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As the year comes to a close i decided to do a bit more collecting at one of my favourite Australian sites: Beaumaris near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Once again i travelled down and stayed at a motel near the beach for three days (27/12/18 through to 29/12/18). This trip is a sequel to the previous two trips i have made here which are also posted on the forum:

 

Jan 2016 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/61248-fossil-hunting-holiday-in-victoria-australia-dec-2015-jan-2016/
Feb 2017 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/71996-fossil-hunting-holiday-at-beaumaris-australia-feb-2017/ 

 

Beaumaris is a significant site with both marine and terrestrial fossils from the latest Miocene aged Beaumaris Sandstone Formation (5 - 6 million years old), which crops out in distinctly red-coloured coastal cliffs and also in offshore rocky reefs. An impressive diversity of both vertebrate and invertebrate fauna occurs here, and the Melbourne Museum has put together a neat PDF of the fossil diversity for those unfamiliar with the site (https://www.bcs.asn.au/fossils_of_beaumaris_2015-02.pdf). My plan was to collect every single low tide across these three days, and sleep during every high tide. Yes, this meant going out collecting in the middle of the night too! My main interest was to collect shark teeth, however they can be tough to find here and are certainly not as common as at many other sites internationally that the people on this forum would be more familiar with. This often seems to be the case with Australian vertebrate fossils. It does however make it quite rewarding when you do eventually find them! 

 

The first day of searching (27/12/18) proved to be rather disappointing. I finally got to try snorkelling for fossils, which is a popular method here for finding things exposed along the seabed, but alas after about 3 hours in the water i had not found any bones or teeth. I was unable to locate the nodule bed where most of the vertebrate fossils originate from, which i think played a part in my lack of success. The seabed was also quite sanded over and it was hard to see much. I was definitely out of my element here, but it was also a lot of fun to get close to some of the local marine life, including stingrays! I decided to return to land collecting after not doing very well in the water and when i did so my luck changed greatly. The next two days and nights of land collecting (28/12/18 and 29/12/18) proved to be much more successful and i even got to meet two TFF members on the beach (coincidentally)! @Echinoid and @Tympanic bulla were also out looking, and we had a nice chat before they headed off to continue snorkelling. I then spent most of my remaining time on the beach flipping rocks and examining the pebbles up close, ultimately finishing the trip with a total of five shark teeth which i was very happy with! 

 

 

 

Carcharodon hastalis  tooth as found. 24mm long. 

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Large Carcharodon hastalis  upper anterior tooth, as found at 2 am (with a head-torch) on 29/12/18. Measures 56 mm long. I had long been waiting for a tooth of this size!

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Carcharodon hastalis  posterior tooth as found. 15 mm long. 

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Another Carcharodon hastalis posterior as found. 13 mm long. 

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And a small fragment of cetacean bone. Worn pieces like this are the most common vertebrate fossils at Beaumaris. 

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Pictures continued in the next post

 

 

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"In Africa, one can't help becoming caught up in the spine-chilling excitement of the hunt. Perhaps, it has something to do with a memory of a time gone by, when we were the prey, and our nights were filled with darkness..."

-Eternal Enemies: Lions And Hyenas

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All of the shark teeth from the trip, found across three days of searching. The size variation is pretty neat!

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A selection of bone fragments collected, all are probably cetacean.

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Selection of invertebrates collected, including the brachiopod Anakinetica tumida, corals Placotrochus, Deltocyathus and Trochocyathus , gastropods (Gazameda victoriensis  plus another unknown) and the echinoid Lovenia woodsi

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Everything i brought back from the trip together.

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Finally, a shot of the rusty red Beaumaris Sandstone cliffs. 

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I hope you enjoyed this report!

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"In Africa, one can't help becoming caught up in the spine-chilling excitement of the hunt. Perhaps, it has something to do with a memory of a time gone by, when we were the prey, and our nights were filled with darkness..."

-Eternal Enemies: Lions And Hyenas

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Lovely report! 

Some nice finds, though my favourites are probably the corals and especially the brachiopods. :wub:

Love the in situ photographs. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Great hunt, love the inverts!

Max Derème

 

"I feel an echo of the lightning each time I find a fossil. [...] That is why I am a hunter: to feel that bolt of lightning every day."

   - Mary Anning >< Remarkable Creatures, Tracy Chevalier

 

Instagram: @world_of_fossils

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Thanks!! Looks like everyone really loves the invertebrates! You won't be disappointed if you visit this site then, they are quite common here :)

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"In Africa, one can't help becoming caught up in the spine-chilling excitement of the hunt. Perhaps, it has something to do with a memory of a time gone by, when we were the prey, and our nights were filled with darkness..."

-Eternal Enemies: Lions And Hyenas

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Nice finds! I believe snorkelling is pretty good around the Table rock side and you can find some pretty nice teeth around the point.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Great finds, and some good old hard yakka searching at those hours!

 

I am looking forward to heading down to Beaumaris soon for a look around with the kids.  We scouted around Portland early December but the weather was absolutely terrible

 

Am I mistaken or is there access to the cliffs on either side of the Yacht Squadron?  Or is access from Mentone Beach?

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@datman74 G’day!

 

The best way to access the cliffs is from the Motor Yacht Squadron. It is hard to access the cliffs from Mentone beach even at low tide. You can access both sides of the cliffs quite easily from the Yacht Squadron.

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  • 3 years later...

Hi there,
My daughters and I absolutely love going down to Beaumaris for a little fossil hunting. I found part of a shark tooth on our first hunt there… I was wondering if you think mine might be the same as the one in your first/second photo?? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

7BCDF01E-FC02-4586-9C35-2D65CD98A7D1.jpeg

D5A6C883-5750-4BB3-A55F-493CE5BF7788.jpeg

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25 minutes ago, Sarah84 said:

Hi there,
My daughters and I absolutely love going down to Beaumaris for a little fossil hunting. I found part of a shark tooth on our first hunt there… I was wondering if you think mine might be the same as the one in your first/second photo?? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Yes, probably Carcharodon hastalis, I think.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco. :):meg:

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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6 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Yes, probably Carcharodon hastalis, I think.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco. :):meg:

Thank you so much for the reply and for the kind welcome! :) I really appreciate it. 
My daughters and I are new to collecting and loving every minute of it!

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On 3/19/2022 at 3:20 PM, Sarah84 said:

Hi there,
My daughters and I absolutely love going down to Beaumaris for a little fossil hunting. I found part of a shark tooth on our first hunt there… I was wondering if you think mine might be the same as the one in your first/second photo?? 
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

I agree with Tidgy's Dad, it's probably a partial C. hastalis. These are the most common shark teeth down at Beaumaris (perhaps only rivalled by the small jellybean-like teeth of Heterodontus cainozoicus). 

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"In Africa, one can't help becoming caught up in the spine-chilling excitement of the hunt. Perhaps, it has something to do with a memory of a time gone by, when we were the prey, and our nights were filled with darkness..."

-Eternal Enemies: Lions And Hyenas

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8 minutes ago, Paleoworld-101 said:

 

I agree with Tidgy's Dad, it's probably a partial C. hastalis. These are the most common shark teeth down at Beaumaris (perhaps only rivalled by the small jellybean-like teeth of Heterodontus cainozoicus). 

Hi there :) Thank you so much also for your reply! I greatly appreciate it. My daughters and I are just newbies to collecting and still learning a lot. My dream is to find a whole tooth one day… I literally have dreams about it lol!!! 

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