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Nikki in Jax

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Fellow fossil hunters!

 

I live in Jacksonville Beach, FL and have been collecting sharks teeth and shells on our local beaches for a decade.

I have found some great teeth on the beach (mostly in the winter when the tourists have gone ;)) but have yet to find a megalodon tooth or even a fragment of one!

My father had some beautiful meg teeth in his collection from when they would dredge for beach renourishment, St. Johns River projects, ect. So I know they are out there to find but I've never been lucky enough to come across one.

Has anyone had any luck finding meg teeth in Jacksonville? If so, any tips on where to look would be GREATLY appreciated!

I'm attaching a picture with a handful of my favorite finds over the years here in Jax Beach, enjoy!

 

-Nikki 

Best Finds.JPG

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I lived in Jax for a few years, I never had any luck. I would suggest heading west to the Gainesville area. I went back there to visit my folks and found a half meg in a creek in the first 2hrs. There is always the peace river, your almost always going to find one down there.

 

Nice GW teeth though!

 

 

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Hi Nikki and welcome to TFF from Austin, Tx.  I must agree that those are some nice teeth - - and the fossils aren't bad either.  :heartylaugh:

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Great handful of teeth there!

 

I have a friend up in JAX who once had access to spoil piles in the area which produced buckets of megs (that was many decades ago). Couldn't tell you any more possibilities of where to find shark teeth in your are that you already know (seems to me you're doing pretty good so far). I don't see why megs would be particularly rare in your area as they (and their ancestors) seem to be reasonably common all the way up to the Carolinas. As mentioned, places like the Peace River (during the dry season not now when it is in full flood) are reasonable places to pick up megs way down here in South Florida.

 

Not a whole lot of posts here on TFF including both the terms "megalodon" and "jacksonville" so I don't think there is a huge amount of information to mine here on the forum. You might want to check for local fossil or rock/mineral clubs in your area that might be a good place to learn about fossil hunting in your area.

 

Oh, and welcome to the forum. :)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Nice finds, welcome from Englewood:)

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

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Welcome!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

:popcorn: John

I had a friend once, but the wheels fell off. Sad, very sad. - Nightwing

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Welcome to the forum from New York! Nice collection!

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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18 hours ago, JBMugu said:

I lived in Jax for a few years, I never had any luck. I would suggest heading west to the Gainesville area. I went back there to visit my folks and found a half meg in a creek in the first 2hrs. There is always the peace river, your almost always going to find one down there.

 

Nice GW teeth though!

 

 

Thanks for your input!

I've been twice to Gainesville, both times entered the creek at Alfred A Ring State Park and found a ton of little Lemon shark teeth but nothing sizable. I'm not familiar with that area at all and don't know of anywhere else to enter the creek but was thinking about doing a tour with Mudslingers (not sure if you've heard of them) and seeing if a guide might be beneficial. 

And definitely want to explore Peace River when the water level goes down, I've seen lots of awesome things come out of that river!

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16 hours ago, digit said:

Great handful of teeth there!

 

I have a friend up in JAX who once had access to spoil piles in the area which produced buckets of megs (that was many decades ago). Couldn't tell you any more possibilities of where to find shark teeth in your are that you already know (seems to me you're doing pretty good so far). I don't see why megs would be particularly rare in your area as they (and their ancestors) seem to be reasonably common all the way up to the Carolinas. As mentioned, places like the Peace River (during the dry season not now when it is in full flood) are reasonable places to pick up megs way down here in South Florida.

 

Not a whole lot of posts here on TFF including both the terms "megalodon" and "jacksonville" so I don't think there is a huge amount of information to mine here on the forum. You might want to check for local fossil or rock/mineral clubs in your area that might be a good place to learn about fossil hunting in your area.

 

Oh, and welcome to the forum. :)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Ken,

 

Thanks so much for the info!

I don't see why meg teeth would be a rare find up here either, it just seems like access to sites you might find them are very limited up here. We do have dredge islands around the mouth of the St Johns which I'm sure hold some teeth but almost all are off limits as Mayport Naval Base is up here and uses a ton of these little islands for their purposes. 

I might just have to wait for another dredging event up here to find any megs!

 

That's a great idea to check out local fossil clubs, I will definitely look into that!

 

Thanks again Ken!

 

-Nikki

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I heard something about kayaks and dredge spoil islands from a fossil guide I had engaged in Jax some time ago. He had access to a private beach too. Keep hunting, a meg will turn up soon. You can spend a weekend and drive to South Carolina.

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42 minutes ago, Nikki in Jax said:

I might just have to wait for another dredging event up here to find any megs!

"Excuse me sir, would you mind dumping that load directly into my sifting screen?"

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27 minutes ago, caldigger said:

"Excuse me sir, would you mind dumping that load directly into my sifting screen?"

I'm very persuasive, I'm sure I could get it to work out in my favor haha :D

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I believe my friend once had access to the spoil piles on military property (connections) and that it was once a real gold mine for megs. Obviously, not an option for the general public these days (without running into trouble). ;)

 

You might try a broad web search for something like "fossil hunting guide jacksonville florida" and see what those links might provide in terms of clues to either areas you haven't thought of or possibly some fossil guides still working in the JAX area. If you let them know that megs are your particular interest, they may be able to let you know if they think they have a spot that might deliver.

 

Beyond that, it is just waiting with the rest of us till the Peace River is finished hiding this season's fossils and the level returns to something safe so that it is open for fossil hunting. There are several guides who will work this area--do an internet search for "peace river fossil guide" and you'll turn up the websites of the guides in the area. Alternatively, build your own sifting screen and rent canoes from Canoe Outpost. You might not be able to get to the less accessible corners of the Peace River that are available to those who have their own watercraft but I still regularly find megs from the "overhunted" Brownsville to Arcadia stretch. You can always keep track of the water level in the Peace with Canoe Outpost's page showing the current river level (currently NOT in the fossil hunting zone).

 

http://www.canoeoutpost.com/peace/showpage.asp?page=waterlevel

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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1 hour ago, digit said:

do an internet search for "peace river fossil guide" and you'll turn up the websites of the guides in the area. Alternatively, build your own sifting screen and rent canoes from Canoe Outpost.

Ken, you are the most helpful person alive!

 

I've been wanting to check Peace River out for the last couple years, but living on the opposite end of the state and not knowing anybody living around there, I didn't feel comfortable driving all the way out there and not knowing exactly what I'm doing.

So come dry season I will definitely try to link up with a guide in that area. I have a sifting screen so that part is covered. I have a Ranger bass boat but do you think that would be too big to navigate the river where those lesser accessible stretches are? We might want to just use kayaks instead?

Thank you for telling me about this Canoe Outpost page, I've bookmarked it so I can refer back to it!

 

Thanks so so so much for all this info, you are wonderful!

 

-Nikki

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They're all deep in the sediment of the St. Johns.  Looking foreword to the new Shands bridge construction, bottom of the river will be paved with em.

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1 hour ago, Nikki in Jax said:

Thanks so so so much for all this info, you are wonderful!

Information is only useful when shared. :) (Unless we are talking about the stock market.) ;)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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