Great Day at Matoaka

[bthemoose]

Recently, I haven't been having tremendous luck along the Calvert Cliffs, but I headed down to Matoaka Beach again yesterday and was rewarded with one of my best fossil hunts to date!

 

I arrived around 10am, a couple of hours before low tide, and the Chesapeake Bay was as still as I've ever seen it in the year since I started fossil hunting. A little wave action can often be helpful to kick up fossils, so from the top of the cliffs I wasn't expecting much. But as it turned out, the water was extremely clear, which helped me find more submerged fossils than I usually find, and there were extensive exposed shell and gravel beds along the beach.

 

 

Here's my first shark tooth find of the day--nothing out of the ordinary, but a good condition Carcharhinus sp.

 

 

Less than an hour in, I found this nice whale tooth (my best so far) tumbling at water's edge. When you find a trip maker early on, it's a good day.

 

 

 

And then I found a Meg (or probably a Chub)! It's missing most of the root and part of the right side, but this is my best one to date.

 

 

The Meg was soon followed by this huge Hemi. It has a bit of root erosion but still-sharp serrations and measures over 1.4" -- roughly the same size as the biggest Hemi I've found to date. I love when there's a big ol' shark tooth just waiting for you on top of the sand.

 

 

More to follow...

[Ludwigia]

Great finds! What is that?:

 

 

[bthemoose]

I fished this cookie (cetacean epiphysis) out of the water.

 

 

This Chesapectan is cemented to the matrix behind it but I thought it looked cool.

 

 

Even though I didn't arrive super early, I had the upper ends of the beach mostly to myself the whole day.

 

 

This big hemi was hiding under the log -- it's also just over 1.4", same size as the one above, but more water worn.

 

 

[bthemoose]

I haven't tried the burn test yet, but my suspicion is that this large fish vert is modern as it's fairly light. (Edit: Passed the burn test--it's a fossil. )

 

 

This Isurus retroflexus presented itself in a wave at my feet.

 

 

It's in great condition -- still very sharp.

 

 

The weather was just gorgeous yesterday!

 

 

This gives a sense for how clear the water was. Often there's lots of leaf litter in the water that obscures things even if the water's still, but there were only a few short stretches of leaves yesterday.

 

 

A fairly worn but decent-sized Alopias latidens.

 

[bthemoose]

And finally, a group shot of some of my better fossil finds of the day. Thanks for looking!

 

[digit]

Looks like a beautiful day out at the cliffs--and a successful one by the looks of it. Thanks for the report (and the in-situ photos).

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[bthemoose]

12 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Great finds! What is that?:

 

 

It's an erosion control structure (a rock/concrete groin). Some parts of the beach have them--I prefer the parts that don't!

[Bjohn170]

Wow! Those hemis and dolphin tooth are massive!

[sharkdoctor]

great photos!

[t-tree]

Good photos and finds. 

 

Cheers John

[HemiHunter]

That's a great handful of teeth, Bruce.  I love the pics, too!  Congrats and thanks for posting them!

[Pagurus]

Beautiful weather, beautiful site, beautiful finds. Just about all one could wish for. Thanks for sharing.

[hemipristis]

Nice retro!

Brings back memories.  My first and biggest meg came from Matoaka

 

 

If you can show a few more photos of the fish vert, we can try for an ID

[Clint08]

Awesome retroflexus and whale tooth. That is a really nice haul, especially for that location!

[bthemoose]

3 hours ago, hemipristis said:

Nice retro!

Brings back memories.  My first and biggest meg came from Matoaka

 

 

If you can show a few more photos of the fish vert, we can try for an ID

Thanks! Would love to see your Meg if you have any photos. Here are some additional shots of the fish vert:

 

 

Thanks as well for your comments @Ludwigia, @digit, @Bjohn170, @sharkdoctor, @t-tree, @HemiHunter, @Pagurus, and @Clint08 -- definitely the kind of day that makes you want to head out again! 

[HoppeHunting]

Fantastic photos! What kind of camera do you use if you don't mind me asking? Congrats on a great day.

[bthemoose]

7 hours ago, HoppeHunting said:

Fantastic photos! What kind of camera do you use if you don't mind me asking? Congrats on a great day.

Thanks! For the trip photos, I just used my relatively out of date iPhone 6s camera. Sometimes on cloudy days I need to play around with the exposure, brightness, etc. in post-processing, but on this latest trip the light was good so I just cropped some of them and nothing else. For the close ups of the fish vert above, I used an old point and shoot (Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS), which does better indoors and with macro shots (and I did also adjust the exposure and brightness).