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Found this on my last trip to Bakersfield. Temblor Formation, mid. Miocene Normal finds are shark teeth, marine mammal parts, fish verts, etc. Basically all marine unless something washes in. Item is 25mm wide x 8mm tall. Any ideas?

A few weeks ago I was digging out a section of the mid. Miocene Temblor Formation deposit and unearthed this large but damaged Carcharodon hastalis tooth. Man, what a disappointment! It seems like it had succumbed to the dastardly faulting damage this area is known for. Long story short, I took it home with my head held low. Fast forward to the following weekend and I went to the same dig hole with the intent of screening loose matrix for micro fossils. It was obvious someone had been digging in the hole during my absence, tossing sediments out of the pit. Low and behold while sifting the silt piles I came across a broken tooth tip in the screen and I got to thinking...hmmm! When I got it home and cleaned off, sure enough it was the missing part of my tooth found the week prior. It seems near impossible to find such a thing given that so much material had been moved around and thrown from the hole. But now I have the whole tooth. All 2 3/4" of it!

What is the largest planus you have seen. I have 8 over 2 inches. My largest is 2.24 inches. Here is the photo.

Hello, found this tooth in the Round Mountain Silt formation in Bakersfield this weekend. The tooth had serrations, but they are worn down. At first I thought the tooth was a small meg, or a large hemi. Upon closer inspection it does not seem to fit either of those species well. The root is not consistent with that of a meg nor a hemi. Now I am thinking it could be some kind of Requiem shark. What do you guys think?

This was a prep I've last year, but for some reason I've never posted it on the forum. So I thought I might change that. Last year I was fortunate enough to take a visit to the Ernst Quarries and dig for some shark teeth. Although most of the fossil I've taken home are either bones, four partial regular-sized teeth, and mostly tiny partials (some of which I accidentally damaged while digging ), the biggest find of the day was this large Cosmopolitodus hastalis tooth with its crown partially sticking out of the matrix. When Rob noticed the tooth, he initially estimated it to be ~2 inches long and insisted that I keep the tooth in the matrix, saying something like "The tooth itself is worth about $15. If you keep the tooth in the matrix, it'll be worth $60". Although my reason for visiting the Ernst Quarries was to find shark teeth to keep rather than to sell, I for some reason decided to keep the tooth in the matrix. However, I still had to prep this baby when I got home! Below is the tooth how I found it. This was going to be my first (and so far only considerate) prep I've ever done. Rob told me that the matrix can easily be scratched away using a fingernail and so taking his words and some advice I've gotten from the forum regarding something else, I grabbed one of my mom's needles and started quite literally digging off the siltstone. After around 10 minutes, a perfect root base showed up. This tooth is obviously going to be a perfect whole, so you just gotta keep scraping off the matrix. One really helpful thing I've realized at this point is that the needle I was using was perfect for such beginner's prep- it was strong enough to remove matrix effectively but not enough to do any damage to the tooth itself.

Found within two feet of my other Megalodon tooth. Temblor Formation, mid. Miocene, Bakersfield, California

Here is a find that I have been wondering about, it's about 7". First glance it looks like a average rib bone. Thing is I have a lots rib bones but nothing like this. First interesting thing is the weight, it's heavy, at least twice as heavy as the average STH bone. Second it's not fragile, I dropped it on the tile ( by accident) and it bounced. Third is that it is very dense by the outer edges and is hollow in the middle. Any ideas? Thanks

I have been going through some of piles of bones in my yard and I came across this piece which I didnt find too interesting untill I cleaned off the end and found it to be partially hollow. The hollow part goes about 1/2 the way down and tapers to a point. Anybody have any ideas? I have got guesses from partial tusk to large fish spine. Thanks Jesse

Here is an interesting tooth I found sitting on the top of the ground while looking for a shark tooth I dropped. I'm thinking some sort of broken mamnal tooth. What do you think? Size is 10mm across

Hi everybody, I found this small tooth, I thought it looked like an interesting Squalus but then I looked on Elasmo and didnt see anything like it. What do you think? Location: round mountain silt, bakersfield CA. The scale is in 10ths of an inch

I found this earlier this year, can't figure out what it is. The more I look at it the more I think coprolite. Let me know what you think.

I found this jaw section (?) while digging in Bakersfield. Anyone have any ideas about its origin? I am thinking fish but what do I know, I have never found a jaw before. Thank you.

My wife and I went up to Bakersfield this past weekend with my parents. My parents were visiting from Florida, and since they are interested in fossils too we all went to Ernst Quarries on Friday, Nov 10. This was my parents' first time digging for ancient shark teeth so they struggled to find teeth at first. My mom is in her late 60's with arthritis and she didn't do any hunting even though we paid for her to go in the premium area. She did some sifting through the tailings, but really spent most of her time socializing with the other diggers, found out about their lives, what they did for work, etc. Then she would come back, tell us some old stories and entertained us while we hunted for teeth. I found some nice teeth, mostly mako's, but also walked around, checked out some other areas. My wife on the other hand picked a spot, and sat there hammering and chiselling away the whole morning, on the same spot. Shortly after noon, we were all hunting for teeth quietly. All of a sudden my wife, calm but in a rapid voice, said "Jesse". There was this restrained excitement in her voice, "check this out" she said. I jumped out from my hole immediately and let out a nervous chuckle. My mom perked up and asked "What is it?" I had not seen it yet but with some resignation I told her, "she found a meg." And indeed she had. My wife, hammering and chiselling away big chunks of layer at a time, had uncovered the tip of a meg. A whole chunk of layer had fallen out, and right there in the center of it was this fat tip, half an inch long, sticking out, serrated on both sides. We were elated. Every since we started digging for shark teeth 2 years ago, we have gone to Bakersfield at least 30 separate times, sometimes digging for 2 and 3 days at a time. We have moved at least 100 tons of dirt with a shovel. When I go digging, all I want is to find a meg. I have found chunks of 3 different megs, a half tooth here, a 1 inch piece there. Earlier this year my wife found a small meg, ~2.5 inches with part of the root missing. But we have never found a big Meg, let alone intact. Now my wife steps away from her spot, hands me a small brush and asks me to uncover it. After the initial shock and excitement of finding that serrated tip sticking out, the real drama begins. Your heart is racing, all kinds of thoughts flash through your mind: Is it whole? Oh please let it be whole, does it have a root? You are so excited, you want to get it out as soon as you can, but you don't want to damage it by accident, so you take all this extra care, which takes more time, and in turn makes you even more anxious and desperate. The people around you, watching you brush it off, are also excited and anxious. Finally, the tooth brakes free! It is whole! I pick it up with my gloved hands and my first thought is how heavy it is. Can't believe I am finally holding one. It looks great, I feel pure happiness. I got a meg everybody! After the initially euphoria, we wrapped the meg in a towel and put it inside a box to take it home. We have been starring at it every night and every morning ever since. I still can't believe we found a meg. My wife thought that once we found a meg, my consuming obsession with fossil shark teeth would subside. But finding this meg has only stoked the fire, now I want to go dig even more and find more meg teeth!

Found this tooth in Bakersfield, in the Round Mountain Silt formation on Nov 12, 2017. From looking at the diagrams on this site, I think it could be megamouth shark tooth. But I am not sure, since I think that is not a tooth found in that formation. Any comments or ideas are appreciated.

Went fossil collecting in Bakersfield Round mountain silt formation this weekend and found an unusual tooth. I think it belongs to a mako shark (isurus planus), but it is unlike any other shark tooth I have ever found from the locality. The root is damaged, but it is more than twice as thick as any other hook mako I have ever found. Never seen a shark tooth this thick. Any ideas on the identity of this tooth? Thanks in advance for the help.

First off, I want to thank Doren for sending me a small flat rate box full of STH matrix for me to try sifting through. I still have quite a bit of fine matrix to sort through but already I've managed to find hundreds of specimens. I've found quite a few Carcharhinus, Cetorhinus, Galeorhinus, Squalus, and tons of ray teeth. When I'm finished with all the matrix, I think I'll write a follow-up post with all the nice specimens I found. I'm having a little trouble identifying various species of rays - maybe someone has a literature suggestion to help me get familiar with different tooth characteristics? From what I can tell from other posts, the features that differentiate some ray species are quite subtle and to my untrained eye, very difficult to distinguish. I wouldn't mind some ID help with these teeth in particular. Scale to the right is in mm. If you could also comment on how common/uncommon these species are and what position they are in the jaw that would be immensely helpful as well. Also, maybe someone wouldn't mind making a list of the species found at STH and rank how common they are? Also, does anyone have suggestions for removing the last bit of silt/sand from the crevices in the teeth? I've tried water and gently stirring but that does not have much of an effect. Thanks for your help!

Just a brief update on the status of Sharktooth Hill (Ernst Quarries) in California. I meet with member Lee Taylor from South Carolina for a dig last week to do a bit of digging for teeth since he was coming out here for work and the majority of his tooth hunting was done underwater. The only quarry available was Slow Curve. Not much was found be either of us ( I. did get the largest I. planus that I have found there 2 1/8" ). There was another small family group digging there as well that day, six of us in all. Due to the heavy rains we have been encountering this winter, all the roads leading to the other quarries have been washed away and Rob stated he has no plans to repair them. Instead, he stated sometime this summer, he wants to build a road that goes directly to East Quarry from the entrance, thus bypassing that long winding "trail" to the distant quarries. With plans to excavate parts of East Quarry similar to what was done to Slow Curve to establish premium areas to dig. So to sum up this storyline, if you are planning to go to the Ernst Quarries "Sharktooth Hill area" anytime, keep in mind the other quarries are no longer available to visit and Slow Curve is the only one open. At least until something can be done to create a new road to access them.

hey guys, found this interesting little tooth while sorting some STH matrix. Any clue who it belongs to? Or what tooth it is?

I spent a few days hunting teeth at the Ernst Quarries of Sharktooth Hill. The hunting was plentiful for the standard Miocene fossils, but I also brought home a few bags of sediment for micro. It took a while to go through, catalog and photograph, but I have the results. There is such a wonderful variety in this sediment! Here are a few of my favorites. All are shown on a millimeter scale. I will be presenting the fossils from this hunt and a previous hunt at the April meeting of the Dallas Paleontological Society, along with tools and techniques for hunting at Sharktooth Hill. Pics below include: Galeorhinus Triakis Dermal Denticles Catshark Heterodont Anterior Heterodont Posterior Triakidae (Smooth Hound Shark) Bony Fish Teeth

In October, Kevin Anderson and Jim Poepsel flew out to Bakersfield to hunt 4 days in the Sharktooth Hill Ernst Quarries with the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History (BVMNH). This was a good idea! The staff and families of the BVMNH and the volunteers and fossil enthusiasts there were very friendly and hospitable. We had the good fortune to hunt in the East, West and Slow Curve Quarries as well as visit the Tohill land. Kevin, Jim and I are working on a presentation to the Dallas Paleological Society on our hunt, but here are a few of the over 800 teeth I recovered. Stingray tail barb from Slow Curve Allodesmus (Seal) Canine from Slow Curve (note how red it is!) Puffer fish mouth plate (Slow Curve) Oplegnathid Mouth plate - has round Molar teeth on the opposite side (very interesting!) More on next post...

This a whale cervical vertebra that was given to me 10-12 years ago. It is from the Middle Miocene Sharktooth Hill Bonebed (probably Bob Ernst's old "Whale Quarry" judging by the preservation). You will notice an unusual trough-like depression (perhaps 3-4mm at its deepest) in the bone surface. For years, I thought it was a bite mark though it seemed like a weird one. Then, a couple of years ago, I found this publication: Thomas, H.W., Barnes, L.G., Klein, J.E, and S.A. McLeod. 2008. Examples of paleopathologies in some fossil Cetacea from the North Pacific realm. In Wang, X. and L.G. Barnes (eds.).. Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology of Western and Southern North America. Contributions in Honor of David p. Whistler. Science Series. 41. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. After looking at the various patholigies figured in that article, I think the depression is a pathology. It is too smooth to be a tool mark from the time it was dug out. A force strong enough to leave a mark like that would have shattered the bone of this preservation (rather fragile, ceramic-like quality) to some very noticeable degree. Maybe someone else has seen or studied something similar?

Hello all...this vert is from the Ernst East Quarry....Miocene..Round Mountain Silt...I'm not even in the ballpark trying to nail this down...I was thinking that this might be a Caudal vertebra of a dolphin...... any thoughts? It's 4 cm in height...4cm wide...I'm assuming the holes are for Vertebral Arteries?