Black River Fossil Forums

	Register Login
	Save this page to del.icio.us Bookmark this page search

January 9, 2009

Fossil Hunting

Fossil Forum

Fossil Articles

Paleo Cartoons

Contact Us

Fossil Hunting Excursions

Image Gallery

Fossil Links

FAQ

Trip Reports

Forums

A quick note about the forums

In order to post on these forums, you must be a registered member of this site. Membership is free and open to all. Use the register link to apply.

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

Forums

Forum Home

Fossils

Shark Teeth

Feel my pain . ...

RE: Feel my pain . . .

8/22/2006 3:51:33 PM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

Thanks, DW. I feel a little better.

8/22/2006 8:26:38 PM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

me too!!

9/18/2006 4:36:57 AM

scubapaul

70 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

okay - this one is a painful memory to me as well, but at least it didnt effect me directly ;) last year i was out at STH and caldigger is out trolling and notices that someone found what he thinks is a small benedeni - the guy has *no idea* what it is. Caldigger tells him to bring it over to me to check out and verify its species. Well...the guy brings it over to me still on the matrix and hands me the chunk of matrix. it was small and tough to see the thickness of the root so I tip the matrix on its' side to see it. Wouldn;t cha know it, the tooth is just sitting on the matrix, not actually in it...and... it happened to be from an area where the teeth are *extremely fragile*. As I tip it I can see it falling in super slow-mo. it hits my boot and explodes into about 5 pieces. I never actually touched the tooth, but did verify that it *was* a benedeni on the way down :O So nobody ask me to check their finds please.

9/19/2006 1:57:55 AM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

My story does not include any crazy storms or devil buffers but its still a good one. I was on a local beach around three years ago and i noticed a large tooth protruding about 50 feet up the cliff face. I could see that 95% of the tooth was sticking out of the cliff. I tought to my self man i wish i could fly. I remember scoping out the cliff all around it trying to find a tree or something that i could repel off in order to get the tooth. It then crossed my mind that if i did that where i was i would end up in jail and i didn't need that. So i asked my dad for his bottle of gatorade. I poured it all out and filled the bottle with sand. I started throwing the bottle up at the tooth hoping that i could hit it with the bottle and cause the tooth to come falling down. I hit the tooth two times a saw it change angle in the cliff. So i was thinking this is pretty good just a little bit harder throw and the tooth is coming down. So i filled the bottle with rocks and threw it one last time. The bottle hit the tooth and down the cliff it came. Yup, 50 foot fall, down to the beach, onto the rocks. Who would have thought that a tooth falling 50 feet onto some rocks would have broken. DUH!!! I picked up the two pieces that where there and realized that i would have had a flawless 5 inch white tooth. The only part that did make me feel a little better is that not all of the tooth came down. One of the root corners that i thought was mostly out of the cliff must have been in depper than i thought becasue it did not come down. What a shame but atleast i did not have to see the tooth in all it's glory before it gote broke.

9/19/2006 5:29:19 AM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

I have two short stories...The first involves fossil collecting, the goof part involves my glasses. A few months ago my buddy and I went collecting along the Potomac River. After our long walk back to the cars, I got changed out of my waders and back into the sneakers. However, while doing all of this I had taken my glasses off and put them on the roof of my car with my car keys - so I wouldn't forget to grab them. Well, we were changed and ready to go. I grabbed my keys, jumped in my car, and started to speed off - when I heard this weird sound like something sliding across my sun roof and down the rear windshield - yep, it was my glasses. I slammed on my brakes, only to have my friend almost slam into the back end of my car, and jumped out while he was wondering what the heck I was doing. I yelled, "my glasses!". Well, I found the flattened frame about 100 feet behind our cars in the road, one lens was about 20 feet from the frames, and the other lens is still there somewhere. This was a $200 goof!

My next story actually invovles a shark tooth. After collecting down at the beach a couple months ago, and not finding hardly anything except a pretty nice lower cowshark tooth, I walked back ot my car to change out of my waders and head back home. While changing I decided to take that cowshark tooth out and look at it a bit (mistake #1). Although I have hundreds of these, this was a rare find since the beach has been getting pretty well picked over. I decided I didn't want to set it back in the platic container (mistake #2) and possible jossle around and have the fragile root break off. I decided to set it down in the narrow space where the trunk on my hatchback comes down (mistake #3) on this nice little hard black plastic "stop" that the trunk lid rests on as it shuts. Well, in a hurry, I finished getting changed, grabbed my keys, shut the trunk lid, and sped off down the road to my favorite McD's for a breakfast sandwich & soda. When I parked and stepped out of my car, that horrible thought and feeling of "oh man, my shark tooth" ran through my head. Believe it or not, I actually thought before I opened the trunk, that maybe somehow I got lucky and the tooth slid down that narrow channel and got stuck somewhere...NOPE! As I opened the trunk I immediately looked at the spot where I set the tooth, and there it was, turned to dust and crumbs! As it turns out the trunk lid has one of those hard plastic stops that comes down and meets the one on the car and - smash! Oh well - I'll never do that again.

9/20/2006 12:44:08 AM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

Looks like there are a lot of stories out there. Keep 'em coming. Now I know I'm not alone.

10/20/2006 3:09:09 AM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

About a year ago my husband got a wild hair. When he was about 7 which was about 25 years ago he was visiting a friend overnight on their family trip to the beach and stayed in Summerville. He remembered a creek and lots of teeth that in found the morning he was leaving. Well we hunt teeth at the beach mainly Myrtle around 3rd Ave. South. The wild hair was we were going to leave on a Friday night and drive the 6 hour drive to hunt in this creek from his childhood and come back Saturday night. We found Summerville and a creek but there was nothing where we were looking. We asked everyone. We even stopped at the fire dept. But no one knew anything about shark teeth in their creek. So home we went that night. Finding nothing but A CREEK! And now a year later I finally found the information we so much needed a year ago. Thanks so much you guys! Maybe the next wild hair he gets will bring at least a tooth out of the ride and not just a CREEK.

10/20/2006 5:07:17 PM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

Well here is a feel my pain.. last weekend my 6 year old son and I had just started our search in a local creek and not 5 min into it we found a nest of ground bees..6 stings and no teeth.....

10/24/2006 12:58:22 AM

xiphodan

19 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

A couple of weeks ago, after the first week’s miserable report was posted for Aurora, I received an email to see if I would want to go with October 14th’s group. Figuring it’s always better to get in earlier, I took the date. My original date was for this past Saturday, the 21st. Not that I didn’t have a great day, but thinking that I was so close to being in the first group to collect a new area in the open pit............Ouch!!!!!!

11/27/2006 6:39:41 PM

legacyForum

725 posts

RE: Feel my pain . . .

On a recent trip (back in Oct) to GMR I found an unusual
tooth in my screen. At first I thought it was a small
piece of horse tooth. It was had a beautiful black sheen
to the enamel, although some of the enamel along one side was missing. After looking through some fossil books and
photos of ice age mammal teeth, I realized it wasn't part
of a small horse tooth, but in fact a giant beaver molar
instead. I continued searching for photos and information
on this extinct mammal and further realize I had found an
incisor tooth from this animal in the creek. I remember
finding what (at the time) looked to be a piece of bone material that was lined with striations running its length.
It struck me as odd, so I tossed it up on the bank. After
many hours of digging and screening, I decided I wasn't going to find the nice great white I was hoping for and
called it a day. I remember thinking wether or not to put
that piece of curved bone in my back pocket on my way out
or just leave it. Guess what the "king of idiots" chose
to do? That's right. I thought to myself that I can come back and find bone material here anytime. I broke the rule
I've told my son a thousand times - If you don't know what
it is or it strikes you as strange, keep it! I probably left
the best thing I've ever had in my screen at GMR just lying
on the bank to be easily discovered by someone else. As a
matter of fact, just thinking about the things I've had in my screen that were just tossed out as junk is enough to
keep me up at night. I will take a pic of the molar I did
keep and send it to ditchweazil to see if he can attatch it to this post.

Page 2 of 3