Matoaka Beach, 8/24/19

[Chris717]

Greetings

 

Through this awesome site, I found out about Matoaka Beach Cabins and the opportunity to find fossils there.  My family and I stayed here in the Spring to check it out and my son and I camped out over the weekend and spent some solid hours trying to find fossils at this gorgeous spot.  We found a bunch of small teeth on the first afternoon by taking shovel fulls of sand and letting the surf wash and sift them, grabbing any teeth that washed out.  

 

The morning of the second day presented us with a fairly high tide and we were unable to walk very far up the beach but we found a few of our larger ones fairly close to the cabins.  

 

The water was clear enough that we saw a few nice teeth tumbling in the surf in a few inches of water.  I was only fast enough to grab one, and I think it might be a small Meg.  Can you guys weigh in?  It's the upper left one in the group and also the close up shot.  It has a small chip but was still pretty awesome to find, meg or not. 

 

I read and reread every post on here about the fossils of the Chesapeake and I want to thank you guys for the great community and resource.  My son and I had a blast and we can't wait to get back to do it again.  

 

Thanks!

 

Chris717

[Doctor Mud]

Man! I would have loved that as a kid - camping and finding fossil shark teeth. Hey who am I kidding I still love it!

It would be so nice camping there with the sound of the beach nearby.

 

Hard to tell if there are serrations on the tooth? If serrated might be more likely a great white (given the shape of the root and lack of bourlette) which is still very cool!

[grandpa]

What great times and great finds.  Fossils can come and go, but no one can ever take away quality time shared between a father and son.

[Andy B]

27 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

Man! I would have loved that as a kid - camping and finding fossil shark teeth.

No joke! Great for the family!

[Miocene_Mason]

38 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

serrated might be more likely a great white

No Great Whites at the cliffs, too early in the Miocene. There are Carcharomodus escheri (AKA Carcharodon subserratus) present but I don’t believe this is one. I believe it is more likely a Carcharodon hastalis tooth, perhaps chipping makes it looked serrated. Nice finds!

Edited August 26, 2019 by WhodamanHD

[Chris717]

Thank you very much for the replies.  I looked up some Hastalis teeth and I can definitely see that.  I'll see if there are any serrations tonight. 

 

We had a blast and will definitely do this again before the year is out.  Might try a sifter/screen next time but I was not unhappy with how we made out.  It's a great way to spend time outside.  

 

And grandpa, you're right, I'd trade all of the teeth out there to keep the memories we made this weekend.  

 

Thanks again

 

 

[MarcoSr]

11 hours ago, Chris717 said:

Greetings

 

Through this awesome site, I found out about Matoaka Beach Cabins and the opportunity to find fossils there.  My family and I stayed here in the Spring to check it out and my son and I camped out over the weekend and spent some solid hours trying to find fossils at this gorgeous spot.  We found a bunch of small teeth on the first afternoon by taking shovel fulls of sand and letting the surf wash and sift them, grabbing any teeth that washed out.  

 

The morning of the second day presented us with a fairly high tide and we were unable to walk very far up the beach but we found a few of our larger ones fairly close to the cabins.  

 

The water was clear enough that we saw a few nice teeth tumbling in the surf in a few inches of water.  I was only fast enough to grab one, and I think it might be a small Meg.  Can you guys weigh in?  It's the upper left one in the group and also the close up shot.  It has a small chip but was still pretty awesome to find, meg or not. 

 

I read and reread every post on here about the fossils of the Chesapeake and I want to thank you guys for the great community and resource.  My son and I had a blast and we can't wait to get back to do it again.  

 

Thanks!

 

Chris717

 

 

 

Great to see you at Matoaka Cabins with your son.  Your post brings back memories.  I'm with my older son at Matoaka Cabins beach almost 40 years ago in the below picture.  My wife took the picture.  My younger son, still in diapers, is with my wife.  My sons and I are still avid fossil collectors today.

 

 

 

Your tooth is a Carcharodon hastalis, ancestor of the extant great white shark.

 

Marco Sr. 

[Chris717]

10 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

 

Great to see you at Matoaka Cabins with your son.  Your post brings back memories.  I'm with my older son at Matoaka Cabins beach almost 40 years ago in the below picture.  My wife took the picture.  My younger son, still in diapers, is with my wife.  My sons and I are still avid fossil collectors today.

 

 

 

Your tooth is a Carcharodon hastalis, ancestor of the extant great white shark.

 

Marco Sr. 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr - that picture is awesome and I love that this place has been creating memories for decades.  It's very cool that your sons took to fossil hunting and stuck with it.  My family was quite taken with this place's natural beauty and the only way I found out about Matoaka was through this forum.  

 

The cliffs in the background of your pic - I'm thinking they have eroded into the bay as you can see a much greater length from the cabin area now (guessing you didn't walk all the way up with two small kids). That's amazing to me.  Would be neat to see a time-lapse of how it gradually erodes away. 

 

Thanks for the tooth ID!  Can't wait to get back down in the Fall to try again. 

 

Chris717

 

[Doctor Mud]

On 27 August 2019 at 12:06 AM, WhodamanHD said:

No Great Whites at the cliffs, too early in the Miocene. There are Carcharomodus escheri (AKA Carcharodon subserratus) present but I don’t believe this is one. I believe it is more likely a Carcharodon hastalis tooth, perhaps chipping makes it looked serrated. Nice finds!

Good to know. I think I was looking at some sand still sticking on the edge near the base  Clearly no serrations further up

[MarcoSr]

6 hours ago, Chris717 said:

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr - that picture is awesome and I love that this place has been creating memories for decades.  It's very cool that your sons took to fossil hunting and stuck with it.  My family was quite taken with this place's natural beauty and the only way I found out about Matoaka was through this forum.  

 

The cliffs in the background of your pic - I'm thinking they have eroded into the bay as you can see a much greater length from the cabin area now (guessing you didn't walk all the way up with two small kids). That's amazing to me.  Would be neat to see a time-lapse of how it gradually erodes away. 

 

Thanks for the tooth ID!  Can't wait to get back down in the Fall to try again. 

 

Chris717

 

 

Chris

 

Seeing that cliff in my picture really now has me questioning whether this was Matoaka if there is no longer a cliff there in the distance.  I haven't been to Matoaka since I moved to Virginia 21 years ago so I don't remember a lot about the site.  I remember my wife would stay on the beach by the cabins with the boys and they would collect small teeth washing in with the waves and I would walk several miles to get to another set of cliffs that could have the water beating on them.  I really don't remember taking the boys to other sites when they were really young because a lot of the sites I collected had falling cliffs and water at times beating on them and Matoaka had a really nice wide beach that was safe for young kids.  Plus my wife also remembers  that picture being taken at Matoaka cabins.  However, I wouldn't expect that a cliff like in the picture would erode away in 40 years.  Your one picture does show much more vegetation and trees than I remember. It is possible that the distant cliff did erode some and is now really overgrown so it doesn't stand out as much today in the distance.

 

Marco Sr.

[Miocene_Mason]

@MarcoSr I think it may be CCSP.

[MarcoSr]

2 minutes ago, WhodamanHD said:

@MarcoSr I think it may be CCSP.

 

That is possible because we spent a lot of time with the boys at Solomon's Island which is fairly close to Calvert Cliffs State Park.  However, I only went to CCSP a couple of times in 46 years myself.  Plus it was almost a mile walk from the parking area to the beach at CCSP and I wouldn't have done that when my boys were young like in the picture.  The only other place that my wife remembers taking the boys was to Governor's Run a couple of times.  It had a nice wide beach also and had Scientists Cliffs close by.  I need to ask my sons.  I'm sure they will remember where the picture was taken. 

 

Marco Sr.

[paxhunter]

@MarcoSr The set of Cliffs in your picture is looking north from CCSP at rocky Point still looks the same to this day one of the most picturesque spots along the entire run of Calvert Cliffs it is actually the the spot that James Smith first wrote about when coming up the bay. Really AWESOME photo!!! You and your family are truly some of the great Calvert hunters good luck on the hunt and the museum!

 

 

[MarcoSr]

32 minutes ago, paxhunter said:

@MarcoSr The set of Cliffs in your picture is looking north from CCSP at rocky Point still looks the same to this day one of the most picturesque spots along the entire run of Calvert Cliffs it is actually the the spot that James Smith first wrote about when coming up the bay. Really AWESOME photo!!! You and your family are truly some of the great Calvert hunters good luck on the hunt and the museum!

 

 

 

Wow, I guess the memory can really play tricks but 40 years is a long time ago.  For years I've been telling Marco Jr. that this picture was at Matoaka.     Well we did take Marco Jr. and Mel to Matoaka a bunch of times???? 

 

Marco Sr.