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I’m trying to ID the tooth at the center of this spectrum. To its’ left, Sand Tigers. To its’ right, makos. But the specimen in the middle is... a bit of both?

I thought it would be fun and possibly helpful to other collectors to discuss the results of my first foray into the world of micro fossil exploration. I had purchased some quantities of micro matrix from two different formations and they provided vastly different experiences for me as a collector. I got a vial of micro fossils from the Neva formation which is from Kansas and is Permian. This stuff really proved to be quite a challenge and was not ideal to start with. These are TINY fossils and I was not equipped to handle such small fossils. Identifying the shark material was challenging but not nearly as challenging as just handling them. My first attempt to put a fossils on a slide resulted in me crushing a tiny partial Cladodont tooth. I was not happy with myself but it was a very teachable and humbling moment as I did at work in front of young co-worker who has developed into quite the shark fanatic. Once I figured out what NOT to do with the small fossils, I did find a groove and was able to find some interesting material for our display. I found a few shark denticles ( I think they are anyway lol), a possible spine, and a few partial teeth including one that looks similar to an unpublished species of Cladodont shark called Maiseyodus. There was not a lot of shark material and it was hard to work with but I plan on picking up another vial. I will not go through until I have better equipment though but I would like to continue the explore it. The goal was too add some Permian shark material from a marine environment to contrast the freshwater Permian stuff we had. In that sense, we accomplished our goal and I did really learn quite a lot so it was a positive result but one with plenty of bumps in the road lol The other micros were from the Cretacoeus Mesaverde formation and was Colorado. This was much easier to work with as far as size goes but there was much more actual matrix to deal with. I was also more familiar with the fauna and I had a much better idea of what to be on the look out for. It did not take long to find a few shark teeth. I opened the vial, dumped it on the tray and right away saw some partial teeth I could recognize. A few Hybodont partials were apparent very quickly as were some partial Sand Tiger teeth. There was also an interesting partial that I have not posted yet but might be a Cretalamna. I also found a few fossils that I think are ray dermal denticles. The really interesting stuff was found when I started searching the bits of matrix and the smaller fossils. Three little fossils absolutely made this a grand slam for me. I found what looks to be a Chiloscyllium tooth. It is fantastic shape and sits on top of a little piece of matrix really nicely. My ID looks to be okay as I did post here on the forum. I was really thrilled to find such a nice tooth. Another was posted on the forum and though I have some work to do to cement the ID, it MAY be a Cat Shark tooth which is one I have been searching for. Separating it from the matrix makes me nervous but I am practicing before I do it. I am really hoping it does turn out to be what I think it is but either way it was a fascinating find and thanks to some awesome TFF members led to a far better understanding of cat shark fossils. The third has not been posted yet as I need to take a closer look at it but when I first saw it, I thought it was a Rhinobatos which was another one I had been actively looking for. I got excited, put in a gem jar and put it in the display but I will take a better look this week. There were some interesting non-shark fossils too that I will go through at some point and quite a bit of poo as well lol I consider this to have been a complete success. We added some new sharks to the display and succeeded in furthering the diversity of sharks we can talk about. I need to get some equipment for exploring micro fossils at home and I need to work on the handling of the fossils. I need to learn how to separate small fossils from bits of matrix and I can always stand to sharpen my ID skills but this is a pretty important development for us. With some recent family events and two college aged kids depending on me the fossil acquisitions will slow down considerably. I can not buy a lot going forward so this is a fantastic and inexpensive way to continue to explore fossils, particularly Mesozoic sharks. A little bit of money spent on some matrix will yield fossils we can use. I do not live in an area where there is much fossil hunting to be done so this is also a way to self collect some material which is really satisfying. It has also been a great thing to have during my fathers illness and death as it kept me busy and my mind sharp. I can see a new addiction forming and it is a good one to have. In addition to adding some more from both of the above formations, I am going to pick up some Atco stuff and Kamp Ranch matrix too in the near future. That will keep me busy and I am sure we can add some more interesting fossils. This micro newbie is going to work on becoming a micro not-so-newbie lol I will post some pictures in the comment section.

Needed to get out and get some exercise. Relatively cool and dark in the morning, the full foliage shade was nice, surprisingly little water in the creek. I worked one spot hard, found a few partial ecphora, lots of sand tiger teeth, a few angel and drum teeth. A bonito nose a Tilly bone and what probably was once a bonito nose. One three pointed cowshark tooth which I lost when I fell. The highlight was a nice hemipristis (don't find many of those or tiger or mako in this site. And no megs). Bits and pieces drying to go through later.

Hi all, I recently went on a trip to Brownie's Beach in Maryland in search of Hemies, and I came home with some pretty good little teeth and a few decent sized ones. However, there was one tooth that I found I could not identify. I am not really sure what shark it belongs to, it sort of resembles a sand tiger but the root is very robust and thick. Im more or less lost as to what it could be. Wishful thinking, but I thought it might be a baby megatooth shark or a mako or something along the lines of that. Its a long shot, but I thouht i would ask to see if anyone else could Identify it, haha!

Hi so I have been hunting my favorite spot recently, and ever since I first came to this spot I have noticed a good amount of sand tiger teeth popping up, but only in this 10 foot radius. Is it possible that all of these teeth are from the same shark. They all range in similar size and I have only ever found them in this one spot. for every nice one i have pictured. I found 10 more broken ones just missing the roots.

Made two back-to-back trips to the beach, the first trip had too much surf, the second too high a tide. We had a wind storm from the north and I expected stuff on the beach (but a quick glance at the tide lines left on the beach revealed nothing but shells.) First day didn't find much, surf was strong and I lost three in the crashing waves. It was warm out, and i tired of chasing the little teeth. Today was better results-wise. Much cooler and a manageable dropping tide. Walked up and down the beach picking up the occasional tooth (always amazes me that you can find teeth every pass, must be uncovered in the wash, which wasn't moving them today). Good day for makos-- three, one inch long and one or two smaller ones. The shell line in the wash was much thinner than usual, maybe made the teeth easier to see? The shrimp coprolites were deeper in the water than the teeth.

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!

Hi there folks, I recently received this lot as gift, but it came with no ID. Is it possible to get an ID from this pic? They are all from Morroco. Thanks in advance.

Tried to get out before the ice storm in search of cowshark teeth (found none and hunted hard). Lots of small sand tiger teeth, including a crooked one and a symphyseal, and lots of split teeth. Lots of drum teeth, (the dull side is more interesting than the glossy side). Four angel teeth that stand up on their triangular base, two whose root is damaged. Two or three mako (broken). Lots of small triangular teeth (dusky, bull, gray? not sure what all they are). Lots of batoid/ skate teeth, but no stingers or denticles. One whole vert and a small disc echinoid. Lots ofsmall 'whale bone' and bits to go through. Not what I was after, but quantity if not quality was good.

(I will now be using the poll format, so you can actually click your favorite and the poll will keep track of the votes) 1. Carcharocles chubutensis: MY FIRST MEGATOOTH! A bit of damage near the root and a missing bourlette, but a gorgeous tooth nonetheless. The serrations are absolutely killer. It’s about 1 ¾ inches. Colors completely changed when it dried. I. Am. Ecstatic. 2. Carcharias cuspidata: Very large sand tiger with a beautiful hooked double cusp on one shoulder. Excellent preservation, and certainly a necklace quality tooth. 3. Notorynchus primigenius: A perfect little cow shark tooth. Found in the cove within my first five minutes of collecting. Not very big, but in fantastic condition. 4. Isurus desori: Incredible little mako. It is absolutely pristine, and still sharp enough to cut you. Has that beautiful Brownies blue coloration on the enamel. 5. Carcharocles sp.: Oh, what could have been...this is the tip to what was probably a huge Megalodon tooth. Based on the thickness of the tooth, it would have been much larger than the meg that I found. Still a great find! The tip of a monster.

Bear with me on this trip report, as I'm uploading photos from various devices and attempting to tell a non-boring tale. This past Sunday, 13 May, I went on a fossil hunting trip ALONE for Mother's Day (best Mother's Day ever)! This meant that I could be out as long as I wanted to be, no one to rush me or complain or tell me they have to go to the bathroom a million times. I had an amazing trip, and was very successful in my finds! I've been to Walton twice before and was not nearly as successful. So here we go, I left my house around 11:30am and arrived at Walton at 1pm. The high tide was at around noon, so it was just starting to go out, which I figured would be good for getting first dibs. The weather said it was supposed to be overcast and rain, thankfully it didn't rain on me, and the sun ended up coming out for a very nice day.

Hey everyone, I bought 12 shark teeth from an antique store in Southport, NC earlier this week and the only info that came with them was the little orange card you see in the pictures. I would like some help identifying them please. I think #10 could be a sand tiger shark, but I’m not 100% on that. Also, I’m not expecting an ID on #7 as it’s too worn to even tell if there is any enamel left. Tooth #1 caught my eye due to the tiny serrations. I know they aren’t the best pictures so if you need more please let me know. Ruler is in cm. Thanks in advance!

Was supposed to be the warmest day in over a week, so cabin fever got the best of me and I headed out in search of teeth. The water was really cold and the wind was fierce, so my trip was short (i'll wait for several more days until I forget the cold!) Nothing big, and lots broken. Found several drum "teeth", only one angel shark tooth (another broken and a pretty skate denticle, all near the penny). Think a crab claw tip? Lots of the usual sand tiger teeth with many of the smaller ones having cusps, some small triangular ones and skate teeth. Vertebrae were mostly broken (as were ecphora, left behind). Found some interesting stuff, have to find a way to take scans. And picked up some shells (may attach for ID help).

Went to brownies today, miocene, and I’ll have the haul until here later this week but I would like to know what species this sand tiger is. It’s purty big for a sand tiger, like an inch and a half. It’s got two cusps on either side, they seem to curve inward. I saved up for Kent’s book on fossil identification so I’ll have that by the 28th.

So to make up for the rain yesterday i walked all day today. I went sharks tooth hunting in the morning and found a huge sand tiger and a nice posterior meg, then a buddy of mine who lives down south was nice enough to ask me if I wanted to hunt down his way. So i scrambled off the beach and headed south. Well I was lucky enough to find a bunch of my FAVORITE fossil the ecphora!!! I was also able to collect a bunch of shell for mom not to shabby!!!

There are so many testaments to Purse State Park being a fantastic fossil collecting site online, and because of this I thought I’d go there myself and test my luck. I kept on hearing about quantity, and how Purse yields more fossil sharks teeth per trip than just about any other local site. I was blown away when reading that people come home from a single trip with hundreds of teeth, and of decent size and quality too! And so a few days before Christmas, I packed up my gear and made my way across the border and down the Potomac to Purse State Park.The drive there was just fine, and the park is very secluded, unlike some other common sites. Perhaps its isolation contributes to its lack of a crowd in comparison to the Calvert Cliffs. The park is quite difficult to find as it is not clearly marked; I actually drove past it at first and had to turn around! The parking lot is on the left side of the road, and you have to cross the road to get to the trail. The hike is a little under a mile, which can be a pain if you have a lot of gear. It’s also practically in the middle of nowhere, so be cautious. Eventually, you’ll find yourself on a very nice little beach along the Potomac River. The cliffs run along the majority of the beach, and you can even see the exposed shells and cliff mix in the lower layers of some parts. In terms of area, this site is astonishing! There is at the very least a mile of beach, not to mention the fact that you can venture far past that thanks to the high tide line law in Maryland. You really could just keep walking, and I did just that, but even then I couldn’t cover all of the area even in the eight or nine hours that I hunted. If your looking for a place to hunt where there’s more beach than you know what to do with, head down to Purse.The fossils found here are from the Paleocene Era, much older than the Miocene exposures at the Calvert Cliffs. They are approximately 60 million years old, which is nearly dinosaur aged! One area where Purse does lack, however, is variety. Although you may find loads of teeth, they will all likely belong to only a handful of species unlike the Calvert Cliffs that yield hundreds of different species. This being said, the species found at Purse State Park are fascinating. The majority of teeth found will be those of extinct Sand Tiger Sharks, although you are able to find ray plates and mackerel shark teeth as well. Maybe you'll even be lucky enough to uncover a dreaded Otodus!I got to the park just a few minutes after sunrise, making for a beautiful sight. Once I began searching, I quickly learned that my shovel and sifter were rendered near useless, as I was finding teeth left and right by simply using my eyes. Surface hunting allowed me to cover a lot more distance in a lot shorter time, and I also began developing an eye for sharks teeth; there were a few time I spotted a nice tooth with only the root showing in the gravel or sand! The air temperature was not too bad, but the water was absolutely frigid and I had to take multiple breaks to avoid losing feeling in my hands completely. I tried to cover as much beach as possible without going too fast and missing teeth, and I was quite successful in doing so. To the left of the entrance, I walked for at least a mile finding tons of teeth, and I eventually stumbled upon a large and complete Turritella mold! I had found tiny fragments towards the entrance, but I was ecstatic with this find. But then, I found another. And another. When I looked up I realized I was standing right by a multitude of cliff falls that were full of these Gastropod fossils! There were hundreds of them, both in the rocks and freshly washed into the surf beneath them. I picked up the prettiest ones I could find, even carefully prying one out of the matrix. As sunset approached, I had found hundreds of fossils including teeth, plates, molds, and possible bones (turned out to be pseudofossils). But aside from some good sized sand tigers, I didn’t have anything too spectacular. But in the last hour of searching, I turned over an object that was mostly buried in the sand. To my delight, it was a nearly complete Otodus tooth! My first relatively large tooth, and a great way to end a great day of hunting! Otodus obliquus was a giant shark, nearly 35 feet in length, that was likely the ancestor to megatooth sharks like Megalodon. And since Megalodon was not alive during the Paleocene, I’d argue that finding a tooth from its great great Grandpa is just as cool! And with that, I found another handful or two of teeth on the way back to my bag and began to leave as the sun set over the horizon. On the way out, I got to share my finds with a family who was walking their dog along the beach. They were the only other people I saw in the park all day long; other than that I had the site to myself. I said a big thank you to Purse State Park, and hit the road.In total, I found an incredible 619 sharks teeth, along with over 50 other fossils! Like I said, this site delivers when it comes to quantity. Some of my favorite finds are the large Otodus in the middle, the Turritella, and the long and complete Sand Tigers. I was only able to display so many teeth before my space was overcrowded, and I had to put the rest in a pile. I am beyond happy with the results from this trip; it was by far my most productive trip yet. I hope you all enjoy seeing my finds and hearing my report, and I hope you’ll pay a visit to Purse! As always, Hoppe Hunting!

Trying to learn, so please explain if you answer. My best guess on this is some type of Sand Tiger(this might be wrong as well). There are so many that look similar that I can't figure out which one. So, extinct or still around? Which species? Why? Best guesses are OK with me, I am more concerned with the why. Found on beach at Hilton Head Island, SC. Thanks for taking time to share what you know.

Hey everyone. Recently I have been finding some very interesting shark teeth that i believe to be extinct Mako's, Meg teeth, sand tiger teeth, Otodus obliquus, as well as auriculatus. If anyone would be willing to help with some identifications it would be much appreciated. I have attached an image of the shark tooth I am currently trying to identify. I discovered it on a beach in SC after a beach renurishment project to restore the eroding beach so I'm not sure the age due to it being found on the surface after dredging. I believe it is a species of sand tiger shark but the tooth has two cusplets on either side of the main cusp. Size: Main cusp is half an inch long. Does anyone have any ideas about species? I can post more pics if y'all think a different angle would help produce an id. Thanks for looking!

Hi Everyone, Spent a weekend with family and friends last month in a cabin at Westmoreland, overlooking the Potomac River. Probably my best collecting to date - first Meg (posterior)! The first day: conditions were perfect, the water like glass (see photo). We were able to see the bottom down to 1-2 feet and snagged some larger makos (hastalis) and the Meg in this fashion. Second and third days: much windier, colder. Collecting was OK, but not as good as the first day. Thought the framed "Tooth Art" from the visitor's center was pretty cool! Mike