Rowboater Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 After a lot of rain was hoping more teeth would be exposed, but mostly just more sand silting and much of what I found was small or broken and the angel shark teeth seemed to have washed out but I found more further down the creek. Did find a few more smaller Great White ancestor teeth and lots of brown enamel drum 'teeth'. The poison ivy, mosquitoes and deer flies are out in force; baby crayfish are everywhere as well as frogs and minnows. The local kids will get out of school soon and some will find their way to 'my' spots, so I'll leave it to them for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 Nice haul! Some real beauties there. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 Nice selection of teeth! How common are Angelshark teeth (Squatina) in your area? They are really quite common in the Shark Tooth Hill micro-matrix (Bakersfield, CA) but rather rare (though present) in the creeks and rivers in South Florida. The first time I found one of these unusually shaped teeth (that come with their own base to stand by themselves) I couldn't figure out what it was. I posted it here and it was instantly identified as a Squatina--a great example of how the diverse knowledge on this forum can be spectacularly helpful. I've probably found less than a dozen Florida Squatina and I'm wondering how common they are up in Virginia. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowboater Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 1 minute ago, digit said: Nice selection of teeth! How common are Angelshark teeth (Squatina) in your area? They are really quite common in the Shark Tooth Hill micro-matrix (Bakersfield, CA) but rather rare (though present) in the creeks and rivers in South Florida. The first time I found one of these unusually shaped teeth (that come with their own base to stand by themselves) I couldn't figure out what it was. I posted it here and it was instantly identified as a Squatina--a great example of how the diverse knowledge on this forum can be spectacularly helpful. I've probably found less than a dozen Florida Squatina and I'm wondering how common they are up in Virginia. Cheers. -Ken I never found any angel shark teeth, that I noticed, until this year using a finer screen, but since then I usually find at least one. My best day is a dozen. I never picked up the drum teeth until recently. Now I try to pick up anything with 'shiny' enamel and sort through them later at home after they dry. I used to find tiger shark and hemipristis teeth often, but haven't found any this year. Seems certain holes are enriched in certain teeth and I have found all my cowshark teeth in just two spots of a dozen or more I routinely check. Sand shark teeth are by far the most common, and I'm not sure what a lot of the little ones are. The angel shark triangular base and curved blade are distinctive, as are the multi-peaked cow shark teeth; nice to find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowboater Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 18 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said: Nice haul! Some real beauties there. Thanks for the encouragement! You are very active on this site! Appreciate your insights. Are the Morroco teeth and fossil sites easy to access, and do you find any nearby where you live? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 3 minutes ago, Rowboater said: nice to find! Agreed! If you are using a larger screen (1/4" or 1/2" mesh) while sifting for shark teeth, small teeth like Angelshark, Nurse Shark (or Drum) tend to fall right through the screen. If you haven't discovered the interesting world of micro-fossils it is quite fun to shift your interest down to the millimeter scale. There are different teeth you find when you focus down to matrix that is less than 1/4" in size. The links below may useful to demonstrate how to collect and pick through micro-matrix. It's nice that you can look for macroscopic teeth while out in the field and then schlep back a bucket of micro-matrix and continue the fossil hunt at home. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/51286-collecting-cookiecutter-shark-micro-matrix/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/55298-more-micros-from-the-peace-river-and-cookiecutter-creek/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/71406-optimizing-micro-matrix-sorting/ Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 27 minutes ago, Rowboater said: Thanks for the encouragement! You are very active on this site! Appreciate your insights. Are the Morroco teeth and fossil sites easy to access, and do you find any nearby where you live? They are pretty easy to access, but a long way from me. I live along way from the famous fossil localities, unfortunately, nothing much in this area. I don't get out much, but it's wonderful here. Life's good! Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowboater Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 2 hours ago, digit said: Agreed! If you are using a larger screen (1/4" or 1/2" mesh) while sifting for shark teeth, small teeth like Angelshark, Nurse Shark (or Drum) tend to fall right through the screen. If you haven't discovered the interesting world of micro-fossils it is quite fun to shift your interest down to the millimeter scale. There are different teeth you find when you focus down to matrix that is less than 1/4" in size. The links below may useful to demonstrate how to collect and pick through micro-matrix. It's nice that you can look for macroscopic teeth while out in the field and then schlep back a bucket of micro-matrix and continue the fossil hunt at home. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/51286-collecting-cookiecutter-shark-micro-matrix/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/55298-more-micros-from-the-peace-river-and-cookiecutter-creek/ http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/71406-optimizing-micro-matrix-sorting/ Cheers. -Ken Thanks Ken, the creek bed I hunt has been searched over for 50 years. You either dig into a bank (which might have been the tailings from 30-50 years ago; rarely there are intact shell layers, more pristine). The teeth bigger than an inch are rare, but I think the tiny microteeth are usually not collected and I'm trying to move that way (I don't find a lot of small mammal teeth but drum teeth are common and lots of interesting (to me) bits and pieces, mostly from fish. I do a lot of sifting at the creek site; often the first several layers yield mostly leaves, sticks and sand. If selective I could probably haul away a few five gallon buckets full (I've noticed places where other collectors seem to be doing exactly that!) The nurse and cookie-cutter shark teeth are beautiful and, if plentiful, I'm sure I would have found some by now, but can keep looking and hoping. I'm guessing a lot of the microteeth I find are from juvenile versions of bigger sharks. Not always comfortable in the IDs. Even the angel shark teeth are often missing pieces; less likely to be broken by weight or digging but many, particularly roots are fragile. Here are a few examples of an elongated root, small blade tooth that I find every three trips or so (gave away the best examples); no idea what they are. Small examples are also difficult to photograph (or even scan, unless flat). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digit Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 Yup. A lot of the tiny teeth I get are juvenile versions of larger teeth. I've found tiny Lemon Shark teeth and even Hemispristis serra teeth that were only a few millimeters wide but looked just like their larger full-grown counterparts. I also find species that top out pretty small and would never be found while hunting for larger teeth with wider mesh screens. In particular the genus Rhizoprionodon--the (possibly multiple) species related to the Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, R. terranovae, which never get very large as the species only gets to about a meter in length. These can be pretty common while picking through micro-matrix. The one thing that I like about collecting micro-matrix from areas that may be very well hunted is that micro-matrix is always unhunted. Someone may have been through the gravel you are sifting and removed all of the nice large shark teeth (and other fossils). You usually don't know you are digging in someone's spoils till you realize that the gravel is plentiful but the prizes are scarce. Nobody collects a bucket of micro-matrix, picks through it at home saving off all of the cool micro-fossils, and then takes the bucket of searched micro-matrix back to the river/creek and dumps it back where it came from--it's just too much work to do that. My searched (and picked clean) micro-matrix spoils gets tossed out into the wild sections of my backyard. I know that if I collect a bucket of micro-matrix from the locations that I collect from that it is always as packed with micro-fossils as it could be with nobody getting to it before me. Not something I can easily say when collecting larger (macro) fossils. The micro world is an entirely different dimension in fossil hunting. It's nice because you can stockpile buckets of it at home and go fossil hunting during the normally down season. That would be winter for the more norther climes but, contrarily, for South Florida since it is the dry winter season that opens our waterways to collecting. I've found tiny rodent teeth (molars and incisors) in my micro-matrix. Tiny toe bones (phalanges) that might be from small reptiles or in some cases possibly birds (still need to get them to the appropriate specialists). It's a great addition to the other types of fossil hunting I enjoy and something I can do from the comfort of my own home. Would love to see what micros come from your area. Cheers. -Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted June 7, 2018 Share Posted June 7, 2018 10 hours ago, Rowboater said: Here are a few examples of an elongated root, small blade tooth that I find every three trips or so (gave away the best examples); no idea what they are These look like posterior tiger shark teeth. Nice finds in Your opening picture. 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...
Rowboater Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 16 hours ago, digit said: Yup. A lot of the tiny teeth I get are juvenile versions of larger teeth. I've found tiny Lemon Shark teeth and even Hemispristis serra teeth that were only a few millimeters wide but looked just like their larger full-grown counterparts. I also find species that top out pretty small and would never be found while hunting for larger teeth with wider mesh screens. In particular the genus Rhizoprionodon--the (possibly multiple) species related to the Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, R. terranovae, which never get very large as the species only gets to about a meter in length. These can be pretty common while picking through micro-matrix. The one thing that I like about collecting micro-matrix from areas that may be very well hunted is that micro-matrix is always unhunted. Someone may have been through the gravel you are sifting and removed all of the nice large shark teeth (and other fossils). You usually don't know you are digging in someone's spoils till you realize that the gravel is plentiful but the prizes are scarce. Nobody collects a bucket of micro-matrix, picks through it at home saving off all of the cool micro-fossils, and then takes the bucket of searched micro-matrix back to the river/creek and dumps it back where it came from--it's just too much work to do that. My searched (and picked clean) micro-matrix spoils gets tossed out into the wild sections of my backyard. I know that if I collect a bucket of micro-matrix from the locations that I collect from that it is always as packed with micro-fossils as it could be with nobody getting to it before me. Not something I can easily say when collecting larger (macro) fossils. The micro world is an entirely different dimension in fossil hunting. It's nice because you can stockpile buckets of it at home and go fossil hunting during the normally down season. That would be winter for the more norther climes but, contrarily, for South Florida since it is the dry winter season that opens our waterways to collecting. I've found tiny rodent teeth (molars and incisors) in my micro-matrix. Tiny toe bones (phalanges) that might be from small reptiles or in some cases possibly birds (still need to get them to the appropriate specialists). It's a great addition to the other types of fossil hunting I enjoy and something I can do from the comfort of my own home. Would love to see what micros come from your area. Cheers. -Ken I'll keep posting. Hopefully I'll find something micro-nice. Been distracted by mushroom (chanterelle) hunting, a little early this year due to all the rain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowboater Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 14 hours ago, ynot said: These look like posterior tiger shark teeth. Nice finds in Your opening picture. Thanks ynot! Hadn't found any 'regular' tiger shark teeth in a while, but these are nondescript so may have been overlooked by others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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