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Friday the thirteenth ain’t bad at Matoaka!


Miocene_Mason

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Matoaka beach, Choptank FM, Lower Miocene

Before I start out, may I just say Matoaka is a beach not known for its shark teeth. Most fossil hunters go there for invertebrates, Which are incredibly abundant. Shark teeth are usually small, a bit worn, and take lots of work to find. The old saying (that I just invented) goes “If you want a chance at a meg, go to brownies. If you want lots of sharks teeth, go to Purse. If you want a snail, go to Matoaka. If you want to be told you can’t walk under a cliff go to Calvert Cliffs state park”

 

I decided that I was going to walk as far as I felt I could and still get back with daylight. For the first stretch I found literally nothing of interest and the nagging fear that I was going home empty handed kicked in. I had set my mind to “Ecphora mode,” because sharks teeth were not gonna be found. The tide was lower than last time, so I got to have a good look at a new slide that looked really promising. I was right, it was littered with Ecphora. Unfortunately, almost none were extractable or worth the extraction. This one was a real heart breaker, big for me but sliced in half and in really loose clay.

8EFFB130-C765-43BB-9363-DD6BB3A3EA74.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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In the end, I only found one I thought had a chance of survival. I got out my chisel, picked up some big iron and took it out with a chunk of clay. It came out in one piece, but I haven’t check my waders yet (which I stored it in) so it might not have made it home, but I hope it did. That’s another job for the Ecphora prep thread!

 

Anyway, the rest of the Clifford section yielded nothing. There is a place about a mile or so from the beginning of the cliffs where they are farther back from the cliffs. People usually neglect this section, which means more for me! Slowly but surely, I started to get excited as the finds started to appear. My first ever periotic bone showed itself, and bone pieces started popping up everywhere. I did a hard reset in my head to “Meg-Finding Mode.” 

 

I saw something a few feet in front of me, looked like a crab claw tip, but the close I got I realized I was wrong. It was a croc tooth! To my knowledge they are uncommon at the cliffs, so I was very happy then and there. If I found nothing else I would’ve been happy, but as I walked on I saw a large glint of blue, two feet away I knew what it was....

Monster hemi! 

Not really a monster by others standards but the largest I’ve found, 1.1 inch slant height and 1 inch wide. I was ecstatic! I walked right up to another cliff, but seeing stairs, a bucket, and foot prints in front of it, I turned. Some land owners are a little squirrelly about fossil hunters on their beach (though high tide line and below is public land), and it was getting late. At one point on the walk back without thinking, for some reason I put my hand in the sand. When it came out, it had on top a Isurus desori right on top! I stood with my mouth agap for a while. I’m not statistician, but the chances of me randomly sticking my hand in the gravel and pulling out a big sharks tooth at a place where they are not super common is pretty low. To make sure this was Luck I continued doing that the whole way back, nothing. I don’t know why I even did it, but I’m quite happy I did! 

 

Nothing much of interest on the rest of the way back, except a tilly bone which is funny because I was talking about how I’ve never found one somewhere in TFF not long ago.

That was it! Now the finds! 

P.S. Anyone here in the Maryland Geological Society? I just joined and I am going to the first meeting tomorrow.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Prongs one inch apart unless otherwise noted

 

Bones

34C4F942-325B-4BAB-A05D-6A6BDE6D06AE.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Ray teeth, which I stopped picking up on the way back 

43261880-1852-467B-BACD-902F0A2D798F.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Misc sharks teeth

ACF1C488-8A63-4301-998F-62CA82CED6B7.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Inverts excluding what’s in my wader pocket

143A9D5E-3228-4633-839E-055E171E11FE.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Here’s a wierd one, big iron tube which I believe is a rhizolith

3CDF9FAE-A27B-4CED-8873-205E4D45E223.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Periotic bone from a small cetecean and then Tilly bone from a fish

7C65B882-4E26-4A54-9DA1-BD90F20F5E46.jpeg

ACB7D2D4-92C2-44DB-AFA6-3387EFCBCDCF.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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My lucky Mako, Isurus desori 

DBC4E599-CD68-4731-961E-A122E5301F93.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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0E66AAA4-4F70-4DD9-BD34-2BEA0B4FF737.jpeg

1AC744C1-10D7-428B-96C1-A7A8BA458514.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Monster hemi, last pic is smallest one of the day next to the largest

E1453D08-ECB0-4BA2-9B4C-0DBAD9572428.jpeg

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28D697C0-C817-4E82-9E8C-4BF1C3082216.jpeg

05EAD132-9F46-4EF0-8518-19EE26E478F3.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Wildlife

Cranes who are ever present 

E5E2648A-2B5B-4F01-A26E-2744C724F5A7.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Monster horse shoe crab. My foots like size 13, so it’s pretty big 

7A813481-2586-403E-9A03-1F64BF878ACD.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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FD52B138-A362-43A8-8E27-77B65987C84F.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Found this little guy clinging to a rock

C6512DC6-AEFF-4560-BD1C-18BBB44278C0.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Distance walked, from black dot to red pin, and back. I guess I walked to governors run cliff, which I’ve heard about a few times

C9F161D7-C27B-44C3-A8C0-FF62FFE25243.jpeg

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Well that’s it until I get the stuff out of the waders later today. Hope you all enjoyed!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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35 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

Found this little guy clinging to a rock

This may be a Northern Clingfish, Gobiesox maeandricus, but I'm not as familiar with temperate Atlantic fishes as I am with those of the Tropical Western Atlantic.

 

Looks like a fun trip.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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4 minutes ago, digit said:

This may be a Northern Clingfish, Gobiesox maeandricus, but I'm not as familiar with temperate Atlantic fishes as I am with those of the Tropical Western Atlantic.

 

Looks like a fun trip.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

I believe your right! Was a blast of a trip, Thanks Ken!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Really cool stuff @WhodamanHD. Looks like a fine day. 

I think the first photo is cross sections gastropods.

"Journey through a universe ablaze with changes" Phil Ochs

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1 hour ago, Wolf52893 said:

Nice!

Thanks!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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20 minutes ago, Innocentx said:

Really cool stuff @WhodamanHD. Looks like a fine day. 

I think the first photo is cross sections gastropods.

Was definitely a fine day, a great temperature as well. Yes it is a Gastropod cross section, an Ecphora, which was sadly cut in half and impossible to remove. Shame because it was pretty big. It is Maryland’s state fossil, they are very fragile.

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Never a fan of the cottages but it can get you further north to the cliffs just not consistent like Randle Cliffs.  You had a good day collecting, thanks for the photo's.  Lucky friday 13th.

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Friday the 13th. Spoopy!

 

Did you see a grim reaper wandering the Miocene graveyard? :P

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

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