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I posted photos of Mrs.SA2's 1st meg of the new year on @RCW3D's Potomac River post from 1/20/18. Today, @MarcoSr, Mrs.SA2 and I wanted to try some hunting in the sun today instead of the feet freezing water and ice we had yesterday, so we went to a place we knew would have all day sun. When we put the boat in there wasn't any ice on our side of the river and only a little bit on the beach. Weather forecast was mid-60s and mostly sunny, perfect for late January in VA/MD. We motored to our planned starting point and started walking. Unfortunately, we immediately found lots (and I do mean A LOT) of footprints all over the beach. We kept on going and found a few teeth to start. Being out with MarcoSr is always a great time because I learn so much and have great conversations about stratigraphy. Here is my 1st tooth of the day, it's right at 1 inch, but ensured we didnt get skunked on the day. The rest of the day consisted of a few small teeth found plus a lot more footprints along the beach. At least it was sunny and warm. Didn't take an hour for us all to come out of a couple of layers of clothing. As we got a couple of hours past low tide, Mrs.SA2 did it again, and found her 2nd megalodon in as many days. She brushed a few leaves away from the gravel/cobble and there it was, in all its glory. I'm surprised she let me get a couple of photos before she grabbed it. Once we got a couple hours after low tide, the wind changed directions and picked up in intensity. Neither of these things were forecast and it started pushing the ice from the other side of the river, towards us. Didn't take long and there was large ice flow pinching us off from getting back to the ramp and I had to do some serious navigating to get around / through it. @RCW3D would have been proud as we once again plowed ice, and this ice was much thicker than yesterday. Some of it was 6-8 inches thick and obviously, we avoided that and chose our way through the thinner, slushy stuff. Here is a photo of the ice flow on our side of the river causing us to motor out to the middle to try and get around it. Good thing MarcoSr and Mrs.SA2 trust my boating skills. Here is the boat ramp after we pulled the boat out. Remember, there was NO ice there or anywhere near us when we launched. I busted up and pushed all the ice around the ramp with the boat so we could pull out. The dark spot in the middle of the right side of the photo is a full size duck blind that got ripped off its posts and carried away by the ice. Here is a photo of "our" side of the river after the ice flow moved in on us. The ramp is at the white building on the right side. (Don't worry folks, there are several other boat ramps within a 20 minute boat ride that we could tie up to and go get the truck and trailer.) Cheers, SA2 and Mrs.SA2

Back in 2015, on a FPS trip, I found a 3 mya fossil coral that @digit and/or @MikeR identified as Scolymia cubensis. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/FIGURE-2-Scolymia-species-from-Brazil-A-B-New-occurrence-specimen-of-Scolymia-cubensis-UFBA_237012399_fig2 Fast forward to a Christmas gift a fossil hunting friend gave to my spouse (She has a coral collection and I do not find that much of it) . He said that he found it in the Keys in the 1980s. I guess I should know but is this also Scolymia? Also a question on coral fossils. I know that from 2015 I have a 3 mya coral because it came from Tamiami Formation and experts indicated the age of the layer and shells I was finding. Is this new one a fossil? Can I approximate its age?

After too many days of cold weather, we were determined to head out to the river during some spring time weather...we weren't prepared for what we found! Snow and ice was stacked up all over the place, for the most part I thought the trip was a bust but we decided to go for a hike anyway. After about a 1/4 mile, we saw some open water along the shore and headed for it...it wasn't much but we had about 600 yards of open beach and mostly open water...there was still some skim ice and slush but we at least could say that we were going to get to hunt a little. We weren't there 10 minutes until I heard a boat running around on the river, I thought to myself, "who is crazy enough to be out on the river with this much ice?" As I watched the boat, it turned and came towards me...yep, I knew who was as crazy as me to be out, it was @SailingAlongToo with some other legends out and about. Always a treat to run into him on the water and chatting a little bit, he was off acting as an ice breaker! LOL! After he left we got back to searching and lo and behold, we started to have some success. We were only wearing boots so I took the water since my boots are taller than my wife's, as I looked down I saw a beautiful site, a Mako! I have many that are much nicer than this one but this was my largest by far. A little while later I heard a squeal of delight from my wife, I looked back to see her holding up a small Meg. All-in all, it wasn't a huge haul today but it was nice to be out on the river again, I'm looing forward to when the ice melts away though I don't think it will be anytime soon. Working our way through the snow and ice. Something to search. My wife scores! Total haul Meg and Mako

Alrighty, this one has had me stumped for some time. There is a western outcropping of the Temblor Formation fairly close to me. I call White Sands Deposit due to the nature of the matrix. It contains a secondary deposit of Miocene marine critters similar to Sharktooth Hill with the exception of many more Desmostylus teeth bits ( maybe because closer to the ocean?). I digress, I found this a few years ago amongst marine mammal bones of the same nature. All bone and teeth here are silicon replaced from the sand. Not sure if it is a piece of bone or not, really don't find rocks here. It has the same coloring and texture as surrounding bone. Anyway, here it is. The next few shots are of other chunks of bone to show these don't express the normal expected spoongy porous look of bone.

I have been going through some micro I collected at brownies beach (Calvert FM, Miocene. Zones 4 and 10 mostly) and this tooth looks a little strange to me. Its small, 5 MM about. I'm guessing its a Physogaleus contortus, but I'm not sure. Confirmation, other ideas, and any other information is welcome and encouraged. sorry about poor picture quality, USB microscope is a bit grainy.

Hi everyone, I have found many specimens of ferruginised fossils from the Beaumaris Sandstone in Victoria. They were formed in the upper Miocene. Could someone please explain what they are made of and how they are formed? Thanks Echinoid

Slurpee, Slushee or Icee Beach......Take Your Pick VA Miocene on 01/14/2018 Since I didn't get to do much fossil hunting in December due to work, I've been determined to get more time out during January. I convinced Mrs.SA2 to venture out with our buddy Mel (MarcoSr's youngest son) and me this morning. We would have brought @Daleksec along with us, but his dad said he forgot to keep his bedroom clean, AGAIN, so he had chores to finish. The morning started out with us getting up at 0400 hours and making the drive to meet Mel at one of our favorite places. When we hit the beach the air temp was 13F with a 15 mph north wind and a 3-5F wind chill. Luckily, we all have "the gear" to keep us warm and dry in this weather and we know some tricks. We were excited and hopeful when we realized we were the first (and only) people on the beach. Pretty obvious why and not sure what that really says about us. When we got down to the beach, we realized that overnight the strong north wind and the wind chill had combined to freeze the surf and push ice on the beach. (The ice wasn't there the day before.) The surf out about 10 feet from the beach had the consistency of a Slurpee, Slushee or Icee, whichever is/was your beverage choice when younger. Mrs.SA2 and I were Slurpee fans (and she still sneaks one in every few weeks during the summers.) Photos of the beach and surf. The ice pushing in from the surf and the frozen beach left by the last high tide were pretty disappointing, until we started finding teeth. Here were my first couple of frozen teeth. All of the teeth we found had to be dug out of the frozen beach. I even managed a two-for. (Please excuse the lack of scale in many of the photos, I had Mrs.SA2's custom pink scale cube made by @aerogrower, but it kept freezing to the beach, then I had to scrape/dig it off the beach.) Here is a decent hastalis I found and dug out. On the walk back the wind had died down a little and the air temp had come up to 20F with wind chill around 15F. Talk about being spoiled, but alas, the beach was still frozen solid and ice covered. Here's Mrs.SA2 and Mel working their way through some obstacles along the beach. Mel is an awesome fossil hunter and has the eyes of an eagle. Mrs.SA2 and I always enjoy hunting with him because we have great conversations about stratigraphy, possible paleo-environments and the local fossils. This morning we chatted quite a bit about fossil hunting this coming spring and summer. As we were walking along, Mel looked down and spotted this beauty entombed in 3/4" of ice on the beach. It was worthy of breaking out Mrs.SA2's pink scale cube, even if it got stuck too. Took quite a bit of digging to "save" it from its frozen, watery grave. I have a great video of him digging it out but I'm going to let him be the first to show it on his Facebook page and website. Here are a couple of photos instead. That 10 minutes sure warmed us all up and it ended up being the biggest tooth we found on the day. At least we didn't get skunked and we all got some much needed exercise. I did manage this smaller hastalis as my last tooth of the morning. Here is what Mrs.SA2 and my finds looked like cleaned up. The vertebrae was a nice addition and you can see my "frag-a-lodon" by the scale cube. Over the 4 1/2 hour walk along the river in the cold, wind and ice, we managed to stay warm and dry and most of all, Mrs.SA2 continues to redevelop her confidence while out fossil hunting, following her fall back at the end of September. She was quite the trooper today and never complained. I'm sure the story she tells tomorrow at work will start with, "it'll be fun, he said......." and go downhill from there. Cheers, SA2 and Mrs.SA2

Hello again! Found this bone fragment at Flag Pond yesterday and it appears that it may have been modified. Could it possibly been a Native American tool? Notice the point, symmetrical indentations at the base/stem and the hole at the base. Thank you for your help!

Hello... I found this small tooth yesterday at Flag Pond in Calvert County MD. It is embedded in a small jaw fragment (the small tooth is circled in red). The jaw fragment is solid, not appearing hollow like a fish jaw. Any thoughts on what it could be? Thank you for your help!!

Moving away from Trilobites, I wanted to try my hand at a fish. This is my rendition of Priscacara serrata, a common species of the Miocene, in the Green River Formation. The fish looks like a Perch, or a Bass, because all three are in the Percinae Family. Priscacara is an extinct member.

So was in one of my usual ditches where I usually find whale bones, and shark teeth varying from Angustidens to Megs. Came across the strange bone that to me looks like a beak of a bird or something. The strange formations or cup like pattern is what threw me off. Found 25 miles inland from Charleston SC and guessing Miocene, Chandler Bridge formation. Any ideas?

This came from Ernst Quarries last year at slow curve. I don't think this is a hooked Mako because of the micro serration on both sides of the tooth, so what is it? I know I failed to include a scale but this tooth will just cover an American Quarter. Thanks in advance!

Just wanted to post a pic of my current display worthy megs. All from Florida and all except one little posterior which was mislabeled as a tiger and I couldn’t pass up for 1$ are personal finds lol. A mix of dive, land and creek finds and quite a few years in the making. Not as big as some folks in the Carolinas regularly find, a “big” tooth to me is 3 inches plus but the colors of bone valley sure do make for a nice display

A new genus and species of fossil bat is described from New Zealand’s only pre-Pleistocene Cenozoic terrestrial fauna called Vulcanops jennyworthyae http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11972666 Paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18403-w

I found this very tiny hemi a while back (Brownies beach). I was wondering if anyone could tell me the placement? This is the whole tooth (but it’s rootless) not the top of it. Thanks.

I found this tooth at brownies, I think alopias latidens, what say y’all? It’s got a worn cusp which is cool if it is a thresher. Around a centimeter, quarter for scale (I know that’s not ideal)

Hi all, So I just purchased this nice huge scallop for a killer price. Though not complete, i still love it. Its from the quarry of Lacoste, in Vaucluse, Southern France. From the Miocene. Well, it was sold to me as Chlamys latissima, but in some of my books it mentions Chlamys gigantea instead. So I was wondering, what species is it? Oh, also, does anyone know more precisely how old the scallop is, and what formation it is from? Thanks in advance! Max

Went out this morning to what is appearing to be another Blancan site. I hunted Blancan fossils at a different location from 2015 to early 2017. That old location is pretty much played out, but now I am finding Blancan index species at a new site. I feel blessed . Cold at the beginning 41/42 degrees at 8am. However the sun was shining and it reached 58 degrees by noon. My hunting buddy found a number of Makos including a perfect 2.75 silver blade/brown root. He also found 4 plates of a mammoth tooth. I was no slouch .. 15 each of nice unbroken tigers & duskys, 3.3 Makos, an equus upper m3/p2, 2 armadillo scutes, camel lower tooth, deer tooth, and these.... Those of you that know me realize that the 1st photo of Nannippus Peninsulatus (11x13x22 mm) was all that I needed for a GREAT hunting trip. The rest is gravy. Going out again tomorrow.

Went shark tooth hunting on a frigid day and found hardly any shark teeth, probably buried in the snow/ice, but did find this in the slush. Anyone able to identify it? Thanks!

I have a couple of new fossils I need identified. By my guess they are Ammonites but what do I know? I'm fortunate that these snails come with some identification, a small piece of paper with some handwriting on it. From top to bottom, it says "Large Agate Snails, viviparous, miocene, Lahonten Formation, Black Rock Desert, Winnemucca, Nevada." I'm a little confused because from what I've read, Lake Lahonten did not exist during the Miocene epoch. The smaller snail is about 2½ cm (1") long, from top to bottom in the picture, and the larger snail is about 3 cm (1½") long. Is there anything anyone can tell me about these pieces? Those measurements don't include the concretion attached to them.

Ok, tired of working on the fossil crabs from Washington and decided to start a Tumidocarcinus gigantius from New Zealand today. Took most of my prep day. I could not read what was ventral or dorsal, so just went ahead and scribed a hole. It was just a guess and I had a 50% chance of gettiing it right, but no,,, Wrong!!! Once I hit ventral I turned it over and started again. Once I hit crab carapace on the other side I then turned it over and fixed the hole on the ventral side. A two part apoxy putty and then rolled it around some of the dust and rock from the prep and it came out purty good? If nothing else, its a heck of alot better than a big hole in the rock? Still lots more time for this crab, but I can tell from the sides that the legs may be purty dang good? We'll see. RB

Found this over the holidays at a fossil site in Coastal VA that for me at least has never before this same trip coughed up any vertebrae material, that being a fish vert. The primary finds at this site are scallops, barnacles and some of the more common smaller mollusks common within the Miocene coastal / tidal finds.... this is a Yorktown formation locality... so, the question is, is the coiled material a fish coprolite or a tube worm? I’ve certainly never found any similar tube worms in my life so I’m hopeful it’s a coprolite but looking for some input from anyone w more definitive thoughts... happy New Years and thanks In Advance.

It has been a very hectic end of the year with many events both positive and negative taking my focus away from fossil hunting. I have been blessed in those instances when I can go out. I only have a day left this year and I am wondering whether I will brave the temperatures. I have a LOT of motivation. Yesterday I went to a new special location "gifted" by a fossil friend about 5 weeks ago. It has a lot going for it, in addition to high quality fossils and a good friend to hunt with.... We even had a sunshiny day. There are some heavy concentrations of surface gravel but the higher quality material is down 3-4 feet below the surface gravel, the karst, sand, on the clay. It is a lot of work, and I don't find a lot of fossil quantity but....I have been finding one of these about every 12-18 months and I know that is lucky because my hunting companions digging right next to me have not found them. There is no determinate identification for this whale, because usually one finds isolated teeth. I found a 4 inch diameter vert... 3 feet away from the tooth. I do realize this means almost nothing...but I am becoming curious on the lack of larger fossil sperm whale teeth available in North Florida and Georgia. Another photo that shows an oddity that I had not previously realized: This tooth is worn down by constant abrasion with the tooth above/below it and it even seems that the other side is also slightly worn. I had seen this phenomenon in Cat, Sloth, peccary, etc but not previously in whale. Yesterday was a great fossil day --- I will have the memory and joy of finding