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Here are a pair of head-scratchers that I found i at LC. The first is from the Pungo River Fm I thought was a bivalve steinkern, but it is not carbonate, which one would expect in the lime layers of the formation (that, or phosphate, and itisnt phosphate). There is still some matrix on it. So that leaves me with maybe some portion of the bulla/ear region of a marine mammal, but that's purely a guess. The second is from the Pliocene Yorktown Fm, and the material appears to be the same as that of cetacean tympanic bulla. But it doesn't look like one, or like anything Ive seen from a cetacean. Any ideas? thanks
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My first post and first experience hunting for shark teeth
blackbeard posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
My family and I took a road trip all the way from canada to try and find some shark teeth and whatever other adventures we could find. Before we hit the beach we headed to the smithsionian in washington d.c . What an amazing experience we had and could literally spends days to fully appreciate everything they had to offer. Next stop was bayfront park maryland. The weather was cold and windy and the water was ice cold, but that didn't stop us! After a few tries with the sifter we found our very first tooth, a feeling I will never forget thats for sure. After searching for 2 hours and finding many small teeth we decided to head out to our next destination Aurora. The town is small and the few people we did meet were very kind. My two kids really liked digging here as it's nice and safe with a guaranteed chance of finding teeth. I highly recommend aurora for family's and newbies looking to find teeth. The museum is really cool with awsome fossils and some good stuff to buy. Our next location bought us to the famous GMR in Greenville . Everyone I talked to said it's flooded don't waste your time but being stubborn I went anyways. Lol I was able to find a small location that allowed me to get down and do some sifting. I found some really nice teeth but the GW I really wanted didn't happen for me this trip. There was lots of broken glass and garbage in the spot I was so be careful . We hooked up with george powell jr while we were in greenville and like many people have said he truly is one of the nicest people I have ever met. He took hours showing me and my family his collection and it's just leaves you in aww. ThanKS George! I'm really thinking of getting my diving certificate for future trips! The rest of the trip is none fossil related so I will spare you all that lol but we had a blast and found the fossil community to be very warm and welcoming. Cheers
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Hey everyone, I found this tooth in the spoil piles at the Aurora fossil museum in NC a few years ago. It's been sitting on my desk for a while and I haven't gotten around to getting it ID'd on the forum, but there's no time like the present. I have no idea what it could be from, maybe a pathological Carcharhinus or Physogaleus? The root is about 2.5 cm wide and the overall length (measured by the blade angle) is about 2 cm.
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I found this hollow mako shark tooth on the piles in North Carolina, I was told that the tooth hadn’t fully formed when the shark lost it but I want a few more opinions on it. Size referencefront
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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!!
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One of my nice Lee creek mako teeth were sitting in one of my pockets with a few Hershey's chocolates with paper wrappers (don't ask why I was pretty hungry). after I ate them all, I looked at my tooth, and to my dismay saw that what looked like the ink from the wrappers had rubbed onto the root. Aside from the weird story, I have tried using a toothbrush with soap and water, to no avail. What would be the best way to get rid of the stain? I have attached before and after pics below. I know there are a few lighting differences, so I also put it aside one of my other lee creek makos that used to be a similar color as a reference to the darkness of the stain. Thanks.
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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.
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Hey everybody, prepare for a series of ID requests as I've had a number of fossils from my collection piling up on my desk waiting to be posted. Here's what I believe is an odontocete tooth from the spoil pits across the street from the aurora fossil museum. It appears to be pretty worn and only has a small patch of enamel left on the end. The piece is about 4 cm long from tip to tip.
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So I had bought from a certain online auction site some Lee Creek mine microfossil matrix a while back... I finally got around to looking over a little bit of it this evening. Attached are what I have found so far without any magnification.
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Hey everyone! About 2 weeks ago, the VERY generous @AshHendrick gave a portion of his Aurora pile, straight from the mine! I put it around a wood frame in my yard, and have hunted it for hours almost every day. This will be an ongoing thread, I will prob not update every day, but at least weekly. This is the pile. It's bigger than it looks in this pic (about 5.5 x 5.5 feet [a little less than 2 meters i think]) What I do is I sift into the bucket, so I don't go through it twice. I dump it somewhere else. Day 1 Coral Fish vert I think this is coprolite, but I'm not sure Turtle shell Cool rock with turritella another turritella Big steinkern Sorry about the blurry pic, the only one I took of the ray teeth The shark teeth Find of the day shark tooth in matrix the shells. Appreciate ID's That's day 1. more coming
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About an inch tall. Has a star shape on the top and is fossilized. Know what it is?
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Found a lot of new fossils this past weekend. I typically collect shark teeth but I am trying to learn about other fossils a little bit now. I’ll post 3 pictures of different pieces because that is the max allowed to post. I’ll also try and post more pics in the comments if I can. Where are my smart people at?!
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I dug in the Pits of Pungo out front of the Aurora Fossil Museum for a few hours. Heres the haul. The shark teeth Phosphate nodules Coral Sea life burrows. Posterior lemons and coppers These teeth are sooo small I don't even know why I picked them up Bryazoa...? My favorites Some of those famous Aurora makos ( isurus oxyrinchus I think) What I think are posterior isurus oxyrinchus's though the one in the middle one looks like it has a burlette? meg? I would appreciate any feedback on these Two nice Hemipritis Double cusped carcharhinus taurus? Alligator claw core? Bird? Sea urchin spines ray teeth Fish/shark verts and partials. I would appreciate if someone s=told me the difference two of them stuck together Bone frags whale verts and frags Shells Can someone help ID them? I can't seem to find any papers or websites I also spent all my birthday money on their little gift shop. Heres what I got from there. I would be happy for any IDs for them. (I like things labeled) Dont know where from St. Claire. PA fern. What is the age and formation of this locale? Morrocan trilobite pyrite amethyst this is definitely my longest post even though its just pictures mostly
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As part of our recent tour through the Carolinas, Tammy and I stopped for a bit at the Aurora Fossil Museum (Aurora, NC) to walk through the museum itself as well as to have fun playing in the "sandbox" across the street. The local phosphate mine dumps fine gravel from the mining process in a big pile (two, actually) across from the museum so visitors can hunt for fossils in the fossil-rich gravel without having to deal with the liability issues of coming to the open-pit phosphate mine itself. I'm not quite sure if the fossiliferous gravel represents the Pungo River Marl (Lower Miocene), the Yorktown (Early Pliocene), or a mixture of these and other formations at the mine so the stratigraphy is muddled and likely impossible to determine from this off-site location. We were in luck in that the gravel piles were "turned" that morning exposing fresh material at the surface. It had also rained persistently for several days so the piles were a bit of a sticky mess. I think this made it all the more fun for the young fossil hunters we met on the piles. I was only interested in collecting some of the finer material to look through back home for micro-fossils and so we made use of our sifting screens to remove the larger shark teeth helping the kids to increase their finds. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/87495-epic-carolinas-roadtrip/&do=findComment&comment=950166 I've been busy since returning from this trip but I did manage to wash the sticky silt from the Lee Creek micro-matrix we collected from the piles and dry and store it for later perusal. I had to try a sample of this to gauge the fossil density and get an idea of what was hiding in there as this was a novel micro-matrix source for me (though it has been offered several times on this forum). I've been quite impressed with the density and diversity of mostly tiny shark teeth and other items I'm used to seeing in marine-based micro-matrix. There are some novel species that I'm not used to seeing in micro-matrix from South Florida. In particular, these nice little shark teeth with the cool side cusps were a welcome surprise. They are roughly 3 mm across the root and about 4 mm high. As these popped out of the first small sample that I picked through, I'm guessing these are quite common and well known by the folks familiar with this material. I'm hoping @powelli1 or @sixgill pete or @Al Dente might be able to provide an ID from the image below. Even more interesting that the shark teeth was what appears to be a claw core that also appeared in this small sampling of the micro-matrix. I don't know my claw cores very well--unless it is an enormous ground sloth core from Florida (still high in my Florida fossil bucket list). I don't even know enough to know if this would be from a bird, reptile, or mammal but I'm sure this forum will come to my aid and offer some clues to what I've found. In particular, @Auspex should be able to quickly made an avian/non-avian determination. As a size reference, this item is about 8.5 mm in overall length and around 4 mm at its widest width. Looking forward to another bit of forum-based education tailored to the items that have recently encountered. Cheers. -Ken
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I ordered some fossil matrix from the Aurora Museum shop in North Carolina. The kids had an absolute blast going through it! We found a very worn vertebra that I was hoping someone might be able to identify. There was also another bone that looks awfully distinctive, but I have no idea what it is. Thanks in advance!
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I was going through some Aurora Creek matrix, and I found that this tooth was a bit more unusual than the rest. Its root is a bit wider and its blade is shorter than the other teeth I have found. I'm thinking it could either be an angel shark tooth or a hammerhead shark tooth.
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Hoping i found something other than just vertebra while there lol. Thanks again.
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MHello everyone. The 25th annual Aurora Fossil Festival is in the books, and a great time was had by all. Besides being able to see some old friends and acquaintances from the forum ( @MikeR @Plax @SailingAlongToo @Boesse @Al Dente @Jniederkorn @Daleksec along with the young man @powelli1 and I'm sure I've missed a few) I also was privileged to finally meet our own @FossilDAWG. Lots of great fossils on display. The three Don's (Plax, myself and FossilDawg) Some shots of mine and plax's displays.
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Aurora Fossil Festival this weekend. We (actually I) want to see some pictures people!!!
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Looking to explore an area outside of our "home base" this Sunday. Plan to head out Sat evening and venture to the Calvert Cliffs area, OR Aurora, NC for an early Sunday hunt. Any tenured hunters of shark teeth have a recommendation on which direction may be best? Pros/cons of each locale? Would love to meet up with an expert/local in either area. Not to discover your honey hole or special spots, but to learn the lay of the land and laws to make sure we stay in the right, and some general knowledge tips on hunting in either place. Thanks!!
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From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Astarte concentrica Bivalve Probably James City Formation; found Aurora, North Carolina, USA Lower Pleistocene (2.588 ± 0.005 and 0.781 ± 0.005 million years ago) Astartidae is a family of bivalves related in the order Carditoida. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Bivalvia Order: Carditoida Family: Astartidae Genus: Astarte Species: concentrica -
From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Astarte concentrica Bivalve Probably James City Formation; found Aurora, North Carolina, USA Lower Pleistocene (2.588 ± 0.005 and 0.781 ± 0.005 million years ago) Astartidae is a family of bivalves related in the order Carditoida. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Bivalvia Order: Carditoida Family: Astartidae Genus: Astarte Species: concentrica -
From the album: MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Astarte concentrica Bivalve Probably James City Formation; found Aurora, North Carolina, USA Lower Pleistocene (2.588 ± 0.005 and 0.781 ± 0.005 million years ago) Astartidae is a family of bivalves related in the order Carditoida. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Mollusca Class: Bivalvia Order: Carditoida Family: Astartidae Genus: Astarte Species: concentrica -
Found this in the Pungo River Fm of Lee Creek (Miocene). I'm pretty sure it's a Carcharhinid, and more than likely a lower tooth, but that's all I got. Half-inch in length, smooth cusp (even under micro), strong foramen, curved root base. Maybe there is a slight notch in the blade (left side, labial view), but I can't be sure that's not a nick. My first thought was Lemon Shark, but the tooth is too triangular, and the base of the root has a very definitive curve. Then I thought hammerhead of some sort. Photos in order: Lingual, Labial, side Ideas?
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