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I was hunting a site on the Potomac looking for some Eocene and Miocene fossils yesterday. When I got to the site I found this gorgeous snake vertebrae about 15 minutes into my trip, so I knew it was going to be a good day. 

After that it was slow collecting for the next few hours, I was only picking up a tooth every once in a while despite the incredible conditions. But then, 10 minutes before I was about to leave I stumbled upon my best chubutensis yet at about 2 3/4 in. (or 7 cm) rolling around in the surf. One that I have been dreaming about ever since a starting collecting two years ago. A total trip maker! I hope you enjoy the pics!

 

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It's always gratifying to have a fossil hunting trip capped off with a real trip-maker prize. Persistence pays off (unfortunately though, not every single time). You'll remember finding this tooth for years.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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3 hours ago, digit said:

Persistence pays off (unfortunately though, not every single time). You'll remember finding this tooth for years.

Absolutely!

48 minutes ago, fossilcrazee said:

Great day for you! Congrats 

thanks!

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Either one of those would be a tripmaker for me. Big congratulations and thanks for sharing. 

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Awesome finds!  Congratulations on finally getting rewarded for all your hard work!!  :thumbsu:

Now you have to change your member profile picture.

 

@sharkdoctor This report should make you really happy because you got him started way back at the Arlington Planetarium.

Edited by HemiHunter
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1 hour ago, HemiHunter said:

@sharkdoctor This report should make you really happy because you got him started way back at the Arlington Planetarium.

That's what sparked my love for fossils :D.  

 

 

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43 minutes ago, Plax said:

almost looks like an angustidens. Any chance there's some old church lag in the exposures?

This was in Maryland and, coincidentally, I asked a similar question last week in another forum about a tooth I found upriver.  According to @WhodamanHD, there are no known old church fossil exposures in MD where an angy could be found, although it's not beyond the realm of possibility. @MarcoSr 

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The lag between the Miocene and Eocene may not be the Old Church Formation but may include Old Church resistant clasts like shark teeth.

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5 hours ago, Plax said:

almost looks like an angustidens. Any chance there's some old church lag in the exposures?

The place he’s likely hunting has the lowermost bounds of the Calvert FM, so this is an early chub probably. Old Church angustidens are less developed, I don’t think the formation has been accurately dated but I suspect it’s older than the SC oligocene. Thus, I don’t believe this is from it. We don’t have a good site spanning the transition between Chubs and angys, so we don’t often see ones like this. It’s a nice find, as is the Palaeophis grandis!

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“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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59 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

We don’t have a good site spanning the transition between Chubs and angys, so we don’t often see ones like this. It’s a nice find, as is the Palaeophis grandis!

Why, thank you Mason :D 

 

And you are correct on your inference about the site I was hunting at. It does contain the Calvert formation which appears on top of the Nanjemoy Fm. (at least I think it's Nanjemoy)

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Calvert on Nanjemoy with a lag deposit between representing reworked Nanjemoy clasts and the missing time which would include the Old Church. 

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6 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

The place he’s likely hunting has the lowermost bounds of the Calvert FM, so this is an early chub probably

 

Dr. Godfrey at the Calvert Museum agrees: "Lovely find. Definitely a chubutensis! Characteristic of the lower Calvert, early Miocene."

 

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On 3/22/2021 at 6:53 PM, HemiHunter said:

Awesome finds!  Congratulations on finally getting rewarded for all your hard work!!  :thumbsu:

Now you have to change your member profile picture.

 

@sharkdoctor This report should make you really happy because you got him started way back at the Arlington Planetarium.

 

On 3/22/2021 at 8:07 PM, Fossil_finder_ said:

That's what sparked my love for fossils :D.  

 

 

 

@Fossil_finder_ Your posts absolutely made my March. You certainly earned your handle with that find! Your hard work certainly has paid off and I hope you hang onto that tooth and keep it someplace in where you can see it frequently. As you continue in your fossil hunting journey, those trophy teeth are a tangible reminder of awesome days in the field in good company and of the thrill of a successful fossil hunt.

 

BTW, I was down that way on Saturday and we didn't find much on the some of the beaches. You must have found them all! Congrats!

 

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Wow the color on that is amazing, I’m in love with it! I should really search the Miocene deposits in the Potomac more

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On 3/23/2021 at 9:19 AM, HemiHunter said:

This was in Maryland and, coincidentally, I asked a similar question last week in another forum about a tooth I found upriver.  According to @WhodamanHD, there are no known old church fossil exposures in MD where an angy could be found, although it's not beyond the realm of possibility. @MarcoSr 

 

The features of your tooth look like an O. chubutensis.  Where you were collecting, I've found O. obliquus, transitionals, and O. auriculatus from the Nanjemoy Formation and the lag layer between the Nanjemoy Formation and zone 3 of the Calvert Formation.  I've found mostly O. chubutensis and only a few O. megalodons from the Calvert Formation.  However, I have found a couple of teeth that look more O. Angustidens and other possible Oligocene shark teeth from the lag layer during the 45 years that I've collected the area.  Although I can't say with certainty, I suspect that there might be some Oligocene specimens in the lag layer in very localized pockets along the lag layer.

 

Edit:  Below is a picture of a display with teeth from the area.  The two teeth circled in red are the ones I was discussing above.  The crowns are rather wide to be O. auriculatus and the serrations don't seem as uniform as O. chubutensis.  The colors of these teeth are in line with colors from the lag layer.

 

 

995081542_Display1EoceneMioceneNanjemoyCalvertFormationsPopesCreekCharlesCountyMarylandsharkspecimens116X12mod.thumb.jpg.7293df4ba5e718603a8ed7bb4af5f324.jpg

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

Edited by MarcoSr
added display
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"Any day that you can fossil hunt is a great day."

My family fossil website     Some Of My Shark, Ray, Fish And Other Micros     My Extant Shark Jaw Collection

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