Potomac River 3/18/17

[RCW3D]

This was my first trip to the Potomac in a month, hard to believe it had been that long. What an incredible day on the Potomac it was! My wife had never found a Megalodon tooth before...today she found three! I too got into the action and found my biggest ever, the crazy thing was that they were all found in an area the size of our family room. We also found some large vertebrae, I dug two up while sifting and my wife found one at the water's edge...that one of was identified as coming from the tail section of a whale. There was a tour going beyond the ropes and the leader stopped long enough to provide an identification. Even though we had a banner day on the beach, I was jealous of all the orange vests heading past the ropes to the off limits areas...the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, eh? I sifted most of the day, I was lucky enough to find a couple of dolphin teeth for my efforts. I also found what is obviously a crab claw, I just don't know if I is a fossil or not...please weigh in. It is hard as a rock but I just don't have the experience enough to tell.

Total haul:

 

Megs a little closer.

 

Dolphin teeth.

 

The crab claw...please weigh in on whether it is an actual fossil or not.

 

The vertebrae:

[Brett Breakin' Rocks]

Woah .. when it rains it pours !!  Nice finds ..

 

Cheers,

B

[ynot]

Y'All did good!

Congratulations.

Tony

[Ropterus]

Looks like you had a great day! Congrats!

[JarrodB]

Great trip & report. Congrats

[cck]

I'd say fossil on the crab claw. Well done!

[sixgill pete]

Nice!

Great finds and a fun day,

[RCW3D]

11 hours ago, cck said:

I'd say fossil on the crab claw. Well done!

 

Thanks for the input, I thought it was but I really wasn't sure. It passed the "squeeze test" on the river...there have been a few things that have received the squeeze test and were quickly tossed back in to the river when they were squishy! LOL!

 

[sharko69]

Super finds! Thanks for sharing.

[Darktooth]

Looks like another great day!

[Jesuslover340]

Love the meg teeth! I can only imagine what it would be like to find one myself...

Any idea on the dolphin species?

[RCW3D]

29 minutes ago, Jesuslover340 said:

Love the meg teeth! I can only imagine what it would be like to find one myself...

Any idea on the dolphin species?

 

No idea on the dolphin species, but based on the size, I have to believe that both of them came from a juvenile. The other dolphin teeth I have found have been twice the size of these two. My very first shovelful I spied one in my sifter and quickly grabbed it to keep it from being lost among the shells and gravel.

[Jesuslover340]

I take they're not common?

[RCW3D]

5 minutes ago, Jesuslover340 said:

I take they're not common?

 

A lot less common than the shark teeth but I wouldn't say they are rare.

[Jakuzi]

Killer finds.  Love those huge verts!

[Al Dente]

7 hours ago, RCW3D said:

 

No idea on the dolphin species, but based on the size, I have to believe that both of them came from a juvenile. The other dolphin teeth I have found have been twice the size of these two. My very first shovelful I spied one in my sifter and quickly grabbed it to keep it from being lost among the shells and gravel.

 

An interesting thing about modern dolphins is they have only one set of teeth throughout their lives, so the teeth they have as infants are the same ones they have as adults. You can determine the age of dolphins by their teeth but you have to slice them open. They have growth layers that fill the pulp cavities of their teeth as they age. Attached is an image from the paper "Age estimation on long-beaked common dolphins, Delphinus capensis, from the Gulf of California" of sliced dolphin teeth.

[RCW3D]

1 hour ago, Al Dente said:

 

An interesting thing about modern dolphins is they have only one set of teeth throughout their lives, so the teeth they have as infants are the same ones they have as adults. You can determine the age of dolphins by their teeth but you have to slice them open. They have growth layers that fill the pulp cavities of their teeth as they age. Attached is an image from the paper "Age estimation on long-beaked common dolphins, Delphinus capensis, from the Gulf of California" of sliced dolphin teeth.

VERY COOL!!! I had no idea! Thanks for sharing!