Easter in the Eocene in England

[Striatolamia]

Two Carcharias hopei laterals. These can be very variable in morphology and perhaps suggest there may be more than one species involved. More comparative work is needed to sort them out properly.

 

[Max-fossils]

Fantastic continuation of the report, I love it! It's always more fun to hunt with someone else. 

The rest of your finds are really cool too, the pictures are awesome. 

 

The colors of the teeth sometimes remind me of the teeth from the closed quarry of Egem in Belgium (which also has Eocene shark teeth).

 

Best regards,

 

Max

[Striatolamia]

Day 4

 

Easter Monday, 2nd April 2018

 

The weather forecast for today was dreadful - continuous heavy rain and strong North-westerly winds. However, as is often the case on the tip of Kent, the forecasters got it completely wrong. No rain, only a light South-westerly breeze and reasonably mild temperatures. We could see the bad weather clouds louring over the north and west of us but they never arrived. Weren't we lucky?!

 

The prediction of poor weather was enough to discourage my son from joining me, so I arrived alone at Beltinge to meet up with Steve at 07:30hrs. The tide went out almost as far and there were nearly as many other fossil hunters as yesterday. It was clear to me that the favoured pebble beds were starting to get overworked so I spent more time exploring other areas of the beach, concentrating on the shelly shingle revealed by the stream. Steve stuck with the traditional area and reported that his perseverance still produced a nice quantity of finds but perhaps the quality was slightly inferior; fewer complete teeth and none of the more unusual items.

 

There were around twenty other searchers, including a local lady who announced she had never previously found a shark tooth but was determined to succeed today. Ten minutes later a loud whoop confirmed a positive result and all the other people congratulated her. She went on to find several more before heading home to show off her treasures to her family. Another one hooked!

 

My chosen area proved very productive. Larger and more complete teeth seemed more abundant and most of them were of the paler, more brown-and-yellow colour variety. This is in stark contrast to those found by Steve on the pebble bank which are mostly very dark grey or black. Perhaps they originate from two different strata where mineralization processes aren't the same? These questions are what makes this hobby so endlessly fascinating.

 

My most unusual find came just before we finished. Laying on the sand, all on its own, was a particularly large bivalve. These originate from the younger rocks further east along the shore and are very rarely found complete. To find a whole one some considerable distance away from the source is remarkable.

 

Bivalve sp. I haven't been able to put a definite name to it yet. Nice to find something different.

 

 

By the time the tide forced us off the beach my collecting pot felt, and looked, the fullest it has ever been. Steve was also pleased with his haul and in amongst the other searchers finds there were some lovely examples of Otodus obliquus and a rather fine Notidanodon loozi symphyseal tooth. Sorting out my hoard took quite a long time as there were almost twice as many as on any of the previous days:

 

S. macrota 177  (42 complete)

C. hopei 62  (12 complete)

S. teretidens 10  (4 complete)

P. rutoti 5  (1 complete)

O. obliquus 6 

Chimaera jaw piece 1

Ray dental bar pieces 4

Turtle carapace 1

Turtle (?) bone 1

Sponge sp. 1

Bivalve sp. 1

 

All in all an exceptionally good day, considering I wasn't even going to bother due to the weather forecast. I think my decision to try new areas proved fortuitous and it's something I will definitely try again on my last day.

 

[Striatolamia]

Another view of the bivalve. Nice, isn't it?!

 

[Max-fossils]

Again very cool finds, well done. That bivalve steinkern is wicked.  

[Striatolamia]

Bone, possibly from either a turtle or crocodile. Any suggestions on how to tell the two apart?

 

[Max-fossils]

Just now, Striatolamia said:

 

Bone, possibly from either a turtle or crocodile. Any suggestions on how to tell the two apart?

 

 

From just a bone piece, telling the two apart can be really difficult. I don't think there is a way at all. But, you never know, perhaps someone here does know. 

[Striatolamia]

Chimaera jaw fragment. Probably part of the palatine plate of Edaphodon bucklandi.

 

[Bobby Rico]

Stunning find very well done.

[Striatolamia]

A large Striatolamia macrota anterior. This is just about as big as they get at Beltinge. This one came straight out of the clay and is in 100% perfect condition.

 

[Striatolamia]

17 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

From just a bone piece, telling the two apart can be really difficult. I don't think there is a way at all. But, you never know, perhaps someone here does know. 

Thank you for the information. Gut instinct tells me it is turtle, but I can't tell you why!

 

@Bobby Rico

Thanks for your kind comment. I see from your profile you aren't a million miles away from me...!

[ynot]

Looks like You did good!

Wonderful report and holiday fun!

[Striatolamia]

Day 5

 

Tuesday 3rd April 2018

 

Our final day of holiday and my last chance to fossil hunt at the seaside for quite a while.

 

I arrived as the tide was beginning to uncover the previously popular pebble bed. I was disappointed to see that, much like Saturday, everything was covered again with a fine layer of silt. Thirty minutes of intensive searching later and I hadn't found anything at all. Not one tooth, or even a fragment of one. This wasn't good. I could only assume that the previous four days of exhaustive hunting had cleared out all the most obvious fossils and the newly arrived silt was obscuring the less visible ones.

 

I decided to head back over to the shelly gravels again. Each time I had looked there the beach was always different and I suspected that the flow from the stream and the longshore drift were exposing new areas with every tide. It didn't take me long to get my eye back in. Almost as soon as I started looking there were teeth to be found, and, the same as yesterday, they seemed to be 'clumped' in loose little groups. Fairly frequently I was finding eight or ten teeth in an area of only about one foot square. Picking them up was another matter; the fast flowing water made judging their position difficult and every false movement caused a tiny 'avalanche' of the fine gravels. I soon learned to pick up the items furthest downstream and work my way upstream so as not to disturb the bed too much. I think this area would be best searched using a 5mm sieve as this would hold most of the teeth and other fossils but lose all the fine shelly sediments. One to try on my next visit.

 

Being a Tuesday and the first work day after the holiday weekend for most people, the beach was very quiet. Even the joggers, cyclists and dog walkers were few and far between. I only saw two other fossil hunters all morning and neither of them lasted very long on the beach. Maybe they were discouraged by the apparent lack of fossils in the 'good' places?

 

Before the sea covered the gravels once more, I spent quite a while collecting more sieved material for sorting back at home, trying to get samples from different parts of the beach. I thought it might be interesting to compare the finds across the locality to see whether certain areas were better than others for particular fossils. By the time I was forced to stop by the incoming tide I had a nice heavy bucket-full of sieved materials as well as a satisfyingly crowded collecting pot.

 

It was sad to leave Beltinge, but I had enjoyed a very productive series of visits and had gathered an impressive amount of samples for analysis once back at home. I was already looking forward to sorting through the sieved material as well as examining all the sharks teeth in detail.

 

Todays finds:

 

S. macrota  169 (28 complete)

C. hopei  42 (5 complete)

P. rutoti  6

S. teretidens  3 (2 complete)

O. obliquus  2

O. winkleri ? 20

Unidentified unstriated shark teeth  21

Unidentifiable shark tooth fragments  15

Chimaera jaw pieces  2

Ray dental plate bars  4

Bony fish vertebra   1

Unidentified bony fish tooth  1

Cuspidaria inflata (bivalve)  1

 

All of today's finds, sorted out (sort of).

 

 

You will notice that some of the numbers look a bit odd, notably the winkleri. I have put a ? after them as I am still pondering their identities. None of them are complete but all are unstriated. There is considerable size variation amongst the 20 teeth. They all have the same shape to their primary cusp (like a rather broad but somewhat short anterior) and they are all markedly sigmoidal. They are also very deep where the primary cusp meets the root and those with some remaining root have very pronounced root protuberances. If there were only 2 or 3 I would have labelled them as winkleri without hesitation, but to have 20 seems excessive. Have I overlooked them in the past and consigned them to hopei, or did I just get lucky? I think I will be looking again at the rest of my hopei collection...!

 

The other oddity is the number of unstriated teeth I cannot identify. In the past they would have been chucked in with the hopei and forgotten about, but there is something about their form that doesn't quite fit. The anterior teeth are just too long and needle-like whilst the laterals aren't as deep or as sharp as typical hopei. My impression is that they are from a 'species' that is included in the C. hopei bucket but may prove to be separable with care. No idea which species, but intriguing all the same.

 

Well, that about wraps it up for my finds during our trip to Beltinge. I hope you have enjoyed reading about it.

 

Now, where did I put that sieve....

[Striatolamia]

Bony fish vertebra. These are quite scarce at Beltinge. Most of them are tiny but occasional larger ones are sometimes found.

[Striatolamia]

Unidentified bony fish tooth. I now have three of these. They are distinctive in that they have striations, two cutting edges and they are noticeably curved. 

 

Another view of the same tooth. Does anyone have any ideas as to the species?

 

[Striatolamia]

@Tidgy's Dad

Thanks for your continued interest and support. We're nearing the end now....!

[Striatolamia]

Now the real fun begins. Those boxes piled up on the table contain the rest of the collection. This might take some time....

[Max-fossils]

2 hours ago, Striatolamia said:

This might take some time....

It will! Well it always takes me tons of time. But then again it's quite fun to do once you began. 

 

Anyways thank you so much for the incredible report you made, I much enjoyed reading it! 

 

Of course, it is always sad to leave a productive fossil location. But I see that you put as a home location on your profile Loughborough. And this fossil location is rather closeby (about 1/2 hour by car), so maybe if you have a free day at some point you could try it out?

--> Melton Mowbray (there are several 'sub'-locations): https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=236

And these locations are not too far away either:

--> Middleton: https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=239

--> Matlock: https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=497

--> Ketton (this one seems particularly diverse in its finds): https://www.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=495

 

Now I haven't been to any of those locations myself, so I can't give you personal tips, but simply Googling them should already reveal enough info. 

 

Good luck, and happy hunting! We'll be expecting another one of your awesome reports of your hunts here on TFF if you go there  

 

Best regards,

 

Max

 

PS: if it says that you can't view the info on the websites I gave you, you should try making an account on Fossiel.NET. It's mostly Dutch, but most of it is also translated in English. It's definitely worth it too, there is some great info on that website.

[ynot]

Wonderful report and great finds.

Thanks for sharing Your adventure.

[Striatolamia]

22 minutes ago, Max-fossils said:

It will! Well it always takes me tons of time. But then again it's quite fun to do once you began. 

 

Anyways thank you so much for the incredible report you made, I much enjoyed reading it! 

 

Of course, it is always sad to leave a productive fossil location. But I see that you put as a home location on your profile Loughborough. And this fossil location is rather closeby (about 1/2 hour by car), so maybe if you have a free day at some point you could try it out?

--> Melton Mowbray (there are several 'sub'-locations): https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=236

And these locations are not too far away either:

--> Middleton: https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=239

--> Matlock: https://english.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=497

--> Ketton (this one seems particularly diverse in its finds): https://www.fossiel.net/sites/fossil_site.php?plaats=495

 

Now I haven't been to any of those locations myself, so I can't give you personal tips, but simply Googling them should already reveal enough info. 

 

Good luck, and happy hunting! We'll be expecting another one of your awesome reports of your hunts here on TFF if you go there  

 

Best regards,

 

Max

 

PS: if it says that you can't view the info on the websites I gave you, you should try making an account on Fossiel.NET. It's mostly Dutch, but most of it is also translated in English. It's definitely worth it too, there is some great info on that website.

Hi Max,

 

Thank you for your encouragement and for your helpful information about sites local to me. That is a great website! We have visited most of those sites over the past few years. The only one we haven't been to is Ketton quarry as there is very limited access.

 

We are very lucky. Our house is built above Jurassic rocks and we can go fossil hunting in the bed of the stream at the bottom of our garden. We have found hundreds, if not thousands, of gryphaea plus many belemnites, bivalves, gastropods, crinoid stems, kulindrichnium and ammonites. Also we have been fortunate enough to find two ichthyosaur vertebra.

 

Some of the better fossils found in the stream bed at the end of our garden.

 

 

I have plenty more places I could report on. Stay tuned...!

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick

[Striatolamia]

16 minutes ago, ynot said:

Wonderful report and great finds.

Thanks for sharing Your adventure.

Thank you for your kind words.

[Max-fossils]

26 minutes ago, Striatolamia said:

Hi Max,

 

Thank you for your encouragement and for your helpful information about sites local to me. That is a great website! We have visited most of those sites over the past few years. The only one we haven't been to is Ketton quarry as there is very limited access.

 

We are very lucky. Our house is built above Jurassic rocks and we can go fossil hunting in the bed of the stream at the bottom of our garden. We have found hundreds, if not thousands, of gryphaea plus many belemnites, bivalves, gastropods, crinoid stems, kulindrichnium and ammonites. Also we have been fortunate enough to find two ichthyosaur vertebra.

 

 

Some of the better fossils found in the stream bed at the end of our garden.

 

 

I have plenty more places I could report on. Stay tuned...!

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick

3

That is indeed incredibly cool, to be able to basically hunt in your backyard! Formidable finds  

[Striatolamia]

One month later and I have just finished the laborious process of sorting through the bucket of beach material I collected at Easter. 

 

My method was to use a 1mm kitchen sieve to clean one tablespoon of material at a time in a bowl of water and then spread it onto a clean piece of A3 paper to dry out. Once everything was dry, I then carefully studied each item to see if there was anything interesting amongst the small pebbles gravel and pieces of broken shell.

 

All the fossils discovered during the sieving laid out on a sheet of A3 paper.

 

 

Here's a list of what I found:

striated sharks teeth (mostly Striatolamia macrota)  126

Sylvestrilamia teretidens  10 (9 complete)

Carcharias hopei  48

Palaeohypotodus rutoti  4

Notidanodon loozi  1

Isurolamna affinis  2

Odontaspis winkleri  1

unidentifiable unstriated shark tooth fragments  127

Chimaera jaw pieces  3

Bony fish sp. tooth  1

Bony fish sp. vertebra  1

Pycnodus sp. palate piece  1

'Myliobatis' ray dental bar  2

Ray sp. tooth part  2

Hypolophodon sylvestris guitar fish tooth  1

Pentacrinites crinoid stem  2

Cuspidaria inflata indivudual bivalves  72

Cuspidaria inflata bivalve agglomeration  1

small bivalve sp.  7

large bivalve sp. fragments  19

tiny gastropod sp.  4

 

A grand total of 431 items is very encouraging. Admittedly, the vast majority of sharks teeth are broken fragments and will be scattered back on the beach on our next visit. Most of the teeth listed as 'striated sharks teeth' are Striatolamia macrota but I suspect that some of the smaller fragments are Sylvestrilamia teretidens although it's probably impossible to tell for sure.

 

The high number of bivalves is also a big surprise; during normal beach searching they are incredibly scarce (perhaps one or two every other visit). I think they have come from the shelly gravels that I have not previously looked in.

 

It is especially pleasing to add a new species to the list: I am not aware that the guitar fish Hypolophodon sylvestris has been recorded from Beltinge before.

 

So here ends my write-up for our Easter visit to the Eocene of south-east England. Thanks for reading and I hope you have found it interesting.

[HoppeHunting]

Welcome!

 

Sounds like an awesome trip! You got some amazing stuff in a relatively short amount of time. I had no idea England had productive shark tooth sites like this. Since the fossil exposure is offshore, does anyone ever scuba dive for teeth like they do at Venice Beach, FL? Also, what’s the largest tooth you’ve ever found at this locale? 

 

Hoppe hunting!

[Tidgy's Dad]

I did find it interesting, thank you for sharing. 

A really nice haul, I never got around to visiting Beltinge when i was living in the UK.

Seems i missed out on some great stuff.