rapp beach trip

[Rowboater]

While I am eager to check out the creek in the woods, have had some trouble with tick ricketssiae, and also not eager to trudge through swamp.  So I paddled over to a nearby beach on the Rappahannock, hoping all the recent flooding had deposited some shark teeth.  Mostly I found whale bone (will post after dries), but was rewarded in two hours with five white shark/ mako teeth, a hemi and a few others.  Most were weathered but two are nice. 

Also found a couple of giant tree oyster shells (??: common in the swampy creek) but with strong luster (?).  Maybe something similar extant???

The penny for scale is 0.75 inches (19mm) in diameter. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Some very nice looking teeth there! 

[Gizmo]

Very nice, congrats! 

[sunbleached]

You found some nice ones.  Is the river up with all the rain?  I was on the Chesapeake Sunday and the water was high.

[Rowboater]

"Whale bone" was everywhere.  Here is a scan of some small pieces I picked up.  Thirty years ago we used to say "If you find whale bone, you'll find shark teeth".  Today was the rare exception where that was true!

[sharko69]

Great looking teeth! I would be thrilled with those.

[caldigger]

Are you sure all that bone is from whale?  There might be some other marine mammals mixed in there as well.

[Rowboater]

16 hours ago, caldigger said:

Are you sure all that bone is from whale?  There might be some other marine mammals mixed in there as well.

Quite likely they are from lots of animals.  There were generically (and inaccurately) called 'whale bone', most have few identifying features, just fossilized bone.  I have a jeweler friend who prefers translucent rocks but is trying to polish some of the dense non-descript pieces. 

[caldigger]

Sending you a PM.

[Rowboater]

On 9/19/2018 at 5:40 AM, sunbleached said:

You found some nice ones.  Is the river up with all the rain?  I was on the Chesapeake Sunday and the water was high.

 The beach is on the lower Rapp, so flooding is somewhat blunted (it spills into low lying areas; it's banks are low).  The water is a dirty greenish color and visibility is poor. But I think the water and winds pushed a lot of teeth onto or in the wash at the beach.  Hope to get out again soon.

[Rowboater]

Among the pieces of fossilized bone I found two pieces that have 'scooped out', relatively smooth areas. While I suppose they could be joints, they don't look like the joints i have found in the past.  I'm wondering if they could be damaged and healed areas in the bone?  Sent some photos to a pathologist friend to see what she thinks.  Sorry for the cell phone photos.

[Rowboater]

Also found a one inch thick vertebra or vertebral disc(?) Not like the usual ones I find.  Although weathered, one surface is slightly concave the opposite convex.  Lots of "rings" in the concave side. (Gotta get a better camera). 

[Rowboater]

Not sure if these are giant tree oysters (which I see frequently in the creek in the woods, and are dull chalky white).  Maybe these big beach shells are not fossils?  Their luster is striking.