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Stopped at Flag Pond today since the weather is nice.

Happy new year! I had a very relaxing and enjoyable 30 degree day in the creek yesterday. Tried out my my first pair chest waders yesterday and they where awesome. Anyway I feel like I had a decent haul. Last time I went out I almost threw out a hybodont fin spike. Thankfully I posted a picture before I did anything. It caused me though to think everything was something yesterday. There I’m going to make a separate post of some items I’m not sure of. Enjoy the pics. Any thoughts on I’d would be greatly appciated. Squalicotax kaupi Squalicorax pristodontus

I have done this periodically on the forum with quite a bit of success so I thought we would try it again. I am working on going deeper into shark evolution in our programs and expanding the range of sharks we cover by a few million years. We are set with our Cenozoic and Mesozoic sharks but we are still tinkering with the Paleozoic sharks. Currently the goal is extending the timeline backward and covering the very early sharks. Our earliest shark fossils were 340 million years old but we have been able to find a few that are older and really help us but I am wondering if we can find more. We recently acquired some Chondrichthyes scales from the Harding Sandstone. While likely not "true" shark scales, they are a link in the chain which is what we need. I think this was a good starting point. We also picked up a Diplacanthus fossil from Scotland which gives us a nice example of what the ancestors of sharks were and again provides us with another link in the chain. Carter and I both thought these were fossils we needed to add to really show the kids shark evolution through the fossils. We also picked up some micro fossils from the Genudewa Limestone of New York which should provide some interesting shark material. This formation is the same age (Givetian) and same general location (New York) as the formation that Wellerodus is described from. There are teeth and denticles that are at least superficially pretty close to those of Wellerodus. This is probably our best shot at finding shark fossils that could potentially be from Antarticlamnidae. I know there are also teeth found in these micros that look Cladodont in nature as well. Outside of these micro fossils, I am coming up blank on Devonian shark fossils. I have been researching the heck out of Paleozoic sharks and I know the Devonian stuff is rare but I have seen a little bit in collections so in my mind it might be possible to add a tooth or some denticles from other formations. Obviously we are not looking for a full shark fossil from the Cleveland Shale or anything like that but I believe we can scrounge up some additional fossils from the Devonian. None of my usual sources have turned up any material at all so we need a push start here lol So TFF friends, share your knowledge with us if you can. What, if any, options are there as far as Devonian shark teeth or denticles that appear on the market ? Are there formations that we should look into that people collect from? Basically any information that we can get might be helpful. The goal is filling in that timeline of sharks and we have a bunch of shark programs this winter and spring so this is the collecting priority for us. Thank you in advance for any and all replies !

So I recently made a post showing some of the teeth I pulled from the Peace River over the holiday break at the end of 2019 ( link below ). I love Megalodon teeth with a passion. Like many other hunters, they are my goal when I go out fossil hunting. I have found though that river teeth are much more fragile and lighter than most land found teeth. I'm not sure if that is due to properties in the water. Maybe over time the rivers wash away some of the minerals in the teeth making them more fragile and worn down. Either way after my 3 day river hunt I was happy with the haul of Meg teeth that I had found but only 2 out of the 29 teeth I found made it to the keep pile. The rest hit the broken bin for later projects. Feeling dissatisfied with the quality of my finds I set out for one more day of hunting. Christmas day was perfect. The weather was nice and I had a new land site in mind that I wanted to explore. So I left early in the morning so that I could explore as much as possible for the whole day. After about an hour hike I came across this vein of rock that looked to be a layer of fossils. I mostly found worn down Dugong bones and fragments but I knew that meant Megalodon was not far behind. After about 20 minutes of searching this area I found my first tooth I have learned from hunting land sites how easy it is to stay in one spot once you find one tooth. You think "oh this area is so large I should stay here and hunt. If I found one, there are more here." But land sites I have found are not like the rivers. Fossils don't collect in one spot like they do in moving water. So I chose to explore more of the new area so that I wouldn't miss out on other finds. After 6 hours of finding nothing but one more broken meg and a few small teeth, I chose to loop back to my first and only good spot of the day to search it for one more hour before heading home. I chose to take my time in this spot and really look at the gravel and dirt. I had found one good tooth in this area so there must be others. However what I thought was an untouched area turned out to not be. While in my last hours of hunting time I spotted two other hunters staring at the ground just like me on the top of a hill. Little did they know I had already looked at the area they were searching. I lost some faith that I would find much in this area now knowing that other people already knew about this spot and were hitting it, however I still searched for a while. I think it's fair to say that when land hunting most fossil hunters including myself only surface collect. It's too hot and time consuming to dig in one spot looking for teeth. It's much better to let mother nature wash them from the sand and gravel as it rains. Seeing that this area had been hunted before I realized why I was not seeing many teeth on the surface of these gravel piles. Either way I used my last hour well, looking in the cracks and water run off areas in the hills where teeth would collect as they get washed out and then all of a sudden I spotted a very exciting looking rock poking out of the side wall of one of these erosion points. I dug around the rock and to my surprise and excitement it was exactly what I was hoping for. A fully intact and untouched Megalodon tooth. Out of all of my Bone Valley teeth I have only ever found one that I would consider almost perfect. It has all of the serrations and a fully intact root with a beautiful marbled grey and blue coloration. However like most Bone Valley teeth it has a tip ding. That is part of Bone Valley though since it was a baby Meg Nursery full of food to crunch their teeth on. So when this new tooth came out of the sand on Christmas day it was the perfect gift for all those hours out on the hunt. It is fully intact with only some small feeding damage on the top right side of the tooth, it even has the tip!! This tooth measures 4.25 inches, making it now my biggest and most complete tooth yet. I am so happy with this find. However it dried sort of dark greenish brown so I am thinking of setting it out in the sun to let it lighten up. The part that had been exposed to the sun is really nice and white so maybe more sun will bring out those nice colors. Let me know if you think that is a good idea or not. Here's a link to the river hunt I posted the other day.

It had been a while since my last good fossil hunting trip so I was very excited to have free time over most of December. I had three free days the week before Christmas and I made use of everyone of them. The first day I went out with the goal of trying new areas that I had not tried before, so I spent most of day one trying new locations and coming up with only one good spot that produced some nice smaller teeth but nothing too amazing shark tooth wise. I did however find my first Tapir tooth but the root structure was missing. The next day out was spent mostly adventuring through other new areas with little luck except for right at the end of the day when I found my first 3 whole Meg teeth of the trip. I came across a large gravel deposit with large rocks mixed into the pile. I scanned over the gravel pile to see if I could surface spot a tooth and sure enough down in the water was this staring back at me. These finds are the reason I decided to make the 2 hour drive for a third time that week. I was already very tired from 2 full days of hunting with little luck but finding 3 nice teeth right at the end of the second day made me want to explore this new area even more. So I headed out for a third time and made it a goal to only hunt this new section of river. I was not disappointed by my choice to go out again. I had planned to only go for half the day as my legs were chaffed from the waders from days 1 and 2 but the spot I was in was too amazing to leave early. I found a nice honey hole within the first 2 hours out and decided to try a few other spots with little luck. I decided to just dig the honey hole for the rest of the day and its surrounding areas. The teeth that came out of this spot were amazing. Meg after Meg piece came out of this hole. In one of my last few screens came my collection heart breaker. The big tooth pictured below measures 4.25 inches as is from the highest edge to the tip. It's a shame that this tooth was so beat up but at least it was mother nature that did the damage and not me. I also found what I think is a Bison tooth right next to the Meg I found by sight in the water. Correct me if I am wrong, I'm not sure on my identification. (PS: I screen shot my river pics because I am not sure if the forum removes meta data from the photos before adding them to a post.)

Got all these shark teeth for Christmas, are they all sand shark?

This is my current labelled collection. I have other stuff that I found on a fossil hunting holiday in the South West of England, but I’m very amateur so I don’t actually know the scientific names for a lot of them. Everything on this shelf was found except the teeth on the left and right, which were bought on the Isle of Wight. Essentially everything on this shelf was ID’d by members of this forum, except the pyrite and favositid, which were ID’d by friends, and the igneous rock and ammonites, which I didn’t feel i needed to have ID’d. The ammonites are my pride and joy, very detailed.

Here are a few and what I think they may be. I'd love any confirmations or corrections. All from Big Brook. Thanks. Andy Scapanorhynchus texanus ??

Following the naming convention of others before me, I had the 1st hunting trip of the new decade (at least at Big Brook!). I was the only one in the parking lot 1/1/20. I think I've actually hunted all three holidays this season, and enjoyed the nice time in nature. Here are some of my finds. Andy

Just thought I'd share some finds from a first time trip to the Venice area. First, some beach fossils collected over two days. Miocene- Pliocene-Pleistocene Epochs Equus sp. tooth , stingray teeth, assorted shark teeth, some corals and Dugong bone fragment. I checked out a construction site pile that was spilling over into a parking lot and found some amazingly preserved Pleistocene mollusks. It's pretty incredible to be able to find modern shells at the beach and then compare to fossils found a few miles inland. For comparisons, in the pics below, the top row are modern cockles and bottom are Pleistocene. Thanks for reading and happy new year!

This summer I’ll be at Lake Gaston (Virginia) for vacation, so I was wondering if there are any locations there or nearby that might contain fossils. I’m mostly looking for shark teeth, but if there’s a spot with other fossils, I’d be willing to check it out. Any help or tips are appreciated!! Thank you!

Can anyone help us ID this tooth?

Hi my name is Randy. I joined the forum a few months ago. I never formally introduced myself, so here goes. I really enjoy finding shark teeth. And I really enjoy reading the content on the forum. Thanks, randy, merry Christmas to everyone

A little brisk to start the day.

Hi. Went to Big Brook again yesterday. It’s turning out to be a weekly addiction for me haha. It was in the 30s and sunny to start and then ended cloudy with snow. Fun times. Not sure what everyone else does to keep hands warm while sifting in freezing water. As a runner, I learned a trick to put latex gloves on as you first layer under whatever gloves you normally use. It works amazing. Keeps yours hands super warm. Hope this helps anyone in the forum. Goblin tooth without the root. (Thanks jersey devil) !

I'm a little frustrated at the moment because I've spent almost two hours surfing the interwebs and this forum to see if I could ID these shark teeth. They came in a bag labelled "Belgrade Quarry, NC" along with some Hemipristis serra teeth and some Carcharocles angustidens that I queried in an earlier ID post. I think these first three are Negaprion eurybathrodon but I really can't tell. I've been to Bill Heim's Elasmo site and have done searches on here to try and narrow down the options but I am coming up clueless. Any help is appreciated! Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Specimen 3 And I believe these are Sand Tiger shark teeth, Carcharias sp., but they are missing any cusps.

Hi. I thought it would be a good day yesterday to go to Big Brook yesterday. It rained for almost two straight days and the temperature jumped up to 55-60 degrees. I thoughts with all the rain and warmer temperature I would be able to get some good finds yesterday. Yesterday the temperature dropped into the 30's and it snowed. The water was the highest I have ever seen it because of the rain. I could not even get to my favorite spot because it was under water. I found a couple decent spots to look around. Here are my finding. A couple things I have no idea what they are and something I think I know what they are. If anyone can help with the ID's that would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Had a banner day on the NJ Cretaceous stream beds, sifting through the fallen leaves scanning gravel bars for some impressive Scapanoryhnchus teeth. I swear I found a whole jaw in two hours!

I had been wanting to get back to the Calvert Cliffs since my 1st trip there in early 2018. I had the Thanksgiving weekend off and the weather forecast looked good for 3 days so I went. It was beautiful weather down there for hunting. Honking winds blew the water out of the bay the first 2 days but you couldn't feel it behind the cliffs. It did make for some hard hunting. But I had 3 days and nothing else to do so I got down on the ground so I could see what I was looking at and mostly just sifted through the dry shell material. I didn't have high hopes but it was beautiful to be outside. And I must say, I found something special every day I was there. I hunted all day Thursday before checking into my hotel and getting a Bob Evens dinner. Then I re-raked the gravel a little while Friday morning before getting some breakfast and spending the rest of the day exploring Purse State Park for the first time. I woke up a little later Saturday so I could have some free breakfast at the Rod 'n Reel Resort before hunting. I was lucky because the weather shifted and the tide was back in. It made for some enjoyable kitty-litter-scooper scooping all day. The tide never dropped more than a couple inches maybe so I just stood near the water line and scooped up anything I could see. Here's some pics.

Hi All! My wife & I are heading down to Tampa tomorrow to visit my brother, his wife & my new baby niece. It turns out that they are going to be tied up until around dinnertime this Sunday, so it looks like I'll have some unexpected free time to hunt for some fossils - yay! I've been doing a fair amount of research and see that there are a lot of sites within an hour or two of Tampa. Given the very limited time that I will have to hunt, I'm trying to narrow down to the best spot to start hunting & also have a backup spot or two nearby in case I'm not having much luck at the first spot. I figured that I'd post on here to see if anyone could help me out with some info on a spot or two where I would have the best chances this time of year. We definitely don't mind working to find stuff, and we are even down to rent a kayak if that would be a better option. If anyone has any pointers and could help me out, or better yet, if you will be going out collecting this Sunday & wouldn't mind my wife & I tagging along, we would greatly appreciate it! We don't have a fossil collecting permit, because I just found out 2 days ago that we'll have free time on Sunday, so I didn't have time to get one for us. I'm fully aware that that greatly restricts what we are able to collect, at least in certain locations, but we would be happy to even find decent sized shark teeth or some lower grade agatized fossil coral. We are more concerned with just having a good time being outside and finding some cool stuff! Also, I collect a lot of fossil shark teeth from up here in New Jersey too (and a ton of rocks & minerals too), so I'd be more than happy to give someone some of fossils/rocks/minerals that we find up in NJ in exchange for some help while we are down in FL this weekend. I'd also gladly return the favor if you are ever up in the NJ/PA/NY area, since I'm a heavy field collector and have several productive spots up this way! Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! Best, John

Hi all, I'm sorting through a bag of fossil shark teeth that I bought several years ago and labelled as coming from the Belgrade Quarry near Maysville, in North Carolina. Most I can ID based on pics I've seen on this forum but these few are proving more difficult. I think I have them down to Carcharocles angustidens based on image searches on Google. Am I correct, and are they indeed known to come from this quarry? If so, would they have been found in the Belgrade/River Bend formations? Front and back of each tooth shown below. Thanks, Dave

Found this little tooth this weekend. I’m sure it must be a S. raphiodon but the cusplets come directly out of a broader based blade. Not like the others I usually find. May just be because it is a juvenile?

sometimes I just have to drive to Mulberry Fl to the Mulberry Phosphate Museum and sit in the pile of rocks and hunt. This was what I found yesterday. This is close by. A great place to take the family for a collecting trip if you live close and want to be outside. The bad part is rocks from the Phosphate mine are crushed and all small..Years ago when I was a member of the Bone Valley Fossil Club we were able to go to the Mosaic mines and hunt, that is where my great find of megladon teeth came from, one smaller one I wrapped and made a friend a native necklace. Still need to separate these. I am checking with Mosaic to see if they have any areas I can go hunt at now. Happy Hunting everyone! Happy Thanksgiving also!