Jump to content

HoppeHunting

Recommended Posts

After just over a year of fossil collecting, I have finally found my first Meg!

 

On Thursday, the first semester of my senior year came to an end. The next day, Friday, school was closed for a teacher work day. I figured I'd make the most of my day off by heading out to Bayfront Park. What better way to celebrate making it through the first half of senior year? I though that because it was a Friday, and rather cold, not many people would be out on the beach because they'd either be at school, work, or home because of the weather. I was right. When I arrived at a little before noon, there were only a few cars in the parking lot, and not all of them were fellow hunters. I slipped on my waders and made my way down the path, shovel and sifter in hand. Funny enough, I never actually sifted a single screen, because I didn't need to. I had no idea the tide was going to be as low as it was. But boy, was it out there. Even with a few hours before peak low tide, the entire beach was exposed and the water was calm. I stopped briefly at the cove area that people so often underestimate, and within five minutes of stepping onto the beach found a perfect little cow shark tooth laying right out in the open. That's when I knew it was going to be a good day of hunting. 

 

The tide was probably the one of the lowest I've ever seen at Brownies, so I had plenty of ground to cover. Trying not to get ahead of myself, I made sure to still walk very slowly and scan over the ground thoroughly. After about an hour, I was walking down near the water on a part of the beach that is normally submerged when I stumbled across a large tooth, half buried in the sand. My heart stopped when I spotted it. It clearly had signs of a bourlette, so I immediately knew I was looking right at my first ever meg. I pulled out my phone and began recording. I prayed that it would be whole as I carefully pried it out of the sand. To my delight, it was mostly complete, with flawless serrations and an intact tip. It had a bit of damage and it was missing the actual bourlette (must've fallen off), but I didn't mind one bit. I cleaned it off and spent marveled at the amazing tooth I had just found. I couldn't believe what was happening. After calling my friends and family and sending them the video, I carefully wrapped the tooth in tissue paper and aluminum foil to insure that it would make it home safely. There was no way I was throwing that tooth in my waders pouch like I do with the rest! I would have been more than happy if I hadn't found a single other tooth that day, but that was not the case.

 

I continued south, and kept looking towards the water, hoping for some other nice finds. I found a fair share of decent makos, and another large but beaten up cow shark tooth. I eventually ran into a man named Scott who was hunting for the first time ever, and he showed me his backpack full of cetacean verts, including a very large whale vert. He told me he had been there since before sunrise, and hadn't had much luck with teeth, but clearly was finding verts left and right. I of course answered his question, "Any luck?" with a prompt "Oh yes, I hit the jackpot today." He congratulated me on my first meg, and we talked for a while more. He was a really cool guy, and I enjoyed helping him identify some finds and learn more about the cliffs. After my exchange with Scott, I went farther down the beach, finding more decent teeth and a few verts. At one point, I saw what was clearly another megatooth in the sand, and held my breath as I unearthed it. Unfortunately, it was only the tip of what was most likely a very large tooth. A true heartbreaker, but with everything else I had already found I couldn't complain. As the tide began to come in, I decided to head back to the entrance and make my way home. I caught up to Scott again, and we talked about my plans to become a paleontologist as we walked back up to our cars. 

 

I can say with some confidence that this was my best Brownies Beach trip ever, and perhaps even my best trip ever, period. I ended up finding a meg (although it's technically a C. chubutensis I believe), some very nice makos, a few complete cow shark teeth, hemis, sand tigers, a lot of tigers, a ray barb/spine, and a lot of fish and shark verts. I honestly don't think I could be much happier with my finds, and I am beyond thrilled to add my first megatooth to my collection! As far as a public site like Brownies goes, this is considered an extremely productive day, especially considering I only really hunted for about four hours, compared to my usual 6-7+. 2019 is certainly off to an amazing start; this is only my second hunt of the year! Thank you so much for reading my report, and here's to many more megs in the future!

 

Here's a link to my YouTube video of finding the tooth. I will eventually be making full length videos of my hunts in the future, so please subscribe to the channel if you like! Thank you all.

 

 

Also be sure to check out the Hop 5 post that will be up soon, and cast your vote for the tripmaker. Hoppe Hunting!

IMG_1643.jpg

IMG_1637.jpg

IMG_1699.jpg

  • I found this Informative 10

The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good show! Great find :dinothumb: You can hear the excitement in your voice in the video. I’d sound exactly like that if I found a meg as well!:ighappy:

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations on your first meg! Eventually with some persistence, it happens.

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, HoppeHunting said:

I can say with some confidence that this was my best Brownies Beach trip ever, and perhaps even my best trip ever, period. I ended up finding a meg (although it's technically a C. chubutensis I believe), some very nice makos, a few complete cow shark teeth, hemis, sand tigers, a lot of tigers, a ray barb/spine, and a lot of fish and shark verts. I honestly don't think I could be much happier with my finds, and I am beyond thrilled to add my first megatooth to my collection! As far as a public site like Brownies goes, this is considered an extremely productive day, especially considering I only really hunted for about four hours, compared to my usual 6-7+. 2019 is certainly off to an amazing start; this is only my second hunt of the year! Thank you so much for reading my report, and here's to many more megs in the future!

Congratulations on a great day.. If I found a Meg, and 5 makos, and Hemis, and great Sand tigers with cusps and 3 or 4 Nurse shark lowers,  and.. and .. :megdance: Great hunting day.

On the Meg, as @Caldigger noted, what a color change from Silver blade, black root, to cream blade and light tan root.. Wow. I recently had a thread on color change of Megs in the 1st 48 hours and not that many member said "Yes that definitely happens to me".  Does this type of color change happen frequently on your finds at this location?  Thanks for sharing,   Jack

22 minutes ago, caldigger said:

And it dried to a real nice color, congrates!!!

20190127_152720.png

 

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a bit curious as to why you believe that the majority of Mega shark finds at Calvert cliffs are Chubs as opposed to megs? Personally, I myself have found an approximately even amount of both. The majority of what I have seen others find appear to be Megs. Is there some  literature that states this?

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

I am a bit curious as to why you believe that the majority of Mega shark finds at Calvert cliffs are Chubs as opposed to megs? Personally, I myself have found an approximately even amount of both. The majority of what I have seen others find appear to be Megs. Is there some  literature that states this?

I say this only for this location, not the entirety of the Calvert Cliffs. The sediments grow younger as you travel south. Bayfront Park is the northernmost tip of the Cliffs, and therefore the very oldest. Because of this, you are more likely to find chubs than Megs here, although I’m not 100% confident on the identification of my specimen. I will post an ID topic soon.

  • I found this Informative 1

The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

Does this type of color change happen frequently on your finds at this location?

Yes, the colors of Brownies teeth often change when they dry. Of all the sites I’ve been to, I think this one has the prettiest colors for sure, wet or dry! It is certainly very interesting to see how much the appearance of a tooth changes when you get home and let it sit out to dry. Sometimes it looks like an entirely different tooth!

The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, HoppeHunting said:

I say this only for this location, not the entirety of the Calvert Cliffs. The sediments grow younger as you travel south. Bayfront Park is the northernmost tip of the Cliffs, and therefore the very oldest. Because of this, you are more likely to find chubs than Megs here, although I’m not 100% confident on the identification of my specimen. I will post an ID topic soon.

Thanks:dinothumb:

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice meg! Was that @Calvert Cliff Dweller?

I will watch the video as soon as I can.

“...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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

If you’re talking about the other hunter I ran into, Scott, then no. I don’t believe he’s on TFF, as it was his first time hunting. He also said he lives in Delaware, not Calvert County.

  • I found this Informative 1

The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

congrats they are hard to come by at brownies heck im still looking for my first from brownies ive never found one there in all my years of hunting the cliffs

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great haul and a beautiful Meg, congrats :yay-smiley-1:

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

CONGRATULATIONS! What a fantastic hunt, and a beautiful tooth! 

 

I loved seeing the video, as I've always seen the big teeth *after* they've been found, so it was exciting to come along for the ride with you for this discovery!

 

This is a great start to 2019, and I hope there are many more wonderful finds for you!

  • I found this Informative 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congratulations it's been a long time coming! Beautiful tooth! Certainly looks like the tides were very low which in my experience almost makes it harder to hunt/concentrate.

 

Good job! :meg:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats on your first meg!  A lot nicer than any I've ever found.  Also really liked your cowshark teeth!  Great hunting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

WOW! Congrats on the epic haul and your first meg! Your write up of the trip and video were great as well and very informative. You certainly had a epic day, especially for the location! Here to to hoping the rest of 2019 is just as productive for you! Congrats again!

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Impressive finds, congrats! The color of the meg is gorgeous and something that I love about the Cliffs. They do not have the biggest teeth but the megs come in a wide variety of colors, with the tan/cream being my favorite.

 

Most of my “megs” from the cliffs are also chubs, but for simplicity I refer to them all as “megs”. To the experts the cusps may be a big diffeence, but I prefer to not make the distinction every time I talk about them. Hopefully that doesn’t trigger anyone J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you all so much for the kind words and congratulations! Means a lot. By the way, @JMUFossil is your screen name in reference to James Madison University? You may or may not have seen it, but I recently made a post notifying the forum of my acceptance to JMU! I will most likely be attending the school next fall, I just haven't made a definite decision at the moment. Do you/did you attend JMU?

  • I found this Informative 1

The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues!

~Hoppe hunting!~

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...