The End of a Long Megalodon Drought

t$ called me a week ago to see if I wanted to go do some fossil hunting and we made plans to check out a new spot and if it wasn't good, to revisit an old spot. Not wanting to be publically thrashed for collecting tardiness, he showed up exactly on time and we were off to the new spot.

New spots are always tricky. You never know if there will be digging, and if there is, whether it will be deep enough, and finally whether there is any good layer. The new spot failed the first test - no digging yet. Luckily, we had a backup plan.

The backup spot is a ditch where we've had some luck in the past. t$ found a big, nicely colored megalodon there and I found a really nice benedeni there, but other than that, not too much has come out. Still, there is nice layer once the 2 to 3 feet of overburden is removed. As we stepped down into the ditch, I said "This looks like as good of place as any" and I started digging down. Immediately, I found a butter knife that I had been missing for a while - a good sign.Through the decaying plant matter and litter, through the muck, through the clay, finally to the layer. The mud kept oozing in, and the dirt kept falling down from the pile, but I persisted in the excavation.

Across the ditch, t$ had a decent hole going and he was pulling out a bunch of smaller teeth. I hit a pocket of bone and big rocks that got me excited. It kept going deeper and I dug down to follow it. I hit something big and shaped like I wanted so I started to dig with my newly recovered butter knife. It was a megalodon tooth! I didn't know if it was whole, but I excitedly carved out the rocks,mud, and clay from around it. I uttered the "please be whole" chant as I quietly revealed the tooth - complete from root to tip before I called t$ over.

We both dug with renewed vigor, but the heat, bugs, and extreme amount of sloppy overburden quickly drained our water supply and drive to hunt. I felt like I had a great day, and it was good to have t$ there to witness the score. I would have felt a little bad, but he found a killer angustidens not too long ago so its not his time again yet. The Aurora trip is upcoming - what a time to be due!