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Megalodon or Chubutensis?


eannis6

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Hello again everyone. I have missed posting on here. Many of you know that I found what I was told was either a small posterior meg or mako tooth last year. I just wanted to say that after further research, I have concluded that it is indeed most likely a mako tooth. This was hard for me to be objective and make this observation because I wanted it to be a Megalodon tooth :D Anyway, I spent some time at the aurora fossil museum, and I haven’t done any Calvert cliff hunting lately. I found the bottom half of a meg/ chub and I was wondering if it is possible to conclude which it is? It is in the top middle row of all the meg/chub/angy/ fragments I found this year. You can see the posterior mako tooth below the megs. Thanks for the help.

 

On a side note, a goal of mine pretty high on the bucket list is to find an intact meg, any size. I was wondering if there were any coastal NC/ VA natives that could help me on this endeavor? I would be willing to pay for a guided meg hunt, just pm for specifics. Thanks so much guys!

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   The top, middle tooth you are asking about is unfortunately missing what would be needed to identify it specifically.  And not to unsettle you even more, but I believe your juv. posterior tooth to be C. megalodon.  As yours shows, small posterior megs usually only have a very thin line of bourlette and can have little to no serrations at that size.  The shape and proportion of root seems more meg. than C. hastalis (I. hastalis).

    Also, I live in a county in Virginia in which meg teeth, many that are 5"+, are still being found.  Even so, the areas of VA that produce megs, do not do so with the level of consistency that SC or FL or maybe even NC currently do.  Furthermore in VA most fossil-bearing public parks are picked thin, and the best finds now are on private property, usually with very guarding owners.  If you were to pay for a hunt, you would probably be best off finding a guide in SC.  Hope this helps.  DM me for more specific information if needed.

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4 hours ago, Tripermiblast said:

   The top, middle tooth you are asking about is unfortunately missing what would be needed to identify it specifically.  And not to unsettle you even more, but I believe your juv. posterior tooth to be C. megalodon.  As yours shows, small posterior megs usually only have a very thin line of bourlette and can have little to no serrations at that size.  The shape and proportion of root seems more meg. than C. hastalis (I. hastalis).

    Also, I live in a county in Virginia in which meg teeth, many that are 5"+, are still being found.  Even so, the areas of VA that produce megs, do not do so with the level of consistency that SC or FL or maybe even NC currently do.  Furthermore in VA most fossil-bearing public parks are picked thin, and the best finds now are on private property, usually with very guarding owners.  If you were to pay for a hunt, you would probably be best off finding a guide in SC.  Hope this helps.  DM me for more specific information if needed.

Thank you for the information, it is very helpful! I will definitely check out SC as well.

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2 hours ago, ynot said:

Nice teeth fragments.

Good luck with the endeavor to find a whole one.

Maybe @SailingAlongToo can help.

@eannis6

There are a couple of people / groups who guide trips along the bay and/or rivers of eastern VA, MD and NC. I can think of 2 great ones. 

 

Paul Murdoch is President of the Calvert Marine Museum - Fossil Club, and guides individual or small group trips along Calvert Cliffs. He can be contacted through TFF Facebook page or his FB group "Fossil Hunters of Calvert Cliffs."

 

Cathy of Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures guides group or private individual trips along the bay and the rivers in eastern VA, MD and NC, from early March to late Oct each year. Many of her trips are by boat so you go to places not hunted that frequently. On a 2-day weekend trip along a VA river last April, 22 meg & pre-megs were found by the trip participants. Mine was a gorgeous 3" medium gray Otodus chubutensis with a tan root, but I gave it away to a young girl on her 1st fossil hunt. Cathy can be reached via her website www.fossilandnaturetrips.com (She also guides trips to a world famous ranch in northwest Nebraska a couple time a year for terrestrial Oligocene fossils and to western FL / eastern AL for marine fossils.)

 

I would still say regular visits to the various public access points of Calvert Cliffs is the best way for a fossil hunter to find a meg, IF you don't have a boat. As @Tripermiblast mentioned, VA property laws are different than most other states. In VA the waterfront landowner owns to the "mean low water mark" which is not the same as the low tide line. Meaning, if you are on the beach or land, you are most likely trespassing. In other surrounding states like NC and MD, the landowner owns to the "mean high water mark" meaning you can legally be on the beach or land below that point. Again, as mentioned before, VA State Parks like Chippokes, York River and Westmoreland are hunted extremely hard year round and are very picked over. As with most locations, digging in the cliffs at these sites is illegal and in fact, just being / walking under the cliffs at Westmoreland SP is trespassing. The Rangers there actively search for and ticket trespassers.

 

One word of advice and caution, please avoid the urge to hunt vertebrate fossils on the vast federal lands around Hampton Roads and central - eastern VA. It's illegal and they tend to make public examples out of the folks they catch. 

 

Cheers and good luck.

 

SA2

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31 minutes ago, SailingAlongToo said:

@eannis6

There are a couple of people / groups who guide trips along the bay and/or rivers of eastern VA, MD and NC. I can think of 2 great ones. 

 

Paul Murdoch is President of the Calvert Marine Museum - Fossil Club, and guides individual or small group trips along Calvert Cliffs. He can be contacted through TFF Facebook page or his FB group "Fossil Hunters of Calvert Cliffs."

 

Cathy of Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures guides group or private individual trips along the bay and the rivers in eastern VA, MD and NC, from early March to late Oct each year. Many of her trips are by boat so you go to places not hunted that frequently. On a 2-day weekend trip along a VA river last April, 22 meg & pre-megs were found by the trip participants. Mine was a gorgeous 3" medium gray Otodus chubutensis with a tan root, but I gave it away to a young girl on her 1st fossil hunt. Cathy can be reached via her website www.fossilandnaturetrips.com (She also guides trips to a world famous ranch in northwest Nebraska a couple time a year for terrestrial Oligocene fossils and to western FL / eastern AL for marine fossils.)

 

I would still say regular visits to the various public access points of Calvert Cliffs is the best way for a fossil hunter to find a meg, IF you don't have a boat. As @Tripermiblast mentioned, VA property laws are different than most other states. In VA the waterfront landowner owns to the "mean low water mark" which is not the same as the low tide line. Meaning, if you are on the beach or land, you are most likely trespassing. In other surrounding states like NC and MD, the landowner owns to the "mean high water mark" meaning you can legally be on the beach or land below that point. Again, as mentioned before, VA State Parks like Chippokes, York River and Westmoreland are hunted extremely hard year round and are very picked over. As with most locations, digging in the cliffs at these sites is illegal and in fact, just being / walking under the cliffs at Westmoreland SP is trespassing. The Rangers there actively search for and ticket trespassers.

 

One word of advice and caution, please avoid the urge to hunt vertebrate fossils on the vast federal lands around Hampton Roads and central - eastern VA. It's illegal and they tend to make public examples out of the folks they catch. 

 

Cheers and good luck.

 

SA2

Thank you very much for the help, this is super informative. I may try to reach out to Cathy because that sounds like a great experience. Thanks again for taking the time to help me.

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