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I had the privilege of digging for seven hours on a parcel that was once part of Ernst Quarry, but had long been sold. Here are the best items that were found. There was more of either the same or broken, not shown. The matrix was extremely hard and difficult to extract, but the hard work was worth it. One of the Hooked Mako's has tiny 2d manganese dendrites that grew on it. One of my other favorites is a pathological Cow Shark. The 3 sections of the Ray Plate are rare for Sharktooth Hill. There are some interesting micro teeth as well.
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My wife and I just returned from a trip out west (western USA for our international friends) which featured a trip to the famous Miocene site near Bakersfield; Ernst Quarry or Sharktooth Hill, whichever name you prefer. As most of you know this site it well known for the rich fauna of sharks teeth, marine mammal bones and other related items and has been written up numerous times on TFF going back over the years. We had originally planned this trip a year ago, but a family emergency caused us to reschedule. So we decided to try again this year and picked late April to try and avoid the "rainy" season and beat the start of the summer heat. One out of two isn't bad - haha. We had beautiful blue skies but unfortunately had an unseasonably early heat wave that had the temps climbing into the upper 90's! My main goal of this trip was to find some of the beautifully preserved, richly colored, good sized sharks teeth (Mako's being the most common) that I have seen millions of pictures of and read dozens of trip/ID reports about here on the Forum. It seemed with a diligent amount of work digging and sifting, I was sure to come away with a bagful of beauties! This is where my caution part comes in. We had a good trip, but the results were no where near our expectations. I have been fossil collecting for over 40 years and have had plenty of down days/visits/trips, but when we walked away with maybe a dozen teeth and the largest complete one at just over an inch long from a site that represents supposedly one of the richest around after a whole day of steady digging, suffice it to say, we were a bit let down. We worked steadily throughout the day, tried several different spots and outlasted everyone. As the day heated up most of the folks were gone by very early afternoon, we had the place to ourselves for the last couple of hours before we bailed out just after 4 pm (the car thermometer read 99 when we left). We had to be out by 5. From what I saw of about half the other collectors that I talked to, were similar results, a modest number of teeth, nothing very large. Someone may have found a ton of great stuff, but I did not hear or see it. So, my caution is not that this place is not good, don't go: no, not at all. It is to keep your expectations realistic. There is no doubt I oversold this to myself. I found some nice teeth as you will see below, just not the size or quantity that I thought was the norm out of here. It could be I had a down day, it could be I didn't know the best spots to dig, it could be the quarry just does not produce like it used to, it could be that I just didn't move enough dirt to support my expectations, it could be a lot of things. But when I raised my expectations to high levels on a trip half way across the country that this was the focus of, I guess I kind of set myself up. Keep it real!!! I mostly bring this up as I often see on here that people would love to go here, it is on their bucket list, etc, etc. Again, I'd encourage you to visit, just keep your expectations in line, dig as much as you possibly can, and you will probably find the mother lode! Ok, enough of my blathering. The trip was fun, we did find some nice teeth, the preservation of them is excellent for the most part and I am working my way through some matrix I brought back which contains some very cool little teeth in there. Here is what we found: The whole kit and caboodle with my tentative ID's scribbled on the paper towel. I will follow with close ups of most of them. This was actually the first tooth we found, just an edge sticking out of the chunk of matrix (on left). On the right is after a bit of prepping so you can see the whole tooth. I think I'm going to do a bit more shaving down but leave this in the matrix. The round object by the root is just a pebble that was in there. I also found another small sharks tooth as I was removing matrix that is no longer in the picture. These Cosmopolitodus hastalis are the most common tooth found in the Round Mountain Silt from what I read (and my 1 day experience). These Cosmopolitodus planus (Hooked or Curved Mako) were neat and more the size I though we would encounter. Unfortunately, neither of these are complete. These tiny ones we managed to see as we were sifting. Since my napkin writing I have learned they are indeed a Carcharhinus, but the species seems to be an ongoing topic of discussion (not uncommon for this genus from what I have found). In the matrix I am picking there are lots more of these but that will be a topic for a future Micro post. These three are some of my favorites, very neat little teeth. Since the napkin writing, I have found the the upper sharks tooth may not be Hemipristis but rather a Hexanchus upper anterior. If anyone can corraborate from this picture that would be great, otherwise I'll probably make an ID post for a couple of these items to sort them out. These small ones are also nice. I see I did not take a picture of the most diagnostic side of the Squalus, but it does have the finger like extension to below the root on the other side. I also have found several more of these in the fine matrix. And lastly for this group a neat little bone that I believe is a cetacean periotic. I saw another post in which @Boesse identified a similar looking one as Aulophyster morricei, but there were some differences between this one and that post which I don't know if its due to simple variation within the bone or it is a different animal. Again, if I can't get a confirmation or different ID based on this one picture, I'll be happy to create an ID thread. We also found a lot of bone, I brought home a bag full of some of the bigger chunks I found in one area. I only recognize some rib fragments (second pic) and a possible beat up vert (third pic in middle). I'm not sure what the rest of the fragments represent. And finally, just a quick bit on the matrix I brought back. I did a quick sieve separation in the field just to have a mix of different sizes. This turned out to be a waste of time as the matrix was too damp to properly sieve. When I got back home and had water available, I was able to quickly run it through a small series of sieves and get down to some pickable matrix. I used a window screen (about 12-14 mesh) and a 40 and 60 mesh sieve. 95% of the matrix was fine silt (hence the name of the Formation) and went through the 60 mesh and therefore contains nothing that I'm going to spend time on (60 mesh is 0.25 mm, too small for me to try and pick with the equipment and dexterity that I have). The material caught on the 13 mesh contained almost all the sharks teeth but only represented a small baggie of the couple gallon bags of matrix I was able to fit in my luggage. You can see in the picture below the small bag of matrix to the right and the little beaker contains about 26 cm3 of fossil material picked (about 17% of the bag volume). This is mostly small fragments of broken bone but there are lots of shark and ray teeth in there as well as a few other items (future post in Micro section). I have only looked at the 40 and 60 mesh material a little bit. The 40 has a few very small ray teeth, and some fish teeth (and more broken bone fragments). I have not seen much in the way of identifiable fossils in the 60 mesh material yet. That is all for now, thanks for following along. I appreciate any thoughts or comments on my ID's or anything else. Mike
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These are some of my Sharktooth Hill finds from 2019. Was wondering if the first pics are a vertabra? The other pics are a fish vert. Sharks vert. And a random cetacean vert. I suppose, sorry I’m posting so much , but I like that I can get some second opinions on my fossils.
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From the album: Sharks
Historically known as "makos", we now recognize C. hastalis as being ancestral to the modern great white shark.-
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Identification Teeth of C. hastalis closely resemble those of the modern "great white" (C. carcharias) in having erect triangular cusps, no lingual dental band ("bourlette") or a thin one, and no nutrient groove. Differing from the extant species, they have no serrations on the edges.
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Unique wood from Round Mountain Silt, anyone seen anything like this?
H. Drax posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Been going through an old collection I haven't looked at in many years and in it are 15 or 20 pieces of wood, collected at the Ernst quarry back in the 90s. I haven't seen any similar examples from Sharktooth Hill or elsewhere. The pieces are somewhat fragile and often partially hollow with small (druzy?) purplish crystals on the interior. The rest is mostly composed of the same purplish-black material but man also show a tougher translucent outer crust. Some of the interiors of these pieces also contain powdery, lightweight chunks of brown matter. Based on appearance and the local geology as well as the preservation of flora from another miocene site in the region (see Reynolds p.114) I'm guessing the dark purplish stuff is pyrolusite or a similar manganese mineral. I assume the tougher clear stuff is microcrystalline quartz. The powdery brown stuff I cannot explain except as mummified wood, but I haven't found any pre-pliocene examples in the fossil record. I'm not a wood guy in general though so maybe there's more out there. What do you think? Something of research value? A small piece (~2.5 cm square) with the two primary minerals. Typical piece. Largest is about 15 cm. The mysterious Brown Matter. Very hard to get a good photo since it's mostly deep in the "geode."-
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I went to Sharktooth Hill this past weekend. Most were found in the flat lands next to the parking lot. The bottom row were found on the hill, near the port-a-potty. The hill finds have shiny enamel and better color, but the roots are more brittle. All were found in one day.
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Well, I am out here in Mojave, CA for work for the next 6-12+ months and since I cannot dive for fossils like I can back in Florida, I might as well get back to my roots and dig for them again. I am all set to go April 2nd & 3rd. I hope to see/meet any fellow members. I will be in my gray Jeep Grand Cherokee with Florida veteran Plate. I will try and document this trip and share it as much as possible. I figure I would make a list of items to bring, I welcome any and all comments from those that have done this before. First I will have a large straw hat and sunblock, I may even bring a canopy to put over my work site. I will also have a bandana to cover my mouth from dust, gloves, and safety glasses. Second, I will have my own rock pick, geo pick, rock hammer, chisels, folding shovel, sifter, bucket, and tinfoil to keep fossils and matrix together. Finally, I will have plenty of water, a folding chair, & kneepads. Any STH vets have anything else to add? maybe I might have missed something?
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This is from the temblor formation, Sharktooth Hill. Let me know if better photos are needed. Posting photos from my phone is unpredictable. These tiny teeth (?) are on silt matrix. Whether they are prepped depends on an ID, as the silt is rather loose. There seems to be some chance that bone is beneath what is visible. one bit broke off, and might be glued into position. Below the Section remaining on the matrix, appears to be more teeth of a different shape or angle, which are partially shown in the final photo. I’m grateful for any help with the ID, or prep suggestions. This loose silt is a challenge to say the least.
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Hi, everyone! Got back to New Jersey on Tuesday, after a weekend at Ernst Quarries. This was my second trip to the site, the first was back in 2018. The weather was perfect- not too hot and cool towards the late afternoon. All three days were pretty well booked, as far as I could tell, but most everyone seems to leave by 1 or 2:00. Met a bunch of great people, and I think I had a really good dig. In the first photo, the top section shows everything I found on Friday and Saturday- all but 2 or 3 from the same hole in the "main" area, including a section of leatherback turtle shell (left side, halfway down) and a sea lion tooth (top row, just right of center). The grid is my cutting board with 1" squares. At the end of the Sunday dig, I was checking out a previously started hole out away from the main site, across the road just before it makes a right turn to wind around to the parking lot, and pretty quickly found a nice Hooked White that, at the time, had a nice blue-grey tint to it. Rob told me that it's probably going to be a pretty good spot and let me park right next to it on the following morning. It was pretty darn good. The bottom section of the photo shows what I found on Monday, all from the same spot and without using a sifter. I stopped using the sifter halfway into Sunday- I just used the fan method with the shovel. I stand above the hole and cut away a section so it falls into the pit and then, one shovel at a time, scoop that up and fan it in my discard pile so I can see what's in it. Not as thorough, but you get through a lot more material, and anything big enough you WILL see. Also, my back was killing me from using the hand held sifters on the previous days. I made a previous post showing that teeth from Ernst don't just glow under long wave uv light (365 nm), but they phosphoresce (glow for a bit after removing the light). None of the teeth from the second site glow at all, except for a couple of the more orange-colored smaller ones in the lower right. Some of the teeth have a nice satiny, slightly pearlescent finish. Can't wait to go back!
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I recently got this unusual, at least to me, marine mammal tooth. I am pretty sure it’s Pinniped but beyond that I’m not sure. Marine mammal fossils are not something I have a great deal of knowledge about. I suspect it could possibly belong to an Odobenid as opposed to Allodesmus. I have never had any teeth from the STH Walruses in my collection so I’m going solely off some research I did. It’s a really cool tooth whatever critter it belonged to. Any thoughts ??
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From the album: Sharktooth Hill
large odontocete tooth Sharktooth Hill-
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From the album: Sharktooth Hill
large odontocete tooth Sharktooth Hill-
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From the album: Sharks
"Hooked white shark/mako" Round Mountain Silt Fm., Sharktooth Hill, Kern Co., Bakersfield, CA, USA-
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Looking for advice about shark tooth hill! TIA
PrehistoricWonders posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hey everyone! Going to STH somewhat soon, I plan on going to Ernst quarries(or if anyone has any other sites they’d recommend), and was wondering if there were any tips anyone could give me, since This will be my first time. Also, are there safety instructions they give you when you get there?- 2 replies
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I have had this STH tooth for awhile but I can not identify it. I have assumed it has to be either a hastalis or planus. When I first got the large group of teeth that this tooth was in, I set aside as I thought it might be Parotodus. I quickly talked myself out of that ID. I talked myself into hastalis or planus. I have looked at teeth in my collection and can’t find an exact match. I checked Elasmo and same story. My best guess is lower planus. It is just over 1” on the diagonal, pretty thick root. Any thoughts ???
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I am still not back to work so I’m pretty bored and don’t have new micro matrix to pick through so I have been examining some STH micros I found in previously searched matrix we got from @JBMugu awhile back. One of the denticles I found stood out from all others. I only found one of this morphology in all the matrix I searched. I set it aside in it’s own bag in with the other denticles. I forgot about it until a search for papers on Echinorhinus fossils. I saw a photo of Echinorhinus denticles and I remembered the denticle I found. It looks so similar that I think that is what this little beauty is. I also believe we might have a tiny Squatina vertebra. I found a post on TFF about them and remembered a strange little vert I found. Under the scope, it looks very similar to a vertebra from a published paper that was in the TFF post. It’s not fish or mammal. It’s also not typical shark or typical of the other STH batoid vertebra we found. For now I’m going with Squatina but I’ll use pencil on the label. Once I get a chance to get to my museum again, I’ll get better pictures and try to confirm the ID’s. Until then, here are a couple of cell phone pics that won’t do them justice lol
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Looking to trade for Unprepped or Trace/track Fossil material
Paleome posted a topic in Member-to-Member Fossil Trades
I would like to trade Trachydomia spp. snails for any legally-collected rough or trace/track fossils, from any era, any location. Here are updated images of what I have left of Trachydomia spp.. The first three in the front have been lightly coated with a clear acrylic (?). The other image is of Desmostylia tooth fragments (Langhian Miocene) from Sharktooth Hill, near Bakersfield, CA. These were obtained at a local rock and mineral show several years ago. I tried to get these to fit together to make a complete specimen. The only one I could do that with is the third one in the first row.- 3 replies
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I have found several smaller fragments before, but never an intact one. This one turned up at the end of a very long day and I fortunately spotted it as my son was shoveling matrix into the sifting table. I startled him mid-shovel by shouting "STOP!" when I saw a row of white points sticking out of some matrix. Son was just about to throw another shovelful on top of it. Nice reflexes by him to change course mid-air to avoid me (now shielding the tooth with my body - LOL). Worth it. :-) Definitely had potential but I didn't know how much root was going to remain. After some careful cleaning I was thrilled. I can see from those cracks why I've had such a hard time finding a complete one.
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Despite several visits to Sharktooth Hill and hundreds of teeth, I've yet to confirm a shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus or is it Isurus desori?). Perhaps this is a possible candidate. Or maybe another C. planus or C. hastalis lower. To me, the features that make this one look different from those other common STH teeth are that it is relatively long with a narrow base/wide root, and also that little bend at the tip when viewed from the side (I think it shows up in the bottom two pics ok). It just stuck out as "something different" and I was able to eliminate a lot of other possibilities. So maybe I got my first shortfin mako? Thanks for your help!
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I recently had a chance to try my hand at a few matrix pieces from Sharktooth Hill. I'm happy with how they came out, although I know I could do a better job next time. Huge shout out to @digit and @ynot for their advice and encouragement. I think the thing I appreciate about matrix pieces like these are that prepping them this way can turn a rather unremarkable tooth into something unique. Anyway, I had fun doing it and I was encouraged to post a "trip report" so here goes... Here's how they looked when I got home. Nice to find out the tooth was intact. WooHoo! I used dental tools (nice set online for <$20) and small paintbrushes to scratch away the matrix. A super soft fluffy brush I found in my wife's makeup kit (shhhh!) was great for removing loosened silt. The matrix looks wet because I was dipping a finger in water and barely touching the matrix to soften it. Not too much though because that Sharktooth Hill matrix can be really soft. When I got more experienced I started using a small paintbrush to apply the water more carefully. Oh nooooooooooo! The tooth fell out. Does that happen to anyone else? I decided that meant the tooth just wanted to be cleaned so I took the opportunity. A quick clean up and a little CA glue and we are back in business. QUESTION: How do the rest of you actually get the tooth clean? There was no way I was going to be able to wash it or use a toothbrush or anything like that. I can tell myself "I like them a little dirty" but can't help but notice that some people get them really nice and clean. Any tips? Esp. with that STH matrix.
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STH Shark Teeth for Non STH Shark Teeth
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in Member-to-Member Fossil Trades
We know that fossils are not the priority for people at the moment. They are not for us either but I have found a good amount of stress relief in going through a large donation we got. The material is all from STH and we have enough to make a trade. It was part of the donation actually. Extra fossils for sale or for trade to improve our collection. I would like to avoid sales or doing smaller trades just for shipping reasons so I decided to put the trade stuff out as one lot. Given the current state of the world, consider this a post corona virus trade offer. We would probably not ship for 2-4 weeks if not a bit longer so we would not expect immediate shipping. Nobody needs to risk a trip to the post office. I did however want to put it out there. I think a little engagement among fossil nerds may be a good thing at this time We tried to put together a pretty decent representation of the shark and ray fauna plus a variety of colors. Miocene Temblor Formation, Round Mountain Silt Member Kern County, California Carcharodon hastalis- 8 teeth, variety of positions, variety of colors, none bigger than 1.5" Cosmopolitodus planus- 8 teeth, upper and lower, beautiful color array Isurus desori- 1 tooth Hemiprisitis serra- 1 symphyseal tooth Hexanchus andersonii- one partial tooth (I think upper) Heterodontus- 1 lateral tooth Physogaleus- 4 teeth Galeocerdo- 3 teeth Carcharhinus- 3 teeth Squatina Squalus Galeorhinus Included but not pictured- a couple of Cetorhinus teeth and a Mustelus tooth. Various Batoid fossils. We are open to any shark tooth offers but we do have some specific needs/wants. I listed them below. GW teeth Squaliformes- any family except Squalus Orectolobiformes- Hemiscyllium, Rhincodon, Ginglymostoma (Eocene & Cretaceous) Otodus sokolovi Isurus oxyrinchus and retroflexus some specific Cretaceous material- Cardabiodontid, Squatina, Ginglymostoma, Cretorectolobus, Odontaspis, Cantioscyllium, Cretoxyrhina PM us if you have any questions, need to see additional pictures, or want to make an offer.- 2 replies
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