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Out hunting today. Very few finds, but a few tigers, a few sand tigers, a larger puffer fish mouthplate and then this, which is worth sharing just because it is so different: Turned out to be a pretty good day! I believe I know what this is, but I have questions about method of fossilization and the shape of the end product. I also like the colors.

I’m posting some invertebrates that I collected in the 1970s from the Miocene of Maryland and Virginia. If I had continued to collect invertebrates from the Miocene of Maryland and Virginia I would have many thousands of specimens. However, after I found my first few shark teeth, my interests shifted to vertebrate fossils. You can see in the below picture lots of coral like Astrhelia palmata , barnacles (Balanus concavus), Murex Snail shells (like the Maryland State Fossil Ecphora gardnerae gardnerae), Turret Snail shells (Turritella plebeian), Bittersweet Clam shells (Glycymeris parilis), Moon Snail shells (Polynices duplicatus and Lunatia heros), Scallop shells ( like Chesapecten nefrens), Quahog shells (Mercenaria sp.), Pearl Oyster shells (Isognomon maxillata), an Ark Clam shell (Dallarca idonea), and a Geoduck shell (Panopea americana). I used the below Calvert Marine Museum PDF (which used Clark, W.B., et al., 1904, Miocene Plates, Maryland Geological Survey, Baltimore, MD) for the identifications. I pretty much have all of the species from the CMM PDF. I have sand dollar pieces and a good many crab claws stored elsewhere. The only thing that I don’t ever remember finding is a Heart Urchin (Echinocardium sp.). Marco Sr.

Hi everyone, I just recieved this skull which I bought as an impulse buy. I normally do some research before I buy anything and I usually try to stay clear from fossils from China, but this skull got the better of me and without thinking it through I purchased it. I bought the skull as a Felis sp. skull found in the Gianhe Beds, Gansu Province, China (Miocene, 10 mya). I've been wanting some feline or mustelid material for quite some time and I bought this specimen without keeping a clear head, knowing all to well in the back of my head that many of these fossils are composites, not to mention the legality of most vertebrate fossils from China. Kinda feel like an idiot right now And besides all that I am not entirely convinced of it being Feline after all, could be a Mustelid as well, or just a Frankenstein monster. Here are some photo's of the skull, it is all by all a relatively nice skull, but I believe there composite elements to it. Here are the area's that I suspect where there might have been repears or composition. These teeth seem off to me, they look quite big for the skull, and Felis sp. jaws normally don't have this many teeth in the lower jaw. This type of dentition looks more alligned with those of Mustelids (of which a number where present duing the Miocene of this area). I'll probably try to prep the teeth a little bit more in the coming days to see if I can expose some roots of sort. There is an area that has some strange coloration and texture, I believe some repairs or composition that they have tried to hide. This area has quite a strange texture and color, I am quite positive that this was added in. (Maybe with some modern bone of plaster), I'll probably have a look with the microscope tomorrow. For the rest, some good points of the skulls: Each lower jaw looks okay, both side of the lower jaw have imperfections and fractures that run from one end to the other. (Only the front area that is circled looks like it is composite) Some goes for the front part of the skull, all seems natural and okay untill it hits the bit in the middle of the skull that I circled. One of the canine teeth looks to be original as well, with the root that goes into the skull as it should be, some goes for on of the first 2 premolars in the right lower jaw and the first one in the left jaw. It are the rest of the teeth of which I have doubts if they are natural and not placed in, as well as the front jaw piece with the incisors and some area's of the backside of the skull. I hope some here might give me some clarity how much of this specimen is a composite and whether it is Feline of Mustelid. I just hope I didn't bumb my toes to hard on this skull, at least it will be lesson for the future.

Hello! I'm new to this forum and fossil hunting overall. I'd love some help identifying my best shark teeth finds so far (still holding out for some big ones). Especially the (partial?) on the top row, as it's very serrated and my biggest to-date. These are all from Calvert Cliffs, Matoaka / Long Beach area, and a couple from Flag Ponds, so all Miocene. (Please let me know if it would be helpful to upload any other photos or info.) Many thanks!

I went out today in the forecast of Hurricane ETA. It was better than I anticipated. Less windy, less rain. The sun was out about half the day just North of Wauchula, Florida. I did not have a lot of success most of the morning, small shark teeth, 70% broken. My find of the day was a tiny broken dolphin tooth. Early afternoon, my luck changed. I found some gravel 3-4 inches deep with clay at the bottom. The small teeth were mostly whole and a little more colorful, then I found a broken Meg, then my find of the day (below) a Meg just under 2.5 inches. It is always better to be lucky. Character!!! Great Serrations/Tip, some curious color patterns, So, why put this in fossil ID. I had questions and thought it a good way to attract those who have a greater understanding of Megs than I do. Are those rock boring (baby) clam marks? Look are the indentations at the edges where the blade meets the root. Are there cusps there? I have Megs that do not have those indentations. Are they a common feature... Those are sort of preamble questions. Here is the one I really wanted to know. I have a number of Megs which, just like this Meg , is missing all the detail around the Bourlette. Was it dissolved by some chemical process? If so, why would the bourlette dissolve, but not the root material? This Meg came out of the clay... the enamel is in fantastic shape. This does not seem like water wear. I always think of questions on my finds, I do not always get answers.

We recently were able to take a trip to the Miocene of Virginia along the Potomac River. We weren't sure what the conditions would be, as the last time we were here the tide was extremely high limiting the length of the beach and how much was accessible. When we got to the beach we could tell it would be a good day, the tide was pretty low with still a couple hours to go before low tide, and we could see long stretches of beach in both directions. As we walked I wasn't having to much luck, but my wife who trailed behind me was finding some good sized hastalis teeth that I had missed. Once we got to a better section of the beach with cobble and larger rocks, we really started to take our time searching. In about ankle deep water I looked down and spotted a 4 7/8 inch halved meg, I couldn't believe it! By far the biggest and most complete meg I had ever found up to this point (Previously have only found very worn bits and pieces of megs). We kept searching and stopped to talk for a bit and when I looked down I saw another very worn meg sticking almost fully out of some fallen clay matrix. We were both happy with the day so far! Between two partial megs and a good number of hemi's and nice hastalis, it was definitely one of our more productive days. We reached the end of the accessible beach and decided to head back. On the way back, I was searching up along the higher parts of the shore and saw a small clay block with some black sticking out and picked it up. Looking at it I thought it was just some lignite, but decided to look a bit closer. I picked at it a bit and it ended up being a meg! My first complete and whole meg, I was extremely happy with the find and could finally check that off my list. Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better day weather or finds wise. For teeth we ended up with a good haul of hastalis, hemis, two partial and one whole megs, and a retroflexus.The plate pictured has on it a whale vert, epiphysis, and various shark or fish verts,

Hello, this tooth was found in Lučenec region, southern Slovakia. Age: Eggenburgian (Central Paratethys): about 20.8 – 18.3 mil years old. Scale is in cm. Although there is nothing left out of the root, the crown is still very nicely preserved. Comparing to its size, the crown is really broad and flat. Could this be the Isurus retroflexus tooth (maybe the broad form) ? Haven't been lucky with these so far.

Hello, I found this fossil today. It was scattered into a few pieces, but I managed to collect most of them, and glue them together. It is one of the most complete fossils I have. It is Miocene in age and was found in Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, UAE (United Arab Emirates). My guess is that it's some sort of leg bone of either a gazelle or a jackal.

I found the two objects below yesterday along the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland (Miocene exposure). Any insights on what they might be? Thanks! #1 - I’m not totally sure this is a fossil at all, but could it be a dolphin/whale inner ear bone? (Would be my first.) #2 - I know isolated and incomplete bones are hard to ID, but I’m wondering if there’s enough here to identify the type of bone and maybe even type of animal.

One of my boys collected this strange joint bone fragment while we were at Calvert Cliffs yesterday. It has a shape we can't figure out--and it's completely hollow! It's too big to be bird (right)? So is there a natural process that could have hollowed it out like this? And what is it? Can anybody help?

This weighs 14.11 ounces and has a leathery texture. It was found at Westmoreland State Park, VA. It's 3 3/4" and 2 5/8" at it's widest point. It is about 1.5" thick.

I have had this STH tooth for awhile but I can not identify it. I have assumed it has to be either a hastalis or planus. When I first got the large group of teeth that this tooth was in, I set aside as I thought it might be Parotodus. I quickly talked myself out of that ID. I talked myself into hastalis or planus. I have looked at teeth in my collection and can’t find an exact match. I checked Elasmo and same story. My best guess is lower planus. It is just over 1” on the diagonal, pretty thick root. Any thoughts ???

Hunting today. In an area which I had not previously found the rockfossil mix, I found many of them. Here are my most interesting. Here is one , which I believe is whole, where I think I know the genus, and likely the species. looking for confirmations... This is a miocene fossil ... 5 - 23 mya. And # 2 is a broken tooth, Once again miocene fauna. and finally, one where I have no clue... This is an oddly shaped bone.... I am seeking the most basic clues. Which bones look like this one? As always, comments, suggestions, identifications are ALL appreciated!!!! Please do.

My kids and I have had a very successful year, so far, collecting a ton of Miocene fossils from the Calvert Cliffs. Along with some larger shark teeth, cetacean bones, etc., we accumulated a couple of containers full of smaller and broken teeth, ray plate pieces, unidentifiable bone fragments, and the like. After some discussion, my boys and I agreed it would be great if we could donate many of these "excess" finds to the Calvert Marine Museum to support their youth educational programs. This is actually where my kids and I first learned about fossil collecting from the Calvert Cliffs ourselves some years ago, and where the kids were able to search for (and take home) their first fossils from a simulated beach in the museum's "Discovery Room." We knew somebody must have donated those fossils, so maybe the museum would like to have ours. It could be a great opportunity to give back to the museum--and clear some counter space at home. So I sent a blind email to the museum's main address with our offer and shortly thereafter heard back from Dr. Stephen Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology. Although the Discovery Room was temporarily closed due to COVID, he said the museum was still giving out fossils in other educational programs and would love to accept a fossil donation from the boys. We were welcome to mail it in (boring), or bring it in in person (fun). Well, my boys had a scheduled day off from school last Friday, so we decided to take advantage and drive down to the museum with our donations. (Sadly, my daughter DID have school and couldn't join us.) Altogether, we brought down probably 500+ teeth, plates, bone pieces, coral fragments--including a bunch of teeth over 1/2"--the kind of stuff that a new kid would be thrilled to take home. When we got to the museum, Stephen came over from his offices and met us in a conference room to accept the goods. We sat down to do some paperwork (yes-paperwork!) and talk about what we had been collecting and, especially, the boys' best finds. Stephen seemed really impressed with the boys' willingness to give up some great stuff. I was proud of them for doing it. Well, after the transfer was done, Stephen offered to show us around the museum a bit. Of course, we jumped at the chance for a personal tour from the head curator. So off we went through the Paleontology wing into the fossil prep lab. There we met one of the volunteer preparators cleaning up a porpoise skull and we got a chance to see all of the prep tools and learn some prep techniques. Stephen showed us a bunch of fossils in the preparation process, including a jacketed baleen whale skull they had collected just a few weeks ago. He also showed us a mostly complete turtle carapace, some great vertebrae, and a lot of other cool skeletal material. We got to ask a lot of questions and learned a ton. Next, Stephen invited us to join him in the adjacent building to check out the fossil repository, not open to the public--or the way the boys and I thought of it--the inner sanctum! In this space there were movable shelves filled with boxes of cataloged fossils for long-term storage. But laid out in front were a few tables loaded with fossils that had recently come in and had yet to be processed. Stephen talked us through a bunch of these, including some pathological bones, a partly crystal-covered meg tooth, casts of a bear-dog jaw, a white shark tooth made into an Indian point, and--the highlight for me--a miocene rhino horn found at the cliffs. It was incredible what we saw in there! After getting our visual and tactile fill, we thanked Stephen for spending so much time with us --over an hour--and let him get back to his work. I know some on the forum know Stephen well, so this won't be news to them, but he is an incredibly knowledgeable and friendly person. It was great to meet him and learn so much from him. Back at the museum, we checked out all the fossil exhibits we had seen many times before. But what made this time different is that we ourselves had collected some of the kinds of stuff we were looking at in the displays. It was really cool to hear the boys say--"Hey, I have one of those," or "Dad, that's like the one you found." Having collected ourselves, the exhibit was so much more relatable--and also inspiring in all the things still out there to find. And, just to close the loop, on the way out, the boys stopped at the kids' fossil education table and there on the sign it said, plain as day, "1 fossil bag per child." So it was great for the boys to see that their donations would go to keep that table going and end up in some little kids' fossil baggie to take home themselves--and maybe start the cycle all over again. I hope you enjoy the pix! (P.S. The pix are posted with Stephen's permission, so no worries about that.)

Took a little trip up to the Texas Panhandle for a little get-away and some fossil hunting! My parents, my husband and I rented an Air B&B near Clarendon TX (figured that would be a relatively "safe" pandemic travel solution and it worked out quite well!). We chose Clarendon (well, Howardwick, actually) because it was midway between the places we wanted to visit, AND, it is actually a famous area which the illustrious Mr. Cope of the Bone Wars (in the mid-1800s, Mr. Cope of the Academy of Natural Science in Philly and Mr. Marsh of Yale, vied to find the best and the most dinosaurs around the US) found and named a Miocene faunal bed- the Clarendon Beds at the Spade Flat Quarries at the RO ranch (An interesting aside....my mom worked at the Yale Peabody Museum when she was pregnant with me....surrounded by the dinos that Mr. Marsh collected. I'm pretty sure that's where my paleontological bent came from...) So to start our trip, we actually stayed a night in Snyder TX, and it's funny when you travel, the things you find...like dinosaurs, everywhere! And in Spur TX, a mural that we just happened to drive by! And outside of Canadian TX....on a hilltop! The first fossil stop was a Comanche Peak/Edwards Formation Roadcut - I had heard that you could find Pedinopsis Echinoids there...so we stopped the first day around 4pm...it was 98 degrees. I found a little echie that I THOUGHT might be a pedinopsis but was afraid it was really a Coenholectypus (which sadly, turned out to be the case. Nothing against Coenholectypuses, I just have a few of those!) . The next morning, I wanted to stop back by on our way to Clarendon, but a cold front blew through that night and the temp went from nearly 100 to 40 the next morning! Fortunately the wind was not blowing, so I got to stop back by and found a nice Engonoceras gibbosum ammonite, my first whole one of that species. Everything else was stuff I'd already found, but I did find a lovely Lima bravoensis. So on to Clarendon. I did my "homework" - searching the internet for info, Texas Pocket Geology site for formations and Google Maps for likely spots to search. The lake near Howardwick was Permian, so we looked there....no luck. I found the Miocene Spade Flats area and went up dirt roads to find it....didn't quite find it, but found the right formation....but no fossils. We drove along the road to look at Miocene era roadcuts that I saw posted about here on FF and no luck. So basically, the Miocene Clarendon Beds were a washout and the Permian in that area is non fossiliferous, apparently! Sometimes the fossil hunting is not exactly.....lucrative. Alas. But I did get to see Caprock State Park (and the Texas Bison Herd) Palo Duro Canyon and its Permian (red) overlayed by Triassic (purple and yellow) And some Pronghorn Antelope And then I FINALLY got some good fossil hunting in at a Pennsyvanian era roadcut near Mineral Wells! Finally! Some good new stuff! PIcs coming.... Gastropod Cymatospira montfortianus (1/2 inch) My first find of a Crinoid "bulb" -not completely but partial at least! 1/2 inch 6 fragments of a Crinoid Graffhamicrinus bulb "kit" in pieces (only four pictured, obviously) And some beautifully preserved Echinoid plates And finally, the last place we went was Archer City, where the Permian Red Beds are located, just outside the city. Again, I tried to find some likely looking roadcuts or places were we could go, but alas, it's all private property and nothing looked accessible. So, no Permian fossils or Miocene Fossils, this trip, but the Cretaceous and the Pennsylvanian always yield something good! So long, all you Texas longhorns!

I was fortunate to go hunting with friends ( including a couple of TFF members ) today. Most of my friends know me as a fossil enthusiast, interested in mammal ear-bones. I am extremely good at identifying horse ear-bones. My TFF friends brought me this fossil find, which I did identify as an ear-bone , and they donated it to me, If I would attempt to get a specific ID on TFF. Because I am thinking marine, let me ask Bobby @Boesse to look at it. It "looks" broken, but I am not sure. The only thing I am sure of i that this find is a fossil. All comments appreciated.

A beautiful Friday at Stratford Hall in Virginia yielded few teeth, but a curious bone that matches one I collected on another occasion from the same spot. My gut says they are from the ear? Skull somehow? But I can’t find a good match... I’m hoping someone with more experience will recognize. Thanks !

Hi everyone! Little over a week ago I recieved some new bags of microfossil matrix and this time there was a bag with material from the Lee Creek Mine, Yorktown Formation, Aurora, North Carolina, USA (Miocene, 14,5 mya) This material is quite rich in shark teeth as I found little over 90 shark teeth in it. I have photographed a couple of them already and posted them in my microfossil topic. But since I doubt I will get many help with the identification of the teeth there I am going to repost the first batch of teeth here (I apologize for the repost admins) and upload the rest of my finds from that material in this topic from now on. I have tried to ID some of the teeth with the help of the website Elasmo & the paper "Geology and Paleontology of the Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina, III by Clayton E. Ray and David J. Bohaska", but I feel like my eyes aren't enough trained yet to distinguish enough to make proper ID's on all of the finds, so I not all ID's will be a 100 % correct I am affraid. Here are some of the first teeth I photographed. I would be gratefull if some of you could help my ID some of the teeth of verify /correct some of the ID's I have come up with. If the photo's aren't clear of good enough, just let me know and I'll try to make some more/better ones. Thank you in advance! The first tooth which is by far also the favorite in the bunch: Tooth 1: a Sphyrna zygaena tooth? Tooth 2: a chunk of Galeocerdo sp. tooth Tooth 3: another Galeocerdo sp. tooth Tooth 4: This one is a tooth which I have a hard time identifying as I feel it has a lot of features that return in different teeth. Physogaleus? Sphyrna? Loxodon? Tooth 5: another I haven't managed to ID yet. Tooth 6: Carcharhinus sp. Tooth 7: could this be Negaprion sp.? Tooth 8: Tooth 9: Scyliorhinus sp.? Tooth 10: Megachasma sp.? Tooth 11: Megachasma sp.?

I found this petrosal on a South Carolina beach near Charleston. I would love to know the animal it belonged to. Is it cetacean @Boesse by any chance? Thanks for looking. Scale is CM.

I found this tooth (same tooth, two sides) in some phosphate mine slag from the Aurora Fossil Museum. Can you tell what species this is? I don't see anything quite like it on the charts I've consulted. The other pic is from the same slag and is some kind of ray, I believe.

Took a trip down to Calvert County this past weekend and did some searching around the Matoaka Cabins and just outside of Flag Ponds Park. Think I did pretty well for a two day search!

Here is a brief report from one of our latest forays into Calvert County, MD. The well-known stretch of shoreline along the western Chesapeake Bay is loaded with Miocene fossils, with the Calvert, St. Mary's, and Choptank formations progressively exposed along a ~24 mile stretch of beach and cliffs. We found an Airbnb in Lusby, MD which was not too far from Matoaka Lodges, which seemed the best bet since the nearly 2 mile walk to the beaches at Calvert Cliffs State Park is impractical for our family at this time. Covid-19 and Maryland's onerous private land regulations can make it tough if not impossible to access some of the other municipal beaches along the coast. For example, Brownies Beach, Dares Beach, Cove Point, and Flag Pond are all restricted in some way to town or county residents only. Matoaka Lodges however will grant day-pass access for a small fee, and the beach is from my experience very diverse and productive in its fossils. We spent a total of 5 hours there, employing an 1/8" sieve and also simply walking the surf line. The largest tooth pictured here actually washed up at my feet as I was surreptitiously bending over at the same time. Most of the rest were found with the sieve. Most of these are shark or sting ray teeth and a few turtle shells plus some of the smaller items I could not identify. A local told me that porpoise teeth can be found there also. This lot comprises the smallest fossils found; in addition to these (mostly) teeth and shell fragments were found a large and diverse sample of vertebrate fragments, corals, miscellaneous other fossils (snails, mollusks, etc.) which I will post in the follow-up report to this one. Having spent some time at some of the other sites along Calvert Cliffs this summer, I would say based on the diversity, number of fossils, and time spent collecting, that Matoaka is definitely worth the return trip.

I found this tooth today at my usual spot at in Summerville SC and I found this tooth amongst the sharks teeth that was very strange to me. The most similar thing online I’ve seen to it is squalodon due to the wrinkly enamel, accessory cusps, and two roots. However, they seem to be extremely rare or nonexistent in this region. I would love to hear any thoughts or opinions on the ID of this tooth. Thank you on advance!