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Hi all, I have a ton of teeth gathered from Purse state park and I’m not sure how to ID. Can anyone please help with these few? Hoping to learn how to do it myself eventually

I found this in the Aquia formation. The Crown looks too thick for a Mackerel Shark. Any thoughts?

Hi all, I have probably around 500 shark teeth from Purse in Maryland. I’d really like to try to ID and categorize them, but I can’t seem to find a comprehensive source and a lot of the internet sources don’t have very good pictures. Does anyone know of a good resource to use for this? A book would be great.

I found this yesterday in Namjemoy, MD. Is this Palaeohypotodus rutoti?

I found this in Nanjemoy, Md today. Anyone know what it is?

Took a trip out to the Aquia formation along the Potomac river on Friday, I tend to go to the Calvert Cliffs a little more frequent so it had been a little while since I’ve been to this site. We had some rough weather and high wind earlier in the week so it had my hopes high. I arrived on the beach a few minutes before sunrise. I started out by finding a couple heartbreaking Otodus teeth that were just buried enough in the sand to give me hope of them being full. Alas, three times in a row I unearth a busted tooth. Finally my luck began to turn when I found a gorgeous Paleocarcharodon orientalis! A rare tooth for this site and it was in great condition. I continued on and to my disbelief there was another amazing condition Pygmy! I couldn’t believe my luck, then I just couldn’t help but laugh when saw a third great condition tooth. I could go a handful of trips and not find a single one, and here I am with three! The biggest only being .99” but the serrations on them make my heart skip a beat! But that wasn’t the end of my day, I finally find nice complete Otodus measuring 1.31”. On the walk back I managed to snag two more smaller Otodus to round out the trip. It was a crazy day; the weather was amazing and the river was calm, I had a bald eagle flying over head and I found three amazing Paleocarcharodon teeth! Thanks for reading, until next time!

Collected this oyster? in Maryland, Prince Georges county, I believe it was in the Aquia Formation.

Ok, two fossils here. I think the first is a crocodile vert - found in the Aquia formation or Purse/Nanjemoy in Maryland. Is that right? Any suggestions on how to clean it or whether I should? Not sure what the other piece is, but I would guess it is turtle shell. Found in the same general spot. Can someone help with the ID? Thanks, folks!

I went to douglas point a few days ago, eager to get a large Otodus. What I did not expect to find was a skull fragment with teeth still embedded inside! None of the teeth are complete, but there is a lot of them, and it’s a pretty nice sized chunk of crocodile skull. I wasn’t even planning on doing douglas point that day, but we looked at both of the parking lots of both places, purse state, and douglas point, and I decided that zero cars was better than trying to navigate the beach with over 12 or so cars parked. There was no room for us to pull in anyways so I chose douglas point instead. The hunt started off very typically. I found a few goblins and sand tigers, some really nice bone fragments, and some busted up Otodus, one of which would have hit 1.75 if complete :(. But about half way through the trip, I found something odd. I thought it was one of the sandstone rocks from the zone 3 but it was colored brownish, so I picked it up and when I flipped it, there were rows and rows of teeth lining the bottom. I thought at first that I just found a jaw in the rock and did a little victory dance. It wasn’t until I investigated further that I came to realize that this was a piece of SKULL. WHAT?!?!? In my 10 years of collecting, I never would have thought that I’d ever find a skull. I was ecstatic! I will be taking this to the Calvert marine museum for further study and if they need this, I will give it up :(. That’s what a good scientist would do. Anyways, here are all the finds from that day. I found a lot. The whole haul: The whole haul flipped: Close up of the better stuff: I found 3 broken up Otodus teeth, a complete shark vertebrae, a scute, a coprolite with a fish scale inside, and a crocodile skull fragment. All the better stuff flipped: Underside of the skull: There are so many teeth in here! This is my first every crocodile skull, I’m now hoping to find the other pieces when I come back to this location. What a find! Coprolite: You can actually see what this animal had for lunch. This is a pretty neat fossil and would probably have been my favorite if not for the skull! Thank you for reading guys. I hope you enjoyed this trip report!

Just observing both shark teeth side by side. The heterodontus teeth have rounder cusps and a textured enamel near the root, similar to what you see on top of their crushing teeth.

@Jeffrey P and I checked out Douglas Point today to try our hand at finding some of the Late Paleocene fossils the site is known to offer. We found many shark teeth and partial ray teeth, but my special finds of the day were these two larger bone chunks. I am hoping that they are diagnostic enough to be able to identify. The first chunk seems crocodilian to me, perhaps a part to the neural arch on a vertebra. I suspect that the second chunk is too fragmentary to be identified as something other than bone, but it is worth asking what people think. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Two recent trips to the Aquia formation along Maryland Potomac River yielded some pretty nice finds. First trip started slow just finding your average sand tiger and goblin shark teeth but by the end scored a few Otodus; unfortunately they were all worn with feeding damage but the largest at 1.95” is still quite the find. The two small Cretolamna were nice additions to the haul as well. Second trip the water was very high, even at low tide but I had they day off work so I wasn’t going to waste it, and I’m glad I went. Again all my Otodus have some damage to them but the bigger one measuring just under 1.7” even with the missing tip is a great tooth and one of my best Otodus from these locations. Top it off with two crocodile teeth and a nice shark vert and it turned out to be quite the nice hunt even with the high water.

This is probably one of my best days out in the Paleocene I’ve had yet. I went to purse state park today and upon arriving, there were at least 6 cars. The beach was flooded with people, and boot prints were all over. It seemed well traversed. The tide was also coming in, with some of the beach inaccessible without wadders or high boots. It was slow going on the first half of the day but the second half couldn’t have been better. I was finding one stunning fossils after the next. This was a pretty good outing, and I will have to return as soon as possible. Here are all the finds: Everything pictured: I found a few sand tiger teeth, a back bone of some kind, 2 pretty nice sized Otodus teeth, and a complete ray mouth plate! This was a really good find I am extremely happy about this. Only a foot of beach had been exposed and I was finding a lot on these recently kicked up cobbles. Nobody had been around and the surf must have mixed up the gravel to the top of the beach where it was redeposited. A ton of people were on the beach, and there was a huge tide coming in, and this managed to be one of my best days in the Aquia. Closer up: A really nice little hound sharks tooth. These are my favorite tiny sharks teeth to find here. There is also a couple of sand tigers, a scapula (?) of some kind (crocodile? Turtle?), 2 nice Otodus teeth, and a show stopping ray plate to top it all off. This is my first complete large ray plate. I have a couple other small ones but this one is huge. Flipped: The ray plate is so cool. I am very happy that I came at high tide I think I will start doing that more often now. Lots of finds to be made! Ray Plate and Otodus: This was such a good day. I think the Aquia formation might be one of my favorites. I want to go out to Virginia at some point to collect the Aquia it’s been a while and I know there’s good stuff there. Thank you guys for reading this! I really had fun out there with a parking lot full of cars.

I have been collecting the Aquia formation in several different locations over the course of a few months or so. I haven’t been able to post the finds yet, so I decided that after all this time, I would just group them all into one rather than do a bunch of different posts. The locations I got these from were pg county, and Douglas point. I found a lot of really good stuff, it’s been very productive lately and I’m especially loving the new site in pg county. A lot of good fossils have been coming out of there recently. I am really excited for some of the future trips coming up, but until then, I will show y’all the finds from these locations. PG county (1st location): This little creek has produced a lot of really good finds. Every time I go here however, I always end up finding a broken Otodus. I have never pulled a complete Otodus out of here in all the time I’ve been visiting. Someday it will appear. Here are the photos of all the finds: All the finds grouped together: Two incomplete Otodus, a couple sand tigers/goblin sharks teeth, and some stingray plates are all that was found at this location. A cucullaea gigantea (giant false ark shell) found at this location. Some of the shell was intact as well. Close ups of the bigger sharks teeth: The two Otodus teeth are both broken, with one being heavily worn, and the other having a sheared blade and cusplet. Why I cannot find a complete one here I don’t not know. There are also some sand tiger teeth pictured here that I found as well. Flipped: The broken Otodus to the right is so pretty. Too bad it’s not complete. Smaller sharks / fossil fish teeth: In this photo, there are small sand tiger teeth, a hound shark tooth, and some other smaller species as well. There’s some fish teeth pictured here as well. Smaller fish / shark teeth flipped: I really love the deep black on some of these teeth. I hope to find a bigger one in this color. pg county (second location): Now this place is one of my favorite to go to. It’s got a lot of ground to search, and the fossils that come out of here are in stellar condition. the invertebrate fossils that come out of here preserve extremely well, and the vertebrate material from here is quite abundant as well. Every trip there never leaves me empty handed. In the past I have pulled out multiple Gastropods, a complete Otodus, 3 complete crocodile teeth, large sand tiger teeth, and a whole lot more. I now have some of my best Aquia formation fossils from both of these groups thanks to my recent trips here. The finds are as followed: Vertebrate remains: I have found quite a bit here. These are some of my best vertebrate remains I have ever found from this particular formation. The finds pictured here include a monster of a crocodile jaw, that is one of my favorite finds pictured here. That crocodile would have been massive in size. I measured my largest tooth against its sockets, and it didn’t even compare. The teeth coming out of this croc would probably be 2 inches in length. It’s a really big jaw! I also found a really nicely colored greenish orange sharks tooth from a goblin shark. It’s pretty big as well. The smaller sharks teeth are nice as well. I love the color of some of them. Vertebrate remains close up: The croc jaw is truly the star of the show, but I love all the fossils that come from this place. I will be returning here soon and look forward to collecting here once again. Flipped: The edge of the bone is extremely detailed, and it came right out of the clay as well. It’s like the bone just fell off the crocodile. The teeth that come out of here always have a lot of colors, and can be orange, greenish tint, or white colored. I I’m normally used to blue teeth from the Aquia so it’s cool to get some unique colors out of here. The bone itself also can have purplish tones to it making it stand out, and I have some pictures of the bone color uo close. The preservation from this layer is outstanding and I hope to keep pulling good fossils out of here. Close up of croc jaw: I don’t know if it’s obvious but whenever you look at this bone closely the color is almost a light purple of lavender. It’s a really beautiful color and makes the fossil all the more interesting. Invertebrates (some shark teeth in rocks, and potential Native American activity?): I found some oyster shells, a really nicely detailed small Gastropod. A really large (5 inches length) gastropod, a couple shark teeth, and some rock that looked worked. I’ve been looking for Native American stuff and believe to have found some pottery from here and some large rocks with chucks broken out of them, almost looks intentional to me and not done by the earth. Anyways I’m always keeping my eye out for that kind of stuff. Fossils close up: The two gastropods are my favorite finds from this location. I love how hefty the first one is, and the second one is beautiful. It’s hard to extract fossils from this stone complete as the shells are extremely soft and the matrix is hard to break open with a hammer and chisel. Douglas point: I have found a lot here. I took two trips here, which have been both separated. The first trip gave me a nice fish jaw, an Otodus in superb condition, and a lot more. I found a lot that day. The second trip was a whole lot less finds but found a small croc tooth and a really cool looking paraorthacodus clarkii. Here’s all the finds from this location: First trip: I found a lot this day. A piece of pottery from the old plantation, a huge fish jaw, some nice sand tigers, and a bunch of Otodus including a beautiful sharp 1 1/4 inch Otodus. Closeup: Some of the better stuff found that day. Close up of Otodus: What a stunning tooth! It’s absolutely perfect with very minor blade nicks from feeding. It actually makes this tooth a little cooler that it had been used to eat something. Fish maybe? Crocodile? Turtle? Another shark? Who knows. Otodus flipped: I am in love with this tooth. This is one of my prettier Otodus teeth. Last trip: I didn’t find a bunch this trip. There was absolutely no wave action, the water was still, and there had been no storms. It was way too calm to produce any good finds. I still managed to scrape up a small crocodile tooth, and a paraorthacodus clarkii with broken off cusplets. Some nice sand tigers as well. Here’s all the finds: Not much found that day. here’s a picture of the orthacodus: Broken off cusplets but it’s one of the biggest and most peculiar looking orthacodus I have in my collection. Thank you all for reading! This was a really fun compilation to put together and I cannot wait to get back out there and find more fossils. I’ve done a lot of research and am very excited with what locations I have next in store to visit.

Interesting shell found at Douglas Point, Maryland which should be Paleocene Aquia Formation. Didn't see an obvious match anywhere online, any ideas?

I was going through sand from Douglas Point, MD (aquia). Maybe this is heterodontus or maybe I would just like it to be? It is 7mm across.

Going through more sand at home. Lots of fish teeth. Most broken teeth I didn’t bother with.

Hit the Aquia Fm at Douglas Point, MD on Sunday and found some beauties. I am really unfamiliar with Paleocene sharks and wondered if anyone wanted to help ID some of these. The one I'm most interested in is the small one on the left pointing outwards. Sorry for the lack of scale - the biggest aren't much longer than a cm. Thanks!

Here are 8 teeth from Douglas Point, MD. Aquia Formation. Thought I’d get opinions. The first 6 are around 5.25 mm. The last 2 are 2 mm. I have 75 more to go through and decide on ID.

Finished searching the three bags I brought home. Was curious if it was worth bringing sifted sand home. I believe it was worth it now. I’m sure I missed some teeth. I didn’t put a ruler next to the small teeth, because it was mostly useless. The majority of the teeth were round fish teeth that were brown or black. Also found were fish teeth blades, fish verts, fish bones, ray teeth, and various shark teeth. To prevent having too many teeth, I usually don’t keep broken teeth

Brought sifted sand home to go through. Finally going through some. Still have a lot to go. Mostly find round fish teeth. Some of the tiniest teeth I’ve found to date. Using microscope for pics.

I’m guessing sea turtle, since it doesn’t appear to be snake or croc?