Angustidens Nursery

Fossil hunting in the lowcountry of South Carolina has become a feast or famine kind of thing. We go a long time without having anyplace to go from having a handfull of places all at once. It's because we are entirely dependent on the rain now to erode fossils from their resting places. The past few days we've been pummelled by rainstorms, and I got the crazy idea to go check an old spot that I hadn't hunted in a year or more. All it took was the mention of the word "toothing" and my son was in.

We arrived expecting to see footprints everywhere because we were two days past the rain. That's how long it takes for the bottom of this particular location to clear. We don't find many teeth on the banks anymore. Most now are stuck in the bottom. The stream bottom used to be Chandler Bridge formation, but that's long gone. Now the last part of the upper Ashley formation is exposed and eroding away fast. The trouble is there aren't many teeth and it takes them a while to wash out. It's so easy to miss them, too, so I think most people walk right by them.

The finds started almost immediately, but the weezling was the first to find a nice one. He saw the root deep down in some cloudy water. It ended up being a beautiful angustidens tooth with some unfortunate feeding damage. Then I found a nice smaller angustidens stuck in the ashley formation. Then another in a rock bed. Then my son found another in a different rock bed, and then another stuck in the ashley. All were smaller specimens in great condition. We were both thrilled that we re-visited this spot, which ended up not being as dead as I thought!