Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'matoaka'.
-
Excavated from a block of submerged martrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay by landslide. The common name, geoduck, is pronounced "gooey-duck." This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
This is a particularly fragile type of shell, made of many fine layers, and is prone to disintegrate as these did. This rare steinkern was found on a block of matrix submerged in the Chesapeake Bay. Dimensions are for the best-exposed steinkern on the block. The entire block is 14 cm wide x 10 cm high x 5 cm deep.
-
There has been much debate about the identity of this strange item on the forum. I finally solved the mystery thanks to the (click next) Calvert Marine Museum web site . These are a reasonably common find on the beach near Matoaka Cabins. They vary in size and shape, owing to the different species and ages of the sharks that produced them as much as the teeth shed by the same sharks. What they all seem to have in common is the black, polished surface, the generally oval shape (which can vary in proportions), and the appearance of an outer coating that splits on one side.
- 1 comment
-
- 2
-
-
- calvert cliffs
- chesapeake bay
- (and 10 more)
-
Found on the beach near Matoaka Cabins. This is the largest one I have found to date.
-
This was excavated from a block of matrix collected from submerged landslide material in the Chesapeake Bay. The common name of the shell is pronounced "gooey-duck." The height listed is the diameter of the opening between valves on the posterior side, where the siphon extended.
-
Chesapectin nefrens is an index fossil for the Drum Cliff Member of the Choptank Formation. This example is particularly nice because the interior is almost completely layered in pearl.
-
- 1
-
-
- calvert cliffs
- chesapeake bay
- (and 9 more)
-
This piece was excavated out of a block of matrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay by a landslide. The shell was partially exposed in the water. The dark side was still in the matrix while the light side was exposed to the water. The pock marks on the light side are from modern barnacles which I removed during preparation. L. heros is a species with variation in shape. It may have a taller or flatter spire and the overall shape may be more or less globular. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
Okay, here's a real stumper. I have five specimens of this shell species, all collected on the beach at Matoaka Cabins, but on various trips. They are all about the same proportions, and all irregular shaped, but with the same growth rings and what looks like maybe attachment area. So far, I have looked in Glenn's 1904 volumes, Vokes, Peteuch, Ward, The Calvert Marine Museum web site, a book on Delaware Miocene fossils, and the FF Facebook page. It shouldn't be that hard if I have five of them! Anyone have a clue?
-
Lunatia heros is a predatory snail that drilled holes in other mollusks' shells to eat the contents. One often finds hole that they left behind in the surrounding fossil shells. The shells of L. heros are variable, having more or less extended spirals, more or less globoular shape, etc. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
I erroneously identified this earlier as the similar Turritella plebia, until looking at one more reference! Mariacolpus octonaria is an index fossil for the Drum Cliff Member of the Choptank Formation. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History
-
Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. According to L.W. Ward, 1998 ( Full Reference : L. W. Ward. 1998. Mollusks from the Lower Miocene Pollack Farm Site, Kenty County, Delaware: A preliminary analysis. Geology and paleontology of the lower Miocene Pollack Farm Fossil Site, Delaware [A. Miller/A. Hendy/A. Hendy] ) , the Genus was re-assigned from Fissuridae to Diodora.
-
Another common find near Matoaka Beach Cabins, this is an index fossil of the Drum Cliff Member of the Choptank Formation. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
A reasonably common find near Matoaka Beach Cabins. This was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
Although I have collected this species from Choptank Formation matrix, this one was found on the beach. The red staining suggests it may have been from another formation as the Choptank sand at St Leonard is gray.
-
Found at the Beach near Matoaka Cabins, E. marylandica is an index fossil of the Boston Cliffs Member of the Choptank Formation. The genus for this animal bounces back and forth between Marvacrassatella and Eucrassatella. WoRMS lists it as being re-assigned to the Eucrassatella genus. As of this update (November 8, 2017), the Eucrassatella genus has been restricted only to Indopacific species, so the genus was reverted to Marvacrassatella. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
Although there are oysters littering the beach, I would hesitate to call any one of them anything other than modern. The fossilized oysters of this type retained their colors remarkably well. This shell was excavated from a lump of matrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay after a landslide. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
-
Yesterday I went on a pretty great hunt. First off let's start with Matoaka Beach, which is not incredibly crowded and had pretty views. Swimming however wouldn't be great since the water was overrun by jellyfish. I hunted for two hours and filled up a cardboard box (bad idea, gets soggy) with fossils. I'm a complete noob so I don't own a sieve (I'll probably get own eventually) so the hunt for sharks teeth was quickly abandoned (except for the elusive meg, one of which was found the day before I heard, 'bout 5 inches. I found none.) this place is SO much better than Calvert cliffs because you can actually hunt in front of the cliffs rather than the fossils having to be washed south (in the process being broken) my hunt for Ecphora was fruitless, only pieces. I have so many complete chesapectans I'm gonna have to make some sort of display case for them, I might have to do a contest because they are taking up to much space! I did find one top and bottom chesapecten (nefrens btw). This is all Choptank formation, I believe once you get to the power plant, the Calvert formation has dipped under. Without further ado, here are my finds from the first half of the day (might be a while before all are uploaded): 1) Astrhelia palmata 2) Panopea (sp.?) 3) chesapecten nefrens 4) stienkern with a little shell, don't know the genus/species
-
1.) open sundays? 2) allowed to hunt under (not in) cliffs? 3) good fossils? 4) crowded? thanks for any responses.
-
This specimen and dozens like it were collected from matrix material deposited in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay by a landslide. It is one of only a few species that consistently survived intact in the matrix samples I collected. Most specimens were single, unbroken valves, but several had both valves together and intact. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. Formerly known as Corbula inequalis.
-
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.
- 8 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- bayfront
- brownies beach
- (and 9 more)
-
From the album: Calvert Cliffs
Another view of bone identified as Miocene Peccary (Dicotyles protervus) by the good folks at Calvert Marine Museum Found on Matoaka Beach, St. Leonard, MD Roughly 10 million years old Exact formation unknown
