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Hi all, For whatever reason, I never got around to posting this. After a relatively unsuccessful day at Bayfront Park back in 2018, my dad showed me this tooth, unsure of what it was. He said he had found it while sifting in the creek that runs under the bridge near the entrance of the park. I had never really bothered trying around that area because it was so far from any cliff exposures, but I suppose he proved that some of the best finds may be where you least expect them. The second he pulled out this tooth, my jaw dropped. It is a FLAWLESS cow shark symphyseal. I hadn't had a single one in my collection until then. I've never seen a better symphyseal than this one, not in a museum or anywhere online. It's absolutely perfect, with exquisite symmetry and phenomenal preservation. Undoubtedly the best tooth my dad has ever found. Although I was a bit jealous that he found it and not me, I was at the same time ecstatic because all of his finds go towards my collection. This beauty is one of my most prized teeth, as I am yet to see a more perfect specimen. The pictures do not do it justice in the slightest. It was found a while ago, but I thought you all would still like to see it. Enjoy!

Hello there guys. Im planning to go to calvert cliffs this Saturday 3/9/19. Any suggestions on where to go and how i can maximize my chances of finding good fossils? Ive only ever fornd shark teeth at Myrtle Beach. Any help is awesome.

Nothing to crazy going on today. My wife found this piece of bone and she wants to know what it is. My initial thought is it was some random piece of croc but now that I’m looking at it closer I’m really unsure. Take a look tell me what you think

Hey all, The Calvert Cliffs have been falling left and right recently. Countless cliff slides have led to plenty of new material becoming accessible on the beaches, but the unstable cliffs also call for extra caution. I decided to return to my favorite winter hunting location, Bayfront Park, to try and take advantage of the cliff falls. I thought it would be a good opportunity to film my first YouTube video, which I have been wanting to do for a while, so I brought my new handheld camera mount. Peak low tide was exactly at sunrise, so I woke up at 4 a.m. in order to arrive at the beach before then. Early mornings can be rough, but if you're getting up to do something you love it's a whole lot easier. When I got to the parking lot, it was still very dark and I actually had to use my phone's flashlight to hunt for the first few minutes before the sun began its ascent into the horizon. It was a very cloudy day, so unfortunately I wasn't treated with one of the gorgeous Brownies sunrises. Within 10 or 15 minutes or searching, I found one of the biggest teeth I've ever found at Brownies, a huge 2 inch mako in perfect condition. That's when I knew it was going to be a good day. Not too long after that, I stumbled across a circular object slightly covered by sand. It looked like it could be some kind of vertebra or possible a "cookie" (dolphin epiphysis), but there was only one way to find out. When I tried pulling it out, it didn't budge. I pulled harder. As it still wouldn't come out, I realized it must be much larger than it appeared on the surface. Throwing aside the rock next to it, I finally pulled out a beautiful cetacean vertebra! I've always wanted to find one, especially after running into a guy who found a dozen of them on my last Brownies trip, so I was ecstatic. I continued finding some very nice teeth. I also found another cetacean vertebra, this time a very different shape but in very good condition. Despite the harsh temperature and dangerous cliffs, there were quite a few other hunters out on the beach. At one point I ran into a man who had found two perfects Megs, each one about 2 inches. I hoped to find one for myself, but had no such luck. Regardless, I was extremely content with everything I found and began to make my way back to the car. This trip was one to remember, not only because of the awesome finds, but also the fun experience of filming the video. I kept this trip report rather short, because the video covers the detail I usually go into, and then some. Anyway, I've wanted to become a fossil hunting YouTuber pretty much ever since I began hunting, but I just never really got around to it until now. I love watching YouTubers like @addicted2fossils, and I hope others will find my videos to be entertaining and educational as well. I've posted the link to my video below, and I would really appreciate it if you would take a second to like the video, leave a comment, and subscribe to my channel. I'll be putting out many videos like this in the future. I have some very exciting trips coming up, including hunting at a private creek site and going to the annual Aurora Fossil Festival in NC! Stay tuned. Hoppe hunting!

Hi Folks, Usually during spring break I am at work making maple syrup but this coming week it will be too cold for the sap to flow. I am planning a trip south from CT and would like to check out fossils in PA, MD, and WV. I'll probably leave March 6th and return March 10th or 11th. Certainly want to check out the Calvert Cliffs and see what I can find in PA and WV. Any tips or advice on location would be really appreciated, or, if you want to meet-up that would be even better. It is so great to meet other fossil enthusiasts. I don't mind the cold and could help out with gas money or buy lunch. Thanks, Dom

Can anyone ID these two teeth for me please. Thanks!

After the long month without fossil hunting, we decided to go to Purse on a free weekend. Now that it is a former state park, it's a lot harder to find because there is no address to it, so hopefully it can recover from some of the hunting that has taken place upon it's shores. I really, really wanted some nice Macrotas after all the talk I had heard about them, and thankfully, Purse didn't disappoint. It was the middle of hunting season there, and we werent wearing anything particularly bright, it was a little nerve racking hearing the boom of gunshots far of in the distance. We started by going right towards the cliffs after hearing a comment about a big otodus found there. After only finding small things, including some nice Cretolamna and Carcharias, as well as a couple goblins, we turned left, and that was where things got interesting, still peppered with the occasional crack of a gun. My identification for Paleocene fossils isn't positive, because I'm used more to Miocene, but I believe the tooth on the right may be a Macrota. It's around an inch. The teeth kept racking up. We had easily found at least two hundred, and I really can't wait to identify and label them. We were both quite tired, being as we had gotten up pretty early that day and explored the whole beach. No otodus, but around 230 teeth and hopefully a big ole' Macrota!

Headed out to the potomac this morning and man was it nice out. Hit low tide and made my way to the cliffs, which all fallen right now btw. Found some nice sand tigers today’s and some smaller beaten otodus. Highlights of the day were a nice little croc tooth and a croc vert which is a first for me. I don’t seem to find much bone in the Aquia formation.

Looking to find out as much about this vertebrae piece found at Calvert Cliffs, MD.

Hello all, I arrived here thanks to a strong interest in paleontology in my younger son, and together we have started to research possible fossil hunting sites within an hour or so drive. We are both very new to this and want to learn, and we appreciate this forum and look forward to being a part of it and contributing. That's said, last week in Calvert County, Maryland, along the Chesapeake, we came back with a few finds, went to the library and can't say we know what if anything we found and was not sure if this is the right place to post to ask for some help, but here it goes anyway...

Last summer I picked up a couple riker mounts and have been experimenting with different ways to display my collection. I finally decided to do a Brownies Beach Sampler. I wanted to put together a sample of all the different species that I have found there over the years. I also wanted to put in my best quality teeth, so size was not a factor. Enclosed in the mount is a Hemi, thresher, cowshark, hammerhead, angel, mako, meg, lemon, requiem, sandtiger, and two different tigers.

Happy New Year, everyone! I was able to sneak in one more hunt before my winter break ended. I kicked off 2019 with another trip to my favorite winter location, Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. The tides and weather looked favorable, not too cold and relatively low tide very early in the morning. I came more equipped than ever, complete with my new hunting gear that I got for Christmas, including a pair of chest waders (finally!), a sling pack, and a hat from the Calvert Marine Museum with an awesome Hemipristis design. I was one of the first to arrive, and quickly made use of the waders by rounding the cove that can be virtually impossible to pass without them. My waders feature a large mesh zipper pocket on the chest, and that proved to be remarkably useful. No more carrying around tupperware to hold my finds! I stepped foot on the beach about ten minutes before sunrise, and I was blessed with a gorgeous display of colors as the sun shone through the clouds. A few fellow hunters passed me, but I kept my head down and walked slowly, carefully examining every inch of the beach. I was finding a good deal of smalltooth sand tigers with awesome cusplets, but nothing too big for the first hour or so. Even though the majority of teeth found here are small, you can get some pretty stunning colors, not to mention the mind-blowing quality of preservation of some of the teeth. Even after millions of years, the teeth are still sharp enough to cut you fairly easily. That's something that never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, I soon stumbled across a larger tooth laying right out in the open, high up the beach in the dryer sand. It was a very pretty Isurus desori, a mako shark tooth! I happily dropped it into the pouch and kept moving. I continued to find small and medium sized teeth for the majority of the morning. At one point, I picked up a complete dolphin epiphysis, or "cookie" as many collectors call them. I had found a few fragments of them at this location before, but this was my first one to be fully intact. I found it increasingly difficult to navigate the beach as the tide came in, as there were many fresh tree falls and cliff slides due to the recent weather conditions. I decided to call it a day at around noon, so in total I hunted for about 5 hours. My haul consisted of a plethora of sand tigers, many tigers and requiems, a handful of small hemis, a few makos and hammerheads, one broken cow shark tooth, a few odontocete teeth, ray plates, the cookie, and a nice gastropod shell. A pretty typical Brownies haul. I ran into a few other collectors, none who seemed to have found anything incredible, but I always love talking fossils with fellow enthusiasts! I was even able to identify another hunter's find for her, which I always thoroughly enjoy as well. Overall, I had a very nice first trip of the new year and couldn't think of a better way to wrap up my winter break before heading back to school. Thanks for reading my report, and please check out the Hop 5, posted below. I'm starting something new with my trip reports in 2019! I HOPPE you'll enjoy! Sorry, I just can't help myself when it comes to puns. Hoppe hunting! ~David

I would consider 2016 to be the year that my fossil hunting career really took off, I had spent trips prior to this grooming and developing my skills and it began to show in this period. My school vacations have always been the time where I've been able to get out into the field and go fossil hunting, this particular opportunity was afforded to me by my class trip to Washington D.C. which then lead into my April vacation. Having devised a plan to go fossil hunting before leaving, my dad picked me up at the end of the DC visit before the rest of the group took the grueling bus ride back to NH. From there we went south to Charles county, MD with the intention of going to Purse State Park in hopes of finding some Paleocene shark teeth. And find them we did! After parking, we walked down a trail which led down to the waterfront and a long strip of gravely beach. I soon found out just how bountiful this area could be when looking in the right places. At the end of the day we had found plenty of Shark's teeth and ray dental plates. The majority of the teeth came from various species of sand tiger sharks which patrolled the waters of the greater D.C. area 59 million years ago when it was covered by a warm shallow sea. Here's the haul we had after a few hours collecting.

After just over a year of fossil collecting, I have finally found my first Meg! On Thursday, the first semester of my senior year came to an end. The next day, Friday, school was closed for a teacher work day. I figured I'd make the most of my day off by heading out to Bayfront Park. What better way to celebrate making it through the first half of senior year? I though that because it was a Friday, and rather cold, not many people would be out on the beach because they'd either be at school, work, or home because of the weather. I was right. When I arrived at a little before noon, there were only a few cars in the parking lot, and not all of them were fellow hunters. I slipped on my waders and made my way down the path, shovel and sifter in hand. Funny enough, I never actually sifted a single screen, because I didn't need to. I had no idea the tide was going to be as low as it was. But boy, was it out there. Even with a few hours before peak low tide, the entire beach was exposed and the water was calm. I stopped briefly at the cove area that people so often underestimate, and within five minutes of stepping onto the beach found a perfect little cow shark tooth laying right out in the open. That's when I knew it was going to be a good day of hunting. The tide was probably the one of the lowest I've ever seen at Brownies, so I had plenty of ground to cover. Trying not to get ahead of myself, I made sure to still walk very slowly and scan over the ground thoroughly. After about an hour, I was walking down near the water on a part of the beach that is normally submerged when I stumbled across a large tooth, half buried in the sand. My heart stopped when I spotted it. It clearly had signs of a bourlette, so I immediately knew I was looking right at my first ever meg. I pulled out my phone and began recording. I prayed that it would be whole as I carefully pried it out of the sand. To my delight, it was mostly complete, with flawless serrations and an intact tip. It had a bit of damage and it was missing the actual bourlette (must've fallen off), but I didn't mind one bit. I cleaned it off and spent marveled at the amazing tooth I had just found. I couldn't believe what was happening. After calling my friends and family and sending them the video, I carefully wrapped the tooth in tissue paper and aluminum foil to insure that it would make it home safely. There was no way I was throwing that tooth in my waders pouch like I do with the rest! I would have been more than happy if I hadn't found a single other tooth that day, but that was not the case. I continued south, and kept looking towards the water, hoping for some other nice finds. I found a fair share of decent makos, and another large but beaten up cow shark tooth. I eventually ran into a man named Scott who was hunting for the first time ever, and he showed me his backpack full of cetacean verts, including a very large whale vert. He told me he had been there since before sunrise, and hadn't had much luck with teeth, but clearly was finding verts left and right. I of course answered his question, "Any luck?" with a prompt "Oh yes, I hit the jackpot today." He congratulated me on my first meg, and we talked for a while more. He was a really cool guy, and I enjoyed helping him identify some finds and learn more about the cliffs. After my exchange with Scott, I went farther down the beach, finding more decent teeth and a few verts. At one point, I saw what was clearly another megatooth in the sand, and held my breath as I unearthed it. Unfortunately, it was only the tip of what was most likely a very large tooth. A true heartbreaker, but with everything else I had already found I couldn't complain. As the tide began to come in, I decided to head back to the entrance and make my way home. I caught up to Scott again, and we talked about my plans to become a paleontologist as we walked back up to our cars. I can say with some confidence that this was my best Brownies Beach trip ever, and perhaps even my best trip ever, period. I ended up finding a meg (although it's technically a C. chubutensis I believe), some very nice makos, a few complete cow shark teeth, hemis, sand tigers, a lot of tigers, a ray barb/spine, and a lot of fish and shark verts. I honestly don't think I could be much happier with my finds, and I am beyond thrilled to add my first megatooth to my collection! As far as a public site like Brownies goes, this is considered an extremely productive day, especially considering I only really hunted for about four hours, compared to my usual 6-7+. 2019 is certainly off to an amazing start; this is only my second hunt of the year! Thank you so much for reading my report, and here's to many more megs in the future! Here's a link to my YouTube video of finding the tooth. I will eventually be making full length videos of my hunts in the future, so please subscribe to the channel if you like! Thank you all. Also be sure to check out the Hop 5 post that will be up soon, and cast your vote for the tripmaker. Hoppe Hunting!

Hey all! Well, if you've read some of my previous posts you'll see that throughout 2018 I've been working in Maryland and Virginia. While here I've been visiting some of the local haunts along the Atlantic to find.... really anything, and I have! HOWEVER, I have yet to find a single shark tooth!!! The rub now is timing. I am about to accept a new position with a company and my time on the Bay is coming to an end. I'm here this week and plan on visiting Matoaka Beach for the first time tomorrow. I am going to leave my hotel in Columbia, MD at 8am. Any suggestions, tricks, hints.... scooby snacks????? I've been talking about finding my son a Meg tooth for a year now and I'm coming up with squat! hahaha

My kids had a bucket list for winter break, and one of the items was to go to a beach. Yes, my kids are the ones who enjoy going to beaches in winter! So on Friday, Jan. 4, I bundled the kids up and we headed out to Flags Pond, getting there at about 9 a.m., as the tide was coming in. I can usually find some nice small teeth washing up with the tide there, and my kids and I got to work combing the beach. We had more luck with rays, but we still found a decent number of teeth. My oldest enjoys finding the coral pieces, which are easier for him to spot. My youngest kept trying to go swimming, and I had quite a time trying to keep her from belly flopping into the small waves. One thing I didn't like about this trip is that it was hard for me to help my kids find teeth, as they were washing up, and if you didn't grab them right away, they washed away. I like to find teeth, then circle a large area in the sand around the tooth and tell my kids to find the fossil. I tried that a few times, and the waves washed the tooth away before my kids could spot it. They got frustrated and eventually gave up and began burying "treasure" in the sand. (There may be some buried Cheez-its in the sand for future treasure seekers!) Eventually, my youngest managed to submerge a good part of her body in the cold water when I wasn't looking -- sneaky! She was dressed in a snowsuit and boots, but she still got wet, and I didn't have enough backup clothes on hand. So back we trudged to the car. In my haste to get my youngest in dry clothes and into the warm car, I managed to forget my sand sifter. Alas! But, on the plus side, I walked out with some fossil finds and a wonderful day with my kids in a beautiful location!

Found near calvert cliffs in MD.

Hi all, This tooth was found of one of my recent hunts along the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. I found it at Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. It is approximately one cm in length, relatively flat, and has multiple worn but visible bumps of enamel that could either be large serrations of some shark tooth or cusps of a symphyseal cow shark tooth. I believe it's the latter, but also recognize that it is a rather uncommon find. If it turns out to be a cow shark symphyseal, it would be my first one! Excited to see your takes on this one. I feel somewhat confident with my standing ID, but would love some confirmation. Thanks in advance!

I found this while hunting for shark teeth at Purse state park in Maryland. It looks like a claw, any help would be appreciated.

Hey guys, Me and a few buddies are heading to the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland to hunt for some teeth in a week or so. We are planning on staying near the Calvert Cliffs State Park and hunting around Brownies Beach. This is really the only location we know about. We were hoping someone could point us to some other spots as well to check out while we are there (we will be there 2 days). As of right now, our plan is to hunt all day, both days, so we should have plenty of time to hunt more than one area. Any pointers toward locations not too far away would be greatly appreciated! We are coming from NC so we aren't very familiar with the area other than whats very well known.

Hi all, I finally made the trek to Matoaka Beach, a fossil collecting site along the Calvert Cliffs on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The beach is accessible to the public for $5 per person per day. Once we arrived, we reported to the front office where the property owner and his adorable newborn daughter were happy to collect our fee and give us access to the beach along with advice on how to best hunt the grounds. He advised us to head North (left of the entrance), which was what I had also read online. Apparently, the farther North you head, the better the fossils tend to be. So my dad and I made our way down the stairs to the foot of the cliffs, and began searching. The beach is very wide, so it's difficult to decide where to walk. I was finding fragments of Chesapectan shells left and right, but nothing quite worth keeping. But then, after maybe 5 minutes of hunting, I looked down at my feet and saw a large, complete, Ecphora staring back at me. I could hardly believe it. At a site where invertebrates dominate the matrix, a nice Ecphora is just about equivalent to finding a Megalodon tooth. And yes, I am aware that Meg teeth can be and have been found at this site before, but the find that I was after that day was certainly Ecphora. It was a gorgeous specimen, much larger and more complete than any other I'd found before. And there it was, just laying out in the open, a couple hundred yards from the entrance. I excitedly showed my dad the find, and promptly continued hunting, although I knew there was likely no beating what I had just found at the very beginning of the day. As I walked farther North, I marveled at the cliffs, which were absolutely chalk full of invertebrate fossils. It was incredible, and unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I kept finding crushed shells and small pieces of fossilized coral, but nothing spectacular. That is, until I stumbled upon the section of the beach where many huge chunks of the cliffs had fallen. I decided to look for large shells sticking out of the cliff falls, and very quickly discovered the best method for finding fossils at Matoaka. Immediately, I began finding giant Chesapectan every couple of inches in the cliff falls. After unearthing about a dozen, I decided to head North again to see if I could find another similar section. I walked at least a mile farther and found next to nothing, so I turned around and headed back towards the digging site. When I arrived, I saw that my dad has discovered the falls and was digging through them just as I had been. We both set down our gear and decided to spend the rest of our day there carefully excavating shells from the matrix. This was certainly different than the fossil hunting I've done in the past. It felt more like the traditional "dig site" hunting that most people think of when they think of a paleontologist or archaeologist. It was really cool. At one point, I saw a familiar spiral structure just poking out of one of the falls, and quickly recognized it as a small Ecphora. I plopped myself down on the ground next to it and spent the next 20 or so minutes cautiously excavating it. I foolishly forgot to bring a digging kit, so I resourcefully used broken fragments of sturdy shells around me to dig out the specimen. Although I chipped off a few pieces of it, I managed to extract it from the matrix mostly intact. With that, we headed back towards the entrance. We decided to sift for a bit to try for some shark teeth, and eventually I found one and my dad found three. Matoaka is unrivaled for invertebrate fossils along the Cliffs, but it's definitely not a top spot for teeth. Overall, I was incredibly pleased with my first trip to Matoaka Beach. From the friendly owners to the beautiful scenery and wildlife and the fantastic fossil finds, Matoaka Beach is a must for any fossil hunter in the DMV area. We ended up finding a ton of Chesapectan, ranging from "itty bitty" nearly the size of my hand, some stunning Ecphora, fossilized coral and barnacles, some Turritella, and a few shark teeth as well. I already can't wait to go back to Matoaka. Thanks for reading my report. Hoppe Hunting!

I went hunting on Sunday at Flag Ponds & found this interesting, probable Cetacean bone. I would appreciate your help with an ID, of what body part, if possible. The piece is about 7.25 cm long & 5 cm wide. The hole is big enough to hold a sharpened pencil. Thanks for looking.

I found two interesting teeth on Sunday at Flag Ponds.Not sure if there is enough there for identifications, but thought I would share anyway since I haven't posted in awhile. The smaller tooth looks curved and asymmetrical, is that indicative of a back jaw position, or something else? Thanks for looking.

This is a fossil of unknown origin, it was allegedly found burried in sand near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia; or possibly on the banks of the James River. The previous owner believed it to be an intervertebral disc of some kind of whale. It is clearly fossilized and has some areas encrusted with a sand like mineral. It also has a few spots where a shiny black mineral has been deposited. Can anyone provide an identification and possible an estimated age?