Fossil Diving for Mammoth Teeth, part deux

Ever since I found the mammoth teeth last week, I've been dying to get back out to the river to see if there was more there. Plus, lots of people have been telling me to go back, because if the fossils just washed out, there could be way more stuff there. I followed the sage wisdom, and went back this morning. I didn't want to be greedy, so I only took one scuba tank. Once in the water, I swam directly to where I found the elephant teeth. Then I searched the area. Nothing. I was a little disappointed, but I didn't want to burn the whole dive searching for something that someone probably found a long time ago. So I bounced down river a little bit and started hunting a different area. There were surprisingly few teeth in the craggly, limestone bottom where I started. Still I searched, though, until I ended up back where I started. I had about 20 shark's teeth, a laundry bag full of whale bones, fish vertebrae, and other fossilized bones for my bone garden. Yep, you heard me right - bone garden. Between my sidewalk and my house, there is the wasteland that collects rainwater where nothing but weeds can grow. I dug all the mud, weeds, and broken glass out and put down landscaping cloth. Now, everytime I go hunting fossils, I bring home all the bone I find to fill up the area. The idea sounds wierd, but when you see it, its way cool. My wife even thinks it is unique, therefore, good. When I get it full enough to completely cover the cloth, I'll post a picture. Anyway, I digress. I was back at the place where I was looking for more mammoth remains and I noticed that there was some really nice Chandler Bridge (oligocene geologic formation where we find a vast array of interesting fossils), and I decided to try fanning away the sand to see what was underneath. By doing so, I could exposed any hidden mammoth teeth, plus I would have the chance at a nice angustidens shark tooth. For about ten minutes, no dice. But then I saw an immense (remember everything looks 25% larger underwater) serrated blade protruding from the Chandler Bridge. I uttered the shark tooth hunters prayer "please be whole" as I carefully dug around the tooth. Mindful of a tough lesson da f0ssZ learned last Friday (a large, perfect tooth crumbled in his hands underwater), I was careful not to force the tooth in any way. I scraped away the sandy clay and the tooth kept going into the fossil layer. I dug it all out and checked it over. At first, I thought it was missing a cusp, but I got it all cleaned off and found out that they were both there, just small, along with the elusive tip serration. Both root lobes were intact. I couldn't believe my good fortune! I estimated that it was about 4 inches underwater. Actually, it was more of a hope, because 4 inches is the magic number for angustidens teeth just like 6 inches is the magic number for megalodon teeth. I safely tucked it away in my pocket as I called it a day and headed home. All the way back to my entry point, I had my hand on the pocket. I was NOT going to lose that tooth. No way, no how! Only when I was safely away from the water did I consider it mine. In the sunlight it was beautiful! Its missing about 5 serrations and about 30% of the bourlette, but that's it. Other than that, its a gem. It looks like it came from the big ditch where I used to score smaller, but equally killer angustidens. What a day! Two good dives in a row! Man am I pumped about hunting!