Easter in the Eocene in England

[Striatolamia]

Hello all,

 

This is my first posting on the forum, but I have been avidly consuming its contents for quite a while. To start off, I thought members might like to hear of my recent visit to one of England's finest sites for Eocene sharks teeth: Beltinge, near Herne Bay in Kent in the far south-east of Britain.

 

I was born a few miles along the coast and, in my youth, was aware of the possibility of finding fossils at Beltinge, but never discovered much during a few half-hearted teenage searches. My mother still lives where I grew up and I take my family to see her four or five times a year. During these holidays we spend as much time as possible scouring the beaches for fossils and other beach treasures. Our latest trip at Easter coincided with some of the lowest tides of the year. Combined with favourable winds and a fine weather forecast it looked like we might get lucky...

 

Beltinge is famous for its sharks teeth which are eroded out of the 'Beltinge Fish Bed' where it is exposed on the foreshore. As such, fossil hunting is entirely tidal dependent and the best conditions occur when the lowest tides coincide with offshore winds; the retreating sea reveals areas of the beach that are usually submerged. On good days there can be several dozen people searching and it's not unknown for coach loads of Dutch, Belgian or German enthusiasts to descend on the best areas. There is plenty of beach to search but the most productive areas are exposed for less than an hour so competition can get a bit fierce and the tide waits for no man...

 

To maximise my chances of success I had a few tricks up my sleeve. The lowest tides over the Easter period were all very early in the morning so I had packed my high-powered fell-running headtorch. The plan was to head down before sunrise, get on the beach as the tide receded and start searching by torchlight. I assumed nobody else would be as keen, most sensible people waiting until it was properly light. Thus I was rather surprised, when I arrived at the car park at 04:30hrs, to see a small bright light in the darkness, bobbing down the path below me towards the beach. It didn't take me long to get kitted up and fully equipped to set out and follow the unknown stranger down onto the foreshore.

 

The tide was already heading out very quickly and there were plenty of patches of pebbles and shingle to search through. I had not tried hunting by torchlight before and soon discovered it wasn't as easy as I hoped; I needed to keep the beam at the correct angle to prevent it reflecting back off the glistening sand and rockpools and temporarily blinding me. Fossils were proving elusive but the favoured areas were not yet exposed. By the time the sun finally rose at 06:38hrs I had found around twenty small and mostly broken teeth and a fragment of chimaera mouth part; not a lot to show for nearly two hours of searching.

 

Sunrise over Reculver Towers at low tide, 06:38hrs Good Friday 30th March 2018. The only other pre-dawn 'enthusiast' can be made out crouched by the tideline at the left; he has found what is usually the best area.

 

 

It was a relief to turn off my headtorch and look using natural light. It was now dead low tide. The other person was already sorting through the best exposure and I joined him, starting from the opposite end. The pebble and shingle bank was mostly clear of sediment. Sharks teeth started appearing as if by magic, most of them lying on the surface and very obvious. Quite frequently I would spot one and then notice two or three more as I reached down to pick it up. My collection pot was starting to feel 'weighty' and the buzz from finding so many made me forget my aching back and neck. 

 

So far I haven't mentioned the techniques required for finding stuff at Beltinge. Everyone seems to do it slightly differently, but basically it involves crouching or kneeling down and peering intently at the patches of shingle, picking up whatever you spot and popping it into a pot to be examined later once the tide has covered up the beach. There is no point wasting valuable time cleaning and checking every item when the tide is inexorably advancing. Some people use a kneeling pad, others don't. A few prefer to put spoonfulls of shingle into a sieve, rinse them in the sea and them check through the contents. Tweezers, tongs, forceps, blunt knives and other implements can be used as aids to pick up the fossils but fingertips are just as effective although they can get very cold. Whatever method is used you can't avoid getting a very sore back and neck from stooping down.

 

/

Can you spot it? A fairly typical find in a pretty standard situation.

 

 

By 07:30hrs several other people have joined us on the beach, all searching in the best area, but the tide has started coming back in and it's now a race against time. I notice a chap working a little further east along the beach. He is using a large circular panning sieve and concentrating on an area of shelly shingle very different in texture to the pebble bank. His name is Tim and he tells me he has been 'harvesting' the teeth for nearly 40 years. He can no longer look using the usual methods as his back and knees won't allow it and his eyesight is no longer good enough either. He produces a sizeable handful of sharks teeth from his coat pocket and it's clear his method is very efficient; most of them are large and complete! He has also found four bony fish vertebrae and a large piece of chimaera jaw.

 

The advancing waters push us further and further up the beach and the rate of finds drops rapidly as we are confined to areas that have been scoured many times. There are still surprises to be discovered and I'm delighted to stumble across a large, if somewhat battered, Otodus tooth. These are not common at Beltinge and it's only the second example I have ever found.

 

Otodus obliquus, or minimeg as my 12 year old son likes to call it.

 

 

Before the waters consume all the best areas I put my second secret weapon into action. I have brought along a bucket, a garden trowel and a 1mm metal kitchen sieve. I use these to collect as much suitable shingle and small pebble patches as I can from around the boulders and beds, which I can then sort through at my leisure once we return home after the holiday. There's nothing like being able to continue the hunt when you're 200 miles from the sea and you don't have to worry about the tide coming in!

 

Eventually, all the other fossil hunters depart and I'm left on my own. The tide has covered almost all the foreshore; only The Rand is left exposed. This is the local name for a large raised bank of pebbles and mussels that juts out perpendicularly into the sea. It used to be a prime site for fossils but the building of sea defences, discovery of King Ragworm by bait diggers and encroachment by invasive American Slipper Limpets have resulted in it becoming resistant to wave action and far less productive for fossil hunters. Still, it's the only area remaining and I have found some nice pieces there in the past. I search, mostly in vain, until the tide finally reclaims the last outcrops and I'm forced off the beach onto the promenade. It's now 09:00hrs, the weather is gorgeous - sunny, calm and warm - and the seafront has been claimed by dog walkers, joggers and cyclists so I head home for a well-earned breakfast.

 

Later on in the day I wash all the finds in fresh water and lay them out on kitchen towel to dry before sorting through them. It's been a very successful morning. The break down of finds is as follows:

 

Striatolamia macrota 71 (11 complete)

Carcharias hopei 46 (7 complete)

Palaeohypotodus rutoti 6 (2 complete)

Sylvestrilamia teretidens 2 complete

Odontaspis winkleri 2 (1 complete)

Chimaera jaw fragment 4

Ray dental plate piece 1

Turtle carapace fragment 1

 

Striatolamia macrota. A big anterior.

 

Striatolamia macrota. Some very tiny laterals (mm scale bar)

 

So ends day one. The early start was definitely worth it. I have never experienced such a low tide and the potential it uncovers. I still have four more days to go. Can't wait until tomorrow...

 

 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by Striatolamia
Edited to remove irrelevant images

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum. 

Great report and finds! 

Thanks for posting this, along with the in-situ pictures. 

Almost felt like I was there.  

Regards, 

[Kane]

Welcome to the forum  

 

You certainly came prepared (and even in terms of timing)! And it seems to have paid off, as "to the motivated goes the spoils." Thank you for posting this wonderfully detailed trip report... It was like I was right there, with the headtorch, fingers going numb, working frantically before the waves (of water and tourists) began pounding that shore. Judging by this haul, your perseverance and planning surely paid off!

[Tidgy's Dad]

An exciting report and a great haul! 

Hello, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco! 

[Ludwigia]

Hello and a warm welcome to the forum. It's not all that often that new members start off their career here with a fully fledged report, let alone such a detailed and well-written one such as yours! Thank you very much for taking us along and initiating us in the secrets of collecting at this site. Looking forward to hearing more from you and good luck in the next few days!

[Max-fossils]

1 hour ago, Striatolamia said:

it's not unknown for coach loads of Dutch, Belgian or German enthusiasts to descend on the best areas.

As if you Englishmen don't come on our Dutch beaches and Belgian quarries!  

 

What a fantastic report, reading it sure proved to be a pleasure to me  Well done, and thanks for sharing it!

Sounds like you also made some amazing finds! I would love to see pictures of the other shark species as well, as (of most) I haven't heard their names before. So if you could post some pictures of them it would be awesome!

 

By the way, you sure made a fantastic first impression here on TFF. Your expertise in the area of paleontology visibly shows, so I am sure you will be a valuable member to our awesome community. Welcome aboard the forum!!!

 

Good luck on your hunt tomorrow by the way.

 

Happy hunting!

 

Max

[FossilDAWG]

What a great report!  Welcome to the Forum, and thanks for the spectacular entry post.

 

Don

[Darktooth]

Nice finds and report!

[nala]

Great finds and pictures!:)

[goatinformationist]

Fabulous report.  You included everything that I look for in the word.  Thanks for leaving out the cold water.

[Striatolamia]

Thank you very much everyone who has commented. Your kind words are much appreciated and very encouraging.

 

A quick question on forum etiquette: Should I start a new thread for the next day of the trip, or should I add it to this thread as another reply?

 

I have four more days to report on (if you would like me to...), then there's the at-home sorting of the sieved material to show. Plus there is also another activity we undertook during the same long weekend. You might get a bit bored of me rather quickly, but I hope not.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Nice report. You can continue here, it is the same story

 

Coco

[Phevo]

3 hours ago, Striatolamia said:

You might get a bit bored of me rather quickly, but I hope not.

 

 

Don't worry, everyone is a rock nut here

 

Also thank you for an extensive nice trip report, with all the pictures and details it was a very pleasant read

 

[Striatolamia]

Day 2

 

Saturday 31st March 2018

 

This morning I decided to give the headtorch searching a miss; a bit of a lie-in resulted in me getting to the beach at 06:00hrs. The tide was racing out but the weather conditions were not as favourable as yesterday - some light drizzle and a stiff North-westerly breeze off the sea made it feel decidedly wintery. Not surprisingly there was no-one else on the beach when I arrived.

 

I began by searching some new areas away from the usual places, figuring that it was better to try something different whilst I waited for the retreating water to uncover the better exposures. Bingo! Within a few moments of beginning I spotted a rather fine multi-plate ray dentition. This was a very good start. Over the next half hour I found about a dozen teeth including a nice unbroken Isurolamna affinis lateral, one of the less common species at Beltinge and one that I have only recently become aware of.

 

Isurolamna affinis, one of the rarer teeth at Beltinge. Laterals seem quite distinctive but I haven't yet worked out how to identify anteriors...

 

 

During a brief pause to stretch out my strained legs and back, I glanced over to the better parts of the beach and was surprised to see that there were already six other people searching there. Not wanting to miss out on the more productive pebble beds, I headed over to take my place amongst them. The receding tide had gone out even further than yesterday. Unfortunately, the productive beds were lightly smeared with a thin layer of sediment, probably a result of the onshore breeze stirring up the seabed. There were still plenty of finds to be had, but they were much harder to spot. 

 

As the day wore on yet more people joined us. I counted a maximum of twelve at any one time, but some came and went fairly quickly, so I guess that probably around twenty or so visited during the morning. I find it quite odd how almost everyone goes about their business in silence, not wanting to be distracted from the task. Finds are despatched into recepticles with a gentle clatter, the only other noises are those of shuffling feet, lapping waves and calls of shorebirds. In the distance the barking of dogs and the shouting voices of their owners is all that disturbs the peace.

 

I am finding teeth and other fossils at a steady rate. Most of the teeth are either macrota or hopei, but I also find the occasional rutoti and teretidens. It is also pleasing that here, out on the very edge of the lowest tide, a larger proportion of teeth are complete - around 1 in 6 compared to 1 in 10 or more closer to the beach. A Eutrichurides bony fish tooth is a nice surprise and I am also very happy to discover a couple of Otodus, but they are, once again, rather battered.

 

Otodus obliquus, sadly somewhat worse for wear. One day I will find a really nice one.

 

 

All too soon, the tide starts its unstoppable advance. There is more movement amongst the searchers; not quite frantic or desperate, but definitely with an air of resignation. We are slowly pushed up the beach, spreading out to find alternative areas that hopefully haven't been searched already. Many of them give up looking and begin to chat to one another. I join them and get to meet an amazingly diverse group of people: there is a local elderly couple who have just got back from a holiday in Indonesia (for whom the inclement weather this morning must have felt particularly harsh!); pair of Canadian brothers on a European road trip; two female friends who have made the journey down from London specially for this morning's tide; a scientist from Denmark having a break from his studies. All of them are pleased with how the morning has gone and with their own hauls of finds; in amongst all the usual suspects are also a couple of very nice Notidanodon cow shark teeth and one particularly fine Otodus.

 

Once all the good areas are reclaimed by the briny I head home. I feel it's been better than yesterday - more variety and probably more finds in total - even though conditions were less favourable. Todays totals are:

 

S. macrota 88 (17 complete)

C. hopei 35 (6 complete)

S. teretidens 4 (2 complete)

O. obliquus 3

P. rutoti 2

O. winkleri 2

I. affinis 1 complete

Chimaera jaw piece 1

Ray dental plate 2

Turtle carapace 1

Eutrichurides sp. bony fish tooth 1

unidentifiable shark tooth fragments 5

 

Another good mornings work. More finds in less time. And still three more days to go. Tomorrow I will meet Steve....

 

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by Striatolamia
Correcting spelling and grammatical mistakes

[Striatolamia]

Ray (Myliobatis) dental plate. It is unusual to find bars still attached to each other.

 

Eutrichurides sp bony fish tooth. Easily overlooked amongst the sharks teeth.

[Striatolamia]

Turtle carapace fragment. This is about as big as they get at Beltinge (mm scale bar)

 

 

Palaeohypotodus rutoti labial view, showing the distinctive 'stitching' or 'wrinkling' along the junction of the root and cusp. Unfortunately this one has lost one of its secondary cusps.

 

 

[Striatolamia]

Some of the smaller teeth to be found at Beltinge (mm scale bar): 

On the left is a tiny juvenile P. rutoti lateral, in the middle is a I. affinis juvenile (I think), and on the right is an O. winkleri juvenile stunted 1st anterior.

These require very careful searching!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Most excellent. 

I look forward to Day Three! 

[Miocene_Mason]

What nice teeth you have

Funny how even across the pond the same marine fauna is represented, most of the species must have been pelagic or had already been around a long time.

[ynot]

Looks like You did good on day 2 of this adventure!

Looking forward to the next instalment of Your story.

[Striatolamia]

Day 3 

 

Easter Sunday 1st April 2018

 

So far on this holiday I have done all the fossil hunting on my own. This is not normal. Usually I am accompanied by my younger son. He is good company, enjoys searching, and has very good eyesight for spotting tiny, partially hidden, fossils. However, being nearly a teenager, early morning starts aren't really his thing (and, if I am honest, I struggle with them too) and he does tend to be put off by the cold a little too easily. Having pored over my finds from the past two days he is really keen not to miss out on another session. I tell him I intend to go for a 06:15hrs beach start and he is unperturbed. Unfortunately for him, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (my wife) informs us I am under strict instructions not to wake him if he is still asleep when I get up.

 

05:45hrs Sunday morning he is utterly comatose so I head out solo once again. I know he will be disappointed but SWMBO is not to be trifled with.

 

One of the reasons I was particularly looking forward to this holiday in Kent was that I had arranged to meet up with Steve who maintains a website dedicated to fossil finds at Beltinge (https://savage-seas.weebly.com/). We have corresponded quite a bit over the last year or so and I was eager to put a face to a name and share information about our hobby. Steve was scheduled to arrive at Beltinge at 07:00hrs and said he thought it would probably be the busiest day of the weekend for fossil hunters.

 

Sure enough, when I got to the car park there were already three other cars there and I could see a scatter of stooped figures out on the tideline. The weather was slightly more favourable today (an offshore breeze and no rain) but it was still cold and overcast. My son wouldn't have lasted long in these chilly conditions, so I felt less guilty about leaving him slumbering.

 

Once on the beach I noticed immediately there was far less sediment cover than yesterday and the tide was receding quickly. The best beds weren't yet uncovered but there were still plenty of places to check that I hadn't tried previously. I headed to the furthest eastern-most expanse of shingle and sand, where the stream that flows out of Bishopstone Glen (a local name for the Oldhaven Gap) meanders through the foreshore silts and exposes the gravels underneath. This area is harder to 'work' - peering through fast rippling water to spot items amongst the shingle beneath isn't easy - but it can be very productive. Larger sharks teeth seem to be more prevalent here and I soon had a good collection filling up my pot. 

 

Just after 07:00hrs I noticed a red-coated figure descending the path down from the car park and recognised Steve from his description. We met up and soon fell into conversation about the state of the beach and the potential for today's hunting. Steve had timed his arrival to coincide with the tide uncovering the best beds and we joined the other hunters eagerly searching the exposure. I was amazed to see that Steve had eschewed wearing the obligatory Wellies and was shod in a pair of distinctly non-waterproof leather boots. Neither was he wearing a hat or gloves or a particularly warm-looking coat - they build them tough down by the seaside! He had, however, brought a gardener's kneeling pad and a pair of tweezers and set about sifting through the pebbles with a deft and experienced hand.

 

Beltinge fossil-hunting tools. Note the 'letterbox' hole cut into the lid of the pot. Posting the items rather than taking the lid off every time you find something is much more efficient. It also prevents the entire contents being spilt all over the beach when you drop the pot (which you inevitably will do, believe me!)

 

 

I was amazed to see that there were still plenty of teeth to be found, despite these beds having been searched thoroughly by myself and several other diligent fossil hunters over the previous two days. More and more people were arriving on the beach and we were also joined by an organised fossil walk (UKAFH?) and for a time it got quite crowded. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves; finding plenty of fossils, pointing out interesting things and discussing unusual items. It made a welcome change from the silent searching of the previous visit. 

 

The tide started to come back in and the organised group wandered off along the foreshore to be shown another aspect of the local geology. In due course the beds became submerged so Steve and I moved to another area and searched around the bases of some large boulders where the tidal drift had deposited small pockets of gravel. These produced what is potentially my best find of the day, a very distinctive curved and striated tooth which might be from a previously unrecorded species of bony fish.

 

Unidentified tooth, perhaps from a bony fish species not previously recorded from Beltinge (mm scale bar). Anyone have any suggestions?

 

 

The advancing waters inescapably consume the last remaining sections of beach and we return to the car park to examine our booty. Steve has found a nice partial Angel shark (Squatina prima) tooth and a complete Isurolamna affinis lateral amongst a good number of the more usual species. We also compare several items from our collections and I loan him my best examples to photograph for his website. Then we arrange to meet up again the following morning before making our separate ways home.

 

My finds for the day comprise:

 

S. macrota 67 (12 complete)

C. hopei 40 (6 complete)

S. teretidens 8 (4 complete)

P. rutoti 4

O. winkleri 1

unidentifiable shark tooth fragments 5

Chimaera jaw pieces 3

Ray dental plate sections 3

Turtle carapace fragment 1

Unidentified (bony fish sp.?) tooth

 

My son is not too disappointed to have missed the early morning hunt and any lingering feelings of regret are later dispelled when we venture down to one of the local Isle of Thanet bays to look for amber (but that's another story for another thread...).

 

[Striatolamia]

Sylvestrilamia teretidens, one of the less frequent species at Beltinge, although they might be overlooked as they are quite small (mm scale bar).

 

[Striatolamia]

Three Striatolamia macrota laterals, showing variation in size and colouration. This is the most common species at Beltinge.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

5 minutes ago, Striatolamia said:

Day 3 

 

Easter Sunday 1st April 2018

 

So far on this holiday I have done all the fossil hunting on my own. This is not normal. Usually I am accompanied by my younger son. He is good company, enjoys searching, and has very good eyesight for spotting tiny, partially hidden, fossils. However, being nearly a teenager, early morning starts aren't really his thing (and, if I am honest, I struggle with them too) and he does tend to be put off by the cold a little too easily. Having pored over my finds from the past two days he is really keen not to miss out on another session. I tell him I intend to go for a 06:15hrs beach start and he is unperturbed. Unfortunately for him, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (my wife) informs us I am under strict instructions not to wake him if he is still asleep when I get up.

 

05:45hrs Sunday morning he is utterly comatose so I head out solo once again. I know he will be disappointed but SWMBO is not to be trifled with.

 

One of the reasons I was particularly looking forward to this holiday in Kent was that I had arranged to meet up with Steve who maintains a website dedicated to fossil finds at Beltinge (https://savage-seas.weebly.com/). We have corresponded quite a bit over the last year or so and I was eager to put a face to a name and share information about our hobby. Steve was scheduled to arrive at Beltinge at 07:00hrs and said he thought it would probably be the busiest day of the weekend for fossil hunters.

 

Sure enough, when I got to the car park there were already three other cars there and I could see a scatter of stooped figures out on the tideline. The weather was slightly more favourable today (an offshore breeze and no rain) but it was still cold and overcast. My son wouldn't have lasted long in these chilly conditions, so I felt less guilty about leaving him slumbering.

 

Once on the beach I noticed immediately there was far less sediment cover than yesterday and the tide was receding quickly. The best beds weren't yet uncovered but there were still plenty of places to check that I hadn't tried previously. I headed to the furthest eastern-most expanse of shingle and sand, where the stream that flows out of Bishopstone Glen (a local name for the Oldhaven Gap) meanders through the foreshore silts and exposes the gravels underneath. This area is harder to 'work' - peering through fast rippling water to spot items amongst the shingle beneath isn't easy - but it can be very productive. Larger sharks teeth seem to be more prevalent here and I soon had a good collection filling up my pot. 

 

Just after 07:00hrs I noticed a red-coated figure descending the path down from the car park and recognised Steve from his description. We met up and soon fell into conversation about the state of the beach and the potential for today's hunting. Steve had timed his arrival to coincide with the tide uncovering the best beds and we joined the other hunters eagerly searching the exposure. I was amazed to see that Steve had eschewed wearing the obligatory Wellies and was shod in a pair of distinctly non-waterproof leather boots. Neither was he wearing a hat or gloves or a particularly warm-looking coat - they build them tough down by the seaside! He had, however, brought a gardener's kneeling pad and a pair of tweezers and set about sifting through the pebbles with a deft and experienced hand.

 

Beltinge fossil-hunting tools. Note the 'letterbox' hole cut into the lid of the pot. Posting the items rather than taking the lid off every time you find something is much more efficient. It also prevents the entire contents being spilt all over the beach when you drop the pot (which you inevitably will, believe me!)

 

 

I was amazed to see that there were still plenty of teeth to be found, despite these beds having been searched thoroughly by myself and several other diligent fossil hunters over the previous two days. More and more people were arriving on the beach and we were also joined by an organised fossil walk (UKAFH?) and for a time it got quite crowded. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves; finding plenty of fossils, pointing out interesting things and discussing unusual items. It made a welcome change from the silent searching of the previous visit. 

 

The tide started to come back in and the organised group wandered off along the foreshore to be shown another aspect of the local geology. In due course the beds became submerged so Steve and I moved to another area and searched around the bases of some large boulders where the tidal drift had deposited small pockets of gravel. These produced what is potentially my best find of the day, a very distinctive curved and striated tooth which might be from a previously unrecorded species of bony fish.

 

Unidentified tooth, perhaps from a bony fish species not previously recorded from Beltinge (mm scale bar). Anyone have any suggestions?

 

 

The advancing waters inescapably consume the last remaining sections of beach and we return to the car park to examine our booty. Steve has found a nice partial Angel shark (Squatina prima) tooth and a complete Isurolamna affinis lateral amongst a good number of the more usual species. We also compare a several items from our collections and I loan him my best examples to photograph for his website. Then we arrange to meet up again the following morning before making our separate ways home.

 

My finds for the day comprise:

 

S. macrota 67 (12 complete)

C. hopei 40 (6 complete)

S. teretidens 8 (4 complete)

P. rutoti 4

O. winkleri 1

unidentifiable shark tooth fragments 5

Chimaera jaw pieces 3

Ray dental plate sections 3

Turtle carapace fragment 1

Unidentified (bony fish sp.?) tooth

 

My son is not too disappointed to have missed the early morning hunt and any lingering feelings of regret are later dispelled when we venture down to one of the local Isle of Thanet bays to look for amber (but that's another story for another thread...).

 

Love the post box idea.

[Striatolamia]

Three Carcharias hopei anteriors, showing variation in size and colouration. This is the second commonest species at Beltinge.