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Showing results for tags 'choptank'.
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Hi all, I finally made the trek to Matoaka Beach, a fossil collecting site along the Calvert Cliffs on the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. The beach is accessible to the public for $5 per person per day. Once we arrived, we reported to the front office where the property owner and his adorable newborn daughter were happy to collect our fee and give us access to the beach along with advice on how to best hunt the grounds. He advised us to head North (left of the entrance), which was what I had also read online. Apparently, the farther North you head, the better the fossils tend to be. So my dad and I made our way down the stairs to the foot of the cliffs, and began searching. The beach is very wide, so it's difficult to decide where to walk. I was finding fragments of Chesapectan shells left and right, but nothing quite worth keeping. But then, after maybe 5 minutes of hunting, I looked down at my feet and saw a large, complete, Ecphora staring back at me. I could hardly believe it. At a site where invertebrates dominate the matrix, a nice Ecphora is just about equivalent to finding a Megalodon tooth. And yes, I am aware that Meg teeth can be and have been found at this site before, but the find that I was after that day was certainly Ecphora. It was a gorgeous specimen, much larger and more complete than any other I'd found before. And there it was, just laying out in the open, a couple hundred yards from the entrance. I excitedly showed my dad the find, and promptly continued hunting, although I knew there was likely no beating what I had just found at the very beginning of the day. As I walked farther North, I marveled at the cliffs, which were absolutely chalk full of invertebrate fossils. It was incredible, and unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I kept finding crushed shells and small pieces of fossilized coral, but nothing spectacular. That is, until I stumbled upon the section of the beach where many huge chunks of the cliffs had fallen. I decided to look for large shells sticking out of the cliff falls, and very quickly discovered the best method for finding fossils at Matoaka. Immediately, I began finding giant Chesapectan every couple of inches in the cliff falls. After unearthing about a dozen, I decided to head North again to see if I could find another similar section. I walked at least a mile farther and found next to nothing, so I turned around and headed back towards the digging site. When I arrived, I saw that my dad has discovered the falls and was digging through them just as I had been. We both set down our gear and decided to spend the rest of our day there carefully excavating shells from the matrix. This was certainly different than the fossil hunting I've done in the past. It felt more like the traditional "dig site" hunting that most people think of when they think of a paleontologist or archaeologist. It was really cool. At one point, I saw a familiar spiral structure just poking out of one of the falls, and quickly recognized it as a small Ecphora. I plopped myself down on the ground next to it and spent the next 20 or so minutes cautiously excavating it. I foolishly forgot to bring a digging kit, so I resourcefully used broken fragments of sturdy shells around me to dig out the specimen. Although I chipped off a few pieces of it, I managed to extract it from the matrix mostly intact. With that, we headed back towards the entrance. We decided to sift for a bit to try for some shark teeth, and eventually I found one and my dad found three. Matoaka is unrivaled for invertebrate fossils along the Cliffs, but it's definitely not a top spot for teeth. Overall, I was incredibly pleased with my first trip to Matoaka Beach. From the friendly owners to the beautiful scenery and wildlife and the fantastic fossil finds, Matoaka Beach is a must for any fossil hunter in the DMV area. We ended up finding a ton of Chesapectan, ranging from "itty bitty" nearly the size of my hand, some stunning Ecphora, fossilized coral and barnacles, some Turritella, and a few shark teeth as well. I already can't wait to go back to Matoaka. Thanks for reading my report. Hoppe Hunting!
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- ecphora
- chesapectan
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Hello. I found this tooth today at Matoaka and wanted to get a different perspective than mine. This tooth seems way old for the Choptank formation. First, it seems like a Paleocene tooth snuck in to a Miocene formation. To me, it seems more like otodus obliqqus than hastalis. Reason? Cusps. My tooth has more pronounced, albeit worn down cusps than any I've seen on hastalis. All i'm trying to say is that it is very different and uncommon and would like to know what it is. Tooth.
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Bony Fishes of Maryland and Virginia: accurate?
FossilsAnonymous posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hello All, a friend recently recommended this site to me who lives right down in Calvert itself. He recommended it to me if I wanted to learn more about Maryland Fossils. My question to you all is: is this source present-time and accurate? It was published this year, but may contain information from previous years that has now been proven different. Thank you all because I am eager to learn! Site itself:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327907444_Miocene_bony_fishes_from_the_Calvert_Choptank_St_Marys_and_Eastover_Formations_Chesapeake_Group_Maryland_and_Virginia PDF is available for downloads. Thanks in advance. -
From the album Maryland Fossils
1/2 inch in height Miocene Choptank Formation -
Sometimes you just get lucky. This geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) was sitting with its mate in living state, filled with matrix, under a pile of landslide rubble at the water's edge. The exteriors of both shells were almost completely clean of matrix. Most other specimens were badly cracked in the matrix and would never have survived the fall. This shell was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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From the album Calvert Cliffs
I excavated this from matrix that fell out of the Drum Cliff Member of the Choptank Formation in Calvert Cliffs. I have looked at all the books and online resources I have to find a species, but nothing quite matches. If anyone has a species, I'd love to hear! This is the only specimen I've ever seen, let alone found. This one, like most other shells in the matrix, is extremely fragile and would not have survived exposure to the elements long. -
From the album Calvert Cliffs
Can you believe I found this just sitting there, sticking out of a block of landslide material on the beach and wiggled it out with a screw driver? Never found even a suggestion of one before and this is only one of two I found in three days of carving through that block to discover the rest of its treasures. The other, sadly, is not in as good a shape, but still a treasure! Found at Matoaka Beach, St Leonard, Maryland. -
From the album Calvert Cliffs
A recent landslide revealed an ancient bed of these paper-thin shells, all in pairs. They lived buried well into the sand and extended long necks up to the water to feed. Consequently, the shells did not get moved, just filled in and stayed in pairs after the animals died. They can be extracted mostly whole with some great care. -
Collected on the beach. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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- choptank
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Due to the extremely fragile nature of this specimen, and the species in general, I was loathe to clear out any more of the matrix from the interior of the shell, so bits and pieces of other shells are present. The large central piece is the inner "cup," which attaches to the "saucer" at only a very small point in the tip. Collected from landslide material in the bay. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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Collected on the beach after a storm. This is an index fossil for the Drum Cliff member of the Choptank Formation, Shattuck Zone 18. Choptank is the dominant formation at Matoaka Beach. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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Unusual coloration. Typically these are red, sometimes with buff patches, but not usually all buff. The broken areas show the buff color to be a layer on the outside as there is red showing through the breakage. Collected from fallen cliff matrix in the bay containing index fossils of the Drum Cliff Member, Shattuck Zone 18. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History
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We took a trip down to the Matoaka Cabins in St. Leonard Maryland Saturday. I knew we weren't going to be making low tide in the morning or late in the evening, so we were there pretty much at high tide. The boys had fun playing in the sand and finding a few fossils. Our 2.5 year old actually found the first, he picked it up and asked if he found a fossil. We hung around for almost 4 hours before we headed pack home and beat the evening storms. Our 8 year old was thrilled to find fragments of ecphoras, chesapectans and ray dental plates. I found a few pieces of coral, a couple shark teeth, a possible fish vertebrae, and 4 mysterious bits that if I were to guess I would say 2 fish coprolites possibly and then the other 2 are maybe turtle or maybe croc scutes? The ruler in the pics is cm...because imperial is a pain.
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Collected from matrix washed into the Chesapeake Bay by landslide. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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This piece was excavated out of a block of matrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay by a landslide. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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Collected from matrix in the Chesapeake Bay that was deposited by landslide. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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Collected from matrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay by landslide. Donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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I never knew if the oyster shells on the beach were fossil or modern until I pulled this out of a block of matrix deposited by landslide into the Chesapeake Bay. This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. Genus changed from Parahyotissa.
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Excavated from a block of submerged martrix deposited in the Chesapeake Bay by landslide. The common name, geoduck, is pronounced "gooey-duck." This specimen was donated to the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
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This is a particularly fragile type of shell, made of many fine layers, and is prone to disintegrate as these did. This rare steinkern was found on a block of matrix submerged in the Chesapeake Bay. Dimensions are for the best-exposed steinkern on the block. The entire block is 14 cm wide x 10 cm high x 5 cm deep.
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Found on the beach near Matoaka Cabins. This is the largest one I have found to date.
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