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Hi. I am new to the Fossil Forum. I am an educator and mother of four. My children range in age from 1st grade to a graduating senior. I graduated from CofC many years ago as an education major. While there, I took a geology class and loved it. My professor took us fossil hunting in Mt Pleasant around the perimeter of a newly dug retention pond. I still have all of the teeth and vertebra that I found. I even found some ray bite plates. After that, I went on a few digs at Giant Cement in Harleyville. There I found some good teeth and even some petrified wood. As a teacher, I was lucky enough to have the daughter of one of the Giant Cement executives in my class. He was able to arrange us a class field trip dig there, too. So much fun! The kids loved it. It has been at least 12 years since I have been digging more than searching the surf at the beach. However, I have four very inquisitive and adventurous children. My oldest is going to go to CSU in the fall and major in Wildlife Biology. With all that said, my "little people" are very interested in looking for some shark teeth and other simple fossil finds. I am not sure if the cement companies still offer their quarries up to visitors. I am looking for some places with reasonably easy access to go searching with my children. I have been reading up on the "no tools" rule in Summerville. We live near Summerville...so, good to know. We would like to find some good size teeth without doing any damage to the environment. Thank you for having us here.

Thought id share my wifes and my weekend....what started a couple months ago as a way to exercise has turned into a fun pass time and obsession,haha Saturday was cold only reaching 34 degrees yet the wifey hung in there with me and she actually found the biggest tooth of the day and we went back today and she found the smallest as well,lol we found some nice finds this weekend and again forum members were here for some quick id help which we thank and has over the past couple months with forum member help has really helped us learn so much in a short period of time and we just wanted again to give out a quick thank you and share this past weekend,,the last pic shows we were not alone..haha

Hi everyone! I'm fairly new to Beaufort, SC. Recently moved up from FL where I hunted Peace River a lot. I'm hoping to connect with other fossil hunters in the area and maybe gain some local knowledge. I've watched a ton of videos of nice megalodon teeth being found in Summerville/Charleston area land sites, creeks, ditches. What I'm looking for is the possibility of similar sites here in Beaufort County but I don't know enough about local formations to draw any conclusions. I'm not a diver yet so my main focus is on land at the moment. I've hunted the sands at Port Royal with minimal success (the occasional small meg) but I'm really looking for the bigger stuff. I also have a kayak if that helps! Any info is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I live in Rhode Island where there aren't that many fossil sites. does anyone know of any fossil beds in or close to Rhode Island?

So I am from South Jersey and live very close to Rowan university's recently acquired fossil pit (the inversand marl pit). I know from personal experience that there are fossils in the area, as a kid I used to find tons of what I am fairly sure are Belemnites in the creek behind my development and surrounding wooded area. I am curious how I should go about looking for more in the surrounding area, there is a fairly large area of woods with the creek behind my parents place. There is also a local nature trail nearby. I would like to know what to look for and what I can expect in this kind of area. I am also interested in exposing and preparing fossils in my spare time but am having a hard time finding any for sale and don't know if my area will lend its self to finding any interesting fossils requiring exposing/prepping. If you know of anyplace selling them or any local areas that aren't too terribly far that I could go looking I would appreciate the information.

hi, i am considering a kayak for multi-purpose use. mainly i plan to use to explore and hunt a few nj streams for fossils, but i'll also use it for fishing bays and maybe ocean. i'd also like to take it to maryland/va. and in the longer term to south carolina for the same purpose. i wanted to hear pros/cons of sit-on vs sit-in kayaks from fellow board members who have experience with their own kayaks before i make a decision. i'm looking to buy used and have the patience to wait for a good fit. thanks!!

Hello again! Surprsingly, there's a part 2 to our fossil hunting! This is just as much a surprises for us than for you. Yesterday we went to visit some beaches recommended by the reception. The first one we went to was Benagil. This beach is famous for its huge cliffs, and especially for a special cave only accessible by boat. Unfortunately there was no boat to take us, so we just rested on the beach. That's when I noticed that the cliffs were exactly like those that we saw at Oura (see previous post on the Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua), so I started to look for fossils. And of course, there were plenty! Unfortunately I still didn't have a hammer, as I didn't know we would go fossil hunting again, but I found another way to carve out the fossils from the cliffs. I took a piece of a big (modern) Pectens (scallop), which was shaped like a knife, and scratched around the fossils I saw to carve them out. I was surprised by the softness of the matrix around them: it easily went away with the "knife". As you can see in this picture, there were some recent landslides that occurred. No wonder there's a "Warning: Rock Falling!" sign!

Hello dear fossil-hunters! So here is the report that a few of you have been waiting for: my trip to the Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua! So after a nice breakfast in the sun, we took the car from Vale do Lobo to Albufeira, another coastal city in the Algarve of Portugal. After just a bit of searching, we found a good parking spot for our car. We walked down towards the beach, Praia de Oura, and were amazed by the magnificent view.

Hi everyone! I am currently enjoying some very pleasant holidays in the Vale do Lobo, near Faro in Portugal. My family and I were wondering what some good fossil locations nearby were; Filipe ( @Vieira ), has recommended the beach between Albufeira and Lagos, called the "Formação dos Olhos de Ãgua". Unfortunately he has never gone there before, and therefore did not know everything about the location. What he knew about the location was this: the finds are from the Miocene period and include: shark teeth, marine mammal bones and sea urchins. So does anyone know more information about the site, like what spots are the best, what are the better techniques (e.g.: sieving, looking near the water or more in the dunes/cliffs, etc) and also what you found. So if any of you have ever gone there, please give me any info/tips you have. And pictures would be great too! Also, if you know any other cool locations nearby, please tell me! Best regards and nice holidays to all of you, Max

I was wondering I have went in the creeks of Gainesville and I've taken a trip to the Peace River. Is there anything in between them. I have been to rock springs but there isn't much there to find and they won't let you dig. I just want to find a place I can go and I don't have to drive over an hour to get to. Please anything helps. Thank you

Good Morning! Newbie here, I am bringing my 4 and 5 year old grand sons down to Florida over Christmas break. I would like to take them to the Peace River for fossil hunting. Is there any kind of guided tour that could help. I have never been and honestly have no clue where to start.If anyone could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance! Darlene

Finally made it up to GMR last week. Was greeted by this as soon as I entered the stream/ditch. Once I got around this mess it was not too bad. Hunted pretty hard with not much to show for it. For me my favorite finds were the crow shark teeth, nice tiger shark and a dolphin tooth.

Hello fossil-hunters, My family and I might soon go to Mexico on a trip. We are probably going to stay in Puerto Aventuras, Quintana Roo (Yucatan peninsula). Do any of you know some good nearby fossil sites where we could hunt? Thanks in advance, Max

Toby (my 10yo son) and I at the site for a group #BlackFriday #Fossil hunt #optoutside #outddoorresearch, Nov 25, 2016 There's a particular creek/ditch site my son and I like to frequent. It's not the easiest site and not always as productive as we'd like, but it's a good site nonetheless. I've been studying the stratigraphy to better Vertebra understand what could be there as I get to know the species of the fossils we find. We have found a number of things from micro shark teeth like tigers, to bigger items like rib bones and other bone frags, various Partial whale/dolphin skull vertebrae from sharks and fish, marine mammal teeth and bones, and more. I've even consulted one of the paleontologists at the College of Charleston, where I'm studying to become a geologist. It appears to be Chandler Bridge and I'm looking into what is underneath it (what we walk on in the creek). It's super hard and I was told by more seasoned hunters yesterday it's likely either marl or limestone. This would be consistent with our finds and with the idea of a marine/estuarine environment. It would be interesting if the marl/limestone underneath is Ashley formation, though. That would mean we are a bit older in the timeline than thought. Chandler Bridge is late Oligocene (~23-24 mya) and Ashley is early Oligocene (~26.5-30 mya). The top section of the site has a lot of artificial fill, however, so there is no telling where it comes from. After storms I have found a huge mako and huge Angustidens tangled in the roots only a foot or two from the surface so it had to be artificial fill. Odontoceti tooth Rib bone However, lately when we go we've seen something pretty horrible going on. Normally, the fossil hunters we encounter are good, honest folks. They are hunting for personal collections or to make some money and are pretty good about taking care of the sites they hunt at. After all, if we do not take care of these sites, they will be destroyed and stop producing fossils. There's the logos of the matter, right? There is also the logic that if we destroy sites, that are public lands, those that administer and care for them can shut us out, much like the town of Summerville was compelled to do. It is my understanding that some fossil hunters were so - um, "enthusiastic", shall we say - about their hunts, that they were digging into banks (which I usually refer as creek and ditch walls as many are very steep and deep) that they were breaching private property lines and risking other people's properties. So basically, just take care of the sites and they will take care of you. Makes sense, right? Well, guess what, folks - it's happening here. One of the several dig outs I found Looking for micros despite the fall When I first went to this site in about Aug/Sept of 2015, I had spied it on Google maps as a new fossil hunter (and am still quite the novice). Another experienced hunter told me it had promise but was a site he didn't like to go to for various reasons. I decided to give it a go. I went alone as I tend to do when checking out a new place I'm unfamiliar with. I'd rather not have my child with me in such a scenario. When I arrived, I walked to the edge of the creek bank and my use of the word "wall" couldn't be more appropriate. It was a nearly 90 degree vertical 15-20 foot wall to the bottom. I found a spot with what I thought to be some decent hand and foot holds and started my climb down. However, when I put my full weight on the foot holds, the wall gave out and fell straight to the bottom. I was pretty scraped up from the thorny flora overgrown on the wall but didn't break any bones, so I went ahead and did my little fossil hunt for a couple of hours only coming up with some micro shark teeth. I would later learn that I had a blown disc in my neck. See, I already had one fusion in my neck about four years prior to this and apparently a disc below that fusion had herniated. I suspect, though admit it is only conjecture, that this fall caused the disc to give out because I began to have symptoms just after this fall. While conducting my hunt on this particular trip out, I saw that people had been digging into the bottom of the wall and wondered if I had been climbing above such a spot, which caused it to give out when I tried to climb on it. It was some time before I returned to that site, in part due to the fact that I was diagnosed with that blown disc and required surgery in December 2015 to fuse more vertebrae. It was disheartening. I can only have one more fusion and I'm only 39 years old. It's depressing to think about. Therein lies my pathos. Many people have other various emotions tied to fossil hunting and how to go about it. I've found it to be a very charged subject, for sure. Black Friday 2015 there was a group hunt. I was going to join them, however I had just received that diagnosis of a blown disc and didn't want to risk further injury. I gave the organizer of that hunt the location and warned about the difficulty I had getting to it. I had also let him know that there was a massive wash out in one part because of the "Thousand Year" flooding in October 2015 (I may write another blog on why that phrase was massively misused). Apparently, there were some really cool finds, or a really cool find there, so after my recovery, I went back. I went with my son and it was overall uneventful - no falls thankfully. Angustidens teeth I found that day I did find a nice Angy (and a second at another site) but then we only found a couple of micros. We met and conversed with a seasoned hunter that IIRC was there with a group he brought on a hunt tour. There was a lot of digging but nothing that seemed very destructive and certainly nothing that was undermining the slopes that would cause them to fail. We chatted and I learned a few things. It's always nice to talk to people that have been doing this for so long. Angustidens teeth I found that day Later, in I believe April 2016, I took a friend of mine on his first fossil hunt and he killed it! The Odontoceti tooth and the rib bone above were among some of what he found there that day. The water level was low compared to the previous times I had been there and he's pretty adventurous, so we went places at that site I had never been before. We also found a spot to climb out of and now, Toby and I use it to get into the creek. It's not steep at all and it's not as deep there either. Well, I've only been twice since I started at CofC in August and that has been this month, November 2016. We've had some great finds, especially since the water is really, really low (we've had nearly no rain at all since Hurricane Matthew hit in October). However, the practices that are being used by one or more people at this site recently leave utter destruction. I'm not exaggerating when I say that either. It was so bad when we went yesterday for the group Black Friday Hunt that the creek was almost blocked off as both banks had been horribly undercut and the rubble nearly met in the middle of the creek. This isn't a natural erosion process. This is clearly the work of a human or humans; you can clearly see the shovel marks in the bank. This is far worse than even the dig outs that I witnessed when I first was here that caused me to fall and blow a herniated disc last summer! What may be another real kick in the pants is that this undercutting is not well understood by me as they are not sifting what they are leaving behind. We have even pulled micro tiger shark teeth out of the huge chunks of rubble they left behind. It's confusing and I don't understand it. I can only assume they are looking for very large teeth. The biggest I've found are 2-2.5 inch Angustidens. There are no megalodons that I've ever seen and Angies and Megs are not in the same time period. Angies lived in the Oligocene (appropriate for Chandler Bridge and Ashley formations) and megalodon lived during the Pliocene and Miocene Epochs. As far as I know, they did not overlap so there shouldn't be any megs here, especially if this is closer to the Ashley formation than I thought. This undercutting is extremely destructive and dangerous! It will cause these slopes to fall and the banks will wash out again after we have heavy rains. Maybe that is what the person/people doing this hope to achieve? However there is a massive flaw in that thought process. Several, actually. First off, it will cause other fossils to be lost. I get it, people want the big boys. They want 2-3 inch Angies, they want big whale teeth, they want full skulls - but by doing this, when it rains, when this slope fails and collapses, all the other fossils will be washed away, the likelihood of finding any "big boys" will still be slim, more sediment will be in the creek covering the fossils that are settling and being deposited by the water in the bottom of the creek (where we have found our great finds, by the way), and you are destroying the area. This may very well get tools and digging banned everywhere we hunt. Then what? What will you do then? I hope you are reading this. I hope you are hearing what I am trying to say. I get you probably don't care for the environment as much as others but I hope you hear your bottom line shrinking. As the people that live there start to see this, they may very well go to their city and county councils and follow Summerville's model. Or they may go with what other area's outside the Lowcountry have done and ban hunting altogether. And that is sad. There are not enough paleontologists here to find all that needs to be found. Whether they are in people's personal collections, up for sale, or being donated to museums, it is far better that people are out finding fossils and bringing those bones to the light of day than for them to remain covered for the world to never see again. Here comes the ethos: no matter your philosophy there should be the inclusion of proper care of the sites where you hunt. If you dig into the banks/walls of creeks and ditches, please consider slope failure in your process. Remember that other people use these places and a slope failure can harm, even kill people. There are massive crevasses in the slopes now and cracks appearing in the top where people walk and ride 4x4 vehicles. There may be service vehicles accessing this dirt road as well. This is extremely dangerous! Aside from that, destroying where you hunt will not provide better fossils. It will close off the site and keep fossils buried in the rubble that is left behind instead. View from the top of the bank - you cannot even see the slope has been undercut When you sift gravel, make sure live creatures such as fresh water claims and dragonfly nymphs are immediately returned to the water. After sifting, if you toss the gravel onto the bank, please return it to the water after you are done for the day. How can the gravel capture more fossils from the water if it's sitting on the banks? Aside from those smaller creatures we have also encountered deer, snakes, and seen evidence of dogs, raccoons and other animals. Remember this is their home. Please, respect that. Destruction of their habitat will affect how they survive (such as relying more on going towards human homes for food sources). If we tread more lightly and leave their ecosystem in tact, they can keep their own food sources and shelters without needing to encroach on ours. And please, for those that don't understand, it's not necessary to kill a snake just because you see it. Snakes will prefer to escape so give it that chance to get away. You will be fine. I know this has been a long read and people prefer short status updates instead. But this couldn't be condensed more. I'm a somewhat "wordy" person and am working on trying be more concise; however, this had several points of view. People fossil hunt for many different reasons and I hoped to appeal to everyone's points of view without making it sound like this is how all fossil hunters behave. We don't. This destruction is caused by one person or a very few number of people. But the rest of us need to make sure we are educating people about why this sort of destruction is unnecessary and uncalled for. I am not trying to be rude, "holier-than-thou", or trying to offer a lecture (though I clearly have). I just wish to inform. I hope that I have. Please feel free to share and comment. Thank you.

Hello fossil-hunters! My most recent fossil hunt was rather successful! I went to the Zandmotor, in the Netherlands, which is known for its abundance of: fossil seashells, big Ice Age mammal bones, fish material and more Pleistocene fossils. Here are the things I found: 1) All the black/brown things on the top are bones/bone shards from big Pleistocene mammals such as the mammoth, the cave lion, the cave hyena, the Irish Elk, the woolly rhino, the bison, etc. - 2) The big white shells on the right are Acanthocardia tuberculata - 3) The smaller shells next to them are Mactra plistoneerlandica (clams) - 4) Next to the Mactra we have some Cerasroderma edule (cockles) - 5) Underneath those are some Macoma balthica - 6) The big grey things to the left are Ostrea edulis (oysters) - 7) The "tooth" underneath the oysters is actually a crab pincer - 8) Next to it we have a small piece of mammoth ivory - 9) All the small black things at the bottom are fish vertebrates - 10) And finally the small black thing above the fish verts is a partial fish jaw with one tooth! In the close-ups we have: 1) The partial fish jaw with the small tooth - 2) The fish verts - 3) The crab pincer - 4) A big piece of bone, maybe a partial femur of a rhino, bison or mammoth - 5) A small piece of mammoth ivory. Some of these fossils were given to me by a really nice young man named Rick, that I met that day on the beach. Rick was searching for fossils just like me, and he gave me some tips for the hunt, and have me many cool fossils! Some of you might notice this is the same post as on my Instagram account @world_of_fossils. What do you think? Best regards to all, Max

Dear all, As I said long ago, this year I might be going to Canada. However, most of the time will be spent in Alberta for a dinosaur dig with Prof. Philip Currie. This basically washes away my plans of going to Vancouver Island and find heteromorphs on the Comox Valley. So, as I would still like to find some heteromorph ammonites, I was wondering whether there would be any heteromorph ammonite sites in the vicinity of Dinosaur Provincial Park (of preference less than 2 hours away, by car). Thanks for any help, Christian

South Carolina DNR cracks down on fossil hunters by Bo Petersen Post and Courier, Charleston, SC, November 6, 2016 http://www.postandcourier.com/news/dnr-cracks-down-on-fossil-hunters/article_f7c52752-a108-11e6-a6b0-1745f70896e0.html Yours, Paul H.

Hello from Missouri. I'm looking forward to learning more about fossils and rocks.

The place I used to hunt for ammonites has been renovated, and now the creek is destroyed. I am looking for good places to find ammonites near Austin, Texas. If anyone knows any good places, please tell me the name and where it is.

Found this fossil when I was a kid at Grand Lake, Northwest Oklahoma. It was along the shore line. Any idea what it is?

Hi everyone- Does anyone know if there are any rappelling trips in the U.S. or Internationally to see fossils? also does anyone know if one can rappell down a cliff face to view the K-T boundary? I know its exposed and visible in Raton Basin, Raven Ridge and Trinidad Lake State Park but has anyone done rappelling on a fossil hunt? looking for a combo of fossil hunting, excavation and adventure! Any really super adventurous fossil hunting trips advise will be appreciated. thanks.

Finders keepers doesn't apply to fossils and bones By Maiken scott, The Pulse, September 15, 2016 http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/thepulse/item/97085-finders-keepers-doesnt-apply-to-fossils-and-bones Yours, Paul H.

I read this old post just awhile ago, and realized those foothills are actually behind my backyard: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/37632-jaw-bone-with-tooth-found-in-highland-ca/ I couldn't believe it, there actually might be fossils that are nearer to me! One question though, what do fossilferous sites look like? (I'm looking on Google Maps.) Any help will be appreciated.

does anyone know of any possible spots in or near orlando?