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Megalodon?, Mastodon? So many interesting finds..


karenilm

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Hi!  I was hoping I could get some advice on my recent finds at Wrightsville Beach, NC.  Dredging recently finished and the last few days were awesome!  

 

Last year I found a very nice Mastodon and we found 3 items that look very similar but not in great condition.  I found 2 very large Megs but they are in bad shape.  

 

There are some unknowns that we just can't identify and was hoping for TFF's expertise.  

 

I can attach more pics of other angles but just going to attach the bare minimum right  now.  

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58 minutes ago, karenilm said:

Hi!  I was hoping I could get some advice on my recent finds at Wrightsville Beach, NC.  Dredging recently finished and the last few days were awesome!  

 

Last year I found a very nice Mastodon and we found 3 items that look very similar but not in great condition.  I found 2 very large Megs but they are in bad shape.  

 

There are some unknowns that we just can't identify and was hoping for TFF's expertise.  

 

I can attach more pics of other angles but just going to attach the bare minimum right  now.  

 

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The cusped one is an Angie (Carcharocles Angustiden) or a Ric (Carcharocles Auriculatis) (depends on locality it was found, and are still difficult to distinguish), and the other 2 do seem to be worn Megs. Really nice Angie/Ric! :meg:

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Every single fossil you see is a miracle set in stone, and should be treated as such.

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Aside from Megalodon, Carcharocles angustidens is my favorite megatooth shark. I just love the slender look combined with the large cusps. Yours is pretty heavily serrated and has a nice jet black color. Beautiful tooth!

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The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

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I see no bone texture in the black / tan pieces. they look like mineral stained sandstone.

I do not see fossils other than the shark teeth.

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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.

 

 

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You did pretty good. I was at Wrightsville for about an hour several days ago and didn’t find any teeth. Your teeth are a mixed bag of different ages. You have one piece of heavily mineralized bone. The big chunks are phosphatic rock. When I was there I found a few pieces of mineralized bone and a lot of the phosphatic rock, many pieces with shells or shell impressions.

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9 o'clock third pic looks like mastodon tooth frag. A close up of pic ten showing detail of an obvious fossil of some sort would be great. The rocks and bone frags have been phosphatized (it blackens them) in a lag deposit. The mollusk borings in the large meg? teeth show that the material was exposed on the sea floor for some time and possibly repeatedly.

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Plax - Are you asking for detailed photo of this?  

1 hour ago, Plax said:

9 o'clock third pic looks like mastodon tooth frag. A close up of pic ten showing detail of an obvious fossil of some sort would be great. The rocks and bone frags have been phosphatized (it blackens them) in a lag deposit. The mollusk borings in the large meg? teeth show that the material was exposed on the sea floor for some time and possibly repeatedly.

 

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Thank you so much for all the replies!!  Really appreciate all your help.  

 

The reason why I was thinking that I may have found a partial Mastodon was because of the similarities.  Above in the pics I posted I put my Mastodon that I found a year ago next to the items that looked similar.  Here it is again but with the Mastodon circled.  

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12 hours ago, HoppeHunting said:

Aside from Megalodon, Carcharocles angustidens is my favorite megatooth shark. I just love the slender look combined with the large cusps. Yours is pretty heavily serrated and has a nice jet black color. Beautiful tooth!

Thank you!!!  It really is a beautiful tooth!!!

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5 hours ago, Al Dente said:

You did pretty good. I was at Wrightsville for about an hour several days ago and didn’t find any teeth. Your teeth are a mixed bag of different ages. You have one piece of heavily mineralized bone. The big chunks are phosphatic rock. When I was there I found a few pieces of mineralized bone and a lot of the phosphatic rock, many pieces with shells or shell impressions.

Aww I am so sorry you didn't have any luck.  It's frustrating because they are charging for parking and you don't know if you will find anything or not.  I was there last Thursday when I found a majority of this.  It was crazy.  Every 15 minutes I kept finding more and more.  It was all in a small area.  If I hadn't been on that stretch of beach I don't think I would have found anything.  At one point I found the top of a meg and I was hoping to find the rest!!!  

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Here are some "action" shots.  I tried to take pics of some of the teeth before I picked them up.  It was so difficult to "see" them because there was so much to look at.  On top of it all I always try to look up and see the beauty of the ocean!!  :D

 

1) typical shell bed with some lovely old coca-cola glass! 

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1) IMG_1270.thumb.jpg.b175d3484ebe9725730cc35cdb89186e.jpgIMG_1281.thumb.jpg.eb9683dbf18a9c1e7ec5a132002902b8.jpgIMG_1288.thumb.jpg.a664a2402294cee80372c7a43145ef8d.jpg38A3D354-69FA-4FD3-A1C7-677A963DA01B.thumb.jpg.6b0581c066f874ea3e62586be6308b7a.jpg

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1 hour ago, ynot said:

I think the next picture in the line is the other side of that, and discredits the bone id.

Why do you think it discredits the bone ID? I found several scraps of bone there and they looked similar to this. Very mineralized, most of the pore space filled, probably with phosphate.

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1 hour ago, ynot said:

I think the next picture in the line is the other side of that, and discredits the bone id.

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manatee rib?, very dense bone

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2 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

Why do you think it discredits the bone ID? I found several scraps of bone there and they looked similar to this. Very mineralized, most of the pore space filled, probably with phosphate.

Because (to Me) it looks like the same grainy layered texture of the other pieces. I do not see a bone like texture in the fresh break.

Just trying to understand the difference.

 

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.

 

 

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1 hour ago, karenilm said:

Plax - Are you asking for detailed photo of this?  

 

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that shiny shape in there is very interesting. this is what I'd like to see a close up of

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36 minutes ago, Plax said:

that shiny shape in there is very interesting. this is what I'd like to see a close up of

PLAX - Wow, I didn't even notice that!  

 

I can take better pics if this isn't sufficient.  

 

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that might possibly be a phosphatized impression of a clam that appears to be bored by a gastrochaenid clam. The impression also reminds me of a barnacle valve. Al Dente will know what this is. Very cool specimen.

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to me this is the most interesting fossil you found because it's not readily identifiable despite having good details.

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On 3/21/2018 at 2:16 PM, Plax said:

The impression also reminds me of a barnacle valve

It does have the texture and shape of a barnacle scutum. I borrowed a picture from the NC Fossil Club's publication "Fossil Invertebrates and Plants" volume 1.

scutum.JPG

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