Search the Community

Quick! Tell us your favorite Easter candies! Mine are jelly beans and Peeps marshmallows chicks. Hope you're all enjoying a beautiful spring day. Who else is loving the colorful flowers popping up?

Went on a little "Easter Egg Hunt" with my folks, found some excellent fossils. day was hot but I enjoyed it. I have provided my best ID, but please feel free to correct if you can identify it further! it helps with my labeling system for sure. this lizard was good luck right next to where my mom was standing i noticed this beauty sticking out of the rock further excavation revealed this possible horn coral? eldredgeops rana heads trilobite glabellar fold ( possibly Odontocephalus?) Dipleura rib impression (Very exciting to have found 3 species in one trip!) amonoid Cephalopod Agoniatites vaxunemi (note the preservation of the sutre lines). and here is a conularid i found as well Possible pelecypod? brachiopods and lastly a couple of crinoid buttons dug out of the rock

Well, I wrote a whole long story about my first trip from NJ to MD, and then I hit some key on my keyboard while I was typing and it deleted or overwrote everything. So here is the shortened version. I left NJ at 2AM on 3/30 and made it to the beach parking lot about 5:45AM. I may have left later but my assessment of the tides seemed to indicate that low was around sun-up. I think I got it wrong. Oh well, there was less traffic anyway. I knew nothing about this place except what I could read on the internet and the advice from a few people in here (Thanks you all!!!). I was dressed and on the beach by 6AM, and I was excited! So I spent the 21 hours over the next two days searching high and low on the beach. It was the most frustrating time I can remember (doing anything!!). I guess I was just not prepared for hunting at the beach. I couldn't find anything. Not a single tooth. At least not for a good 3-4 hours. Then, I chatted for a minute with a woman that was collecting near me. She looked like she was finding things in spots I had just walked over. I told her my story and she helped my see a little better. And she showed me how to find baby teeth in the shells. I felt a little better at least having something in my pocket to show for the trip, even if the teeth were around a 1/4" in size. So most of the rest of my 1st day I spent searching the gravel piles for these baby teeth just so I could have something to bring home. I actually did find 2 other damaged teeth that were of a more legitimate size (in my mind ). One was a Snaggletooth and the other I still don't know what it is. But it was heavier and thicker than anything I had found earlier. Maybe you guys can opine. I didn't do much better the next day either but it was a beautiful, pre-Easter day and I was away from home at the beach and I talked with a lot of really nice people that were also out looking for lightly buried treasure. I spent 12 hours that day (6AM-6PM) roaming from one end of the beach to the other. I did actually find a bunch of interesting souvenirs to stuff my pockets with. Nothing fancy, but interesting to me at least. And I even managed to find a handful of bones and ray plates (which I liked!) and a few vert's and some shells and even a handful more baby-sized teeth with a few medium sized ones thrown in as well. The day was winding down for me. I had to make the 4 hour drive home that night and I was tired, so I began to subconsciously head back to the parking lot. I hadn't found a trip maker yet but it was beginning not to matter anymore. I had a fun trip and figured I'd just have to come back and try again someday. But on my way back to the parking lot I actually did find my trip maker. I found a beautiful blue Snaggletooth. I almost stepped on it as I climbed over some washed up debris. When I looked down and picked it up out of the sand, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I think I may have yelped out loud a little bit. And I never figured I'd find a Megoladon tooth, so to me, this was the tooth I had hoped to find. NOW, I felt satisfied. And I actually found a couple more and some other medium sized teeth on the way out. When I got the home and spread them out, I was very surprised by the number of different types of sharks I had found. I have some Hemi's, some Tiger sharks, Some Lemon sharks, Some long teeth like Sand Tigers or maybe even a Mako. I'm sure there must be another type or two in the pile. Maybe you guys can lend some expertise for me. So I felt very satisfied with the trip, even though it was the last hour or so that blew things wide open for me. Please feel free to offer an opinion on any of the things I found. I am only able to guess at some of the teeth. I would guess I found some porpoise ribs and some other bones. And 2-3 types of vert's, not counting the white one that probably isn't a fossil. One other thing that was surprising was the number of different looking Ray plates. Thanks for looking and for the trip tips before I left! Andy

My best hunt to date: After family events, I had some time to go hunting today (easter), the first warm time I’ve had to hunt when I actually knew what I was doing. The tide was not ideal, but not dangerous. As I walked down the beach, many where there Hunting. I correctly assumed that these were mostly normal beach goers, and I was down south alone with few fresh footprints. I walked the whole length, it took about an hour forty to the end and back. As I walked, I found a nice common thresher and I cracked a grin. I found another and that kept the smile. I then found a complete cow shark tooth and was rather chuffed, and then BANG! MEG! My first after half a year of hunting the cliffs. It’s worn and has been stress fractures, most would not hold it in high esteem but being my first I was ecstatic! This meg will always hold a special place in my heart. I said a quick prayer and continued forth not caring if I found anything else, my trip had already been made. Then I found some decent White sharks, which I have for some reason been missing. Some nice hemis hopped into my view as well. Eventually I decided it was time to go back. On the way back I noticed someone had put a block of a hard clay (actually more of a limestone I think) on a small boulder. I took a look and saw there was a chunk of bone in it! This was a little over 1.75 miles from the entrance, so someone must have picked it up, realized it wasn’t worth the trouble and left it. I’m not so easily detered. So I carried this ungainly 20 pound mass ( I’m in the tennis team so you can infer my strength) the almost two miles through the highish tide which concealed under water boulders. Perhaps stupid, but worth it. I felt pride from the strange looks I got from the beach goers, perhaps they thought I had found something important. Any way I’m going to photograph everything tomorrow but here’s what I have now, enjoy.

Easter is almost here. What is a better way to Celebrate a day all about a Giant humanoid Bunny that lays eggs? Well It would be to Tell you all about the Nuralaqus rex, A species of ancient Rabbit related to the European Rabbit, It lived around 4 million years ago in the Pliocene era on the island of Minorca of the coast off Spain. Its ancestors arrived to the island 5 million years ago when it was attached to the mainland but the sea soon separated it leaving the island to the rabbit which evolved larger and slower as this island was devoid of predators. The Rabbit grew to be 23 kg (61 Ib) in weight. Twice as big as the largest breed of rabbit today. They lived mostly on roots and tubers on the island which was a Scrub land habitat. The animal, which lived about three to five million years ago, had several "odd" features that have never before been seen in rabbits, living or extinct, according to the study. For one, the giant rabbit's "short and stiff" vertebral column meant it couldn't bunny hop. And the relatively small sizes of sense-related areas of its skull suggested that the animal had small eyes and stubby ears. Happy Easter! ------------ Links http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110323-giant-rabbit-minorca-biggest-bunny-science-nuralagus-rex-largest/ http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/n/nuralagus.html