Search the Community

These are photos of some, what I assume are, teeth, that were in a specimen tray containing many well-known forms of shark teeth in an old collection. None of the pieces were labelled or had a locale. These have me stumped. I've googled "leaf-shape, paddle-shaped, flat, weird, unusual, shark, and odd teeth" with no success. Can somebody please help? Maybe they aren't teeth at all?

Tooth 2

Hello all, Found some fossils from the Cretaceous period in water. Around Vaals in the Netherlands, Maastrichtian sediments occur. The Kalksteen van Vijlen (Vijlen chalk), Orsbach Kreide (Orsbach chalk) and Kunrader Kalksteen (Kunrader chalk) or Vetschauer Kalksteen are present. Fossils from these sediments consist of belemnites (Belemnella (Pachybelemnella) sumensis (Jeletzky, 1949) and/or Belemnella (Pachybelemnella) cimbrica (Birkelund, 1957), some forms are described as Belemnella ex gr. sumensis/cimbrica and Belemnitella junior (Nowak, 1913), sea urchins (Echinocorys sp. including Echinocorys scutata (Leske, 1778) and Cardiaster granulosus (Goldfuss, 1829), oysters (Pycnodonte vesicularis (Lamarck, 1806), parts of or eroded shark teeth (for example Carcharias sp., Cretalamna lata (Agassiz, 1843), Squalicorax pristodontus (Agassiz, 1843) and Pseudocorax affinis (Münster in Agassiz, 1843). Many fossils are from the Vijlen Chalk (early Early to early Late Maastrichtian). Fossils from the Vijlen 0-3 and Vijlen 4-6 (Vijlen chalk) are approximately between 70.6 and 69.3 million years old (the basis of interval 0 of the Vijlen Member could be dated at 70.6 Ma). Lithology and bioclast contents for intervals 5 (upper part) and 6 of the Vijlen Member at Mamelis (Mamelis 62D-78) have indicated an age of 69.7-69.3 mya. Including the latest part of the late late Maastrichtian (Formatie van Maastricht), the fossils can be between 70.6 and 66 million years old. Internet https://www.somniosus.be/Homepage_set.htm Literature Birkelund, T. (1957). Upper Cretaceous belemnites from Denmark. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Biologiske Skrifter, 9, 1–69, Copenhagen. Christensen, W.K. (1995). Belemnitella from the Upper Campanian and Lower Maastrichtian chalks of Norfolk, England. Special Papers in Palaeontology, 51, 1-84. London. Felder, P.J. & Bless, M.J.M. (1994). The Vijlen Chalk (early Early to early Late Maastrichtian) in its type area around Vijlen and Mamelis (southern Limburg, The Netherlands). Annales de la Société géologique de Belgique 116: 61–85. Felder, W.M. & Bosch, P.W. (2000). Geologie van Nederland, deel 5. Krijt van Zuid-Limburg. NITG TNO, Delft/ Utrecht: 192 pp. Jagt, J.W.M. (2005). Stratigraphic ranges of mosasaurs in Belgium and the Netherlands (Late Cretaceous) and cephalopod-based correlations with North America. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. 84. 10.1017/S0016774600021065. Jagt, J.W.M. (2012). Belemnitellid coleoids (Mollusca, Cephalopoda) from the type Maastrichtian, the Netherlands and Belgium. Scripta Geologica. Special Issue, 08, 93–112. Jagt, J.W.M, & Jagt-Yazykova, E.A. (2012). Stratigraphy of the type Maastrichtian – a synthesis. Scripta Geologica. Special Issue, 08, 5–32. Keutgen, N., Jagt, J.W., Felder, P., & Jagt-Yazykova, E. (2010). Stratigraphy of the upper Vijlen Member (Gulpen Formation; Maastrichtian) in northeast Belgium, the southeast Netherlands and the Aachen area (Germany), with special reference to belemnitellid cephalopods. Geologie En Mijnbouw, 89, 109-136. Jeletzky, J.A. (1949). Über den taxonomischen Wert einiger morphologischer Elemente des Rostrums der belemnitellenartigen Formen (Familie Belemnitellidae Pavlow, 1913), sowie über die Gattung Belemnella (Nowak, 1913,subg.) Jeletzky, 1941, ihre Phylogenie und einige Vertreter.Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie, B9, 257–287. Keutgen, N. (2011). The belemnite zonation of the uppermost Cretaceous in the Maastricht-AachenLiège, Brabant-Méhaigne and Mons areas (Belgium, southeast Netherlands). In: Jagt, J.W.M., Jagt-Jagt. Belemnitellid coleoids from the type Maastrichtian. Scripta Geol., Spec. Issue 8 (2012). Keutgen, N. (2018). A bioclast-based astronomical timescale for the Maastrichtian in the type area (southeast Netherlands, northeast Belgium) and stratigraphic implications: The legacy of P.J. Felder. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, 97(4), 229-260. doi:10.1017/njg.2018.15 Nestler, H. (2002). Die Fossilien der Rügener Schreibkreide (4. überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage). Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei Bd. 486., Hohenwarsleben (Westarp Wissenschaften-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH). Schulz, M.G. (1979). Morphometrisch-variationsstatistische Untersuchungen zur Phylogenie der Belemniten-Gattung Belemnella im Untermaastricht NW-Europas. Geologisches Jahrbuch, A47, 3–157. Van der Ham, R. & van Birgelen, M. (1992). Zeeëgels uit het Maastrichtien van de Schneeberg en omgeving (Aken, Duitsland). Natuurhistorisch Maandblad, 81(8/9), 139–153. Description The Cretaceous fossils I found are numerous broken belemnite parts and almost complete ones (species Belemnella (P. sumensis/cimbrica or Belemnitella junior), three belemnite phragmocones, shark teeth (Cretalamna lata, a part of a Squalicorax sp. and other teeth, perhaps one or two Enchodus sp. teeth), one complete Cardiaster granulosus, one part of a oyster (Pycnodonte sp.), small bivalves and one gastropod (possibly Natica cretacea (Goldfuss, 1844) and Holocene or Pleistocene material (not on the photo). I also found a tooth that looks like a reptile or Mosasaur tooth (height around 1 cm). It is cone like and has a thicker root than the shark teeth. One of the fossils is also difficult to determine. It looks like a seed from a tree or other plant. Any ideas? Photo 1: overview of the fossils. Photo 2: some shark teeth, belemnite parts, phragmocones and the very small Mosasaur or reptile (?) tooth. Photo 3: some shark teeth. Photo 4: found the next day a more complete but eroded Squalicorax pristodontus (Agassiz, 1843). All of these teeth are very small, around 0.5-1 cm (only the Squalicorax tooth is a bit bigger).

Hey TFF Members! Last Tuesday after work I was experiencing fossil withdrawals and needed to get my fossil fix! I didn't have a ton of time, but I took my camera to the creek and set out to find some fossils! I ended up finding some pretty incredible stuff. I documented some of what happens before getting to the creek as well. Hope you all enjoy it!

For the first time in a while we were able to visit Big Brook for some hunting. To start with it appears that Big Brook is now one of the Top 5 weekend destinations in NJ so we had to wait 30 minutes for a parking space to open up. But we headed up stream where most newcomers don’t venture to. Good day but nothing out of the ordinary. Decent teeth, some nice bivalve impression fossils, fish verts and the common belemnites. what’s the rectangular item with the “X” across it that’s seen in the last image?

If you are planning to go to Summerville, SC for your first time, and have been hoping to find Shark Teeth, please read this. My Advice: · I advise only going if you know someone with known locations, or otherwise plan to hire a company or a guide (I do not have someone to recommend). Finding teeth on your own is quite difficult. My hunt: I got lucky this time on a 3-day trip. After having visited Summerville years before with my son to great success, we went through over 25 spots (August 2023) with only two teeth found. We were discouraged. Luckily, we found one location that netted us the teeth shown as a last-minute discovery at the end of day 2. We returned on day 3 after morning rain. Our goal was to find a Megalodon tooth (even broken) of 3" or more, which we were successful!! If it wasn’t for that one spot, the trip would have been disastrous. Unfortunately, the spot that we found will soon have a structure over it so I cannot say this opportunity exists for the future. What didn’t work on my trip? · My known, secret spots didn’t have shark teeth this time. · I had researched fossil formation areas, inland tides, and elevation maps; yet the locations we visited didn’t have shark teeth. We found the right layers, but not teeth (even with low creek flows). What has changed in Summerville? I believe: · Inability to use tools is impactful (there is a law against it). · I believe the hurricane years ago exposed quite a bit of fossils, but since then the volume of fossils are not being exposed quickly. I should have realized there have been a lack of YouTube postings over the past few years. If you go to the Beach without a guide/company: · Going during the day, even at low tide, has too many tourists looking for fossils. We made this mistake. · Go first thing in the morning for better odds. · Go after a storm. · Find a location away from tourists. We are pleased with the results in the images below. I hope this information is useful. Thank you

It was crazy hot, and humid today. I could only stand it, for a little while. I kept these; and I donated the rest to a 69 year old, first time fossil hunter. The white bone, is modern.

Greetings everyone, I have finally had a chance to sort through my Aquia Formation material and to put proper labels to these specimens. Although I have hunted at Purse State Park and Douglas Point several times, I have not done much in the way of identifying specimens and am quite new when it comes to this area. Responses to a previous post in which I sought identification of some specimens has been quite helpful, and hopefully my tentative identifications of this batch are more accurate than before. All specimens came from the Douglas Point area and I have used Elasmo as my primary reference for tentative shark tooth identification. I extend my gratitude to all who view this post and help with pinpointing accurate IDs for these pieces! I will tag a few members who are knowledgeable in this area: @MarcoSr @Al Dente @bthemoose @cck @Bjohn170. A Specimens: All of the specimens pictured above, which for convenience I will refer to as '1a-49a', seem to be Striatolamia sp. If sharper images are needed or if photographs of individual specimens would be helpful, I would be glad to provide some. B Specimens: I cannot say for sure what these teeth belong to. They - or some of them - could very well be Striatolamia sp., but I felt inclined to tentatively label them as Hypotodus verticalis. C Specimens: These all appear to be myliobatid dental plates. Can a more specific identification be given for any of the above specimens or should they simply be labeled as myliobatid? D Specimens: 1c and 3c very closely resemble crocodilian teeth and I have placed 2c along with the others due to the striations on its surface. I have heard that Eosuchus minor is known from the Aquia Formation along with another species of crocodile. Are there any diagnostic characteristics that would allow these teeth to be attributed to a specific crocodilian? Specimen E: This tooth looked quite different from any others that I have included in previous photographs. I have tentatively identified specimen E as Odontaspis winkleri due to the double cusps but I have a low level of confidence in this ID. Specimen F: Appears to be either a ray or chimera fin spine. I recall having come across a post in which @MarcoSr identified a similar specimen as pertaining to a ray rather than a chimera. Specimen G: A possible bony fish element? I do not know if a more specific identification can be given. Specimen H: Pyconodont fish mouth plate? Specimen I: A very small yet curious piece that I found while sifting with a very fine screen. I am unsure whether this is a fossil or whether it is simply a geologic oddity. Specimen J: Fish jaw section?

Found these (and much more) in a Peace River trip. I’m relatively new to fossil hunting, and would greatly appreciate any help in IDing these. The last 2 pictures are the same but at different angles. Best guess for those are, starting at top left and going clockwise, vertebra, dolphin ear bone, deer tooth, alligator tooth,???. Thanks!

All found during a shark tooth hunting trip in Venice, FL. New to fossil hunting and would really appreciate any identification help. Last 2 pictures are the same but at different angles. Thanks!

The past couple trips to Ramanessin for shark teeth have been quite productive for the month of July, likely because of all the rain we've been getting. Note: these photos are not in any particular order. I started off grouping teeth by shared characteristics but quickly realized that 1) I do not know nearly enough to accurately identify these teeth 2) holy cow, there are so MANY of them and 3) it started raining outside while I was taking pics. I tried to include a couple close ups. Please let me know if you'd like a closer look at any specific tooth. Constructive criticism and commentary is very much welcomed and appreciated! Here we go, RAMANESSIN BROOK The same teeth are shown below in better quality but without the ruler for scale: Close ups of some teeth: Pile of teeth because I got frustrated and rained on while sorting And last but not least, ALL of my smaller tooth findings:

I am visiting the area for the next couple days. What are the best areas to find shark teeth? I have access to a private beach in the Western run area which is right up the road from Calvert Cliffs. I have limited time so I want to make sure I hit the right spots over the next couple of days. I’m very new at this and don’t really know what I’m doing. Any assistance would be greatly appreciate it. Signed hopeless

My 15-year-old daughter and I dove Venice, FLA, on the 28 and 29 of March, and here’s our 2 day haul (6 dives). We had a great time. Some of the dugong ribs have possible bite marks as well. Doing it again in September!

Length <1" Since the locality contains lag deposits from Cretaceous-Neogene, age & formation undetermined. Hard to see in pics, but the lingual region is very concave and root highly arched.

Found these teeth and am wondering what they are. Found in a creek an hour south of Mandan ND in the cannonball formation

Hi there, I live about an hour and a half north of Venice beach in FL, so I went yesterday for the first time after perusing the forums and getting to know how to find fossils, tips, tricks and identifiers. I am very new to this, but have always had an interest in rocks, fossils, wildlife, etc. I found a good amount of teeth, mostly broken or pieces, but I did manage to find a whole tooth and it was a very cool feeling to pull it out of the shells and sand and see the beauty there! I'll never forget that feeling~ Since I obviously loved it, I decided to make an account and actually be a part of the community instead of lurking, so hi there!

Here are my finds. Some may or may not be shark teeth due to being so eroded they simply had the shape, but it was still a really fun haul and if anyone knows what the larger one is, I'd be thankful. We saw it looked similar to Bull? No serrations, so hard to tell.

I received a handful of shark teeth from an older local gentleman's collection who told me they were from Baja near the Sea of Cortes between Santa Barbara and Lorentz. I assume they are great white teeth, but I'm hoping for a better geological context if possible (age and formation/group ideally, even if just suspected). I've done some research, but haven't turned up much. I saw a reference to the El Cien Fm, but am hoping for some input from others who have far greater knowledge than I do. Along with the teeth came a small chunk of bone that also came from around the same area. Input on what it is or might have come from would also be appreciated. The largest tooth is 2 and 6/16ths in and the smallest is 2 1/16th in. The bone is 3 3/16ths in long and 1 2/16ths in wide.

I have been to Westmoreland state park and found 4 shark teeth for the first time. So today, closer to home was Chippokes State Park. I was told it was good for shark teeth but I found NOTHING. No sea glass, good shells or teeth at all. I was on the beach (newbie my second trip hunting ever); and a woman came up to me and said she was searching for teeth but found nothing but whale bone. Showed me a piece and so I did get some of those... but I have NO CLUE if that's legit. I mean when I googled whale bone, they looked different. In addition, how do you know a whale bone piece from a shark, dolphin or whatever animal????? I'm going to attach two photos (one of the front and one of the back). ARE these whale bone pieces? Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi there! I have a chance to purchase Indonesian Megalodon teeth wholesale, but I want to make sure they are real first. Of course the seller says they are. The teeth are 10-13cm and seem to be in excellent condition, which is what draws my skepticism. Pictures are attached. Any info/informed opinions are greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need any other info. Thank you!

Hi! I just returned home from the Venice Beach area in Florida and I was curious if anyone one could tell me what these broken fragments could have been. I’m a newbie here so any other recommendations on how to identify are welcomed thanks in advance

Hello all! I've been getting ready for the Aurora Fossil Festival (and working on my new display cabinet), and have been going back through my Holden Beach finds. I wanted to share a compilation of my visits to Holden Beach, North Carolina from 2022 to 2023. I have gone 5 times since the replenishment project occurred there: April 2022, twice in October 2022, February 2023, and April 2023. While I was mostly picking up the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids, I found a little bit of everything out there. There was so much that I couldn't include everything, so I stuck with the best of my finds. It's truly amazing what all can be found washing out down there! I am still fairly new to fossils in general, and I'm far from confident in my ability to I.D. a lot of things. That being said, I have tried my best to identify what I could. Any corrections or advice is more than appreciated! I can also take additional pictures if anyone wants a better look at anything here. Here are all my sharks teeth. I am not great with the I.D.s on all of these, but I do know the names to a few varieties. I have tried to group them together by what little I know, and by appearance if I'm unsure. Lots of great white and crow shark teeth were to be found. April 2022, October 2022 and February 2023: This one in particular is my favorite shark find of 2022. It's the largest Great White tooth I've found, and aside from a small chip off of the side and the tip it's in really good shape. It's right at 6 cm (2.36 Inches) long, but I have no doubt it would have been longer with the tip undamaged. (April 2022) April 2023: A modern Sand Tiger tooth snuck in as well. Now for my absolute favorite tooth, my only mostly intact Megalodon tooth that I've found to date. This one is right at 9.52 cm (3.75 Inches) long in it's current condition. (April 2023) On to my Hardouinia mortonis, this is a group photo of my best finds from all trips. The Holden Beach ones get fairly large compared to some of the quarry finds I've seen! I have several well over 5 cm (~2 Inches) in diameter. These are specimens with minor pathologies. The apical disc sometimes is "dented" on these specimens, and I've found a few with "peanut" shaped petals. (Various trips) This is a specimen with a more moderate pathology. the whole shape is unusual, and one petal is turned at about a 20-30 degree angle towards the posterior. (February 2022) These are some of my current "project" echinoids. Due to being found on the beach, they tend to be saturated with salt. while I try to manually remove some matrix periodically I give them a good soak in water for a few days, then leave them out to dry and see if salt crystals are still forming. Sometimes it takes a few tries to completely rid the salt. This batch has some Hardouinia mortonis of some pretty varied shape. (Various trips) These are mostly Mosasaur teeth, though there may be a few crocodilian teeth snuck in there as well. I'm not exactly sure which species of mosasaur these are, there are some distinctly different shapes to some of them. (Various trips) I found plenty of Mosasaur teeth without roots, but only one root without a tooth! The kind folks at Aurora helped me identify this, I wasn't sure what it was. (April 2022) I never got this one identified, but it's definitely a piece of some jaw with a tooth root. Perhaps also Mosasaur, but I'm not sure. (April 2022) Of course there was also plenty of Exogyra to go around, and way too many to photograph! This is a small cluster of them in the matrix, and the largest intact specimen I found, at around 10 cm (~4 Inches) long. (Cluster from April 2022, large one from October 2022) (*EDIT 6-18-23 with proper I.D.) These are Cretaceous Prehepatus harrisi crab claws. All but one came from the April 2022 trip (the darker is from February 2023). These are Pleistocene Equus teeth I found in April 2022. There was a much smaller fourth fragment as well I didn't photograph. This is one of my favorite finds: a Pleistocene Odocoileus antler fragment. It resembles a modern White-Tailed Deer antler fragment! (April 2022) A very large bone fragment from April 2022. Not sure what from, almost looks like a vertebra. Around 9 cm (3.54 Inches) long. A Rhombodus binkhorsti tooth, my only one found. (April 2022) Other Ray teeth and barbs (Various trips) My first and only Pycnodont mouth plate fragment (April 2023). Some sizable shark vertebrae. (Various trips) Some Sawfish rostral teeth and a few select Enchodus fangs / jaw fragments. (Various trips) Some Sea Robin skull plates. (Various trips) Some turtle carapace fragments, and possibly a Crocodilia Dermal Scute (Various trips for the turtle fragments, April 2023 on the scute) This is an interesting bone fragment that, according to the folks at Aurora, might have signs of a shark attack or feeding due to the triangular groove on it. (April 2022) Plenty of steinkerns to pick up! (Various trips) While I found a few isolated casts of ammonite chambers, this is by far the largest and best one. I'm not exactly sure what species, but after reading my NCFC book I'm leaning towards Sphenodiscus lobatus. (October 2022) Unknown vertebra, pretty heavily worn. About 4 cm (1.57 Inches) long. (April 2023) My Sirenia vertebra. (Thank you @Boesse for helping me confirm this!) (April 2023) The folks at Aurora have said this is likely a young Mastodon molar fragment. I've seen even smaller fragments with a similar shine and color that might also be some kind of Proboscidea tooth fragment. (April 2022) A fragment of some unknown echinoid. It doesn't resemble Hardouinia to me, it almost looks more like a fragment from something in the Spatangoida Order. I'm not 100% sure on it though. I wish there was more of it to look at! (April 2023) And last but not least, a couple of Sirenian rib fragments. (April 2022) Bonus pic: These are my favorite Hardouinia mortonis specimens. I had someone at work etch me out the plaque on a laser.

Took a trip down to the Calvert Cliffs with the Buffalo Geological Society last weekend for some fossil hunting. It was my first time ever hunting at this location and I would call it a success. I can see why this location is such a popular spot, great beaches along the Chesapeake and beautiful weather made this one of the most scenic fossil hunting locations I've ever been at. The first day was Flag Ponds, which is where most people had better luck finding good sized shark teeth during low tide conditions. I found a small fragment of a Meg here, which was exciting. The second day was Matoaka Cabins, which was where much better invertebrate shells could be found. I took a walk a bit past a recent cliff failure and ended up having a lot of success finding teeth during high tide by churning up the sand and letting the waves wash it out. After I got a system down in the afternoon, this method yielded me a tooth every 5 to 10 minutes. I also filled a 3gal bucket with gravel deposits from the low tide to bring home and sift, I would not do this again as I only found a few teeth from this bucket. Looking forward to the next time I can get back. Total finds. Everything above the coral is from Matoaka, everything below the coral is from Flag Ponds Dolphin ear bone, probably my favorite find of the trip. Awesome preservation from what I have seen Some of the best teeth Some of the better ray fossils Crab claws Bones

A trip report from a busy week that started with combing through some drilling cores of the Rochester Shale that were being dumped from an old project. No major finds, which was what I expected. I did happen to find a nice Dalmanities pygidium and a few brachiopods that look neat. This weekend I was down in NJ visiting family and took a stop to Big Brook on Saturday. Thank you to a kind member of this forum for giving me hunting advice. Saturday was very rainy, but the rainwater washing the sand off the gravel bar was helpful in my search. I am not familiar with a lot of these fossils, I have tried my best to use online resources to ID what I have. Finally, this week I am in the southern tier near Olean and working near a stream that is on private property. The stream is loaded with brachiopod fossils, hoping to grab a nice piece that hasn't been weathered and stained. A lot of pictures below, ID help is greatly appreciated. 1. Rochester Shale cores drying, revealing some weaker fractures. Finds from Big Brook: I tried to organize these from left to right for ID help 2. Vert and turtle shell piece? 3. I tried to put everything small I did not know in this picture. First tooth in row 2 and the last tooth in row 4 are ones that I am especially having trouble with. Each item here has some feature that is telling me that it is more than just a rock, but I could be wrong. 4. Best teeth that I found, very happy with these. 5. Hoping row one is coprolite. Row two could be other bone pieces? 6. Ray teeth, sawfish and other unknowns 7. Bones? 8. Bone looking r ock? 9. Crab claw and a few other unknowns. No serrations or teeth-like features on these unknowns. 10. Concretions? Southern Tier Field Pic 11. According to maps I am in the Late Devonian, Conneaut Group. Someone told me small sea stars can be found in this similar looking southern tier fossilized strata. Not going to hold my breath.

Newbie here, to the forum and fossil hunting. I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and have a couple spots within an hours drive, however so far have only visited Big Brook on a few different occasions with my family over the past month. Definitely addicted! Thought I would share some of my finds. All are fairly common, but totally amazing to me. Not sure on the ID of a few of them, and some I'm not sure if they are even fossils. I find your mind tries to make something out of nothing, especially with rocks. In any case, thanks for looking, and appreciate in advance any feedback, good or bad! 1979 3 3/4" Boba Fett for scale