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Found Multiple Fossil Beds At The Bottom Of A Lake


gwbh

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I got certified to dive last year so I can find more fossils. A friend of mine owns a 1200 acre pine tree plantation in Camden county, Georgia with a 26 acre man made lake on the property. As some of you may know the St. Mary's river is in the area, and is known to produce very high quality megs and other shark teeth and fossils. So putting two and two together I figure if the lake is deep enough it might be hitting the "fossil layer", which is at least around 15 ft below the surface, and as much as 80 ft, depending on where you are. I got lucky! in 20 ft of water, low and behold, the classic signs of a Miocene fossil bed. Lots of black fish and whale bones mixed in with the grey/silver clay of southeast Georgia. As soon as I got close enough to take a good look I saw a sand tiger shark tooth just sitting on the surface. I searched the area pretty thoroughly and only found a few fossil shells. at the very end of my 2nd tank I found another fossil bed in 15 ft of water in a different part of the lake, this one looked even more promising, but I was at the point where I had to come up and I couldn't look at all. Luckily I decided to rent a third tank earlier that day, and with that spent 68 mins on the fossil bed. I found some whale bones and 13 shark teeth, Hemis, makos, a few sand tigers, and some smaller species of shark that I cant 100% identify but are most likely black tip, dusky, bull, lemon or something similar, one was a 3.4 inch Meg! I have found better teeth washed up out of rivers on the surface, but only one complete meg, and it is only 3.2 inches. My first meg found while diving is beat up and the tip is missing, but i'm proud of it. Really didn't expect to find any fossils, I was more just trying to get some dives in for practice as I don't have many under my belt. Well now I have a copy of the key to the property, with permission to go any time, and the rest of the summer to work on my dive skills and search the private lake for fossils. And did I mention it was my birthday Friday? Couldnt have asked for a better bday present.

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That is really cool. Only issue I can see is that unlike a river new fossils may not get exposed.

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You may have a fossil honey hole on your hands for a bit. Nice finds and thanks for sharing! :) Oh, and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

Process of identification "mistakes create wisdom".

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That is really cool. Only issue I can see is that unlike a river new fossils may not get exposed.

your right rick, I was really surprised to even find anything. But I think the fossil bed I was searching last has more potential, I found a whale bone the size of a basketball, I didn't want to leave even after 68 mins. there was a lot of silt covering everything so I will probably get some practice at just "feeling around" as the black water divers have to do to find their teeth. Also, since I found two beds and the meg appears river worn I'm thinking there might be the remains of an ancient river that runs across the the lake; if I can figure out which way it runs by lining up the two beds.

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You may have a fossil honey hole on your hands for a bit. Nice finds and thanks for sharing! :) Oh, and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!

thanks!

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Sounds like a lot of fun. Happy birthday!

Thanks a lot

Did you try digging?

I spent most of the time looking over the surface, towards the end I started trying to dig into the clay, some of it was pretty tough, I want to try and dig more next time.
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I just found this other hemi, apparently I missed it in my bcd pocket. so I guess I found 14 teeth in all.

this one shows the red color that the st marys river teeth are famous for, the picture doesnt do it justice.

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Very cool and nice finds! Hopefully you can get more meg teeth now that you are certified.

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Quelle belle découverte ! merci de partager les nouvelles trouvailles !

merci beaucoup!

Sounds like a productive way to go about practicing!!! :D

I agree! Thanks!

Very cool and nice finds! Hopefully you can get more meg teeth now that you are certified.

thanks a lot!
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  • 1 month later...

Had some success in the lake again yesterday. was hoping to find a meg but no luck, got some nice makos and others. Interesting red color on some of the teeth I don't typically find in other places. Found a horse tooth as well (not pictured)

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poke down in the mud systematically with a steel rod once youve surface collected thoroughly.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Man, 26 acres of lake is huge to explore! Was any of the lake dug out? If it was, maybe you can get lucky sifting through some of its dirt if its still there? Congrats btw!

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poke down in the mud systematically with a steel rod once youve surface collected thoroughly.

good idea thanks ill try that, I was fanning a lot which seemed to be working well, a lot of the material is fine sand. but there is a lot of thick clay as well.

Man, 26 acres of lake is huge to explore! Was any of the lake dug out? If it was, maybe you can get lucky sifting through some of its dirt if its still there? Congrats btw!

thanks, its man made and was dug in the 70's, i know of another fossil bed in the lake i haven't even touched yet, there are probably others to be found as well

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Went diving again today, my fanning technique is improving. Again very nice colors on just a few of the teeth.

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heres that horse tooth, at least I believe its a horse, im not as good at id'ing mammal teeth as I am shark teeth.

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  • 4 months later...

your right rick, I was really surprised to even find anything. But I think the fossil bed I was searching last has more potential, I found a whale bone the size of a basketball, I didn't want to leave even after 68 mins. there was a lot of silt covering everything so I will probably get some practice at just "feeling around" as the black water divers have to do to find their teeth. Also, since I found two beds and the meg appears river worn I'm thinking there might be the remains of an ancient river that runs across the the lake; if I can figure out which way it runs by lining up the two beds.

LOL yeah, welcome to my world~! there are some dives that it doesn't matter how strong your dive lights are, if the silt or algae is moving around you are diving blind. The best I can describe it to anyone that has driven at night in a snow storm, you see snow all over the place and nothing else, it is almost exactly like that.

Remember rivers twist and turn over time so fossils will be exposed and then covered, moved and redeposited. Think of it like watching a line of water running down your windshield. You see that water twisting and turning all over the place. A river moved like this but just at a slower pace, lol. If you look at google earth pr maps, you can see this effect on the surrounding land on rivers. I see it all the time when looking for potential new spots to dive on rivers.

Keep working this lake over, there are always more fossils there. Oh and bring up that big whale vert. I finally got one the size of a gallon paint can.

" This comment brought to you by the semi-famous AeroMike"

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