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Here are two links to posts dealing with how to post pictures on Black River Fossils forums.
1. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by ditchweezil
2. How to Post Pictures on Black River Fossils Forums by Daryl
Hello all. I am new here. Just wondering...
What is the biggest tooth you have ever found at Calvert Cliffs?
The biggest complete Meg I've found at my beloved Cliffs is 3-3/8ths. However, I was out there on Thursday, and found a half Meg, with root wear and a chipped tip, that still measured just a bit under 4 inches. [IMG]PICT0003.JPG[/IMG]
My biggest Meg from the cliffs is 3 15/16". If only the tip had been there I would have had my first 4 inch tooth! It was found at night by flashlight on one of the heaviest hunted beaches. That was 2 yaers ago and it is still my best cliffs Meg.
My biggest tooth came my first year of collecting - right at 5". This one came from Brownies. My next largest tooth came from Willows, and little further south, and then Plum Point, again a little more further south. From these locales I have a few 4" to 4.5" teeth. This took 12 years to collect. Other than those few big teeth, I've had to settle for the more common 3" or less teeth. I do have a few pristine specimens that I wouldn't trade for larger teeth of only good quality. If you're after the larger teeth you need to collect further south along the cliffs.
Daryl.
Ok, ok, you're twisting my arm to tell you the story...
It was Dec 1996. I went down to the beach to collect one early Sat morning. I went all the way to the end down by the house and then turned around. I had found the usual assortment of smaller teeth on was on my way walking back along the beach. About half way back there was a small fallen tree that I came to and decided to climb over it rather than walk out further and go around it. It was fairly low so I threw one leg over and then sat down and straddled it like a horse. I was tired and took a short break as I watched a couple other collectors walking up the beach. After my short break I glanced down at the water to make sure I wasn't going to step on a rock or clay boulder as I threw my other leg over the tree. As I looked down at the water, which was only 12" deep at most, I thought I saw what looked like a huge root to a Meg sticking out of the sand at a 45 degree angle. At first I really thought that it must be something else that just looks like a big root. You guys know what it's like when your eye catches the corner of an object and for a split second you think it's a tooth, then you quickly see that it's a rock, or shell, or bone or something else. Well, this thing kept looking more and more like a huge root as I bent over to look at it closer in the water. Being December I wasn't quick to stick my nice dry hands into freezing cold water for something that probably wasn't going to be a tooth, but I decided to stick my hand in, getting wet almost up to my elbow and then grabbed the object. Mind you, I had never really seen a big Meg up close so I didn't know what to expect. As I grabbed it, I decided to plung my other hand in and assisted the other by slowly pulling and feeling along the edges as I pulled it. It wasn't frozen in the sand beneath, but it was in there firm. As I pulled and felt it, I realized it was a stinkin huge tooth. All of a sudden I was holding up it the air, and shouted holy cow!!! There was a collector about 50 feet away walking towards me up the beach who heard me yell so he came over quickly. When he saw what I was holding he couldn't believe it, and neither could I. The tooth is a little worn, and for you Calvert Cliff's collectors, it's one of the darker colored Megs with a grey root and steel blue/grey crown. Overall it's in very good shape. When I got home I showed it to my wife who was just getting out of bed. Til' this day, it's the only tooth that has really ever impressed her. I remember her saying, "now why don't you find more like that one".
Daryl...
Great story. I can only hope to find a 4" plus tooth someday.
My year and 8 month have produced one tooth from Maryland over the 3" mark...a pristine 3 3/16". A few more right around 3". The big ones are very rare!!
Yes, the bigger Megs (4" or greater) are really rare in the Northern parts of Calvert Cliffs. If you're looking for the big guys, you're looking in the wrong place. Yes, there may be an occasional large(r) tooth found, but I've logged probably 400+ trips to Brownies, and I only have a few large teeth in this size range. At our MGS club meetings, I frequently see and hear about large Megs found along the shores of the Potomac on the Virginia side. Apparently it's not too uncommon to find large teeth there, as well as some River banks in VA.
I'm content with what our beaches offer, without wanting to drive for hours to go elsewhere. Right now us Cliff junkies are suffering from withdrawls a bit due to a tooth drought. At the risk of sounding too redundant, it's a simple example of supply vs. demand. Within a couple years of starting collecting, Maryland experienced the remnants of a fairly large hurricane (Floyd I think). Well, if I remember correctly, after the storm blew through, there were new falls from the start of the cliffs and they continued all the way down to the end near the pier. You could practically walk along the tops of the piles from one end to the other. It is from these falls that I believe most of the teeth that I've been finding for the last several years came from. Yes, we still get an pccasional small new fall here and there, but without many of them, and without them getting eaten up by the waves, there's no way to replensish the amount of teeth needed to quench the thirst of all the collectors down there. In some respects it's analogous to Lee Creek when it doesn't rain. No rain, no new teeth. You read that montra every season, especially as the season goes by.
Gotta run, Olympics are back on!