California Shark Tooth Hill Fossil Hunting

Sept. 10 & 11th The day had finally arrived. I was actually going to dig on very primo and very private land adjacent to the famous Shark Tooth Hill. I have dug the "public" area a couple of years ago but that had been dug out for over 30 years so the work was massive and the reward quite limited. This was a diggers dream trip!! The land owner has been carefully developing numerous quarries over the past 20 years. We'll call him Digger Daddy because he enjoys his privacy. Digger Daddy is the MAN when it comes to the Round Mountain Silt fauna. The Buena Vista Museum of Natural History is his fossil legacy. I went there on Friday before the dig to get inspire and it was better than a trip to Graceland for an Elvis fan!! Of course there were tons of awesome Shark teeth from 3" Parotodus to 6" Megs but this is much more than just a tooth repository. They have TWO complete Allodesmus (prehistoric Sea Lion) skeletons one which was completely articulated. Marine animals, boney fish, birds, land mammals and reptiles. It was like taking a time capsul to the late Miocene and it all came from Digger Daddy's years of hard work an dedication!! Needless to say I was stoked!!!! The day of the dig arrived and from the very beginning I new I was in Fossil Heaven. Strewn all over the ground were thousands of fossil bones and teeth. I glanced down an in one piece of loose rock was a 4" long, 1" wide cream colored sting ray spine section. The largest I had ever seen. Whale verts, shark verts, ribs....you name it and it was there! Well I started to dig and for two days I lived the dream. Digger Daddy tought me some tricks the second day so I was able to double my production!! I left with over 100 of what people would call money teeth, hundreds of kids teeth for my school program, and 30 awesome matrix pieces with all type of wild fossils in them. Down below are some of the best finds of the weekend but believe me it was all good!! The Mako in the matrix is an absolute HONKER! Just a hair under 3" with another smaller Mako next to it. Then my pride and joy which are the Allodesmus teeth, The Jaw section has a canine in it and two empty teeth holes. To my relief it was already broken!! The two smaller teeth are cheek teeth just like the ones that would have been in the holes. On top was a free lying canine. The other picture is a small sample of the "Money Teeth" including a large lower Hastalis, Monster Planus, Squalodon teeth and a pretty little snaggle tooth. Please enjoy the photos because I enjoyed finding the teeth in them!!