With the passing of another year, I thought it would be fun to ask everyone what their most memorable fossil hunting moment was during the past year.  I started hunting for shark teeth just this past April, so my fondest memory of 2007 would be the first tooth I ever found.

I had always been interested in fossils, but had never really tried to find any.  I saw a show on TV about hunting for Meg teeth, and after a little research on the Web, I learned that Meg teeth could be found at Calvert Cliffs.  So, one chilly Sunday in April, I headed down to the State Park with a small sifter and big hopes.  After sifting sand for about 3 hours, I finally hit paydirt- a 5/8 inch Snaggletooth.  It was complete but very worn, with the outside edge serrations completely gone.  To me, it was the greatest treasure in the world.  Today, it is still one of my favorite teeth, and it occupies a place of honor in my Hemi Riker mount.

I hope everyone reading this has a happy, healthy, and toothful New Year!

Tom

Compared to previous years this year was the worst as far as volume goes.  My favorite hunting spot as all but dried up.  In a way this was a good thing since I started a new engineering project at work and I was so busy I couldn't afford to take off much time to escape away for a hunt every now and then.  I also decided to hit a couple other places to look for some rare stuff.  I found two awesome Palaeocarcharodon teeth this year, and one of my nicest Megs from the cliffs came just a month ago.  Man I was so excited to find that Meg.  I only wish I had my camera, but after ruining two digital cameras in two years I can't afford to ruin another one.  My hunt at Lee Creek was a bust.  Everyone seemed to find stuff, but I still had a fun time.  Green Mill Run was also a bust, and again a few other people there that day found some nice teeth.  I did manage to come away with a really nice crow shark tooth in the end.

The winter time is usually the time of year that I set out a card table in the family room and start to sort through all of my findings from the previous months.  Throughout the year my collection seems to reside on paper plates stacked a mile high, and in sandwich baggies full of teeth.  It's work to sort through it all, but it's also really fun because it's like finding the stuff for the first time all over again. 

My plans for 2008 are to resume my two year long study on a particular shark that I working on reconstructing the dentition for. 

Daryl.

My most memorable moment came when I bumped into a fairly new PCS collector in that gray YT soil that has absolutely nothing in it. He had been told by someone (yeah, Mitch!) that I would help him find a meg. Since I am not a tooth collector, all I could do was laugh and sympathize with him at his choice of hunting companion for the day. We sat and chatted a while. As I stood up to leave for the bus, my eye caught a small tooth stuck in side of the gray clay where we sitting. Yeah, it was a "meg"-tiny by most standards-but still a "meg". Just luck of the day!! Of course, I let my companion dig it out and keep it. He'd not have been so lucky if it had been a complete whale periotic with posterior process attached.

ya think?  i don't have any megalodons with a bourlette that small, but i haven't seen as many teeth as you either.

here, in decision 2008 my vote goes to great white. <=^=<

My most memorable find would be the Synechodus lerichei that I found in March 2007. Rarest of rarest among the Creatceous shark teeth to be found in my turf. And when found, it is mostly very worn. But not this baby (pics). I still remember the moment as if it were yesterday, chisseling out that thin line containing the shark teeth when this beauty popped out. Moments earlier I had broken another, not so rare, tooth with the chisel. Thinking that it could have been this tooth that I had smashed still sends the chivers down my spine. And all that after only 15 minutes of work. I guess somebody before me quit too soon.

A good second would be the Cardiaster rutoti echinoid that I found last fall. Also a rare species. (pics)

And .......... I have this nice Mortoniceras from Forth Worth now, but that is officially not a find made by me.....

jax wrote ......Second would be a cool hunt with a fellow collector from the Netherlands.  I traded emails with Paul for a while before our hunt, I picked a old limestone quarry in Fort Worth.  We hunted a while and found a few nice urchins and other goodies before I spotted a huge section of an ammonite.  I called him over and I flipped the big stone to find a whole ammonite.  We had to knock off probably 50lbs of rock just so I could carry it.  That was the biggest, whole ammonite I have found to date, Now it was a home across the pond.  For all of you that may get to hunt with Paul this up coming spring, good luck, hes a real nice guy.

Thanks for the kind words, Justin! To me this was the hunt of 2007. Not necessarily because of the finds, but surely for the company! The images of you finding that ammonite and hammering at that block it was contained in are etched into my mind. BTW, unfortunately we had to cancel the fossil hunting trip to the US East Coast this spring, but Martijn and I are already looking ahead to 2009....

Cheers, Paul