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My past two trips to Ramanessin Brook in Holmdel, NJ have been especially productive. Resulting in much larger teeth and much more diverse finds, Ramanessin has proven to be a much better spot than Big Brook for me. Here are the finds from the first trip: Many large anterior goblin shark teeth; a very large crow shark tooth; some very nice mackerel shark teeth; two pycnodont teeth; coral; a large ghost shrimp claw; a large ammonite fragment; a scallop with both shells intact; what I believe to be a fragment of a very large sawfish tooth (though it does seem especially striated for a sawfish) Finds from the second trip: More large goblin shark teeth (one pathological); another large crow; some very curvy mackerel shark teeth; small shark vert and a fragment of another; some sort of bony fish jaw; various sawfish crowns; a beaver tooth (more insight as to its age would be greatly appreciated); two Gastropod molds; ratfish jaw; I believe the two large fossils to the right are a coral imprint and possibly a lobster claw another pic of the beaver tooth; it seems hollow inside chewing surface seems worn; leads me to believe it is a modern adult beaver tooth up close pic of the lobster claw; noticeable “dots”

Hi. New to forum. I am new to fossil hunting. Have been to Peace River and to Calvert Cliffs. Planning trip to Big Brook this weekend. My question to this group... Where do you park? Access points? (I'm am not asking for secret locations or the such). I'm generally fascinated by the fossils...the hunt, the find, and then the identification. Any help would be greatly appreciated on how to access the brook and any tips. Thanks I'm advance! Candace

Dear Fellow Fossil Fanatics, I just had a great day at Big Brook, found some shark teeth but also 3 specimens that I am not sure at all what to make of. Any insights would be awesome! Best, Huttner

Hi all, me again, I wanted to share a closeup of the bone fragments that I found in Ramanessin to see if I could get them ID'd further since I know how the brook tends to make fake fossil bones i want to check that the ones I found are real fossil bone 1) the big one, i think it might be a cretaceous turtle shell, it passed the burn, and the lick test. 1A) I believe these are also enchodus jaw fragments. 2) 2A)

Stick around, this one's a read but I'll try to make it fun. So, I have been to big brook last year, and While I enjoyed it, since I went in early feb, the ground was frozen which prevented me from finding much, as the brook was stingy that day. Nonetheless I decided to try my luck with Ramanessin as i heard good things about it. Because none of my family or friends could be bothered, I decided to take a day off work and drive 4 hours to the area and spend the night so I could get the most out of the location. what follows is the result of 2 days straight of fossil hunting. which I will try to tell the story of in order. Day 1 the scoop I arrive at the site a little past 12, choosing to waste no time, I make my way down to the brook and start to sift the gravel. as opposed to when I went to big brook in winter, Ramanessin was generous with her gifts. I found 4 teeth in the first scoop. I took this time to make my way up the stream cutting back and forth sifting every gravel pile I could find. my personal method is to put no more than 5 scoops into the sifter. that was the way to guarantee I got at least something out of it. it was during one of these sifts that I found the curious reptile tooth here. I will be doing a separate fossil id post later of the teeth and bones. but this was one that i knew was something special. I also found this really nice cross section of ammonite. the sutures were beginning to separate, any longer and they would have come undone. It was also this trip that I found these chunks of bone, now I know the brooks have this nasty habit of producing concretions and discoloring modern bones to Look like fossils, but i am 80 percent sure that I found some genuine articles here. Taking the ###### at some point in this day, I decided I needed to pee. so, to avoid being spotted I ducked into a small mouth of a tributary to do my business. while I was wrapping up, something caught my eye, something I couldn't believe. the outline of the Biggest, and likely one of the best lateral goblin shark teeth I have ever found. I was absolutely giddy. after picking it up and doing a little field prep washing it off in the water it was easily 1.8 in. and as the story usually goes as I am looking in this little alcove of gravel, I see the root of yet Another massive goblin tooth root, this time submerged in the dirt. I chanted to myself "please be whole" as I carefully brushed off the tooth to reveal a gloriously intact fossil. easily one of the best and most fortuitous pee breaks i have ever had! It was on my way back that I decided to put the trash bag I brought to good use and pick up the garbage I saw on the way. I'm not going to lie here, I have found it pretty shameful how many shards of glass and cans I would find in this place. But I took it upon myself to fill the shopping bag as best I could. I didn't want to be stuck out in the dark, so I hurried back to the car and dropped the trash in the nearest bin. Lodging back at the motel, I spent the evening cleaning off my newfound loot. I took this time to carefully superglue the ammonite chunk so that I wouldn't lose it. I took one of the plastic cups in the hotel room and cleaned my fossils with it. Day 2 lost sifter After breakfast, I returned to try my luck again, but when I opened the trunk of my car I was met with the absence of my sifter. I t was then that it dawned on me that when I came back to the car I had only my shovel and my trash bag in hand, tricking my brain into thinking i had everything! realizing it was probably lost, I went back to the brook to try my luck surface collecting. The region had received some rain overnight and into the afternoon, and although it wasn't flooding, the water was considerably higher than last time. i was almost discouraged until i noticed something bright blue on the opposite side of the brook... it was my sifter. right where i left it on the top of the overbank. I was so elated I was laughing at my turn of luck. "Hang On! I'm comin!" I yelled at the inanimate object. there was a fallen tree 4 meters from the sifter, so in my full wading gear, I straddled the trunk and shimmied over to the other side and retrieved it. mosasaur it was now that I decided to make my way upstream and sift past the areas that I had already hit. I noticed a few tracks of bootprints here and there. I was initially discouraged by the fact that whoever it was got further than I was hoping they did. but that all went away when as I was sifting through a pile of gravel, I noticed a sheen of blackish enamel. picking it up I realized this was likely yet Another reptile tooth, and the chances that I bagged a mosasaur had effectively doubled. (did I mention yet that this was my 1st time to Ramanessin?) check your spoils as I made my way upstream, I came across the ruins of some old concrete structure in the middle of the brook, either a dam or a bridge foundation of some sort. to my right I saw a large spoil pile. out of curiosity, I started to look at it trying to see if there was anything the previous person missed. and boy was there. I found another huge lateral goblin, and (Pictured separately) a massive sawfish rostral tooth. it was crazy to me thinking about missing not one, but Two easily trip maker sized teeth in your spoil pile. let this serve as a lesson to newbies, to double check spoil piles you see, just because you never know what the last guy missed! crow island I waded and sifted my way upstream past the concrete structure, tactically using my shovel as a sounding stick of sorts and pointing my toes in the direction of the current so as not to lose footing. I stopped just past a footbridge where there was a little island of gravel that had accumulated over the weeks. as I scanned the shore, I saw another trip maker: an absolutely huge Squalicorax prisodontus tooth. it is at this point that I notice that I want alone, there was a group of boys that went bicycling overhead. now, all through the day I was completely alone, talking to myself about the stuff i was finding and being a general silly guy. I'm sure that if anyone came up to me while I was like this, they'd think I was insane. I took this brief encounter as my sign to start heading back to the car. the wade back the wade back I made it a resolution to not sift bit surface collect only. the thing is, that in the hours between when I got there and now, it had stopped raining. and when the rain stopped the waters started to recede after an hour or two. So here I was, walking back to the car past effectively virgin shoreline, with only an hour of sunlight left. I was delaying myself left and right with tooth after tooth that I would find on the shorelines. some being decent sized in their own right! after I returned home, I spent the remaining hours of my sanity cleaning and sorting the finds of the day. this is the total finds for day 2. Aftermath below is the combined total of fossils. of the identifiable items I found approximately 234 goodies over those 2 days. my display case for Cretaceous NJ was looking a little sparse before, but now its looking a little fuller as I am writing this. if you notice any special things in the pictures I missed, please let me know, I love educating myself on these things.

I found this yesterday in one of Big Brook's upper tributaries. Big Brook is in Monmouth County, New Jersey and is famed for its Upper Cretaceous fauna. Occasionally, Pleistocene material is found there. This definitely is not Cretaceous. Probably modern though it does feel heavier than a regular tooth. Deer is a likely candidate, but I wouldn't rule out caribou in which case it would be a fossil. I have found a lot of modern bones in the brooks in Monmouth County. Any ID help or direction to resources would be appreciated. Thanks.

On Friday I made a visit to an Atlanta area gem/mineral/fossil show. Generally I have poor luck at these shows, in large part because there are only a couple of dealers with fossils. This trip was different. One of the dealers was selling some items from an old collection. Most of what I bought was exciting to me because they are species I have wanted for a long time, for one reason or another. First up is a nice (to me at least) New Jersey Tiassic coelocanth, Diplurus newarki (I think the genus might have changed but Diplurus is OK for now). The dealer thought it was just a skull so it was very cheap, as the rock is very black and it was hard to see the skeleton in the room lighting. I used the flashlight on my phone to give oblique light and was very happy at what I saw! He also had some ammonites I was excited to see. Two are Triassic, a Ceratites nodosus and an Acanthoceratites spinosum from Germany. I collected a Ceratites when I was a kid (about 10) living in Germany, but it broke and all I have left is a piece. I've wanted a better specimen for roughly the last 50 years! I started to clean out the inner whorls on the Acanthoceratites but that will take quite a while. There was a third ammonite that was labeled as another Triassic species, but when I got home I recognized that it is actually a Placenticeras, a Late Cretaceous genus. I am not sure of the species and the preservation is different from the North American sites I know about, so I suspect it might be from a European source. I'll post more photos in the Fossil ID thread to see if anyone recognizes it. I also scored a trilobite I've wanted forever, an Elliposocephalus hoffi. Not because it is especially pretty, but because it is representative of the Chechosolakian Cambrian that is so important in trilobite lore. I also grabbed a nice Calymene celebra. Last up for now is an OK shrimp from Lebanon. The body is all authentic, but I'm not 100% sure about the appendages. It's pretty nice though so I like it. There are a few other little things but the above is enough for now. When I got home a box of New Mexico ammonites from the Christmas auction was waiting for me, which made a good day even better! Don

Found in NJ Cretaceous stream. The root hole and lateral? striations on the tooth is what made this stand out. Any thoughts on possible plesiosaur or croc?

Hello everyone, first post in this forum! If I make any newbie mistakes please let me know and I’ll edit this post/remember for next time. I have a broken reptile tooth sifted from Big Brook (a stream near Marlboro, NJ) that dates to somewhere between the Late Campanian and Early Maastrichtian. I posted this online at another point and it was identified as a crocodile tooth from the original pictures I posted. I’ve been sitting on this one for a while though and it doesn’t seem to line up with the teeth from other known crocodilians and from this area (Brachychampsa, Borealosuchus, Hyposaurus, etc). Can anyone offer a second opinion? It has really prominent anterior ridge on the front of the tooth which makes me think it’s possible a theropod but it doesn’t look like Dryptosaurus. The back half is broken which means I don’t have any serrations to use as an ID. I’ve included the files in this post. I have also included some bonuses to these image though. I believe I found what appears to be a bird femur in the brook but I’m not certain if this is a quaternary find or actually from the same formation as this tooth. Anyone have a family id or insight on how to check if this is fossilized or just turned black from the soil? I also included some images of saurornitholestine teeth which I personally thought are close in appearance to this tooth. Thinking I might be too hopeful on that ID but thought it was worth sharing my thoughts lol. Material of these dinosaurs has been found in New Jersey!

Hi all, Any thoughts on this piece? It appeared to be rock-like wet, but as it has dried out, seems to have a porous appearance. Found in a Monmouth county area brook

Hi all, I could use some help identifying some recent finds. All found in Monmouth county in a freshwater creek.

Hi fellow fossilers! I found some items in the Big Brook and Ramanessin areas that I have not been able to ID. Any help would be appreciated! I know belemnites and shells. Cow shark and others. The bones I don't know. My dad is a chiropractor and told me at least one is a wrist bone of some kind. Their is a tooth that looks like a foot that I can't identify in 5th image.

I took a fossil finding guided tour last month and now I'm pretty much hooked! If someone could please help with identifying these. Found them a couple days ago sifting in a creek in central NJ.

Yesterday I stumbled across Poricy Park Fossil Beds, which led me here after digging, but I was fortunate to find some of my own first fossils, and was even gifted four large ones from a passerby who stopped to make sure we got something good out of the experience. All of the said fossils are aquatic molluscs (or maybe sponges? But they definitely look like bivalves). Here are the four gifts: Here is a shell fused with a rock, although quite well: Some sort of clam piece? Another of the same/similar build And something very similar to the four fossils we were gifted, albeit much smaller, but we found ourselves! Also, is using 3rd party photo uploaders, such as flickr, allowed? I feel that may be easier for me to upload everything. Wasn't sure so didn't want to risk it :). Thank you for any help you give me!! It is greatly appreciated by the newbie :3

Hi everyone: Found this tooth via sifting in one of the downstream parts of Big Brook - I think it may be from a Hadrosaur but I want to rule out any sort of weirdo sawfish or something. Please take a look:

A few days ago I took a trip to an Eocene/Miocene site in New Jersey with a friend. It was going be a quick trip so we weren't expecting very much. Not long after we started digging my friend scored a nearly complete Otodus aksuaticus. A little while later when I lifted my shovel out of the water I saw a big tooth fully exposed on my shovel. I instantly knew it was one of my biggest Otodus auriculatus teeth from NJ. This tooth measures 2 11/16 as it is and would've been over 3 inches if complete. It is my second largest auriculatus tooth from New Jersey. Despite not expecting too much, this trip ended up being a great one.

Hello everyone. I'm making my rounds across my different groups and forums, so if anyone has seen these photos before you'll have to suffer through them again. From June through the end of August I locked in on a concentrated area of sand tigers, makos, and my favorite mega-tooth shark: Otodus auriculatus. I didn't find one every trip out, but my most plentiful day gifted me 3, and my last trip out provided me with the largest tooth I have ever recovered from the garden state. I battled minuscule mosquitoes and a horsefly that was every bit horse as it was fly. Despite nature's best attempts to discourage me I persevered and wound up with 10 Otodus auriculatus teeth, a few decent makos, one whole and one half O. chubutensis, and a particularly nice cetacean tympanic bulla (ear bone). For anyone new to collecting there is disagreement over whether to classify the genus as otodus vs. carcharocles, but whether you go by O. auriculatus vs. C. auriculatus, we are discussing the same species. I enjoy collecting them not only due to their size, but because of the wide variation in shape, as well as their wicked serrations. You will find a picture of my rics down below. Additionally you will see a picture of a cetacean inner ear bone, either a whale or dolphin (as an aside dolphins are whales! but I digress). From my reading, there is no correlation between the size of a cetacean ear bone and the size of the animal it came from, still, my one and only mammal fossil that I am proud to have found. These finds are the culmination of many hours out in the field, and many more reading papers, talking with my friend, and my back begs me to reiterate, many, many hours in the field. While better quality and larger teeth have been found (many by my friend) they've given me hope that I may be able to find some exceptional pieces in the future. I've included a close-up of my larger ric as it shows its color with greater accuracy. The smallest ric is the most well preserved of the group, as smaller teeth often are. Thanks for viewing, Steve

Hello! These were all found in Monmouth County, New Jersey (Late Cretaceous). I have believed the first tooth to be Xiphactinus Vetus for years but am a little thrown off by the general texture of it and after searching images of Xiphactinus teeth, I can't find another that looks similar. I have found deteriorated Mosasaur teeth with a similar appearance so I was wondering if it could just be stream-worn. The tooth is about an 1.5 inches long, has two very defined cutting edges and a nice curve (which are all consistent with X. Vetus). The last thing I could add - it either has 'fluting' or is faceted but I'm not sure how to determine that. The second set of pictures is of different shark teeth from the same location. As always, all help is greatly appreciated! -Frank

Hey everyone, I just moved to South Jersey (from North Jersey) a few months back. I love fossil hunting, but I am afraid that I do not know much about the area other than some of the bigger sites or finds (i.e. Hadrosaurus in Haddonfield, the Rowan site). Today, I drove to check out the tributaries around Big Timber Creek in Stratford. While the stratigraphy looked quite nice at a few places, I unfortunately came out empty handed. I work in GIS so I have been following the bedrock with stream layers, but I suspected that I probably should add topology in there! I am hoping to follow the Navesink and Mt. Laurel formations up from there. Anyways, this is all new to me! if anyone had any tips or advice for fossil hunting down here, than let me know! Any advice is greatly appreciated! thank you

Found this the other day. Very long rooted but extremely worm mammal like tooth. Thought it was modern but burn test did not reveal any burnt hair smell and chipped a part of the root off to reveal what looks like mineralization. Any tips on this one? Tried to include as many angles as I could along with a tape measure to show size in length and width. thanks!