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NJ Cretaceous Creek 10/11 -- First Timer Finds!!


HemiHunter

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Over the Columbus Day weekend, I planned to make a trip up from Virginia to New Jersey to visit my mother and other family. The trip offered the opportunity to check out one of the cretaceous sites in NJ that I have read about so much here--and that my son has been begging to visit for, like, a year.  Never having collected there, I reached out to forum members @Trevor and @The Jersey Devil for any suggestions they could offer to a couple of cretaceous creek newbies and they really came through!  (Thanks, again guys!)  With tips in hand we arrived at our collecting location early on Sunday, hoping to stay ahead of the rain that was forecast from the remnants of Hurricane Delta. Water conditions were very good, with low and clear water and plenty of dry bank to move around, and the air temps were in the 60's, so it ended up being a perfect day for collecting. My son wanted a mosasaur tooth, of course, but my goal was just to find a nice crow shark tooth, as I think they are super cool and unlike any shark teeth we have down here.

 

We kind of knew a couple of areas to try, so we set out to the farthest one, figuring to get the longer hike out of the way first.  We had our screens and shovels, but we didn't really know exactly the best places in the creek to try in terms of the current / gravel / silt / mud mix that would hold the best fossils. We set out to learn by trial-and-error. The first hour or so was a bit discouraging. Despite knowing we were generally  in the right place, all we had come up with was a couple of very small, broken tooth fragments.  But we kept at it, moving around a bit and changing the material we were working.  It wasn't too much longer until we saw the sight every collector wants to see. :) 

 

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Now that we knew we were on the right track, we kept working it and started finding more and more teeth.  We decided to head back to the other location and that's where we found a really productive spot at the end of a pool that we ended up parked at for the rest of the trip.  We stayed another 3 hours or so. That's where I came across my first beautiful little crow shark tooth (one of a bunch we ended up finding), so I was happy to have achieved my goal. Sadly, no mosasaur tooth turned up, but we ended up with some really nice goblin shark teeth and a bunch of really nice examples of other species from the formation. We don't know most of the ID's, though, so anybody who wants to help, please chime in.  Altogether, I think we collected around 90 teeth, including many complete ones, and a few other mystery items (lower left). And that first nice tooth ended up being our longest for the day--go figure!

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So, all in all, I think we did really well for our first try at a new collecting location. Thanks again to our friends on the forum! I hope you enjoyed the pix!

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Nice haul for your first time!

Yes, that’s a partial Chondrichthyan vert.

You also found a Hybodont tooth that’s in your broken tooth pile. I can’t really tell what the stuff in the lower left is from that picture.

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“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” ― Mikhail Tal

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2 hours ago, The Jersey Devil said:

Nice haul for your first time!

Yes, that’s a partial Chondrichthyan vert.

You also found a Hybodont tooth that’s in your broken tooth pile. I can’t really tell what the stuff in the lower left is from that picture.

 

@HemiHunter

 

For context, Hybodont teeth are uncommon. The tooth @The Jersey Devil devil is referring to is on the leftmost side of the left broken tooth pile.

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: )

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Big Brook Preserve rules are that you are only allowed to keep 6 artifacts.  Please send the rest to me and i will return them for you.  I will tell them you're from out of state and didn't know the rules and see if i can get the arrest warrant quashed.  Send them quickly and no need to thank me. 

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57 minutes ago, butchndad said:

Big Brook Preserve rules are that you are only allowed to keep 6 artifacts.  Please send the rest to me and i will return them for you.  I will tell them you're from out of state and didn't know the rules and see if i can get the arrest warrant quashed.  Send them quickly and no need to thank me. 

 

@HemiHunter didn't collect at Big Brook, hence this rule is null in this context.

 

Also, you posted this post

 

 

where you clearly have more than 6 teeth and specify that you found these teeth at Big Brook. I don't think there has ever truly been a problem with rangers enforcing the 6 teeth rule, it is more of a courtesy thing.

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: )

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28 minutes ago, Trevor said:

 

@HemiHunter didn't collect at Big Brook, hence this rule is null in this context.

 

Also, you posted this post

 

 

where you clearly have more than 6 teeth and specify that you found these teeth at Big Brook. I don't think there has ever truly been a problem with rangers enforcing the 6 teeth rule, it is more of a courtesy thing.

Hoisted by my own petard!  It's the old "when you assume" joke from The Odd Couple.  Was it Ram? Because i like what @HemiHunter found a whole lot better than what i found today in Big Brook

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1 hour ago, butchndad said:

Hoisted by my own petard!  It's the old "when you assume" joke from The Odd Couple.  Was it Ram? Because i like what @HemiHunter found a whole lot better than what i found today in Big Brook

 

You're good, no worries. Yes, twas' Ram.

: )

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2 hours ago, butchndad said:

Please send the rest to me and i will return them for you.

Ha ha! Good one @butchndad! But I think you have plenty of NJ teeth of your own. : )  Now, maybe if you want a few Eocene sand tigers from down here, or maybe a little Miocene hemipristis or two, I could probably spare some of those. Just send me a self addressed stamped envelope with a map of your best Big Brook collecting spots and I'll get those teeth right out to you....

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13 minutes ago, HemiHunter said:

Ha ha! Good one @butchndad! But I think you have plenty of NJ teeth of your own. : )  Now, maybe if you want a few Eocene sand tigers from down here, or maybe a little Miocene hemipristis or two, I could probably spare some of those. Just send me a self addressed stamped envelope with a map of your best Big Brook collecting spots and I'll get those teeth right out to you....

next time you come up to NJ let me know and i'd be happy to steer you in the right direction at Big Brook and perhaps meet up there.  

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Nice fossil finds.  Out of my entire collection of probably 1500 N.J. Cretaceous sharkteeth I have only two hybodont species.  Very uncommon to find. So get it out of the junk pile. :-)

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Congratulations. The little hybodont shark was by far your best find of the day. Looks like you have many reasons to return.

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On 10/17/2020 at 10:36 PM, butchndad said:

next time you come up to NJ let me know and i'd be happy to steer you in the right direction at Big Brook and perhaps meet up there

That's a very generous offer--and we'll try to take you up on it!

 

On 10/18/2020 at 8:34 PM, jonnyquest said:

Out of my entire collection of probably 1500 N.J. Cretaceous sharkteeth I have only two hybodont species.  Very uncommon to find. So get it out of the junk pile. :-)

Yikes!  We had NO IDEA what that hybodont tooth was and that is was a rare find.  That is so exciting.  It is definitely out of the junk pile now and in the special box of trophy teeth!  I'm so glad we posted all of our finds so @The Jersey Devil could spot that one for us.

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