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Yesterday (January 2nd) was only my second trip to Calvert Cliffs. I'm pretty new to fossil collecting, but thanks to the wonderful advice and reading the greatly informative posts from members such as @Darktooth @FossilsAnonymous @WhodamanHD @racerzeke @KimTexan and @paxhunter I had a lot of success and it was a much more productive trip than my first. Below is a brief summary and some pictures of what I found: I woke up, put on a few layers clothing, and had my coffee at 3:45am. After my morning pipe (tobacco...I actually make briar tobacco pipes as a hobby) I got in my pre-loaded truck and headed south at 4:45am. I made good time on the drive down as I hit 695 and got around Baltimore before the morning rush. At 7:10am I arrived at Brownies Beach and pulled in to a parking lot with only two other cars in it. After putting on my full waders, I grabbed my sifter and headed towards the beach. I planned this trip so that I could arrive midweek and get there early enough to catch some of the low tide (tides times were not friendly this week, but I start teaching classes next week so it was this week or wait until spring). Sunrise was at 7:24, but there was more than enough light to see...and what a sight it was. When I entered the beach area the tide was way, way out. I couldn't believe how far out it was, as it was past two small sandbars (if I get my GoPro video edited I will post it). Once I was on the beach I headed south towards the cliffs. I hurried through the beach area because I wanted to be by the cliffs with the tide so low. I know I missed teeth along the beach, but I wanted to get to the cliffs with the tide being so far out where I could hopefully find some larger teeth than what are common at the beach area. As I neared the end of the beach I ran into one woman who was there just to relax and walk on the beach. We said good morning and I knew who one of the two cars in the parking lot belonged to. Once I went around the point and turned my eyes close to shell line and started looking. Because of all the wonderful advice from this forum I had a much better idea of what I was looking for and how to best look. After a few minutes I had some ray plates, very small teeth, and my first ever vert. It wasn't even 7:30 and I knew it was going to be a good day. As I made my way down the shore line that I figured had been pretty well picked over from people being off over the holidays, I remembered a forum member saying 'you need to look in the places that others don't'. I approached a fallen tree that I remembered from my first trip a few weeks ago, and with the tide being so low almost the entire tree was exposed so I got down on my hands and knees and started looking at some of the gaps between the tree and sand...then it happened. You know when you day dream and picture yourself finding a great tooth or fossil? Well that's what happened as my eyes saw a pristine Mako just laying there (pictures below). I know its not a huge tooth or a meg, but to me being new to the hobby this was completely awesome and a trip maker. I think I still have a smile on my face from finding it. As I continued down the beach I collected many more teeth from various sharks. I couldn't believe it when I found an awesome cow shark tooth (my second trip maker) laying out in the open about 8 feet up the beach. Beside it was another good tooth as well that went in my pouch. Around 10:30 I ran into a very friendly gentleman and we chatted a bit. We talked about the weather and the cliffs, what he had found (a few hemis), and he told me a story of a fall he had witnessed a few years ago that was too close for comfort. A chunk of clay the size of a car fell and nearly crushed him, but luckily he heard some soil falling and he ran straight out into the bay right before the cliff fell. Although the clay chunk did't hit him, the water threw him up into the air when the clay hit. His friend who was a down the cliffs said he heard it and it sounded like a car crash....I didn't get this gentleman's name but I feel like I read his cliff fall story on here, so if you know who it may have been please let me know. I continued south until the tide started coming in pretty far and I thought it best to head back towards the beach since I didn't know how far it would come in or how high the water would get. I continued my search along the way back and made it to my truck around 2pm. I took a short break, ditched my sifter, texted my wife, checked email, watched a truck with two high school kids pull in to smoke a pipe (although this one wasn't filled with tobacco), and headed back out for one more quick trip down and back as the tide started to go back out. It wasn't until about 3:30pm when two more local fossil collectors came up behind me and we said hello and chatted. All in all, I only ran into 3 other collectors during the day so there was not a lot of competition (although I do like the interesting conversation). After finding a few more teeth and interesting fossils dusk approached and I headed back to my truck. After putting my gear away and changing into some dry clothes I started my trek north after a fantastic start to 2019. Below are some pictures of my finds from the day. I know what many of the teeth and other fossils are, but if you can ID something that a newbie like me probably wouldn't know then please do so as it will help me get better with this hobby. Thanks!

As the year comes to a close i decided to do a bit more collecting at one of my favourite Australian sites: Beaumaris near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. Once again i travelled down and stayed at a motel near the beach for three days (27/12/18 through to 29/12/18). This trip is a sequel to the previous two trips i have made here which are also posted on the forum: Jan 2016 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/61248-fossil-hunting-holiday-in-victoria-australia-dec-2015-jan-2016/ Feb 2017 trip: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/71996-fossil-hunting-holiday-at-beaumaris-australia-feb-2017/ Beaumaris is a significant site with both marine and terrestrial fossils from the latest Miocene aged Beaumaris Sandstone Formation (5 - 6 million years old), which crops out in distinctly red-coloured coastal cliffs and also in offshore rocky reefs. An impressive diversity of both vertebrate and invertebrate fauna occurs here, and the Melbourne Museum has put together a neat PDF of the fossil diversity for those unfamiliar with the site (https://www.bcs.asn.au/fossils_of_beaumaris_2015-02.pdf). My plan was to collect every single low tide across these three days, and sleep during every high tide. Yes, this meant going out collecting in the middle of the night too! My main interest was to collect shark teeth, however they can be tough to find here and are certainly not as common as at many other sites internationally that the people on this forum would be more familiar with. This often seems to be the case with Australian vertebrate fossils. It does however make it quite rewarding when you do eventually find them! The first day of searching (27/12/18) proved to be rather disappointing. I finally got to try snorkelling for fossils, which is a popular method here for finding things exposed along the seabed, but alas after about 3 hours in the water i had not found any bones or teeth. I was unable to locate the nodule bed where most of the vertebrate fossils originate from, which i think played a part in my lack of success. The seabed was also quite sanded over and it was hard to see much. I was definitely out of my element here, but it was also a lot of fun to get close to some of the local marine life, including stingrays! I decided to return to land collecting after not doing very well in the water and when i did so my luck changed greatly. The next two days and nights of land collecting (28/12/18 and 29/12/18) proved to be much more successful and i even got to meet two TFF members on the beach (coincidentally)! @Echinoid and @Tympanic bulla were also out looking, and we had a nice chat before they headed off to continue snorkelling. I then spent most of my remaining time on the beach flipping rocks and examining the pebbles up close, ultimately finishing the trip with a total of five shark teeth which i was very happy with! Carcharodon hastalis tooth as found. 24mm long. Large Carcharodon hastalis upper anterior tooth, as found at 2 am (with a head-torch) on 29/12/18. Measures 56 mm long. I had long been waiting for a tooth of this size! Carcharodon hastalis posterior tooth as found. 15 mm long. Another Carcharodon hastalis posterior as found. 13 mm long. And a small fragment of cetacean bone. Worn pieces like this are the most common vertebrate fossils at Beaumaris. Pictures continued in the next post

I am offering up some Lee Creek micro matrix up for trade. I looking to trade mainly for other micro matrix, nothing that can only be sorted with a microscope please. I will entertain other offers as well. Adam

Hey all, it looks like even with the heavy rain I will still be able to make a break out at low tide, I figure it should be safe enough if it’s low tide because I can stay closer to the waves and away from the cliff. Just wanted to have an epic hunt at the end of 2018. I will probably do a Matoaka-Brownies combo hunt and try to get out there by 11 when the rain has died down a bit. not really expecting to find anything big. Still, it never hurts! Any of you heading out? Cheers, FA

Hello fellow fossil hunters and merry Xmas! I am a fossil hunter in northeast Florida and here am town until Thursday this week and would love to do some hunting and meet some hunters in the area. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. I have heard that the construction sites in the Venice and Parrish area have been quite rewarding. And any time you all are in the jacksonville area please feel free to hit me up for some hunting on my turf! I found this meg 2 weeks ago (my first meg!!!)

Look guys... not every fossil hunting trip can be insane! This trip was not as plentiful for fossils as our usual videos, but man was it fun!

Dear fellow fossil hunters, Joseph @The Jersey Devil and I went fossil hunting at an NJ Cretaceous stream on December 22nd and 23rd. On the 22nd I surface hunted, expecting a good wash out due to the previous night's rain. I had secured a section of the stream before realizing that someone had gotten to most of the stream before I had. Instead of continuing forward, I went back and explored some of the sections downstream that I had skipped. These too had been scanned so I ran back to my sifter that I had left upstream and then began sifting. Some hours later I was sifting and saw Joseph. We hadn't expected to see each other but were glad we did. Together we did some sifting and surface hunting before leaving. The next day, I arrived fairly early, hoping that the water had receded enough to expose some gravel bars that I know usually produce well. They were not exposed and I decided to do some water hunting, where I squat down and look in the water for teeth or whatever else I can find. The water was freezing and I was punished each time I went to grab something that was not a fossil. I had said hello to a jogger I saw over the ridge and later my friend Tyler, who does not have an account yet, found me and told me the jogger had mentioned that there was someone else hunting. Hunting on December 23rd has become a tradition between us. For three years now we have both unexpectedly found each other hunting on this day. Tyler did not bring a sifter and, with Joseph soon to be on his way, I asked Joseph to bring a third sifter. When Joseph arrived we all went upstream and began hunting. Not that long into the hunt Joseph found an excellent mosasaur tooth that put me on overdrive trying to find something of equal or greater significance. This did not materialize, but I did end up finding a lot of fossils. Tyler found an awesome heteromorphic ammonite. Some time later Tyler and Joseph decided to do some surface collecting and Joseph found a killer point. Joseph lent Tyler the point for him to study and replicate; Tyler is an awesome upcoming flint knapper. Together we all had fun and I look forward to future hunts with them. Hopefully we all may be able to go hunting with Dave @Darktooth and Frank @frankh8147 this Friday.

Hey guys, Me and a few buddies are heading to the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland to hunt for some teeth in a week or so. We are planning on staying near the Calvert Cliffs State Park and hunting around Brownies Beach. This is really the only location we know about. We were hoping someone could point us to some other spots as well to check out while we are there (we will be there 2 days). As of right now, our plan is to hunt all day, both days, so we should have plenty of time to hunt more than one area. Any pointers toward locations not too far away would be greatly appreciated! We are coming from NC so we aren't very familiar with the area other than whats very well known.

@clay@caldiggerHad a very interesting 3 weeks in Nov/Dec beach hunting at North Myrtle Beach, SC. Every year their are different finds along with the old dependable stand-bys. Many I am familiar, some I believe I know what they are but would like confirmation from TFF members and others I have no clue. I try and be there during a high tide as I believe that it stirs up more material. This year, a KING tide occurred-a new term for me-but it occurs a few times a year when the moon is the closest to the earth. Unfortunately many homes were re-flooded after recovering from the hurricane due to this 8+ foot tide. While i did not hunt every day some days i went out morning and evening. Trying to catch (mostly not successful due to timing) a falling tide. Well here without further ado are the pictures. Starting with shark, then other fish, drum fish tooth, skate barb, sand dollar, inter casts clams, snails, complete (both sides) scallop shell and complete ark shell cast with some shell remaining, actual ark shell (only one I found the entire period). I will do a part 2 that focuses on mammal fossils I found. Edit Need help with id for 1st pic 3rd tooth in. Looks like a Carcharocles but cusplets flow into the root without making a distinct cusplet.

Here are some shark teeth I have found over the years! I just thought I would share. I enjoy seeing what others have found! Enjoy!

Hey y'all! @Cris and I went out for another Megalodon Shark tooth hunt and I am happy to say the Fossil God's decided to bless me greatly, but unfortunately did not decide to bless Cris Now our friendship is on the line but I guess it is okay because I have fossils. Bahahaa! Check out the video if you're interested and get some time and if you wanna watch Cris try to steal my fossils. Such great times!

Hi Everyone, I’m headed to Jacksonville FL for Christmas and was looking to get into some fossil hunting somehow some way. Looking for any recommendations within a 4 hour radius. Paid guided hunt? Popular creeks, beaches, or rivers? Would like to take my nieces out but if that’s not feasible then that’s ok. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm pretty new to fossil hunting/collecting, and I am sure that I will have many questions...but I also know how to use this thing I call the Google Machine to do my research, so I hope to avoid asking too many questions that a simple search can answer. I'm a tobacco pipe maker, shark tooth hunter, and have a side gig as a professor (since something needs to pay the mortgage). I got hooked on hunting for sharks teeth about a year ago when I went to visit family and spent the afternoon at Venice Beach, Fl. I don't live close to the beach, so I only have time to look for small triangles along the shoreline a few times per year. I'm excited to get to know the members of the forum, learn from your experiences, and share my mishaps!

After an extremely successful and enjoyable first trip to the Miocene of Virginia, my dad and I decided to give it another go when we saw that another guided trip was being held in late October. Our first trip resulted in my two biggest teeth ever, massive mako and huge hastalis. This time around, there weren't as many people on the trip, which is typically a good sign because it means less competition. The conditions, however, were brutal. It was very cold, and on top of that there were extremely fast gusting winds that made the river look more like an angry sea. Luckily, the tide was remarkably low while we were there, so there was a TON of ground to cover. I ventured south in search of some large shark teeth, and was successful to an extent. I talked with a woman who showed me a decent meg she had just found, but that was just about the best find I saw all day. Although I didn't come away with anything spectacular this time, I still got a respectable haul consisting of lots of hemis, some decent makos, a couple massive Chesapectan, and more of the typical Miocene finds. A big thank you to @SailingAlongToo again, for his instrumental role in organizing and supervising the trip. Already can't wait to head out again. I know there's a meg out there somewhere with my name on it. I'll find it one of these days. Thanks for reading! ~David

Hey y'all! @Cris and I just got out for another trip the other day. We went back to the same spot where that huge Meg came from in the last post I shared here. We ended up doing pretty dang good again with some really nice juvenile Megalodon teeth!

Organized our recent finds from Galveston, TX to add to our collection. Now just need to have the tag made. Is Quaternary as near as I can get in age?

Had a southwest wind and a slight blowout tide (wind southwest). Found lots (30+) of small teeth in the 'wash' but nothing else but small whale bone pieces and some pottery shards (lots of rusted metal and glass as well along with glass and wood and leaves). Water was really cold. One decent (1 1/2") mako; although numbers were unusually good for the beach, nothing all that interesting or spectacular.

Between work and home life 2018 wasn't much of a year to get out hunting for me. Outside of two short trips down to the Ramanessin I didn't really get out this year. Hoping to change that in 2019. To start I am working on a family vacation to Florida around March. The last time I was down there at that time of year I was able to do a day of creek hunting around Wauchula that netted a ton of small shark teeth including multiple mini megs as well as a slew of ice age mammal items. My favorite was a small glyptodon scute which was one of my personal bucket list items . I am looking for suggestions on areas I can start researching that would be in range of a day trip based out of the Orlando area. Call it a 2 hour radius of Orlando so I have time to hunt. Not looking for anyone's special hunting grounds, just general suggestions. Haven't looked to see who might still be offering guided trips these days as its been a few years since my last visit, but I am willing to entertain that option. I still have the books I gathered for my last trip so I will start with a refresher from those, but any advice would be appreciated

Found a bunch of Shark teeth today and other interesting bits. If possible, can anyone ID this spike? Catfish spike? Is the hole natural? And found a tiny vertabrae, can anyone tell what animal that may have been from? And I found what to me looks like an alligator tooth, but wrapped in a concretion or something? Or is that just a rock? Thanks for any help!

Hello all, I am delighted to inform you that I am not dead, although my horrendously lengthy absence from this forum may have suggested otherwise. I am fully aware that I had already committed to being more active after taking a short hiatus a little while back, but I simply fell out of the habit of logging in and posting on this site, mostly due to my extremely busy senior year schedule. I have truly missed posting and sharing my experiences with you all, and I could not be more glad to return. Although I may have been inactive on this forum, I was certainly NOT inactive whatsoever in terms of fossil hunting. I have been on several trips since I last posted. In fact, I've probably nearly doubled my collection. At the beginning of the summer, I decided to purchase a Pelican Mustang 100x Kayak in order to reach remote areas of the Calvert Cliffs that are so frequently cited as remarkably productive. I affectionately named the kayak the H.M.S. Serra, after my favorite prehistoric shark species, Hemipristis serra. Over the course of the summer, I took her out on the Bay many times in search of large shark tooth fossils. I may have failed to find a Meg, but I found some incredible fossils that I gladly added to my ever-growing collection. Below you can find pictures of some of my finds from my various kayak trips to the Calvert Cliffs over the summer, as well as a picture of my beloved Serra. Some of my best finds from all these trips include large Hemis, a perfect 2-inch hastalis (pictured in my hand), lots of cow shark teeth, a crocodile scute, a large Lemon straight out of the matrix, and my first ever Ecphora! I truly had a very productive summer! I couldn't be much happier with all of my finds (unless of course I found a Meg...) and I can't wait to continue hunting in the coming months. The H.M.S. Serra likely won't be out on the water until it gets warm again, but there's still plenty of hunting to do at local sites on foot. In fact, I've already been on a few trips since putting her away for the colder months. I will make trip reports for those soon, and you won't want to miss them! Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy my future posts! Hoppe hunting! ~David

I recently made a trip to Purse Park on the Potomac. The only two places that I have hunted are Purse and Bayfront. Wow, such different places and with different things to find. I have been to Bayfront a handful of times and have not scored big. Nearly every time I had been there, I had seen people score Megs or Makos. Maybe one day I will get lucky. This past weekend I hit Purse park and I am really beginning to like it. It has such a different look and feel than Bayfront. Although, the teeth are generally smaller, I have talked to people that have found teeth 2-3 inches in size. I had met someone that had found that day a tooth almost 1.5 inches. It may have been a sand shark, but it did not have the V shape on top. I had found a tooth about 1.2 inches and a number of other between .5 and 1 inch. Lots of small ray plates. I have met people that had found crocodile teeth that day. And had read about people finding arrow heads as well. Now every time I want to go hunting for fossils I have a hard choice, bayfront or purse. I know there are other parks, but these two are about 1 hour from my house. The pic with teeth shows some I found at Bayfront (top row) and some at purse (bottom row). Thanks

G'day everyone! I was wondering If anyone knows anything about the Hemigaleidae fossil record in Australia as I am trying to find some information but am not having much luck. Thanks, Dan

Hey, everyone! I'm looking to trade for some shark teeth, preferably odd/obscure/rare teeth, but I'm open to any interesting species. I'm offering to trade this Kem Kem Carcharodontosaurus tooth, but am willing to also trade some other shark teeth as well.