Ernst Quarry Sharktooth Hill Adventure

[Allosaurus 102]

I was fortunate enough to travel to Ernst Quarry near Bakersfield and spend a day digging at Slow Curve. In that day I came away with a LOT of teeth and a promise to return at some point in the future. I have a better idea how to approach the site now, and I want to find that elusive Megalodon tooth that I missed this time around. 

 

I went with a family member, and we found a lot of teeth. I did a rough count at over 350 teeth total (that does include partials), with the grand majority being very small. Which was perfect for me because I ended up using 3 gem boxes for everything when I'd originally planned for two haha. Lots of makos (big tooth, hooked, and a couple narrow toothed), tiger shark, basking shark, requiem and black tip sharks, Dasyuris and myliobatiformes rays, 1 porpoise tooth, 1 whale tooth, angel shark teeth, six gill and seven gill shark, and 1 Hemipristis. I found a TON of bone fragments. I couldn't pick them all up of course, but I tried to pick up most of the larger ones with a few smaller pieces to. I have such a hard time leaving any fossil behind. Also found 2 small fish verts and a larger shark (I think) vertebrae. Along with a couple partial whale vertebraes and there might be an astragalus sitting in there to. A couple of my rib pieces have feeding wear on them. No super big teeth, but my biggest guy was a tad over 1.5 inches. The color of all the teeth astounds me. It's like I have a paint pallette of teeth. Whites, beige, tan, orange, pink, blueish, purple, etc. My favorite tooth is a smaller little guy, but he has a mix of purple and white color with white and black lines across him (see below). All in all it was a very productive day, especially since it was my first time out there. It'll probably be a while before I can come back, but I know I will be back again some day. 

[Pemphix 631]

Really cool finds !

And i like the idea of using gem boxes - will copy that for my small stuff, thank you for the idea !

 

[Macrophyseter 593]

For a person who only racked up around ten small teeth in his trip to Ernst Quarries, that's a gold-loaded dream to find in a single day!

[Gizmo 617]

Very nice,congrats! 

[Rowboater 294]

great haul, nice job!

[jpc 3,872]

I love the colors of the STH teeth.  

[ynot 7,236]

Ya did good!