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Shark Tooth Hill----- Calif.


PRK

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Maybe we should talk over some finds at the STH locale. Shall we?

DESMOSTYLUS tooth. Interesting story---I used to live within a couple hours of STH. so there was a point when I was in school during the week, of courseI had weekends off, so I would drive up to STH and dig there every weekend, for many months in a row. On this particular weekend i was happy to find half of a rare desmostylus tooth(about five columns). On one of my return trips, a couple months later,I was digging a good 60ft away and found another smaller partial of a desmo tooth(a couple columns).

Upon my return home to prep what I had collected, I was fiddling with the pieces and lo-and- behold, they fit together. I ended up with a complete tooth---minus one cusp. Paleo serendipity I guess. But this was great, as desmo teeth are rare.

Paired cetothere(whale) ulnas(elbow bones)

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Whale bullae(earbone), It is hollow inside. this bone was used to amplify sound so the inner earbone(periotic bone) could pick up distant and faint sound

And of course a shark vertebrae

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Here is a display showing some of the material given to the museum. I made this display while I still lived in calif

L to R Allodesmus bones and teeth , vertebra, femur, jaw with teeth, humerus, a few loose teeth.

In front a porpoise skull, many shark teeth incl. lovely white megalodon, on far right. And on the far right back, an articulated whale arm (radius, ulna, and humerus)with numerous sharktooth slash marks in one of the bones. Obviously a large Isurid was tugging/slashing the arm of this whale, there was even the goodly tip of a shark tooth embedded in the bone. The broken radius is where a careless previous collector stopped his digging, while digging for sharkteeth, not bones

I apologise for the blurry, but that photo was taken a long time ago

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Here is a display showing some of the material given to the museum. I made this display while I still lived in calif

L to R Allodesmus bones and teeth , vertebra, femur, jaw with teeth, humerus, a few loose teeth

In front a porpoise skull, many shark teeth incl. lovely white megalodon, on far right. And on the far right back, an articulated whale arm (radius, ulna, and humerus)with numerous sharktooth slash marks in one of the bones. Obviously a large Isurid was tugging/slashing the arm of this whale, there was even the goodly tip of a shark tooth embedded in the bones. The broken radius is where the careless previous collector stopped his digging, while digging for sharkteeth, not bones

I apologise for the blurry but that photo was a long time ago

PKR,

Very nice STH display! What Museum do you have them at and do you know what species the dolphin skull is ?

Lisa

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  • 2 weeks later...

FInally---the overburden is picked and shoveled away. Actually this is an average amount of digging at sharktooth hill. it takes a good days work, for a couple of people to pick and shovel a pit like this......These were the days before the hard work was done FOR you.

Are you saying that now someone prepares the area by removing the overburden for the collectors? That would be awesome. I've never been and have only seen pictures that others have taken on their trips.

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I know you east coast collectors have an abundance of I. planus, so ill show you some from the west coast

Lots of other mako species on the east coast but no I. planus teeth.

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I know you east coast collectors have an abundance of I. planus, so ill show you some from the west coast

Lots of other mako species on the east coast but no I. planus teeth.

PS. Would have liked to see that flat of 3000!!!

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More unusual bones found at STH. These are a few more bones found in the auditory mechanism of whales. These are the periodic bones(earbones). And like fish otoliths, the most diagnostic bone in the whale. They are also very dense. These periodic bones are all definitively unique in shape, to a species.

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Bob Ernst used to blade off a football field sized area to within about 6 inches of the bonebed in the fall, and let it weather over the winter. Then in the spring and summer, you were within a few inches of the good stuff. I spent a day with Bob in his quarry a few years before he died.

Here are a few pictures:

STH Skeleton

Group photo STH

STH area

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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They remove a lot of the overburden at STH now to make the collecting easier. But the bones and teeth still get broken up by rock hammers, picks and shovels. Still one of my favorite sites I have ever hunted!

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PRK,

I've found a few of those in the bonebed as well. A good place to find those is in the dump piles of previous collectors, because with a little matrix partly covering them, they look like rocks or random bone pieces if you're focusing on teeth or are unfamiliar with periotc shapes. It's the kind of fossil you might find one or two of in a day. I always liked finding a decent one.

In recent pubications (past 4-5 years) on fossil marine mammals I've noticed that paleontologists have started calling them "petrosals" rather than periotics.

Jess

More unusual bones found at STH. These are a few more bones found in the auditory mechanism of whales. These are the periodic bones(earbones). And like fish otoliths, the most diagnostic bone in the whale. They are also very dense. These periodic bones are all definitively unique in shape, to a species.

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RichW9090,

Thanks for posting those photos. I was a friend of Bob's. I saw him just a couple of weeks before he passed away. He had just had an extension of the "west side" cleared about a week before my arrival. There was fresh bone sticking out including a rather large whale vertebra (large for the layer).

On that trip Bob gave me a copy of an episode of "California's Gold" in which Huell Howser interviewed him out on the property. I read that Mr. Howser just passed away the other day. Bob enjoyed meeting him.

Jess

P.S. If I'm not invading anyone's privacy, who else did you collect with that day - the other people in the group photo

Bob Ernst used to blade off a football field sized area to within about 6 inches of the bonebed in the fall, and let it weather over the winter. Then in the spring and summer, you were within a few inches of the good stuff. I spent a day with Bob in his quarry a few years before he died.

Here are a few pictures:

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More unusual bones found at STH. These are a few more bones found in the auditory mechanism of whales. These are the periodic bones(earbones). And like fish otoliths, the most diagnostic bone in the whale. They are also very dense. These periodic bones are all definitively unique in shape, to a species.

Those all appear to be petrosals/periotics of the sperm whale Aulophyseter morricei.

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Jess, The guy on the far right side (of the photograph, not of the people) is Toshio Odano, of Valley Anatomical Preparations. His wife, Mary, was the photographer. I am second from the right, Bob, of course is in the middle. The other two guys were locals who volunteered with the Buena Vista Museum. One was a local cop who was on the museum board, and I forget who the other one was. We also took two BLM guys out with us who were trying to prove that Bob was digging on BLM land - which he wasn't of course, but they sure seemed to wish he had been. They didn't much appreciate my having to explain to them how to properly read a topo map.

I had talked with Bob about getting the nodule with the skeleton to prep for him, but we just didn't get around to actually making the arrangments, and shortly after he died, someone stole the nodule from the site.

Rich

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

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While living in calif I had been collecting STH for many years(a favorite site of mine, to this day) and had accumulated a significant pile of fossils. Teeth were secondary to me. I liked the bones, they have much more character and are rarer, and although I did not discard the teeth, I simply tossed them in a beer flat(after prep of course). When I moved, I sold them to a friend for just $60. The flat was almost full ( approx 3000) all Isurus planus, and all at least 1in. the most common sh th at STH.

Such a deal !!, I've been kicking myself for twenty years. luckily, I did however save a few of my faves. The large one in the lower right is over 2in.

I know you east coast collectors have an abundance of I. planus, so ill show you some from the west coast

A huge flat for $60 to your friend. Well don't I have a deal for you. I will buy that display case of 50 or so for $60 ;)... Seriously though, glad you held on to the best for yourself. That two inch plus planus is awesome, as that huge hastilis and the rest. I am hoping to make a trip there one day.

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Rich,

I've met Mary Odano before but not her husband. Bob and I once drove out to Chatsworth to pick up/drop off something. It was the first time I'd visited a cast-making company. It was interesting to see. VA did most, if not all, of the casts Bob had made of his specimens including a headless Allodesmus skeleton, and an isolated skull with lowers. You might have seen those. As tough as it is to find all the parts one by one, it made me wish I could buy a cast of that skeleton.

Bob was on good terms with local law enforcement in the area. He was probably equally irritated and amused by the BLM's assumption. Yes, Bob knew the property lines.

The stolen nodule must be the "baby whale" talked about in the weeks afterward.

Jess

Jess, The guy on the far right side (of the photograph, not of the people) is Toshio Odana, of Valley Anatomical Preparations. His wife, Mary, was the photographer. I am second from the right, Bob, of course is in the middle. The other two guys were locals who volunteered with the Buena Vista Museum. One was a local cop who was on the museum board, and I forget who the other one was. We also took two BLM guys out with us who were trying to prove that Bob was digging on BLM land - which he wasn't of course, but the sure seemed to wish he had been. They didn't much appreciate my having to explain to them how to properly read a topo map.

I had talked with Bob about getting the nodule with the skeleton to prep for him, but we just didn't get around to actually making the arrangments, and shortly after he died, someone stole the nodule from the site.

Rich

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Jess and Rich,

Thanks for the interesting Bob stories. I love to hear them. I have so many questions I wish I could ask him. He sure is missed! If either of you were digging with Bob on whale quarry and something significate was found I would love to hear about it. I am in the process of mapping out our finds and it would be interesting to add any of his as well. You can pm me if you like. By the way was that stolen nodule from slow curve or west quarry ? May be the same people that we had a really bad tresspassing problem with during the process of buying the quarry. They were digging and taking fossils from every quarry on Bob and Mary's land. With a lot of calling to the authorities and the DA. It was stopped.

thanks, Lisa

Rich,

I've met Mary Odano before but not her husband. Bob and I once drove out to Chatsworth to pick up/drop off something. It was the first time I'd visited a cast-making company. It was interesting to see. VA did most, if not all, of the casts Bob had made of his specimens including a headless Allodesmus skeleton, and an isolated skull with lowers. You might have seen those. As tough as it is to find all the parts one by one, it made me wish I could buy a cast of that skeleton.

Bob was on good terms with local law enforcement in the area. He was probably equally irritated and amused by the BLM's assumption. Yes, Bob knew the property lines.

The stolen nodule must be the "baby whale" talked about in the weeks afterward.

Jess

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Hi Lisa,

Bob found a group of bones from a Merychippus-like horse in the whale quarry. I believe Bob had paperwork what what he found there. Mary might have that.

I think the stolen nodule was from the west quarry but not sure.

Were the trespassers identified and/or ever arrested?

Jess

Jess and Rich,

Thanks for the interesting Bob stories. I love to hear them. I have so many questions I wish I could ask him. He sure is missed! If either of you were digging with Bob on whale quarry and something significate was found I would love to hear about it. I am in the process of mapping out our finds and it would be interesting to add any of his as well. You can pm me if you like. By the way was that stolen nodule from slow curve or west quarry ? May be the same people that we had a really bad tresspassing problem with during the process of buying the quarry. They were digging and taking fossils from every quarry on Bob and Mary's land. With a lot of calling to the authorities and the DA. It was stopped.

thanks, Lisa

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