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Hi All, It's been a while since I have posted, let alone gone collecting but I just had a really good trip down to the Matoaka Beach Cabins in St. Leonard, MD. Here you can pay $5 ($10 on weekends) to access their beach which gives you about 1/3 of a mile to explore. I went down on Tuesday the 14th since I had some time off from work. It coincided with an extremely slack tide which directly led to many of my best finds. No shark teeth unfortunately, except for two pieces that were just roots with the toothy part broken off. I did however clean up on Ecphora sp. and Cetacean bones as well as a couple of mollusks that are hard to collect. A view of the beach with a fall from last year. It's about 1/2 the size it was last year and will likely be even further reduced by this time next year. Such is the life cycle of the cliffs. A view of the cliffs straight on. I'm not positive but I believe the shell bed exposed is the Shattuck zone 18, Drumcliff member of the Choptank Fm. Above that is zone 17 which is the St. Leonard Member. Both are Miocene in age. I'm still digging into the ID of what I found so please correct me as needed. A specimen of Dosinia sp. with some of the original shell coloring preserved. I'm not yet sure who this is, but they are hard to collect intact as the matrix is very crumbly and so are the shells. I suspect this is from the St. Leonard Member of the Choptank F,. This is a small razor clam and is another tough one to collect because the shell is very thin so it doesn't erode out intact. Typically it just falls apart. Ecphora sp. in the water that you could see thanks to the slack tide. I found a bunch of these in different sizes and surprisingly intact. I found 3 Cetacean vertebrae in the shallows of the low tide with the largest one about 4" across (6" of you include the "wings") Oh yeah, then there was this odd limb bone, but I posted more pics of that over in Fossil ID. I also managed to get over to the Potomac and walk along the banks at Purse Creek Park. Nothing spectacular, but it was still fun. Maybe if the weather cooperates I can get another trip in before it gets too cold. Thanks for viewing! Dave

Hi All, Been a while since I've been out collecting but I just got back from a trip to Matoaka Beach Cabins along the Chesapeake Bay. I found an interesting section of limb bone in the surf and would like your opinion as to if it belonged to a land or sea mammal. Found in the surf piles near the cliffs at Matoaka Cottages, St. Leonard, MD. Most likely from Shattuck Zone 17 (St. Leonard Member) or Shattuck Zone 18 (Drumcliff Member) of the Choptank Fm., Miocene, Neozoic. If you need larger versions of any of the pics, let me know. Thanks! Dave