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bthemoose

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After going several weeks without fossil hunting, due to weather, schedule, etc., I finally made it out to Douglas Point (Paleocene, Aquia Formation) in Maryland this morning on a very pretty, cool autumn day.

 

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My first fossil find of the day was a small piece of ratfish plate.

 

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Below is my first shark tooth of the day (a sand tiger, like the vast majority of teeth found here). By the standards of this site, the quantity of shark teeth was low today, but they were in better than average shape, which isn't a bad trade off. Many appeared to be fresh out of the matrix.

 

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Finding Otodus obliquus teeth never gets old! This tooth has some tip wear, but is in much better shape than what I expected when I first saw it poking out of the sand. It's about an inch long.

 

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The Paralbula marylandica tooth plate below is the second that I've found -- today's wasn't as nice as my first one, but I was still pretty happy to find it.

 

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The Potomac River was choppy and silty today, and, as a result, I didn't have as much luck hunting the water's edge as I sometimes do. Luckily, the tides were low, so there was still exposed beach to peruse.

 

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Here's another Otodus in the gravels--smaller than the earlier one.

 

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The croc tooth below is a little beat up, but at an inch and a half long, it's the second largest that I've found.

 

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The shark teeth were all on the smaller side today. The largest I found is below and measures 1 and 3/16 inches long.

 

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Hopefully I won't have such a long break before my next fossil hunt. 

 

Thanks for looking!

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huntin' the cliffs and beaches there was always so therapeutic,  Nice finds!

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'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'

George Santayana

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Great finds and pictures. Love that croc tooth. You found some real beauties. Do you possibly know what genus the croc tooth might be from?

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On 10/19/2021 at 5:26 AM, hemipristis said:

huntin' the cliffs and beaches there was always so therapeutic,  Nice finds!


Thank you! Yes, it’s a really nice spot.

 

8 hours ago, PermianOkie said:

Great finds and pictures. Love that croc tooth. You found some real beauties. Do you possibly know what genus the croc tooth might be from?

 

Thanks! It’s possibly Eosuchus or Thoracosaurus but I haven’t really dug into croc IDs and I know it can be difficult to ID isolated teeth. This poster has more info on the croc fauna of the Aquia Formation.

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