Search the Community

My wife and I went up to Bakersfield this past weekend with my parents. My parents were visiting from Florida, and since they are interested in fossils too we all went to Ernst Quarries on Friday, Nov 10. This was my parents' first time digging for ancient shark teeth so they struggled to find teeth at first. My mom is in her late 60's with arthritis and she didn't do any hunting even though we paid for her to go in the premium area. She did some sifting through the tailings, but really spent most of her time socializing with the other diggers, found out about their lives, what they did for work, etc. Then she would come back, tell us some old stories and entertained us while we hunted for teeth. I found some nice teeth, mostly mako's, but also walked around, checked out some other areas. My wife on the other hand picked a spot, and sat there hammering and chiselling away the whole morning, on the same spot. Shortly after noon, we were all hunting for teeth quietly. All of a sudden my wife, calm but in a rapid voice, said "Jesse". There was this restrained excitement in her voice, "check this out" she said. I jumped out from my hole immediately and let out a nervous chuckle. My mom perked up and asked "What is it?" I had not seen it yet but with some resignation I told her, "she found a meg." And indeed she had. My wife, hammering and chiselling away big chunks of layer at a time, had uncovered the tip of a meg. A whole chunk of layer had fallen out, and right there in the center of it was this fat tip, half an inch long, sticking out, serrated on both sides. We were elated. Every since we started digging for shark teeth 2 years ago, we have gone to Bakersfield at least 30 separate times, sometimes digging for 2 and 3 days at a time. We have moved at least 100 tons of dirt with a shovel. When I go digging, all I want is to find a meg. I have found chunks of 3 different megs, a half tooth here, a 1 inch piece there. Earlier this year my wife found a small meg, ~2.5 inches with part of the root missing. But we have never found a big Meg, let alone intact. Now my wife steps away from her spot, hands me a small brush and asks me to uncover it. After the initial shock and excitement of finding that serrated tip sticking out, the real drama begins. Your heart is racing, all kinds of thoughts flash through your mind: Is it whole? Oh please let it be whole, does it have a root? You are so excited, you want to get it out as soon as you can, but you don't want to damage it by accident, so you take all this extra care, which takes more time, and in turn makes you even more anxious and desperate. The people around you, watching you brush it off, are also excited and anxious. Finally, the tooth brakes free! It is whole! I pick it up with my gloved hands and my first thought is how heavy it is. Can't believe I am finally holding one. It looks great, I feel pure happiness. I got a meg everybody! After the initially euphoria, we wrapped the meg in a towel and put it inside a box to take it home. We have been starring at it every night and every morning ever since. I still can't believe we found a meg. My wife thought that once we found a meg, my consuming obsession with fossil shark teeth would subside. But finding this meg has only stoked the fire, now I want to go dig even more and find more meg teeth!