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Here is a brief report from one of our latest forays into Calvert County, MD. The well-known stretch of shoreline along the western Chesapeake Bay is loaded with Miocene fossils, with the Calvert, St. Mary's, and Choptank formations progressively exposed along a ~24 mile stretch of beach and cliffs. We found an Airbnb in Lusby, MD which was not too far from Matoaka Lodges, which seemed the best bet since the nearly 2 mile walk to the beaches at Calvert Cliffs State Park is impractical for our family at this time. Covid-19 and Maryland's onerous private land regulations can make it tough if not impossible to access some of the other municipal beaches along the coast. For example, Brownies Beach, Dares Beach, Cove Point, and Flag Pond are all restricted in some way to town or county residents only. Matoaka Lodges however will grant day-pass access for a small fee, and the beach is from my experience very diverse and productive in its fossils. We spent a total of 5 hours there, employing an 1/8" sieve and also simply walking the surf line. The largest tooth pictured here actually washed up at my feet as I was surreptitiously bending over at the same time. Most of the rest were found with the sieve. Most of these are shark or sting ray teeth and a few turtle shells plus some of the smaller items I could not identify. A local told me that porpoise teeth can be found there also. This lot comprises the smallest fossils found; in addition to these (mostly) teeth and shell fragments were found a large and diverse sample of vertebrate fragments, corals, miscellaneous other fossils (snails, mollusks, etc.) which I will post in the follow-up report to this one. Having spent some time at some of the other sites along Calvert Cliffs this summer, I would say based on the diversity, number of fossils, and time spent collecting, that Matoaka is definitely worth the return trip.

Went to Brownie’s/Bayfront Park for the first time yesterday. Lots of tiny intact teeth. The smallest intact tooth was 0.23”. The largest was 0.67”. I was happy and surprised by the amount of teeth that I found. I gave a few away to curious people that happened by. One couple asked for pointers when I showed up. We talked for a few minutes, I ran one load of material through my sifter, and found a tooth right off. I handed it over to give them an idea of what to look for. I averaged 10+ teeth per hour. My best trip yet. In summary...LOTS of teeth here, a good time, pleasant & curious passers by, and lunatics in the parking lot. Get there early (I did) and with the summer heat...don’t be surprised if people are blowing their gasket in the parking lot. Witnessed one lady that was convinced someone stole her spot jump out of her minivan and proceed to curse at the “offender.” The summer heat, lol.

Hello All I found this a few weeks ago i believe bayfront brownies around the bend by the cliffs. Just thrown it in my box of rocks. I was looking through them and figured I should get the opinions of people that are in the know. I put purse in the tag as that's the only other place I've been. Though I am pretty sure it was found at bayfront. I really need to get two separate boxes. Any comments welcome. I googled around and it looks a bit like a whale ear bone.

Over this past weekend I took a trip to the Calvert cliffs(first time going, didn’t have much luck lol). I found this piece and was gonna see if I could get some help identifying it. I found it at bay front. Not sure if it’s anything but I couldn’t find anything like it to compare it to. Let me know if any other or different pictures would help identify it. Thanks all!

Had a phenomenal trip down at Calvert Cliffs on Wednesday with my three month old daughter strapped to my chest. This trip makes up for my failed attempts in March where the sandbars where at an all time high and made it difficult to find anything. The sandbars pushed up from the storms a few months back even helped me to get to some hard to reach locations. Here's some finds and a scouting report for May of the cliffs. Also recovered a nearly perfect decently sized Ecphora gardenae that is still undergoing some preparation work. I'll take a picture of that and post it later along with some very large clams with Ecphora burrow holes. The blood red Mako as found in the sand. I rarely sift as the waves and storms (from the weekend) are constantly exposing the fossil record. Some of the nicer specimens of the day. Two makos on the left, snaggletooth bottom right and top middle. Cow shark with eight blades top right, and a decent sized tiger shark top middle. Recovered more Chesapecten nefrens that I could carry out. This is just a fragment of the shells recovered and layed out neatly in the trunk of my car. Some of the C. nefrens where about 5-6 inches in diameter and impressive to find intact as there were so many large shell fragments. These should make for some beautiful display pieces and gifts once they are cleaned up. Notice the right fins of the C. nefrens are larger than the left fins. This is a noticeable characteristic of this fossil scallop. Approaching the cliffs. The tides where up much higher this time but the waves where very gentle. This photo was taken around 7:00 am. The vegetation overgrowth should help to keep the cliffs from falling. Another shot of the blood red mako. I'll take a closeup of the other Mako later as it's a green-yellow cream color. Somebody found this stranded snapper turtle and carried him 3 miles back up to a freshwater pond. What a nice guy and what a cool looking turtle. A bunch of teeth, turritella, shark vertebrae, ray plates, makos, sand tiger, tiger, requiem, ecphora gardenae, crab claw tip, Megalodon root, and snaggletooth teeth collected by a local collector and myself combined from this trip and a recent trip. Matoaka cabins beach shore. The winds here were very strong and kicked up a lot of dust with some impressive waves. I had to protect my newborn in my chest as I braved the winds. Image 8: Female blue crab that appears to have deposited her eggs and passed away to be washed up on the shore. This is a good sign that the bay is recovering from over-crabbing. Crabs are vital to the bay's overall health as they are scavengers and eat decaying fish and other decomposing critters on the bottom of the bay. Male blue crab. You can tell it's a male by the "state capitol" on the underside. Perhaps his mate was the female that just layed her eggs.

I don't usually post bone fragments but this one was odd enough that I thought I would ask the experts. This bone was found on the Chesapeake bay on Saturday. It looks like it has a line running down the center, making me wonder if it is some kind of sternum. Any help is welcome. Thanks!

Headed out last Sunday to Bayfront Park. I got down there before the sun even came up and there were still people down there. I don't think its possible to go without running into some one down there. The water was really high and cloudy from all the rain we've had, so pickings were slim. I did manage to find a mako sticking out of some fallen formation out of the cliffs. The tooth is in great shape but the gums are a little beat up. What i really like about this mako is it really shows some wicked feeding damage from where the shark bit its own tooth. I wonder what it could be eating. I hope you enjoy. If you frequent Bayfront park hit me up I'd love to have someone to go with sometimes. Boneheadz