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Showing results for tags 'potomac'.
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Recommendations for trip to Montgomery County Maryland (Potomac)
SteveRogers posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello! I'm heading out to spend a few days in the DC Area visiting with family, specifically around Potomac, MD. I have never been there, so I've been trying to collect info about the geology in the area, and fossil sites. I've found some Maryland sites on the forums (along the Potomac River, and the Calvert Cliffs). Most of the maps I can see locate spots farther south than Potomac, so I was wondering if it was worth looking along the river that far north? Thanks, any hints would be welcome! -
I didn't think we would get out this weekend, my daughter's birthday was on Saturday and I knew that the Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Club was going to be at Stratford Hall...but with nothing else to do today, we decided to head down. We arrived at dead high tide and once again, the water was higher than we ever saw it before...there was hardly any beach. I felt sorry for the folks that shelled out money for the M-AF&NC, spending over $100 to get access to areas that were in many cases, under water. I did hear that there were some cool finds, a big croc tooth and some 2"+ Makos. I also heard that Dr. Weems was excavating a 4' whale skull, I'm signed up to attend an event with him in a few weeks so I can't wait to ask about it. Well, we settled in to sift...and sift and sift some more. We were finding the typical small stuff, nothing spectacular but still fun. I sifted up a baby Meg, too bad it was broken. Seeing the cusp on the side was pretty cool. My wife found what looks like to be some more turtle material and then on her last two scoops, a nice snaggletooth and a cow shark tooth. Total Haul. Baby Meg, love the cusp! Too bad it wasn't whole. Cow Shark...last scoop of the day! Unknown, possibly turtle? Side 1. Side 2
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My wife is having surgery in a couple of days so this was her last chance to get out on the water for a few weeks. The river was pretty angry today and we searched on a rising tide, we still had a good time though and I finally was able to find my first complete cow shark tooth. Angry river! Glad the water is warming! Total haul. My precious! Found this and I'm not sure what it is...I originally saw it from this side, had I saw it from the other side I wouldn't have even gave it a second thought. Maybe part of a drum plate? Here's the other side...looks like a rock.
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Went out to Purse the other day with my girlfriend, its been way too long since I last got out. Tides and water level have not been good lately. I just bought my girlfriend a new pair of hip boots and she's been itching to use them. 80 bucks at Cabela's which i didnt think was too bad at all. It was a beautiful day and the tide was surprisingly low with a good bit of wave action. Found some cool stuff including what looks a like a goblin tooth to me with a elongated root. Boneheadz
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I asked my wife what she wanted to do for Mother's Day and much to my surprise, she wanted to go to the river! Since her surgery was last Thursday and she hasn't had much activity since then, I was pretty surprised. The idea was that she would hang out in her new beach chair and relax but the allure of shark teeth was too much for her and she cruised the shoreline a bit too. We only spent a couple of hours but I was glad to see her up and about and enjoying the beautiful weather. The water was high and rough but because of this, it continually revealed teeth. I hardly spent any time at all sitting, most of my teeth were found walking the waterline. Amazingly enough, this was my third straight trip that I found a whole cow shark tooth! Total haul: Love these teeth! I'm shocked every time I find a whole one! Dolphin tooth.
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I was able to sneak in one more hunt with my wife before her surgery tomorrow, we had a beautiful day to go too! The only downside was that the water was extremely high (full moon and/or winds) and she had to spend two hours on a conference call for her work while I was free to search. For the most part we had the beach to ourselves, a couple of people wondered down and were curious about what we were doing so I gave them a quick lesson on the area...a few minutes later one of them came back with a smile on his face and asked if a bone fragment was a fossil. He was ecstatic when I confirmed it for him, his first fossil ever...and he added on to his collection with a few shark teeth as well. I sifted on and off and I found my second complete cow shark tooth, if I keep this up I may challenge @WAHAMA90 for the title of cow shark king (not likely). I've got a couple of unknowns, maybe geologic, take a look and see if you can identify them. Total haul: The "trip makers" My second complete cow shark tooth! Love these! First unknown, reminds me of the turtle stuff I have found up river at Purse. Side 1 Opposite side. Second unknown found by my wife, top (?) side. Side view. Bottom (?) side.
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Unlike the success that @WAHAMA90 had yesterday, we were not as lucky. There was hardly any beach to search when we arrived, the winds from the past couple of days had packed the water into the Potomac. After driving 90 minutes, we didn't let it deter us and went out anyway. We brought along a contractor trash bag to help clean up the river and unfortunately we filled that full pretty quickly with mostly recyclables. The shark teeth were not as easy to come by as the trash...and when we did find them, they were small. Funny moment of the day was when I found a decent Otodus tooth, I held it up to show my wife and it slipped out of my hands into the river. Oops! Well, on the positive side, I'll get to use my new digital microscope to check out the tiny teeth and we can honestly say that we did something on Earth Day. Total haul of teeth: A waterlogged knucklehead dumping the trash: Total haul of trash:
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Another beautiful day in VA had us running down to the river despite the bad tides. It wasn't as exciting as last week's trip but we did have fun as usual. The only reason I'm even posting this trip is because we found a couple of unknowns that we need some assistance in identifying...one I believe may be from a turtle and the other looks like it is some sort of tooth, but I can't say from what. I'm going to post them both up over in the Fossil ID page too. Total haul, I like the little Mako. I'm thinking this might be part of a turtle shell, thoughts? Bottom Top Side. Unknown tooth? (It is just to the right of the Makos in the total haul picture) Oh yeah, my wife found a whole shark...pretty sure it is modern though!
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I went through some of my wife's collection today and came across something that I have no idea on. I'm used to the random bone frags but this looks different to me and I can see why she grabbed it...it looks like a small turtle's head and that what she thought it looked like too when she grabbed it. Please weigh in on this, I'd appreciate any opinions!
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This is posted in the fossil hunting trips as well, they were both found at Stratford Hall on the Potomac. The first I think is part of a turtle shell but that is just a guess. The second looked like a tooth when I found it sifting, but I honestly couldn't say for sure. I'd appreciate any help I can get in identifying these. Thanks! Unknown #1 - Bottom view Top view Side view. Unknown #2 Looking in the end.
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Ok so I'm brand new here and I'm hoping you guys can help me out. I found this what I think is a fossilized bone (maybe skull) fragment washed up on the beach at westmoreland state park in montross virginia along the potomac river. The area, I believe, is part of the calvert cliffs along the chesapeake and therefore should be from the Miocene. I've been trying for months to figure out what this thing is and the best idea I have come up with is maybe a skull fragment from a miocene dolphin of some kind but I'm honestly not completely sure it's not just a rock. I may have gone overboard with the pictures but I wanted to make sure you guys had the best possible understanding of what this thing looks like. Its about 5cms at its widest point. Thanks for taking a look.
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Sometimes it can take me a while to do a trip report, but i feel like better late than never right? I headed out to Douglas Point for the main reason of getting some sand material that Ive been told is good for micro teeth. I found the material that i was looking for and loaded my backpack(way to full). I had just made a new sifter for micros and was looking to test it out, and I know literally nothing about them so if anyone wants to chime in on some resources i can study go right ahead. Anyways, I did my regular fossil hunting and didn't find much other than some nice Sand Tigers. I had a disposable camera with me that day that I was trying to use the rest of so I took some scenic shots with it. Enjoy!
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Wow, let me tell you, today was an interesting day. I headed out to Douglas Point for the first time today(been to Purse several times) and man did I get a hand full. When we first arrived at the beach it was pretty choppy and a little windy. We made it past the first set of cliffs and found some beach and started searching. Thats when the wind picked WAY up. We kept moving and heading down the beach fighting violent waves and making our way through deep water with big waves with only hip boots on. lets just say we got a little wet, not the best thing to do in the middle of February. After a mile of walking or so we realized we wouldn't be able to make it back the way we came and our only option was to make it all the way to Purse and walk up the trail there to the road and then back to Douglas Point where we parked. Fortunately with all the wave action we were able to still find some teeth. Found some interesting material that I believe to be Scutes? Need to look it up haha. It wasn't until we made it back to the car that my Dad showed me he found his first PaleoCarcharodon! A little small but really not too bad of shape. It was a learning experience for sure. Feel free to jump in and help me with a little ID. Also took a few macro pics, enjoy! Boneheadz
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I met up with Boneheadz to do a hunt together at Purse and I'm glad that we did, nice to have a fellow tooth nut along for the hunt. Great day to be on the river too, pretty warm and the Potomac was extremely calm. We got to the river about 2 hours after high tide and headed out. We both went further downriver than we had ever gone before, scanning the beach and poking around the newly fallen matrix. I can't say it was a banner day for finds but as usual, the finds were consistent. After three hours of searching, we left the river with the tide still an hour away from being low...always next time! Here are my finds, Boneheadz will post on here later with his finds. My total haul. A first for me, a piece of matrix with a tooth in it. Otodus, too bad the biggest one was damaged. On the way back, I looked out over the marsh and spied an eagle's nest. I love seeing the eagles along the river.
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First video Ive ever made from some footage at Purse SP a couple months ago
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hi I found this tooth on the shores of the Potomac river near popes creek, Maryland. i think its a transitional otodus but am not quite sure. thanks, branden
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hi i found this tooth on the shores of the Potomac river near indian head Maryland recently and was curious if its a otodus or a transitional otodus. thanks, branden
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What a day! We were both kind of bummed that we couldn't go out yesterday in the beautiful weather since we had to pick up the girls from their grandmother, but we did pick up my wife some hip boots to make it easier to search for teeth (she is styling in them too). We woke up today to light rain and dreary conditions...after debating it for a few minutes we decided to go anyway. In the back of my mind I was thinking that this trip was going to be a bust, with the good weather the day before I was sure that the place was picked over...glad I was wrong! The beautiful thing about the river is that it is always changing, and the rain and wind today produces just enough chop to keep the sand stirred up, and the river revealed its treasures to us! Within a few minutes of hitting the beach, we both found mako teeth that were high and dry...great way to start! The water's edge was constantly spitting out really nice teeth as we went back and forth; I couldn't believe it when one wave came up over a gravel bed and when it receded a Meg was laying there! My second Meg in two trips! Unbelievable! It will be hard to top this trip this year...but we will try! Total haul: My second Meg! (Now to find a big one...I know, I'm getting greedy! ) Biggest Mako. Another nice Mako I found just before leaving.
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It took until the last day of the year but I finally found my first Megalodon tooth! It is a small, very worn one with root damage but I'm still pumped about finding it! My wife found her first vertebrae as well as her first fragalodon. I've had a blast since I took this hobby up in July, can't wait to see what the new year brings! A thank you goes out to everyone here who has been so generous in sharing your knowledge, it more appreciated than you will ever know! I hope you all have a great new year! The total haul: The biggest vert: My little, worn Meg and the nicest Snaggletooth I have ever found: My wife's frag:
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Took a quick trip to the Potomac today and grabbed something that I thought was a croc tooth when I saw it, after grabbing it I didn't quite know what it was. All my other croc teeth from the Potomac are round, this is oval. The lack of an actual point makes me wonder if it is just a bone. Any ideas? Upper left corner.
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Getting back in the swing of things after a very hot summer in which i did little to no collecting. Headed down to Westmoreland for the day, hoping something good would be laying there. It was a beautiful day with minimal wind but the tide wasn't all that low due to recent rain, but water was clear and calm enough. Found a nice little mako that i was able to get a picture of before i picked it up. Also found a big chunk of bone that still had some matrix still on it, not sure what it is or what its from, if anyone knows anything feel free to chime in. On the way home I stopped at George Washington's Birth place to just walk around as i usually do. Thats when i came across these signs, it seems like theres been a problem with bull sharks recently. If anyone has a knowledge about that id love to hear it. There wasn't anyone down there at the time for me to ask. Enjoy! Boneheadz
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It has been almost a month since I was last able to get out, I was happy to be able to get half a day to go play at the river. I had my choice of hunting during a good tide in the Paleocene area upriver or a bad tide down river in the Miocene area...of course I chose the latter! LOL! I had picked up some neoprene chest waders that I have been itching to try out, I knew I didn't need to use them upriver but at Stratford Hall, I would have to head into the water to sift. Well, I can honestly say that I got a great deal on them (used once by a new duck hunter who decided he didn't like duck hunting)...they were comfy and dry, but I now understand why most people prefer the light waders. Neoprene is fine for a place like Stratford Hall where you don't move much, I would have hated them if I had to cover any distance...Lesson learned! Anyway, back to the trip...a lot of little stuff and some neat frags. My best find was when I sat down to take a break and spied the root of the mako sticking up...my best so far! I also thought the little dolphin tooth was pretty cool, much smaller than the one I found during the last trip here. The little vert is pretty interesting as well. Here's the pics: My biggest mako so far, I like the colors on it. Dolphin tooth...a real little one. Little vert, I'm guessing some sort of bony fish based on the shape.
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I had originally scheduled today as a day off to go hunting...well, sitting in a tree when it is 80 degrees is mighty uncomfortable and the deer movement is usually nil, so I did a little shark tooth hunting instead. It's been a few weeks since I was at Stratford Hall so I set my sites on there. I would much rather just surface collect but since I'm restricted to the beach, I broke out the screens and sifted. I can't say I got anything too exciting, though I did find my first dolphin tooth which made the trip for me! I also found a small tooth that I'm not sure what it is, I looked through my book and my usual web sites for an ID an I've got nothing. So please help me out, let me know what I found. Total haul: Mako First Dolphin tooth My unknown...finding a tooth with cusps like this here has me confused. It is only a little over 1 CM wide Front side: Back side.
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I got my weekend chores done early today and my wife asked what the tides were like today...after a quick check, we were on our way! You have to love it when the temperature was in the high 70's at the end of October! The water is still warm enough to wade in too, I was kind of shocked to see one lady out hunting for teeth in a bikini, I guess everyone was taking advantage of the unseasonably warm temperatures why they could. We didn't find anything super, the normal stuff for this area. I guess my favorite finds for today were the verts, too bad one was worn and broken.
