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  1. Hello again everyone! After a quick trip out to Holden Beach with some minimal finds, I was left with some indecisiveness on the location my next fossil hunt, I was presented with the opportunity to go back to Surry County, Virginia to hunt the same locality as I did back in August. I was a bit unsure if I wanted to make the trip again, as I had a fairly rough time during the last trip with some stomach issues, and I had felt I had a decent enough haul from that time. However, after Tropical Storm Ophelia went through the area dumping a lot of rain and the forecast was predicted to be much cooler than August, I decided to make the return. I can say with certainty I am very, very glad I made this trip! I was also given the opportunity to stay on site this time as well, which was really cool, and I made a few new friends with the fellow hunters that were also staying there. This is once again very picture heavy so hang in there once again. A small note, I had previously though all of the fossils were from the Yorktown Formation, but I was corrected on this; the site is primarily Late Miocene Eastover formation, with a fair bit of Early Pliocene Yorktown Formation, with the cobbles from the Cambrian Swift Run Formation mixed in in places. Starting again with some pictures of the site, not much had changed in two months, aside from some of the cliffs collapsing partially, which unveiled some new, fragile bivalves. The sand they had put on the beach that covered some of the material had been washed out a little bit, so there were more fossils and Cambrian cobbles at the water line than previously. It was particularly rainy on Saturday morning, but as the day went on it warmed up to a comfortable temperature, and became sunny. It was very breezy this time around, so the waves were particularly rough the whole weekend, which helped expose more fossils on the beach. There was once again plenty of cool wildlife in the area as well! This unfortunate fellow was struck by a propeller and washed onto the shoreline late Saturday night. The damage was mostly on the side lying in the sand. This was the first time I've ever seen a sturgeon outside of an aquarium setting. I reported it to a researcher at VCU, who collected it the next morning. He told me it was a male, estimated to be 30 years old. It was around 1.676 meters (5.5 feet) long. I was able to hunt one particular spot in the area where the exposure was fairly close to ground level as well, here is one small look at that exposure. And as a brief glimpse into my finds, here was one such find in situ! (Courtesy of one of my fellow hunter friends I met during the trip) I don't have a particular order to show off this time around, but I'll start with my absolute favorite of my finds this trip: Ecphora! I was a little bummed out last trip that I was unable to locate one, but I lucked out big time this trip. The quality of them is all over the place, but I found a few that were especially good, including the one I had pictured in situ. The one in matrix was found accidentally when I was doing UV light hunting (Which I'll talk about in a bit). This was my favorite one! It's around 11.43 cm (4.5 inches) long, and 8.89 cm (3.5 inches) wide. A very small bit of the outer edge of the opening did break off while I was handling it after this picture was took, but fortunately I had some strong adhesive handy and was able to get most of it secured back in place. On to the UV light hunting, I spent a few hours after dark hunting for calcite and calcite-converted mollusks. I found quite a number of calcite clams, as well as some pretty good crystals as well. Two clams in particular had some fairly decent calcite crystals growing inside fractures between the two valves, which was really cool! These are two small clusters growing on some material. These were particularly luminous with the UV light, much like the crystal-covered clams. Here is a calcite-replaced Turritella on the right, and on the left is an odd-shaped chunk of calcite. It almost looks like the shape of an Ecphora shell's lower half, which makes me wonder if it could be a calcite cast of an Ecphora interior. Here are a few large coral chunks right after I has washed them off. (Septastrea marylandica?) A couple of scaphopod "tusk shells" (Dentalium attenuatum) with a lustrous, double-valve Pandora clam. Some fairly intact Turritella shells. (Turritella subvariabilis?) I found quite a few nice double-valve Chesapecten this trip. Some show up in the UV light at night, which helped me find them. However, some of the larger specimens had a lot of erosion or biological damage to them such as bore holes, so they would fall apart when I tried to clean them. I still ended up with a decent number of them, so it all worked out in the end. The leftmost specimen has a bit of calcite on the outer edge. Here is my largest Chesapecten next to my smallest once again (the large one is about 17.78 cm, or 7 inches, wide). Some large clam tubes I found. (Kuphus fistula?) A few gastropods of decent quality with a double-valve oyster and a Crucibulum limpet. (Crucibulum grande?) This Naticidae shell (Lunatia sp.?) is fairly large, probably my favorite gastropod aside from the Ecphora! Unfortunately, it's extremely fragile, so I refuse to move it until I get something set up for coating my specimens. Because of this I haven't measured it properly. There is a smaller specimen in the opening underneath. A half whale vertebra alongside some different rib fragments I found. One of the friends I made found a fairly sizeable, nice quality whale vertebra. I found this nice tympanic bulla with only a small bit of damage. Definitely better than the one I found in Green's Mill Run! I found this micro crab claw dactyl while cleaning a different specimen. Some areas had microfossils inside of larger specimens, depending on how the preservation was. I finally found shark teeth as well! The white mako is around 5.715 cm (2.25 inches) long, and if the marbled one had it's full root it would be even longer. I found the bottom four purely by accident while getting the coordinates of the deceased sturgeon early that morning. One visitor found a half Otodus megalodon or Otodus chubutensis tooth with beautiful serrations. I found a lot of Discinisca lugubris brachiopod shells this time around, particularly in the area where the calcite was common. Here is one with some calcite to the left of it. There were a lot more Skolithos to be collected this time! The first specimen was given to me by the man who put the whole hunt together, and the second one was one I found later. These particular specimens are nice because they are visible both as cross sections and from above / below, whereas usually it's just one or the other. I found a new type of scallop this trip as well, Placopecten! These are also extremely fragile, so they're currently on-hold and sitting in one spot until I can get some better preservation for them. This one I'm a little unsure on, I'm thinking a Cliona sponge but it might also be a bryozoan colony. It's on a fragment of Chesapecten with a lot of sponge bore holes. (I'll make a post with better pictures in Fossil I.D. later when I get time.) The last on my major finds, these are some intact clams, and they are a lot more durable than the last ones I found! I can handle these to a higher degree than the other ones I found without them falling apart on me. I still want to get some kind of preservation on them. Someone at the hunt recommended Krylon clear coat, I'll have to experiment with it on some other specimens. And as a bonus, these are not my finds, but one of my cabin neighbor's finds. This is an regular echinoid he found, as well as a plate he found containing a fragmented Mellita sand dollar. While I found the very small fragment attached to a Chesapecten, according to the man who set up this hunt he's never seen a sand dollar like that found in the locality, making it a first. That's all for now! Nothing new on the Triassic spots, but I'm closing in on one, and the other is looking promising for next January once hunting season has passed.
  2. Today I spotted a bit of ecphora shell exposed in a sandy/clay stream bank. When I removed it from the bank I was shocked to find it was whole and HUGE! As far as I know it is pretty rare to find these in unbroken condition and this is the largest one I've ever come across. I got it home and started cleaning it off. Most of the sand/clay washed away easily with gentle running water and a soft bristled brush, but the portion that was exposed to the air seems to have cemented itself to the shell and turned a whitish color, while the portion that was not exposed was dark brown and softer. I've picked away at the "cemented" stuff (sorry, I don't really know the correct terms to describe this) with dental picks and made some progress but I am worried I'll damage the shell doing this. Can anyone offer any advice on how to finish cleaning this off without damaging the shell? Thanks. I've included a few photos and I'm happy to provide more detail if needed
  3. Found these at Greens Mill Run last week, first ever ecphoras! The whale cervical vert. is ~ six inches from left to right, it's fairly beat up. The mosasaur tooth is pretty worn too, but the articulated scallop was nice.
  4. Thomas1982

    Ecphora

    From the album: Miocene of Maryland

    Ecphora Calvert Cliffs, Maryland
  5. cthamon

    Ecphora Species and Age?

    Found in Berkley Co, SC, I believe Ecphora but not sure on species or age. Measures just about 3.5 inches length and widthwise
  6. Thomas1982

    Ecphora

    From the album: Miocene of Maryland

    Ecphora Calvert Cliffs, Maryland
  7. It's about 80-90% complete. I've never tried to preserve a fossil shell before. I'll of course follow the sticky threads, but I don't even know if it's safe to run it under tap water to rinse off the dirt. Thanks!
  8. historianmichael

    Ecphora Species Help

    I recently found this Ecphora in an exposure of the Late Pliocene Yorktown Formation, Rushmere Member in Virginia. I was really excited to find it. Sadly the final whorl is missing but I will take a 98% complete Ecphora any day. Ward lists Ecphora quadricostata as the only Ecphora from the Yorktown Formation. This may be Ecphora quadricostata but the ribs are not as prominent at the opening so I was not sure. I know that there are many Ecphora experts on here so before I put down the wrong identification I thought I might as well check with others. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
  9. bthemoose

    Matoaka 1-30-21

    I made it out to Matoaka yesterday before today’s snowstorm and had a successful Maryland Miocene hunt, despite a large amount of ice obscuring the shoreline. (I won’t complain about the cold after @RuMert’s trip report yesterday. ) I found an unusually high number of cetacean vertebrae and cookies (epiphyses), several Ecphoras, shark teeth, and some other nice finds. This Carcharodon hastalis tooth was waiting for me when I arrived on the beach. And this cookie was just a few feet away. Off to a good start! Heading north, the ice got progressively thicker along the shoreline, and for significant stretches covered up all of the gravels at water’s edge. But there were still a few things deposited further up the tideline from before temperatures dropped below freezing. ...including my second cookie of the day. ...and my third—it’s incomplete but is the biggest one I’ve found to date. As the day went on, the sunlight started to melt some of the ice, revealing additional fossils, such as this nice little Ecphora—the colors on these always look so much better when wet! Here’s my favorite find of the day: a small partial ray mouth plate. On first glance, this looked very much like just a seed husk in the water—I’m glad I took a closer look. I didn't find a ton of shark teeth, but the ones I found were generally of good quality, including this Hemi hiding in the sand. This is a weird one. It’s only part of a tooth (croc? cetacean?) and may not be identifiable, but has a bump/ridge across the tooth—almost like a restart of the crown. Pathological perhaps? Or maybe just a tooth design I’m unfamiliar with. If anyone has ideas, let me know. I'll post another photo below and can take additional ones from other angles if helpful. Here's a decent-sized croc (I think) tooth. Most of the enamel has worn off except for a small section on the side.
  10. Frank Eaton

    Mystery ecphora

    I love the ecphora for their improvisations but... I’ve searched the photos from Ward and Petuch for anything similar to this ecphora from the James River in Virginia. It’s a globose shell with six distinct costae. specimen is three inches long.
  11. Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted a trip report, but I thought I would share my finds from yesterday. The rivers here in eastern North Carolina have been at un-collectible levels for the most part since last September when Hurricane Florence paid us a visit. Well, looking at the levels on the Tar for the last week or so, I saw a golden opportunity to hit the Tar right as the river dropped to a collectible level. And hopefully be the first one there! I had the day off and a fossil Buddy took a half day off of work. We hit a total of about 15 locations, all Rushmere member of the Pliocene Yorktown Formation. The first couple of spots we stopped at were a disappointment. Much of the upper cliff had slumped off and covered the fossil layers. But then things picked up. Here are the amazing finds! Great whites, I found the smaller of these two. My buddy found the larger. It is exactly 3 inches. Mine is a measly 2 1/4. Mine both sides after cleaning A mako I found, kind of beat up but the largest I have found from this area. more to come .................
  12. I have been looking into Maryland fossil sites, and am trying to plan a day trip, but I realize it is Labor day weekend, which can complicate things. How busy do the usual fossil beaches get in Maryland? I currently have Purse, Matoaka, and Calvert Cliffs on my list Should I just wait til next weekend? When is the best time to hit the beaches? I am especially looking for a Ecphora gardnerae, if there are any sites which would be better to focus my search at? Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you!
  13. Hi guys! I went out with one of my kids today to the Calvert Cliffs to see what we could find after the thunderstorms this week. We hit the beach around 9:00 and spent about 4 hours. It was calm with very clear water and favorable tide conditions. We weren't disappointed. We found a bit of eveything--some decent makos, hemis, and tigers, a couple of verts, some turtle shell, croc skin (I think), a mostly complete ecphora, a cookie fragment, some cool bone, and other stuff. We didn't find anything enormous, but we were happy with the variety. Enjoy the pic. If anyone has any idea what the delicate jawbone fragment might be from (bottom center), please chime in. I haven't found anything that small before.
  14. Hello all! On Sunday, I realized that Monday would be an amazing day to go shark tooth hunting so I took the chance and went. I arrived at Bayfront park at 8 am and did not find anything significant. I found small teeth, some petrified wood, and a broken shark vertebrae. After realizing that I was not going to find anything too impressive, I drove to Matoaka and encountered the same luck. I asked around and supposedly everyone I met was finding only small teeth as well. The best finds of the day were an angel shark tooth and a fairly intact ecphora. - Timmy
  15. b. bartron

    Growth on ecphora gardnerae germonae

    Wondering what this is on this ecphora gardnerae germonae gastropod from st marys formation. Possibly barnacle related but doesn't resemble normal barnacle base from the area.
  16. I_gotta_rock

    Ecphora Snail

    From the album: Virginia Miocene

    Ecphora sp. Miocene Choptank Formation Virginia
  17. Rowboater

    rapp creek hunting

    Beautiful day, lots of spring peeper frogs everywhere. Creek looked like it had been extensively worked while I have been away. Broken shells and torn down banks showed the local kids(?) have been busy. Everything greening up, yet not a lot of mosquitoes, water levels dropping. Hunting was mediocre, found four ecphorae in other people's tailings, none perfect (one encrusted with barnicles, not shown). Lots of small teeth (but no cow shark or angel shark teeth), some skate pieces, a few broken drum teeth, a nice fin Tilly bone. With Spring turkey season coming up soon, I'll be staying away from the creek for a while, trying the beaches instead.
  18. HoppeHunting

    Hop 5 03/30/19

    1. Hemipristis serra: One of my first teeth of the day, found in the water. Small, but nice colors and perfect serrations. 2. Carcharias cuspidata: Flawless sand tiger. Symmetrical and super sharp, with both double cusplets intact. 3. Galeocerdo aduncus: Gorgeous tiger, almost looks like a G. cuvier because of size. Very nice root to crown contrast. 4. Odontocete tooth: Little porpoise/dolphin tooth with a long, thick root. In very good condition. 5. Ecphora sp.: A very nice small Ecphora, nearly complete, just missing the white part at the top. Rare to find more than a fragment of these at Brownies. Cast your votes! The poll will end in three days, on April 4th at 3:00 p. m. EST. Hoppe hunting!
  19. Rowboater

    rapp creek hunting

    My hip is bothering me, but we've had beautiful weather the last few days so I had to get out. Ended up being a short trip. Most of what I found was broken and small and about half as many teeth as usual, but I tried. Tape is in cm. A three inch ecphora, but missing a tail. Two or three skate stinger pieces. A nice but hard to scan cowshark upper, and pieces, some fin tilly bones, a few angel shark and drum. Lots of animal tracks along the creek but no frogs, crawfish or salamanders, just scud shrimp.
  20. Spent a cold, soggy day on a private trip along the Potomac yesterday. The mud was so saturated that we were sinking up to our knees where the sand met the mud at the base of the cliffs. It was totally worth it! Came home with treasures untold until I finish unpacking. I know there are some really nice whale vertebrae in there, including the one below. There are also a couple nice Ephora snails and what looks like maybe an echinoid -- really rare for the area if it is! My daughter found a couple snaggletooth shark teeth that are actually iridescent and blew me away! Here's a video report of the trip: Sorry I can't say specifically where this is. They are having problems with uninvited guests already.
  21. Rowboater

    rapp creek hunting

    Hoping to get out before the weather turned colder, headed to the freshwater creek; the water was still high and extremely cold. I was surprised when I reached "my" cowhark teeth spot to discover that someone have shoveled deep into the creek bank leaving a gaping hole; not sure if they hauled the sand, dirt and gravel away or if they just dumped in in the creek to separate stuff in the abundant flowing water. I scratched around anyway and found stuff (like always) but no cowshark and no big teeth, only a few angel shark teeth and drum teeth. There were lots of small broken ecphora laying around in the creekbed; found one nicer one though missing it's tail-tip. A few small coral clumps, an interesting oblong vert, and tiny teeth, many with cusps. I became tired of sifting with no striking rewards, so I picked up some shells which I usually avoid (they often don't survive the trip home); will post on the ID section since I'm curious what they are. Guess I''l have to find some new spots.
  22. scubapro67

    Cleaning Ecphora

    I've had this hanging around the house for a while, and thought I'd see if there's some suggestions for getting the limestone/ coral and barnacle growth off this rather large Ecphora (about 5 inches). Read about water with vinegar or bleach, but that sounds way too harsh. Thanks.
  23. paxhunter

    Calvert Cliffs 2018

    So i dont post all the time anymore but as we approach the end of the year i always like to organize my finds and do a calendar. Well here are my finds for 2018 not a bad year and a found my benedini which is the rarest of the rare for Calvert. If anybody is interested in a calendar let me know i'm all done except for December still trying to find a couple more good finds! Hope everybody had a great 2018 and here is to an awesome 2019!!!!
  24. HoppeHunting

    Matoaka Beach 11/07/18

    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!
  25. I_gotta_rock

    Ecphora Snail

    From the album: Calvert Cliffs

    Ecphora, probably E.megane, but I'll say for sure when I prep it! Virginia Miocene Collected on private property with permission.
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