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Click the thumbnails for more information.
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Eocene angel shark
Andalusia, Alabama, USA - Squatina prima |
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Average Squatina prima from Alabama... |
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Auriculatis tooth
Andalusia, Alabama, USA - Carcharocles auriculatus |
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A decent very early Auriculatis tooth from Alabama... |
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Easy Picking's
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I'm adding a few more South Carolina fossil invertebrates for you invertebrate lovers. When people come into town, to collect fossils, they'll usually ask me to take them to anywhere they can collect shark teeth. Sometimes we end up in limestone quarries with the Santee Limestone formation. This hard limestone doesn't give up it's teeth without a fight! It requires a hammer, chisel, and a little patience. The teeth are few but there are thousands of marine invertebrate casts and molds. But to g... |
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Invertebrates RULE!
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I get E-mails accusing me of ignoring the "Invertebrates". So this ones for you spineless, good for nothing $^#@!* invertebrate lovers. I've spent a lot of time collecting in the Santee Limestone. This is a hard limestone consisting of mostly marine invertebrate macro fossils. Occasionally I come across nautiluses. Some are complete. Most are not. When they use explosives to mine, the individual chambers will be blown apart and scattered. The largest ones I've found have been at quarries loc... |
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Colorful megalodon teeth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Land sites are great because its about the only way to get the really great colored shark teeth unless you have a deep pocket. I have been hunting fossils in South Carolina since I was a kid and I've always loved the colors on the teeth here. That's why anytime there is a decent place to hunt, I am there. During the summer, we were actively hunting this one pond on an almost daily basis. It was producing some wild looking megalodon teeth and some museum quality angustidens. This post was from on... |
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The food chain.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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There have been a lot of trip reports posted about shark teeth at this site. But little mention has been made about another common fossil shark find. I'm talking about vertebrates. We've all seen them while collecting. And while most everyone picks them up, they usually get lost in the bottom of the fossil box. Most shark reference books have little information on vertebrates. That's because most shark vertebrates look the same. The great white sharks have a distinctive shape. But the rest ar... |
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Lots of glue.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I've previously posted reports on sirenians I've found from the Oligocene of South Carolina. But the record on South Carolina dugongs goes all the way back to the Late Eocene. I've been collecting these primitive dugong remains for years. Their ribs are a common find along with Basilosaurus and Durodon material. So it came as no surprise when I came across one in a local limestone quarry in 2003. I was at the quarry helping with a massive Pleistocene excavation. One evening I was returning t... |
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Keeping DW's Angy trend alive.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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After seeing the sweet angys that DW has been posting on the website lately. DW has inspired me to follow the trend and follow the trend I did.. even though my angy may not be as big as DW’s angys, but it’s still a nice find. I went to go check out a ditch that DW told me about, but I ended up finding another spot in the process and I found the ditch later on. It was a small clearing where a pond was recently dug, which had layer in it. The pond area was already walked over by someone else, but ... |
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Hunting the cretaceous of Alabama
Greene County, Alabama, USA |
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After digging much of the Eocene of Alabama up, we decided to try our luck hunting the cretaceous marine of northern Alabama. We hunt a lot of cretaceous in Texas, but this was a different environment so despite there being some of the same species, there are also some different ones.
We hit this little creek that was only about a foot deep where we were hunting and there wasn't a lot of gravel to be found. We kind of dug around testing areas and then found a spot where there was a decent a... |
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Back to Alabama
Andalusia, Alabama, USA |
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Well, its been about a year since my last Alabama trip and I've had many dreams of heading back there, literally. I didn't get much time here last November, but this time I planned for a week long dig in the early Eocene deposits of southern Alabama.
This is a site with a lot of digging and sifting the material you dig out of a rather extensive fossil bearing layer. My girlfriend and I set out to really move some dirt. We moved so much dirt that even Ditchweezil would've been proud! We en... |
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Unidentified Eocene Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Unidentified - Shark |
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This is another tooth that I found shifting through the green cap material. It looks almost like a juvenile auriculatus. ... |
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Angy Shamage
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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We had a nice thunderstorm come through the other day. I felt it was my duty to be the first to scour the Big Ditch and collect all of the exposed fossils that crossed my path. Today, I was only able to hunt the sides of the ditch and I was unable to see the bottom because the creek was still stirred up from the recent rain. I did come across one little almost super hero quality angy that had a flawless blade with every little serration and perfect bourlette, but the back side of the root was s... |
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Fossil Hunting Down Memory Lane
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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A few days ago, we had a pretty decent rain and I got a gut feeling to go back to the big ditch near where I used to live. The water was crystal clear, but I was obviously not the first one to walk my previous favorite fossil hunting grounds. I found one nice one that reminded me of the great times I had at this spot over the years. Back when I worked at home before tha weEzlinG was born, I used to ride my bike down to that ditch three times a week and rack on a pretty regular basis. Before all ... |
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Saw Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Pristiophorus sp. |
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My first saw shark tooth. I found it shifting through some green cap that I brought home from my last quarry trip.... |
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Oligocene Giant White Shark (Carcharocles Angustidens) Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens |
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The day I found this tooth I had a gut feeling that I needed to go hunting. I'm glad I listened to my inner fossil hunter because this tooth is probably the best angustidens I've found in 2 years. Teeth of this quality and size are just so hard to find anymore.... |
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Fossil Sand Tiger Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharias taurus |
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I found this tooth stuck in my fossil hunting pockets after I took the group photo for the trip. Its pretty nice so I had to add it for the purposes of accuracy.... |
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Fossil Giant White (Angustidens) Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens |
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I found this killer tooth lying completely exposed on the edge of a pond after a heavy rain. I wish I could have taken a picture of it on the ground because it looked awesome lying against the white ashley formation that it had rinsed onto.... |
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South Carolina Gold
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I pulled into the driveway with 2 hours of sunlight remaining on a gorgeous South Carolina fall afternoon. The temperature was in the mid 70’s with a nice breeze and not a single cloud in the sky. My first thought was to get out of my prison blues and into some fossil hunting fatigues. I gathered up my and tha weezling’s gear and we raced off to the new collecting site. Ever since the other day when we were out there and we both scored some good stuff, I’ve been dying to get back out and find so... |
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The Fossil Hunting Referendum
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Election day was nasty! The rain pounded all day and a cool breeze blew making any outside effort a miserable engagement. Any outside effort except for fossil hunting, that is. An eager weezling jumped at the opportunity to go out and perform our favorite civic duty - pick up teeth in the rain. Away we two went donning rain coats and rubber boots. We walked field after field, pond after pond relieving them of their fossiliferous material. Most of the fossils were broken until we came to our fina... |
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Close call!
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is another turtle from the Early Oligocene of South Carolina. Carolinachelys wilsoni. I recovered it from the marine Ashley Formation. They were the largest turtles on the East Coast during the Oligocene. Some shells measure over four feet long. But even their large size didn't protect them from shark attacks. The shell below has two deep shark tooth grooves on it's back. It survived this one. The shell had already grown back. These large turtles were coming ashore to lay eggs along the Sou... |
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Forest for the trees.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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Over the years I've taken hundreds of fossil collectors into the field. From the "first time collectors" to experienced paleontologists. After watching them for years I've made an interesting discovery. The best collectors are not always the most experienced, or educated, ones. It seems to be a natural ability. Some people seem to be able to pick out a fossil, even when it's the same color as the material it's in. Others will stare at the same spot and see nothing. I've found that people with ar... |
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Snack food
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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When this site started it focused on the fossil shark teeth of South Carolina. The area has a reputation for producing abundant meglodon teeth. And justly so! There has been a lot of research and speculation as to why. Using the modern Great White sharks as a model there's one thing for sure. There had to be a lot of food! To feed a 40 foot shark you need large prey. The obvious target of choice would be whales. Lots of meat and energy producing blubber. But another common food source were the a... |
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Lovely lower
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA - Isurus hastalis |
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Real Nice Hastalis lower... |
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2-3/8 Inch Angustiden
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens |
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A complete angustiden tooth; only slight feeding damage keeps this one from being case-worthy.... |
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Squlodon Incisor
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Squalodon atlanticus |
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A well preserved Oligocene whale tooth... |
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Juicy Mako
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA - Isurus hastalis |
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Biggest tooth of the day... |
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pair of hemiprists
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA - Hemipristis serra |
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a couple of hemi's... |
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5 3/8" Megalodon
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA - Carcharocles megalodon |
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A museum quality piece... |
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Dino squirrels
Florence County, South Carolina, USA |
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At the end of the cretaceous period the mammals were still small and scampering underfoot. One of the more successful groups were the multituberculates. They were small and probably very agile critters. They probably filled most of the ecological niches that today are the domain of modern squirrels. They survived long after the dinosaurs. But in the end they too became extinct. During the last decade there have been several South Carolina sites that have produced dinosaur material. It's all from... |
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A good mistake!
Andalusia, Alabama, USA |
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Last week I posted a trip concerning the discovery of a new echinoid. The location was Berkeley County, SC. As usual, I goofed up, and the location was listed under Andalusia, Alabama. The Ditchweezil came to my rescue again and it's now back in South Carolina where it belongs. But not before I received an Email from "Foshunter". He's a collector from Florida who was going to be in Andalusia collecting that weekend. He said he would be on the lookout for some of the odd echinoids. I Emailed him... |
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We're having a baby!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is the second, of three, new species of marine turtles I've discovered. It will be the holotype and is in the process of being published. It came from the local Chandler Bridge Formation which is Early Oligocene in age. When I first brought it home it was in a plaster jacket. I removed the plaster from the top of the jacket and let it dry for almost a month. Once the Chandler Bridge material is dry it can be easily removed with denatured alcohol, or acetone, and a fine brush. Mrs. Bum gets ... |
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Eocene Cone Snail
Burleson County, Texas, USA - Conus sauridens |
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A nice specimen from the famous Stone City/Whiskey Bridge locality... |
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Eocene Nurse Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Ginglymostoma angolense |
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I made a mistake on labeling this species. This is actually
a rare nurse shark tooth from the quarry. My first one!
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Disappointing start at the quarry
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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I went out to the quarry with thoughts of rics being spread out everywhere because of the recent rains, but I was wrong. I get to the old area and they had a machine putting fill down covering up a lot of the areas where most of the green cap piles use to be exposed. Most of the hunting area was cut short and only a small area was left to hunt. I heard a worker talking about a new side in the quarry and that people were finding a lot of nice teeth there. Not wanting to waste anymore time in the... |
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Peace River gold
Peace River, Florida, USA |
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I dug up a few more photos from the site on the Peace River. One of the photos shows the packed fossils under foot. No need for a shovel here!... |
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Ouch!
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is another one of my decapod specimens from the Middle Eocene, Santee Limestone, of South Carolina. It's from an undescribed species. The largest complete crab carapace I've found to date was 6 and a half inches wide. It had a 2 and a half inch right claw. This claw would have measured 5 inches. That would have made the carapace around 12 inches in diameter. Large pieces of carapace, and another 4 inch claw, were the only other specimens found that are from the same species. Something this ... |
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Fossil Isurus hastalis (Broad Toothed Mako) Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Isurus hastalis |
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Hands down, this is the best preserved Mako I've found in nearly 20 years of hunting for shark teeth at land sites in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. I can't say enough! Its got killer color, its big, the edges are so sharp I literally cut paper with them. And that root is virtually unblemished. Fossilguy was right next to me when I found this gem. Its amazing to find something this well preserved in the reformulated Hawthorne layer. Its so well preserved that it looks like its Chilean.... |
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Fossil Isurus desori Shark tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Isurus desori |
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An absolute gem isurus desori from the ditch next to my house. Its never seen a day of wear in its 28 million year life. So sharp!... |
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Fossil Carcharodon carcharias Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharodon carcharias |
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This was the second of two complete great whites I found on a single day in the ditch by my house. This is a real sweet tooth with killer color and big burly serrations. The root has a little wear, but its awesome for this location.... |
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Fossil Great White Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharodon carcharias |
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A nice, complete little white fossilized modern great white tooth. This is actually the first nice great white I found in the ditch by my house. It was the first of two on one day.... |
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DUMMY! DUMMY! DUMMY!
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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This posting is not about finding giant teeth or claws. It's about leaves. It's about the area of paleontology that gets mostly overlooked by amateur collectors. It's called paleobiology. Life changes to adapt to the changes in the surrounding environment. It's called evolution. If climate changes faster than you can adapt? Good-bye species! Paleobiologists collect the things most often neglected. The pollens, seeds, leaves, diatoms, etc. With these items they bring to life many of our popular... |
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There's teeth in them there hills!
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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The vision of hills filled with teeth detoured me from my trip to Lafarge this weekend. Scubapaul's invitation to dig at Sharktooth hill was to tempting to pass up. Amazingly the plane ticket was about the same amount I would have spent in gas going to Lafarge. So off to California I went to meet up with scubapaul and caldigger. My plane arrived Thursday morning about the same time as SP and with time to kill we journeyed over to the local tacobell and then to the museum to see what the hills of... |
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There's teeth in them there hills!
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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I got an invite back to Digger-Daddy's place and that is mighty tough to pass on. I invited some other members of the BRF brotherhood to attend and only got 1 taker - Rivrdigr. The trip started when we got there on Thursday and met Digger-Daddy over at the museum, which is basically a storehouse for his personal collection. He gave us a personal tour of the collection and caught me up on the changes since my last trip out. We were so tired that we thought about heading back for a nap at the ... |
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So Were the Plans of Mice and Men
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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It has been a while since I gazed upon serrated enamel just waiting to be plucked out of its resting place. This weekend was sure to be grand; LaFarge and diggin’ with DW. And so were plans of mice and men. The weather was sunny, dry and warm; a typical October day in SC. I arrived at LaFarge around 7:30 to find that the primo green cap was being covered by topsoil. As I peered around the pit, I saw a new area of limestone/green cap mixture. However, there were about 30 people on it !! I stroll... |
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A Day in the Pit-Car Area
Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA |
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Two years ago, on the Thursday night before I was to leave for my first ever trip to Aurora, I worked into the wee hours of the night making a screen that would fit perfectly into my backpack. I had heard that screening, while not done often, could be done in the mine and I was taking every measure to be fully prepared. I’ve taken that screen into the mine, tucked away in my backpack, on every Aurora trip since, and each time the voice in my head telling me to leave it home has grown louder. Tha... |
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The jury is out.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I need your help. For jury duty. Everyone raise your right hand. Blah, Blah, Blah. Take your seats. It will be your duty to decide the life, or death, of a new species. Let me lay out the foundation. Several years ago I was collecting in the local Santee Limestone. I was looking primarily for decapods from the Middle Eocene. The formation has a lot of marine fossils, including a good assortment of echinoids. Occasionally I would come across complete specimens and would take them home to clean up... |
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Rain Dancing for Fossils
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Another old post: In one week, my little neck of the woods received well over 6 inches of rain. It came on three different days from severe late summer thunderstorms. Each of the storms were two days apart and were accompanied by strong winds, lightning, power outages, downed trees, the whole works. Being the opportunistic hunter, I walked to my local neighborhood ditch to collect the goodies that surely awaited the lucky first patron. Each day was the same – abundant sunshine, heat, and humidit... |
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Fish Jaw
Andalusia, Alabama, USA - Unidentified - Other |
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Unidentified fish jaw with obvious teeth.... |
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Got crabs?
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I'm infested with crabs. No! Not those kind. Fossil crabs. In July 1996 a publication came out describing 25 new decapods from the Middle Eocene of North and South Carolina. I met the author not long after when I acted as a guide into one of the local quarries. Our friendship was instantaneous and we are now working together on a major publication. The 25 decapods he had described had come from the Santee Limestone formation. It's a hard (like concrete)limestone that runs from southern North... |
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Class is out.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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Okay! Okay! I know I goofed up my last report. I fell asleep leaning on the "paste" button. If the ditchweezil weren't such a strict school master we'd all have a delete function available to us. But he tries to hold us to a higher standard. I would imagine that my GPA is down the toilet by now. But after 20 years on submarines, I've gotten used to having my head in a lot of toilets while on liberty. I learned my lesson. Now it's your turn. Three years ago I got a visit from an old acquaint... |
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Ptychodus whipplei
Dallas County, Texas, USA - Ptychodus whipplei |
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Nicely detailed P. whipplei... |
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Finally landed!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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In the early 1980s suburban sprawl hit the lowcountry. It was then that people learned two things. 1. Life in the lowcountry was great. 2. There were a lot of fossils just beneath their feet. New drainage ditches, and ponds, appeared everywhere. And it seemed that everywhere you dug there were whales. The Ashley and Chandler Bridge formations have been mentioned numerous times in South Carolina trip reports. They date to the Early Oligocene (28-29.5 mya) and are marine sediments. The number of n... |
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Paleo detective.
Peace River, Florida, USA |
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This trip is about a mystery. A story of fossils lost, and then found. It started when I lived in Florida a few years back. I had temporarily moved in with my parents to help out while my mother recovered from an illness. After a few months I read about a local fossil club and decided to check it out. With one TV in the house, and a father in control of the remote control, I was desperate to find some sort of entertainment. The meeting was enough to spark my collecting spirit again. At first... |
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Giant Armadillo
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA - Holmesina floridanus |
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A Giant Armadillo skull from South carolina.... |
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Big Black Megalodon
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon |
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Though river teeth are commonly black, we don't find too many of them at land sites in Summerville.... |
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Tough to get a tooth in edge-wise
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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With all the quality posts being added almost daily to this site, I feel like a slacker not having put up anything in almost two weeks. I'm still catching up old posts, so this one is from a pond that is full of water now. Houses are being built around it! Its sad to see a good fossil hunting place become suburban, but then again it is because of the houses that I was able to hunt there to begin with so I can't be too remorseful. One Saturday afternoon the weEzlinG and I were down in the aforeme... |
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4 1/2" Megalodon Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon |
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By far the best megalodon I've found all year. It's serrated, has great color, and my favorite thing about this tooth would have to be the white lightning streaks that are all over the display side of the tooth.... |
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Shell it out.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today's my 35th anniversary. So Mrs. Bum insisted that I show a few of her items. I figured that if I want to see number 37, I'd best bow to her wisdom. There are three types of fossil collectors. Those that collect vertebrates. Those that collect invertebrates. And those that pick up everything. Literally! I kind of fall in the last group. But Mrs. Bum went through a period where she only collected shells. A brief two years living in Florida got her hooked and she carried it back to South C... |
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Paleo pain
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I think there should be a "Paleo Pain Hall of Fame". A little tribute to all of the amateur fossil collectors out there who have given blood for the hobby. A way to recognize the people who have given so much to society through their collecting, and donations, of fossils. I picture a bronze, let's make that gold, life size T-rex at one of the halls at the Smithsonian, in Washington, DC. A little plaque would be attached bearing the name of every fossil collector who has ever sprained a foot, p... |
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Sweet victory! I score an awesome meg.
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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A few days ago I decided to check out a spot DW had informed me about awhile back. I got to the spot and noticed a small trench had been dug out and a lot of the layer was just barely underwater. When I first started to dig I began to notice this was some really good layer and had that feeling I’m going to find something awesome here. It was that aquamarine colored clay rich with big rocks, whale bones, and pretty colored teeth. I brought my swifter and attempted to swift, but this kind of layer... |
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Playing opossum.
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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I was driving west on interstate 26 last week and noticed a dead armadillo on the side of the road. Fifteen years ago it would have caused a traffic jam. Armadillos just didn't come this far north. But something has attracted them here. And if it's true about global warming, they just might replace the opossum as the redneck traditional Sunday dish. Seeing it on the road reminded me of a project I had three years ago that involved another armadillo in South Carolina. But this one had been dead... |
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Toothache
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is a tail of fossiling gone bad. It's said that each generation should benefit from the mistakes of the previous bunch of numbskulls. That's why it's important to come to this site and read about our "misadventures" so that you wont repeat our mistakes. So listen up class!
A few years ago I decided to take a trip to one of the local creeks. There was a thick layer of Chandler Bridge formation that had already yielded three new species of Early Oligocene whales. The Chandler Bridg... |
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Georgia on my mind.
Statesboro, Georgia, USA |
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I was asked by a friend of mine to make some casts for an interactive exhibit at his museum. Since it was for school children, I could'nt say no. It should come as no suprise that the members of Black River Fossils are active participants in educating the public on earths history through fossils. From school lectures, fossil club displays, field trips and more we do our part in teaching people to enjoy, and respect, our natural resources. One of the things I enjoy is making casts of fossils for ... |
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Table scraps
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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When I asked the "Ditchweezil" to participate in this site I told him outright that "I don't do shark teeth". It's not that I don't find them. You can't go anywhere in the lowcountry of South Carolina without having to stop evry few minutes to empty those pesky 4 inch megalodon out of your boots. Rather, I don't collect them to keep in the museum collections. We have enough megalodons thank you! I do pick up the better ones I come across. They are used as gifts to other collectors, big and small... |
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Gorgeous PB
Bladen County, North Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni |
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tip damage - but a beauty... |
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Discovery Place
North Carolina, USA |
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I'm sure that a lot of the visitors to this website wonder how we find the money to cover our field trips. With rising gas prices it's not so easy now to jump into the old Suburbinobile and head out across country. So to offset my fossil habit I sometimes take on a small job to add to my retirement check. I have a good background in fossil casting and preparation at a major museum. This experience, and a natural art talent, gives me the opportunity to take on some interesting jobs. I recently fi... |
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Scubapaul Came to Town!
Hertford County, North Carolina, USA |
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I have met many really nice people over the last few years. People who are very generous to me with their knowledge, time, resources, friendship, or hunting skills. Blackwaterdiver is one of those people - plus he knows the value of dogs in his life :). He was kind enough to take me out diving to his private spot and let me cloud up the bottom while he hunted for the big ones.
We decided to do an exploritory dive first. They are fun for potential, but this one turned out to be just that - ... |
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The Ego Grinder
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is another old post from a spot where I had some success fossil hunting, but not this time! The layer was very thin and all the rocks were black so all the teeth were black too. There was so much bone around that I really expected some big stuff. This is about 3 hours worth of digging in the bug infested, sweltering SC summer. I'm a guy who likes to come home with at least one thing for the collection every time I go hunting to feel successful, and today I did not feel successful. Everythin... |
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Scubapaul Came to Town!
Hertford County, North Carolina, USA |
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ScubaPaul was down for his PCS trip and decided he wanted to get some diving in while he was down. After coordinating with directions and meeting instructions we decided that Sunday was the day. It started off with a little rain and an overcast sky, but when we were finished diving the sun was out and it started to warm our chilled bodies. The river had cooled off considerably since I was there a month ago... brrrrrrrrr. After the 2nd hour of bottom time I had a hard time keeping the spot fr... |
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Opening of Fall Season in Aurora
Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA |
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I know for a fact that some battles had to be fought to allow anyone to collect this season, especially that close to the working shovels. PCS was very generous in allowing us in at all so I personally was a little disappointed with the 'cost/benefit' comment on saw on elasmo. Nothing against Jim at all and I know in general what he means, but I personally don't think that way. Believe me, I have had dissappointing hunts in the past and *many* hunts where I got less than I hoped for or could ... |
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Quick trip to the creek
Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA |
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I got down for the weekend a little early and had time to hit GMR for a few hours. The weather was about perfect and the water level was good, so as always, hopes were high for some primo great whites and crow shark teeth. Walking down to the spot i usually enter was a challenge - it was heavily overgrown and the picker bushed ripped up my arm pretty good. And, there is little better than dipping your fresh cuts into water with a strong potential for e coli :).
Walking back to the hunt s... |
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1 1/4" Great White Shark Tooth
Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA - Carcharodon carcharias |
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This tooth landed on top of some gravel in about 5 inches of water, in between some large rocks. I saw it from about 10 feet away and was able to take a picture only because I had my river bag in my hand at the time. Other than not being three inches, it has it all - complete root, complete blade and awsome color. My best tooth so far this year!... |
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3/4" Archaeolamna Tooth
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Archaeolamna kopingensis |
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A nice orange colored Archaeolamna tooth. This was a nice find for only a short time collecting.... |
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Gold in Greenville
Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA |
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My daughter and I made a semi-spontaneous trip out to Greensmill Run on Sunday. This was her second time out there and it only took the first trip for it to become her favorite place to hunt. She likes it because there are a lot of teeth to be had even though most are beat-up and/or partial and/or very stream worn. I on the other hand have been itching to explore some other NC locales particulary ones accessable by boat, only, between my car breaking down and issues getting my boat registered in... |
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It really does grow in the wild!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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A few weeks ago tha weezling and I got the itch to do some fossil hunting, but we were sick of going to the same old places. We yearned for fresh hunting grounds, but with no excavation anywhere we knew about, we decided to go on a hike through the woods to see if we could run across a neglected ditch or creek. Summerville is loaded with them, so the chances were good. Through the woods we hiked along the bottom of a dried creekbed. We found a few small teeth and one shamer of an angustidens too... |
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A Day Back in NJ
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Two weekends ago we had planned a trip up to NJ for a short weekend so that my wife could walk in the Susan G. Koman cancer walk in NY City. We were to drive up Friday night and back to NC on Sunday after the walk, visiting family in between. Our plans changed however when my wife’s Uncle passed away on Wednesday, and we had to drive up on Thursday instead. With no one to watch Nolan and Juli on Friday, I needed to find something to keep us occupied while my wife attended the afternoon services... |
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Fossil hunting trip to Inversand Pit in Sewell, Gloucester County, New Jersey
Gloucester County, New Jersey, USA |
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Took another trip to the Inversand Pit in Sewell, Gloucester County, New Jersey on Friday, September 15th, 2006. This time I was tagging along with another fossil group for the day on a last minute invite. Thanks Guys!!! It rained all morning for the drive to the site by the sky parted and it stopped raining once I got there - a good omen!!! Dug the whole day, DW style, and found a large almost complete croc vert and a decent sharks tooth. Need a species ID on the croc but it’s the best one ... |
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big ditch clean up
Berkeley County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is a trip from a few days ago when we received some heavy rains. I was the first one to hit the ditch after the rain had stopped, but I didn’t expect the water to be so high! I focused on the parts where the chandler bridge was exposed a lot of it was actually under water in some areas. I didn’t find much and just a few small teeth. I decided I’d wait a few days for the water to go down and come back. Well, I waited too long and was beat by someone else. They missed a spot along the ditch,... |
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Another sweet tooth is murdered by the machines
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This is a trip from about a week ago. I woke up really early to go hunt some teeth before going to school. I went back to the same spot that I’ve talked about in my previous post. The best thing I found today was probably the 2 inch meg pictured top left. I got a really good ground shot of it fully exposed.. pictured below. I found a mako that would have been killer if it wasn’t for the lousy machines breaking it into three pieces. It’s the mako top row right of the two megs. ... |
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Bummer!
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Back when I used to have a good land spot to hunt fossil shark teeth, I was going there on a nearly daily basis. Now that all those locations are completed, I'm living in the past. This post is from a day when we arrived to fresh digging and no footprints. The kids and I dug until we were out of daylight in fantastic layer, but everything was thrashed! My best tooth was a 4 1/4 inch angustidens. Of course, the tip was missing and the root was badly pitted so all I could say was "Bummer!" when I ... |
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Eocene Crab
Burleson County, Texas, USA - Harpactocarcinus americanus |
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A nice 2.5" Eocene crab fossil ... |
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Summerville Land Found Megalodon Shark Tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon |
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Barely visible, I spied this megalodon peeking out from under the dirt. Its a little worn like all Summerville megalodons, but it has beautiful marbling and is a very light color. Classic Summerville! With so many people collecting, its getting tougher to find these!... |
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Day 2 Post Ernesto Fossil Hunting
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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After reading derik's forum post about the nearly religious dedication to the hunt he displayed, I became inspired. I can hardly wait to see the giant 6 inch monster megalodon he found. Anyway, I put on my weezil eyes and headed out to pick up the scraps that would undoubtedly be few in number. I unwittingly stumbled upon a pond just recently completed. Its edges were graded, so I couldn't dig. But I could walk. Almost immediately upon taking the field on the way to the pond, I was finding stuff... |
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The heat related hiatus appears to be over
Burleson County, Texas, USA |
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Well, its been a long time since I posted a report because I haven't been doing very much hunting. I tend to take the summers off here in Texas. Not by choice, but due to the very high temperatures and how dangerous it can be.
But recently I did make a trip as I had an out of towner who contacted me via this website. We went and did some searching for some shark teeth and some other items. We ultimately were not as successful as I would've liked since what I consider the #1 place for shar... |
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The heat related hiatus appears to be over
Burleson County, Texas, USA |
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Here is the tale of the inexperienced tooth hunter extraordinaire meeting up and fossil hunting with the legendary Rock Splitter for a Texas expedition.
First, let me give a public heart felt “Thank You” to Rock Splitter for his patience and expertise in providing professional grade guide services to an out-of-towner from England. He did a great job and I can’t wait to go back and do it again, I had a great time!
After discovering that I was to be going to the Dallas-Fort Worth area (Wichita a... |
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The Bounty of the Rains
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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This post was from a few months ago when rivrdigr and son came up to hunt in SC. The day they arrived, they met me and my two boys out at the last good pond I was digging. Rivrdigr didn't meet me until about 2/3 of the say through the hunt, but before he got there we were digging with absolutely no luck. Between the 3 of us, we had only found about 10 teeth in about 2 hours. But then an unexpected midday rain storm unloaded on us. The bottom of the massive pond was dry after we arrived, and by t... |
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The Toothing Gods do not smile upon me
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Today I was driving around trying to discover new spots. The spots that I did come across were already finished ponds that did have layer in them, but they had already been walked by someone else and I only found the little scraps that they left behind. Then I went back to another development that was finished, but one area had patches of layer spread out everywhere. This too had already been walked by several people, but the area was not entirely cleaned out. I found two reef sharks and a gia... |
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Fossil Parotodus benedeni shark tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni |
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Not the best preserved, but more or less complete. It comes from the front of the mouth where the teeth are less sickle shaped that the benedeni teeth normally seen.... |
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Digging for more shark teeth - I can never have enough
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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Not an especially productive day digging, but I did come away with a thrashed Parotodus. I actually found it within about 5 minutes of arriving at the dig site. It kept me in the same spot the whole evening hoping for quality that never came.... |
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A Day of First and Second
Hertford County, North Carolina, USA |
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The day started off with a leisurely departure time of 0800. We were all excited to have slept in a little before zooming off with boat in tow for a day on the river. Getting around the beltline proved to be the hardest part of the entire day. All 4 lanes of the inner loop were closed due to an accident so our day was extended by over an hour. We arrived at the first dive spot and jumped in at 12:04pm. The spot only produced one (large) mako blade. We switched to a spot farther downstream ... |
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2 Inch Spear
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA |
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2 inch SC spearpoint... |
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Multicolored megalodon tooth
Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon |
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The colors on this tooth are awesome! Nowhere else but Summerville.... |
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Click the page numbers to see additional items.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
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