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Potomac River Fossil Trip


Shark Tooth Hunter

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On a nice day in August I took a trip with the Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures program to go for a day of collecting fossils on the beaches of the Potomac River. This site is up towards Popes Creek on the Maryland side of the river. Since almost all of the beaches at the Potomac site we were going to were inaccessible by foot we took a boat and covered several miles down the beach. On the trip I found I found just about all shark teeth. A couple nice makos, a nice pre-megalodon tooth, some busted pre-megs, a busted otodus tooth, and some smaller shark teeth.

On another nice day later in September I took a trip to Stratford Hall Virginia About half of the teeth shown in the pictures are from Stratford Hall which is also on the Potomac river. This site is known for shark teeth and megalodon shark teeth. Though i did not find any megs in Stratford Hall, i did find plenty of bull shark teeth, tiger shark teeth, and snaggletooth shark teeth. In the pictures are shark teeth from both the sites mentioned.post-5370-0-16183600-1351125559_thumb.jpgpost-5370-0-50245000-1351125600_thumb.jpgpost-5370-0-14253400-1351125620_thumb.jpgpost-5370-0-59688100-1351125652_thumb.jpgpost-5370-0-51582800-1351125665_thumb.jpgpost-5370-0-74555800-1351125828_thumb.jpg

Shark Tooth Hunter

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Looks like you had a couple of decent trips there. You definitely got some decent hemi's and tigers along with your mix of bull/dusky teeth. When you say pre-meg, are you meaning chubutensis/angustidens? I see one tooth in the second pic with a busted tip that could be chubutensis, I also see a nice Notorynchus (cow shark) in the same pic.

Curious, what is the item in the last pic, can you add some better and clearer pics of it?

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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Hey thanks for the reply. The pre meg is a called sub-ariculatis i think. Correct me if im wrong. The second one with the busted up tip is actually a an otodus tooth if you are talking about the black one. The white on is the pre meg. The last picture is a drum fish jaw. I will try to get better pics of it soon.

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The white one with the broken tip; on the left in the second pic, appears to be a Carcharocles chubutensis (a.k.a. sub-auriculatus), but could be a juvenile meg. The black tooth you are talking about, I do not believe is Otodus. Otodus are Paleocene/Eocene sharks, the rest of the teeth you have posted are Miocene/Pliocene. I think the black tooth is possibly some type of a worn/broken sand tiger.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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A very nice assortment of teeth. I use to do a lot of collecting along the Potomac River ,,its been a few years since

I've been there last.

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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Aren't the Hemis from the Stratford Hall section wonderful?

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Waaaay back in the early 1960's, I grew up in a place called Margate, Maryland. Our back yard had a beach, part of the Chesapeak. A small stream cut through the property and had loads of 'black rocks' and huge black arrowheads. We moved a few years later and afterwards discovered those 'arrowheads' where actually megs. I even tied one to a stick and made a spear. :mellow:

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
-Albert Einstein

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Waaaay back in the early 1960's, I grew up in a place called Margate, Maryland. Our back yard had a beach, part of the Chesapeak. A small stream cut through the property and had loads of 'black rocks' and huge black arrowheads. We moved a few years later and afterwards discovered those 'arrowheads' where actually megs. I even tied one to a stick and made a spear. :mellow:

I alway thought Meg's would make great war type axe heads.

Tony
The Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find.

I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember

And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.




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The white one with the broken tip; on the left in the second pic, appears to be a Carcharocles chubutensis (a.k.a. sub-auriculatus), but could be a juvenile meg. The black tooth you are talking about, I do not believe is Otodus. Otodus are Paleocene/Eocene sharks, the rest of the teeth you have posted are Miocene/Pliocene. I think the black tooth is possibly some type of a worn/broken sand tiger.

The Potomac site i went to is eocene and miocene. So maybe it could be an otodus tooth then. Thats my guess.
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The Potomac site i went to is eocene and miocene. So maybe it could be an otodus tooth then. Thats my guess.

Definitely Otodus. I have plenty of partials that look just like that one, and they are all Otodus.

Daryl.

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I had no idea that the place you were hunting was Eocene also, with that said, then Otodus is a possibility. In the Eocene locations here in NC, Otodus are extremely rare.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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I had no idea that the place you were hunting was Eocene also, with that said, then Otodus is a possibility. In the Eocene locations here in NC, Otodus are extremely rare.

Wow i didnt know that you could even find otodus teeth in NC even if they are rare.
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There are a few quarries in the southern part of the state where I have been told they have been found, but are extremely rare. There are also some very worn , although I have seen one decent one, Otodus like teeth that are found in GMR on occasion.These also could be Cretodus. Most are so worn or broken that they are tossed back. GMR is Cretaceous/Miocene/Pliocene.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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