cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I went to the Ernst quarries at shark tooth hill last weekend and had a great time collecting teeth. I'm new to the area and hadn't collected there before, but I met a couple there who were very experienced and helped me identify a lot of what we found. I've attached a picture of what the landscape looked like as we were getting ready to leave. Really a beautiful area, in a desolate sort of way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Mako shark tooth with most of a root I found while sifting. We found a handful of these, both while sifting and while digging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Snaggletooth shark tooth we found while sifting- this was the only snaggletooth we found. I'm told the fossils that look pumpkin-colored at shark tooth hill tend to be more fragile, but this one seems pretty hardy and is mostly undamaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 White shark upper- we found a handful of these, but this is one of the nicer ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Decent-sized mako upper. I kept the tooth embedded in the rock I found it in. I took it home like this and will display it in matrix, but I later removed some of the rock covering the tooth. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Here's what the big mako tooth looks like after some preparation. I might remove a little more matrix near the root, but I'm a bit nervous about damaging the root so I've been holding off for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raggedy Man Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 ...I'm back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 This is what most of the mako teeth we found looked like. We found a handful of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Pygmy sperm whale tooth, I haven't done any preparation yet. There's some matrix all over the tooth so it'll probably look a bit nicer when I remove that, I didn't dare do it in the field. We found three or four of these teeth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 White shark or mako lower, no idea which. It was harder to find this intact, the tips often break off over time. This one was remarkably intact, which is crazy since I found it sifting. I think sifting is somewhat under-appreciated there, you can find some great stuff in the refuse piles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Mako upper in matrix. I think the in-matrix presentation looks really nice in my display case. The only downside is you end up getting sand everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Cow shark tooth in matrix. I'll clean this up before display, I didn't do almost any cleaning of this particular one in the field because I had already damaged a cow shark tooth that day and really wanted to keep an intact one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 End of a whale phalange. I'll clean this up when I get a change, I think it'll look pretty nice when the last of the rock is removed. Mammal bone is extremely common at shark tooth hill, but it crumbles very easily and most pieces are unrecognizable chunks of vertebrae, pelvis, or rib. Finding a somewhat recognizable bone isn't so common. I took some rib pieces home too. I think if you had a lot of time and patience and were prepared to do a real excavation you could get some impressive display pieces there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 This is one of the strangest teeth I found that day. It's an extremely small tooth, but it's very wide and thick for it's size. It has fine serrations that you can just barely see in the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Nice finds -- Thanks for sharing! Tony PS You can seal the matrix with super glue. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Battery for scale, and the reverse side of the tooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Nice finds, that is one place I want to visit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 I was googling around to try to figure out what it was, and it looks somewhat similar to the pictures of juvenile megalodon teeth in this thread: ...as well as elsewhere online. But I'm a total amateur at identifying shark teeth and it seems very unlikely I found something rare on my first trip, so it seems like it probably isn't. I'd love other people's input on what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Thanks Nimravis! It was definitely worth it, and Rob Ernst was a really nice guy and very excited about his plans to further develop the site. I just moved out to Santa Barbara for graduate school and I've been having a great time exploring new fossil sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 The last one does appear to be a meg. can You post pictures of the back and side view? Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 That's the last of my posts from this trip for now. I'll probably post my finds from the Green River sometime, the fish fossils there are fantastic and preparing them has been a lot of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Hey ynot, I'll post the side view later because I'm in lab right now and don't have the tooth with me, but I do have a picture of the back (it's attached). There's still a bit of matrix on it in this picture, I'll post a better one after I clean it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Thanks for the superglue advice, I've been sealing my green river fossils with a 1:10 mixture of acetone and duco cement, but I never thought of sealing the matrix. I'll give that a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Here is one of My STH teeth in matrix peices that was done that way. Carve off the matrix from one side and seal it to the tooth, then do the other side. They like to fall out of the matrix otherwise. Tony 3 Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltschirhart Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Thanks, I'll do that. That's a beautiful tooth you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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