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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.

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone can identify these for me. I believe they are all alligator but I do not know for certain. Thank you!

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.

Good morning everyone! I was hoping someone would be able to help me identify this weird looking fossil. I researched it for days and think it may be a really worn down sea robin skull! It is the size of a US quarter (24.257 mm in diameter) I found it while sifting for sharks teeth in Fernandina Beach, Florida (Nassau county). Anything helps! Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone, I am going to go with a sure thing as I need I pick me up. I found this at Shark River NJ. I can’t find anything the resembles it in any of the Fossil Sheets available from the area on the web. It has tiny serrations Thanks as always for your help

Going on a trip to Amelia island in a couple weeks and I would love to know some tips/locations for fossil hunting there. Thanks in advance.

Hello we found this tooth while sifting for shark teeth in the Peace river in Arcadia Florida USA. It was found in the gravel patches near the middle of the river. Anyone know what it could be from?

Hi all! Answering @jpc's question about the site's accessibility in winter and if we actually dig under snow. Yes, we do! (something must be not right in the head). Today we tried the dig at -1C'. Had to make a pretty big hole too (the deepest I've seen there). No big teeth found, hopes for the micro-matrix.

Hi all! Here I describe how we sift for Late Jurassic fossils in Moscow Fili Park, in continuation of Fili Park evokes mixed feelings. In fact, now it is the main place for Jurassic fish and reptile teeth. Nowhere else in our Jurassic will you be able to say casually: "I'll go find some teeth", here it is possible. Even in Ulyanovsk, with all its skeletons and verts, teeth have to be searched for a very, very long time. For Muscovites, Fili Park is literally close at hand (for me, for example, it takes a little over half an hour to get there). In addition, Fili Park introduces hobbyists to all types of paleo-activities: excavation, sifting, preparation, stabilization, gluing, varnishing, water management, sorting out micro-matrix, etc. On the other hand, it's the most difficult site I have seen in our Jurassic and certainly not a place for a pleasant pastime. Cold, mud, mosquitoes, nettles, everything is flooded with water, everything crumbles and collapses, pouring water and mud on you, while you try to get out your boots gone knee-deep in mud. There are few holes, and digging another is complicated. The place is full of stones, branches and debris, and over the years everything has been so dug up and down that the likelihood of making your way through tons of dirt, debris and old dumps in vain is very high. Excavation and operation of a hole is not a matter of one day or even one person. Dozens of people dig and sift in one hole for a month, with the number of interesting finds combined counted on the fingers of one hand. This year's holes: Unlike Cretaceous sites, micro-matrix in Fili does not consist of teeth in any way. You will not find 60 teeth from a bucket of mud in any wash fraction. In addition, it contains an annoying amount of pseudo-fossils, including those similar to teeth: seeds, twigs, insects, modern shells, black phragmocons and serpula fragments, shiny pebbles, etc. In this regard, there are also objects like this: As far as I understand, these belong to modern insects, if not, please correct. With all this being said, the small size of the location is surprising: all the adventures of recent years have taken place on a small area of 50 by 20 m. I once witnessed guys complaining they could not find teeth by sifting mud. Naive folks! They did not realize the tooth layer was a meter UNDER the stream bed. And the latter is by the way the lowest point of the site. The nikitini zone begins with a thick layer of belemnite shell rock, reminiscent of a concrete lid. After getting through, the matrix becomes soft again, and the pink fulgens fossils get replaced by the black and white palette of nikitini layer. I would call large brachiopods of the genus Mosquella its marker. Instead of smooth kachpurite ammonites, ribbed epivirgatites begin to appear, and rare large (up to 40 cm) lomonossovellas become visible. Each trip for nikitini fossils takes about three hours to clear the old hole. That's why it is important not to postpone the excavation, but keep it within one day, arriving at dawn. Any hole crumbles constantly before the eyes, all the abomination from rubbish and glass to the walls of the fulgens zone slides right into the center of the hole and sinks to the very bottom. Do not try to reinforce the walls with branches and stones, or later you'll have to get all of this out of the target layer. Instead, try to divert as much water as possible from the excavation. See where the streams come from and cut new channels for them. Try not to splash on the walls and do not allow the scooped water to flow back into the hole. The walls collapse where the water flows. Do not make vertical walls, obtuse angles prevent the edges from collapsing. A typical pit in a pit, the smaller hole's edges are formed by the walls of the nikitini belemnite shell rock: For better understanding. Shovel, buckets, sieves, chair. The water has been drained out. The stream is to the right: First of all, in an old (any not freshly dug) hole, you'll have to scoop out several hundred liters of water (the procedure will have to be repeated several times a day). A regular bucket works best here. Unfortunately, the pumps cannot cope with the job. They are either submersible or designed for clean water, etc. Basically a weak surface fecal pump is needed, but there are none for sale. Last time, amateurs in ordinary rubber boots (lol) asked us how we had "drained the hole". With our own hands, getting there in waders up to the max At the second stage, you will need to scoop out all the dirt and debris, a medium-sized fishing scoop helps here (in my opinion, better than a shovel). It is useful when clearing a hole, quickly scooping out water and working with mud. "Awesome" Fili slurry, aka the matrix:

I tried to get some dolomite ready for prepping today, this is first time I've used the dolomite since I got more serious about the quality of my medium, and first time trying pure dolomite. The dolomite I have is raw dolocron from the pottery supply house, I couldn't find any pre-sifted on their website. I used a mortar and pestle, baked the dolomite and sifted through a 120 mesh. Very little powder went through the mesh and what did is still clumping and sticking to surfaces. I don't think it will run through the paasche like this. Here's the mesh after a spoonful of dolomite: And here's what made it through the mesh Is there something I can do to make this workable or do I need to find someplace to buy pre-sifted dolomite?

VERY new to all this - like, started internet research a few days ago. My 4 year old son is obsessed with sharks, so I am taking our family to mataoka beach to look for some shark teeth fossils. I picked up some colanders and sieves from the dollar store to make double level shark tooth sifters, similar to some stuff I saw on this forum. **But how do I know where or which stuff to scoop sift for sifting?** Thanks in advance for any advice - links to videos especially appreciated!

Wallace fossil hunting at Frankstown, MS video link

What kind of shovel do you prefer to scooping up gravel in creeks for sifting?

Hi, I understand SC is pretty strict with using implements to dig around on state lands, like creeks. However, does anyone know how this applies to public beaches? I would like to hunt Folly. Can I dig into the sand with a shovel to sift through with my sieve? If not, can I use my hand to load up the sieve? I'm questioning whether a sieve can be used at al.

A ny insight?this is the only rock I found today that look like it could be fossil related trying to learn and grow thanks guys

Hey all! Just an FYI that sifting does not only apply to beach front fossil hunting. Outside of pulling rock from the ground, one great way to find smaller fossils is digging up a bucket worth of dirt at a good dig site and sifting through the debris. I dig for and collect Ordovician fossils, so I will not only excavate land for fossilized fossil plates but I will sift through the loose dirt for corals, trilobites, smaller shells, rogose...etc...

Today we started out at ramanessin but it was slow going so we switched to big brook and had lots of success. First two photos are maybe a ray or saw fish tooth or something? Still not positive on the mammal jaw but looks to be modern.

Finally managed to get out on a Florida fossil hunting trip for the 2014/15 season here in South Florida. Instead of going to the Peace River (where the water level is still dropping from a huge spike due to heavy rains nearly a month ago around Thanksgiving) I contacted Jeff (jcbshark) and we planned an outing at the creek where he collects his world famous cookiecutter shark micro-matrix. Earlier this year I had searched--cup by cup--through nearly a 5-gallon bucket of micro-matrix I had collected from the Peace River looking for cookiecutter shark teeth (to no avail). It seems that cookiecutter shark fossils are absent (or incredibly rare) in the deposits that the Peace cuts through. I've been fascinated with cookiecutter sharks since I learned about them as a kid (yup, I was a fish geek even then). The odd hole-saw-like fused lower dentition of this shark has been on my fossil bucket list since I first saw the images on this forum. Many of these images were posted by people searching through samples of the micro-matrix that Jeff had sent out to TFF members. It was high time I got in on the fun. I met up with Jeff and a few of his wife's relatives (who were new to fossil hunting) on the creek early Saturday morning. We were later joined by Chris (Search4) who came along to try his luck. The air temps were still climbing out of the low 60's but the skies were clear and the temps would later top out in the upper 70's so the chilly water (likely somewhere in the mid 50's) was actually quite bearable once you got used to it (read that as "numb"). The creek was mostly pretty shallow and I didn't get any deeper than about knee-deep all morning. My wife Tammy (always the more practical) was wise enough to bring her waders for comfort (and style). Jeff led us to the location he had previously collected his cookiecutter micro-matrix though he mentioned that there was likely nothing special about this spot and that the same sort of matrix could likely be gathered from anywhere along the creek. The creek which is the source of the cookiecutter micro-matrix. I had brought my micro-matrix collecting gear and soon got to work. I have sifting screens that I've made for searching the gravel beds of the Peace River and its tributaries. I've previously described how I make my sifting screen (and my probe) here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/42992-end-of-year-peace-river-trip/#entry467550 I've since converted one of my sifters from 1/4" mesh to 1/2" mesh for when I work areas with coarser gravel or when I want to work through larger amounts of gravel quickly while looking for larger items. I brought my 1/2" sifter along with one of my 1/4" sifters as well as some 1/16" window screen mesh cut to size so that it fits comfortably into the sifting screens. The technique I use to collect micro-matrix is to double sift using a stacked pair of sifting screens. I place the fine window screen mesh inside the sifter with the 1/2" mesh. On top of this sifting screen I stack my sifter with the 1/4" mesh. The arrangement can be seen below: Loose window screen mesh fits inside one sifter and a second sifter fits on top of the first. The stacked sifters efficiently sort out the micro-matrix.

Hey Everybody! Happy new year! So my wife and I went down to Florida for a week to spend the holidays with my mother in law who lives in Cape Coral. We spent a few days around Christmas on the Peace River canoeing and fossil hunting. The weather was great and the river gave up some of her bounty. The river was only about 12 inches below normal which was a little higher than I am used to but I'm not complaining. The higher water makes it harder to dig deeper when the water was already up to my chest in some spots but we managed to pull out some good stuff. Here's the bounty. I am also going to post some items in the ID section that I would need some help with so check out that post too if anyone can help. Thanks and enjoy! Shark teeth. I know just a fragalodon but look at the size of that tooth! Shark teeth. I did well with megs this trip! I actually pulled up my sifter on a dig and had 2 megs in it! That was a first for me Some interesting staining shapes on this tooth's enamel. From what?? Gator scutes, turtle, horse teeth, ray dermal scutes, puffer mouth plate, clam cast, and some mammal bones I believe this bone chunk has some predation teeth grooves on it?? Nice tortoise spur, manatee vert, turtle, horse teeth, middle pic is a drum jaw section, puffer mouthparts, alligator teeth, ray teeth, mammal bone pieces This stuff all came from one hole I was digging in. Lots of ivory pieces, mammoth tooth piece, toe bone?, vert?, whale tooth?, and large piece of bone. Lots of tusk pieces. I was hoping my shovel would scoop out a nice piece of tusk but did not. I will be going back to that spot later in the season. Saw a lot of big gators on the river on this trip too. This was a big one! Thanks for lookin!

Ok, so it wouldn't be my first rodeo in a nice steady rain, or a torrent sans lightning of course. But for those of you familiar with Point A Dam in Alabama would the weather report this week turn you off ? Do you have a go-to for weather and water levels ? I have a small window with my brother and he's been itching to get out with me somewhere .. anywhere .. and Point A is closest to us here in Gulf Shores. We may huff it over to Florida if the weather looks too crappy .. but any advice would be welcome. If you'd rather a PM I'd be fine with that too. Thanks, Brett