nothing big. Picked up an almost intact ecphora, bigger busted ones washed out everywhere along with with scallops (Chesapectins) and frilly oysters. I don't usually mess with shells. Beach has been horrible lately (wrong wind), but may be my only hunting for the next week. Maybe time to go fishing!
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- angel shark
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Hello all! I’m new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself. I’m a retiree living in Central Virginia, and I’ve had an interest in fossils since I was a youngster. I have no formal education on the subject, but I enjoy reading the posts about what others have found! Thanks for accepting me into the group.
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Finally got out to the creek in the woods. Warm and cloudy, but not many bugs (or frogs). Looked like lots of people had been hunting, but the main creek body was less silted than previously, shells everywhere (in addition to giant tree oysters, scallops, frilly oysters, there were some extra elongated "clams"? ) I had to shovel out lots of broken shells in my spots, and the teeth, as always, were small. Still it was good to get some angel shark teeth and drum teeth again (rare on the beach) and there were a fair amount of tiny teeth. Found one smallish mako/ great white (1" but in perfect shape). Odd in that many teeth were reddish/ pinkish; often I see the tips but not so many teeth that color (guess good for jewelry?) After three hours of digging and sifting, I decided it was time to go, but decided to try a favorite old spot where I have found several cow shark teeth, and voila! first shovelful yielded a beautiful (a bit small) intact cowshrk tooth with root. Good time to stop (probably sore tomorrow). Good relaxing trip!
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Among other stuff (not many shark teeth) found a few puzzling pieces. Picked up what I though was a piece of turtle shell, but now think it might be a broken geode with black crystals? The second could also be a rock, it is solid too, but has roughly parallel columns, a few trucated, a few lost. Any ideas? (sorry for the scanner photos, not as flat as small teeth)
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We had such a good time fossil hunting for the first time a few days ago, that it has become all our kids want to do. Took the kids to a site along the James River today. We found some cool stuff and were wondering if y’all could help ID some of them. Thanks in advance. I think this one is a bone fragment, but it’s pretty small, and I’m not sure if it’s even identifiable.
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Went out to a spot on the Nansemond River in Suffolk, VA, and it started to rain right after. We arrived, so we had to leave. Some iron concretions and this little thing were all I found. It looks like a clam, but it feels rougher than the other clams I’ve found so far. It was inside of a larger rock. I believe the area is mid-late Pleistocene. It’s about 2 cm wide.
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We found this piece of shell on our trip along the James River in Virginia, and were wondering what the circular patterns on the top were.
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Here’s another one from the York Tiver today, if anyone can help ID. thanks!
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Another from our hunt along the James River in Virginia. Is this coral?
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