Mos a Sore from Shovelling All Weekend (Apr 24-26 2009)
Ok that was a really bad title... "Baaaaaad", said the sheep.
Alas, it was Monday. And already the only thing on my mind was the upcoming weekend because what else would I be doing other than going to look for fossils. Myself and another local made plans to drive up to Aurora on Friday and look through the piles, then up to Greenville to wade into that wonderful creek known as Green Mill Run. By Wednesday Govinn sent me a few emails wondering if I was going to be jumping into the run this weekend. We all finalized our plans and were going to meet up in Aurora Friday night.
Unfortunately Govinn had a last minute business opportunity arise so he ended up meeting up with us in Greenville later Friday evening, but as soon as I got out of work we were on our way. We had a little luck in Aurora but nothing really exciting to note. The usual couple hemi’s, sand tigers and mako’s, verts, shells, ray mouth plates, and a couple dolphin teeth. We left there and met John for dinner at Burger King. Well, after we checked into our hotel rooms.
The next day Govinn went off to the spoil piles for the morning and me and Angela went off to the GMR. We started at Fifth Street Park and started shoveling away. The finds came slow in the morning but as the temperature rose, the finds started showing up. I pulled out a pretty decent great white blade with a beat up root, a few makos, Meg pieces and the usual mix. Govinn arrived early in the afternoon, having to pry himself away from the piles to meet us up in the GMR. We kept going through screen after screen and the time passed when two more fossil hunters walked up. Of course we gave the customer greeting of fossil hunters (“did you find anything”?) and they came down to see what we had. They were a brother and sister from New Jersey. It’s always great to meet new people who share a passion for finding fossils. You never have a problem of finding something to talk about. So they chose a spot nearby and the five of us kept screening away.
I kept up at the spot where I found the great white when a big blade popped into my screen! I immediately could tell it was a little beat up with large chunks out of but it was still the largest wide tooth Mako I have ever found. Now I was hooked on that spot. I pulled out broken meg piece after broken meg piece but nothing really exciting seemed to materialize.
Finally, my shovel hit something big, with a clank! CLANK? What in the world kind of fossil goes “Clank!” Well, I kept digging around it and what do I find? A prehistoric frying pan! Well that’s not really what I was looking for at all. So I removed the pan and placed it in a nice spot on some gravel leaning up against some roots and kept going in that spot. After that the similar finds started pouring out. I started finding socks, panty hose, a glove, a cup, two alcohol bottles and many other exciting hobo treasures. Everyone kept telling me to stop digging there before I found the hobo himself. Well, soon the hobo treasures stopped appearing as well as the fossils so I finally gave up and moved on. Up to that point though I had pulled out a couple nice Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo Cuvier) to compliment my GW and mako. But that pretty much was the last of my finds for the day. Angela however was just getting started, having found a couple nice great whites already as well as many other teeth.
I decided it was time to find a new spot, which I didn’t start screening anymore for the rest of the day but I started walking downstream to see what it was like, I got well below the fifth street bridge but was dismayed at the deeper water and nothing but mud on the bottom, has anyone ever had much luck down there? I gave up on the adventure and walked back up to see if anyone else had found any good teeth. Govinn had finally pulled out a nice great white to match Angela’s best one. About that time we called it a day and headed back to the hotel, but first stopping to grab some fast food.
The next day we got up bright and early, checked out of our rooms, and after discussing where we would start, Govinn took off like a bottle rocket to get into the stream. Can anyone really blame him though? Once we finally caught up with him he was searching right along where we had left off a trip or two before. I located the spot where I had ended a previous day and on my second screen I pushed over a pile of large pebbles and a conical object appeared. At first I didn’t believe what I was seeing but there it was, my first complete Mososaur tooth. Not only was it complete, but it was a monster, it measured 1 ½ inches long along the slant. It was missing a little enamel on the front but who cares; it was awesome and made my day. I could have quit at that moment and still considered the day to be a success. And that was only my second screen. Well, after a couple worn Megs and the usual finds for awhile Govinn decided he had to hit the road. So we took a break for a bit, grabbed lunch and then wandered back towards the stream for the afternoon; this time deciding to try the 10th street bridge area for a bit. The small teeth were everywhere and a couple small makos ended up being the best finds so we wandered down stream for awhile screening every so often once we hit good gravel piles. I didn’t have much luck until I reached a big pocket of meg pieces. I stayed at that spot hoping that the complete one would finally find its way into my screen but unfortunately today wasn’t the day. After awhile we decided to head back up to where we had started that morning.
Getting back up to the original spot from this morning was all Angela needed to go on a fossil spree. She found tooth after tooth after tooth including a complete just over 2” great white, a 2 3/4” chub, a smaller GW and then a broken Meg with the enamel still on. Too bad it was split. It was a slow afternoon for me until the second to last screen and last screen where I found two shamer great whites and a Mako. But it was a decent end to the day.
Until next time, good hunting.
~MikeDOTB