First time at Calvert Cliffs

[Rock-Guy-17]

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

 

 

[patelinho7]

Nice finds! Good work at Flag Ponds, big teeth always seem to elude me at that beach.

[Fin Lover]

Nice haul!

[Meganeura]

Awesome finds! @Boesse can probably ID the cetacean periotic for you! 

[automech]

Great Haul!! Could take a close up shot of the tooth in your hand? At the base of your middle and ring finger. Is that a cow shark? @Rowboater what do you think?

[Boesse]

Periotic is a kentriodontid dolphin, perhaps Delphinodon dividum.

[digit]

11 hours ago, Rock-Guy-17 said:

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.

It would help to sift your matrix through a window screen (or other ~1-2 mm mesh) to remove the bulk of the sand. The left over micro-matrix may not have a large number of bigger teeth but you stand a chance of finding lots of interesting micro-fossils. They might include things like stingray (dasyatid) teeth, tiny shark teeth like Rhizoprionodon and a diversity of osteichthyes (bony fish) teeth.

 

1 hour ago, automech said:

Great Haul!! Could take a close up shot of the tooth in your hand? At the base of your middle and ring finger. Is that a cow shark? @Rowboater what do you think?

Yup. I spotted that too--nice cow!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Masonk]

Wow! What a great collection of finds. Thanks for sharing. 

 

Hoping to hit Calvert cliffs later this year. Seems very promising from your photos.

[Rock-Guy-17]

8 hours ago, automech said:

Great Haul!! Could take a close up shot of the tooth in your hand? At the base of your middle and ring finger. Is that a cow shark? @Rowboater what do you think?

 

 

 Here are the cow shark teeth, along with the Meg fragment

 

7 hours ago, digit said:

It would help to sift your matrix through a window screen (or other ~1-2 mm mesh) to remove the bulk of the sand. The left over micro-matrix may not have a large number of bigger teeth but you stand a chance of finding lots of interesting micro-fossils. They might include things like stingray (dasyatid) teeth, tiny shark teeth like Rhizoprionodon and a diversity of osteichthyes (bony fish) teeth.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

This is definitely a better idea, may try this experiment again using this method. Thanks! 

[digit]

6 minutes ago, Rock-Guy-17 said:

Here are the cow shark teeth, along with the Meg fragment

I've got more meg fossils than you but you are up on me 2-0 for the Hexanchidae.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Mark Kmiecik]

Nice finds!

[Andúril Flame of the West]

Looks like you had some pretty good hunts at the Calvert Cliffs! I agree with @digit's comment that a sieve with window mesh would be very useful for finding some of those smaller specimens. I used standard window mesh for my sifter, though unfortunately it did not have enough support and eventually tore - my sifter is still out of commission at the moment.   However, a sifter with window mesh attached directly to the frame and a more supportive mesh with larger holes, such as chicken wire, attached beneath the window mesh should help you get some of the smaller material. 

 

I've only been out to the cliffs once and I also hunted at the well-known Flag Ponds Nature Park. It was one of my first fossil hunting trips and I ended up hunting there at high tide, leading to a rather unsuccessful trip. Your haul has convinced me to put another trip to Flag Ponds up near the top of my bucket list!

Edited June 15, 2023 by Andúril Flame of the West

[Echinoid Express]

Very cool, that dolphin ear bone is neat!

[digit]

8 hours ago, Andúril Flame of the West said:

I used standard window mesh for my sifter, though unfortunately it did not have enough support and eventually tore

I have sifting screens that have a 1x3 wooden frame with the mesh securely stapled onto the bottom. I use 1/4" or 1/2" mesh size when sifting in the rivers/creeks. When I want to collect micro-matrix I stack two sifters and slip in a piece of window screen mesh between the two. The top screen catches the larger material and the window screen and bottom sifter let the finer sand through. The lower screen provides support for the window screen so it doesn't get stretched/torn. When you buy window screen mesh there are two main types--one is made of fiberglass/plastic and the other of aluminum. I only use metal screen as the lighter weight mesh would indeed stretch and tear quite easily under the bulk of matrix.

 

Have a look at this ancient topic for some pointers as to how I collect micro-matrix:

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/51286-collecting-cookiecutter-shark-micro-matrix/

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Rock-Guy-17]

11 hours ago, Andúril Flame of the West said:

Looks like you had some pretty good hunts at the Calvert Cliffs! I agree with @digit's comment that a sieve with window mesh would be very useful for finding some of those smaller specimens. I used standard window mesh for my sifter, though unfortunately it did not have enough support and eventually tore - my sifter is still out of commission at the moment.   However, a sifter with window mesh attached directly to the frame and a more supportive mesh with larger holes, such as chicken wire, attached beneath the window mesh should help you get some of the smaller material. 

 

I've only been out to the cliffs once and I also hunted at the well-known Flag Ponds Nature Park. It was one of my first fossil hunting trips and I ended up hunting there at high tide, leading to a rather unsuccessful trip. Your haul has convinced me to put another trip to Flag Ponds up near the top of my bucket list!

It took me a while to figure out that high tide strategy. Maybe it's not the most efficient method but I found it was a better use of my time than sifting. I got plenty more area covered by shoveling the sand into the path of the waves than I did putting a few scoops at a time into my sifter. I probably missed some small teeth, but the large ones stuck out immediately. 

[automech]

I have found willyweather.com to be a good website for tide charts and other meteorological info. Check it out next time you head out. 

[Northern Neck]

Good finds! I was close to Calvert last week looking on a private beach.  Love the location.  I couldn't do anything at the cabins.  So many shells and other debris on the beach.   Haven't been up to flagponds yet.  As with any place is always best to get to the spots no one goes.  Those are good totals for those places this time of the year.  Good job 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Northern Neck

[JulieNC]

Great finds!

[patelinho7]

Everyone loves to find the big teeth, but something I do to challenge myself is to find the smallest tooth I can. My best was this 1-2 mm wide tooth I found way up the beach away from the shore closer to that tide pool area that Flag Ponds has (or used to have). I was seeing if I could find anything just in the sand and nowhere near gravel or the surf, and sure enough, I found a tiny tooth all by itself.

[digit]

1 hour ago, patelinho7 said:

Everyone loves to find the big teeth, but something I do to challenge myself is to find the smallest tooth I can.

You mean little ones like this?

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

 

[digit]

Or if you want to talk really small, try this one that is right around 1mm. It's from a species of hound shark that has ray-like teeth as they have a diet of crustaceans and smaller fishes.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[automech]

Ok then. Here's my contribution. From Pungo River matrix.

[digit]

Nice little catshark tooth!

 

If we keep this up we just might encourage the OP to go back and try some matrix picking again.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[hiposong]

Wow, that's a lot!