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cretaceous finds
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Here are some of our finds from the cretaceous streams of New Jersey. Along with finding fossils from the cretaceous my father and I have also had luck finding pleistocene mammal teeth as well as Native American artifacts. We haven't visited cretaceous streams for a while as we have spent most of our time lately at Eocene and Miocene localities but hopefully we find time soon to collect at one.... |
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back in action
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Me and my Dad haven't been out collecting much because his back has been hurting but today it was feeling better so we went to an Eocene/Miocene stream. I dug in a spot that has always produced teeth in the past so I hoped this time would be no different. When I arrived at the spot I could see that new material had been deposited. The day started off pretty slow and I was finding mostly broken sandtigers.I did however, find a piece of cow shark and a small but nice mako so I continued to dig in ... |
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Summertime success
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This Summer started off great with my last post and since then me and my Dad found quite a few nice things. We didn't find any more complete rics or chubs but we both found fossils that are firsts for us. On the first trip we took after my last post we didn't find much in the beginning. We both dug for hours and didn't find anything besides common teeth. After we both collected for 3 hours my Dad found a new spot which looked very productive so we tried it. We immediatley started finding teeth. ... |
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a great day in NJ
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Last weekend my Dad and I tried a new spot and we had the best day we've ever had. The day began great right away when I found a 2 5/8 inch chub in my 3rd sift. The trip was already a great one. A few sifts later I found a beautiful 2 inch desori and while I searched through the same sift a little more I found a really nice 1 5/8 inch lateral desori. Finding 2 really nice makos in the same sifts is extremely rare in NJ. At this point I couldn't believe my luck. Then a few minutes later to my ama... |
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Happy Squali-days
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Happy Holidays to all. I managed to get two December trips between the monsoons and the blizzard here in NJ. Surprisingly, work took me to North Jersey and I crossed several good streams on my way. I figured I'd hit some Cretaceous spots on the way back. I was extremely lucky to happen to travel on 2 days which had near perfect stream conditions after extremely high prior conditions, and I was bound and determined to find a Mososaur tooth. I spent 12 hrs looking between the 2 trips but the M... |
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Good times, Great finds
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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These finds are the best finds from August, September, and one trip from October. They include a 2.5 inch pathological chub, a 2 inch ric, 2 inch otodus, a smaller chub, and a ric blade that is 2 3/8 inches long. I also ended up finding another arrowhead and so did my Dad. We also ended up finding a nice mako, hemis, a 2 inch Striatolamia and a small posterior tooth which looks like it is probably a ric. The last few trips I have not been finding much of anything but each time ... |
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Ramanessen Finds 8-20-09
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I am wondering if any of you kind hearted fossil hunters would be good enough to share information on where to fossil in Monmouth County. I have been taking my kids for years to Big Brook and Ramanessen Brook but I am very curious about where else to go . My email is mikegrutt@aol.com and I would forever be in your debt for any new information you can give me. We would love to meet up and go fossiling with you if you wouldnt mind(my son is 11) Thanks Mike... |
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artifacts and an Otodus
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This post is a combination of my last 2 trips to an Eocene/Miocene spot. On the first trip we went collecting with friends who we met on a past trip. We decided to try a spot that has produced nice fossils in the past.We didn't get alot of teeth but at the end of the day we ended up with a chub blade, a broken Otodus, and 3 Native American atifacts. One looks like it was the bottom of a spear point which was reworked. On the next trip we did some exploring and found a spot that looked good. We d... |
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quality not quantity
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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These are the best finds of our last three trips. We didn't find alot of teeth but my Dad and I did end up finding some nice things. My Dad found an arrowhead and a chub in the same sift. We also found two mammal teeth in the same spot, we think they are horse teeth probably from the Pleistocene. I also found the biggest Striatolamia in my collection, it is 2 1/4". The same day as the Striatolamia I found a sawfish spine and what I believe to be a Benedini, However it may be an Otodus with ... |
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Feb. 28th - March 5th
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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In late February, Toothsnob invited me to a site where he had gotten into a sweet spot the weekend before. It isn't the easiest place on the river to access and the conditions are pretty tough, especially in winter. Toothsnob had arrived earlier on the 28th, and as usual I arrived later since I have better than a 1 1/2 hour ride and usually have to drop off my kids at Pop's house on the way. When I got there, Toothsnob had already done a l... |
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awesome auriculatus
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I haven't posted anything for a while due to the fact that I have not been finding anything fantastic.Our usual collecting area hasn't been producing anything great,so about a week ago my father and I decided it was best to do some exploration and boy did it pay off!! The day started off pretty slow and at first we doubted that the new spot would be a productive one. It wasn't until I found a decent mako that we both realized that this new spot had potential. The material we w... |
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From Nov 2008 - A day with Toothpuller
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This past Sunday Toothpuller, a guest and I were finally able to synch up schedules and spend a few hours in a Cretaceous aged Monmouth County, NJ creek. It was a little cold and breezy but the walk, some overburden labor and a chest waders kept us warm. The site has potential for some pristine teeth and although some were found, there was not an over abundance so we enjoyed what bounty our shovels were able to uncover. Toothpuller found some really nice stuff, including a nice sawfish tooth.... |
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frozen hands and feet
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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On Saturday my Father and I decided to dig for Eocene/Miocene fossils.We went to the spot where I found an otodus and many auriculatus blades.I had a good feeling about today and was hoping I would find something nice.When we got to the stream I started to dig.within the first 15 minutes I found a beautiful 3 inch point.My day was already made.Later in the trip I found a small otodus and some auriculatus blades, not to mention some nice makos. I also found some kind of... |
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the beautiful sight of serrations
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Here are some of my best New Jersey Miocene/Eocene finds from the beginning of the summer onward. I've found some rics and chubs but what really got me excited was when I found an aksuaticus. I also found a nice squalodon tooth and a 2 inch croc tooth!.
keep on collecting! ... |
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My Sign to Start Posting
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I got up bright and early (with my neighbor and my brother) Thursday morning to make my last pilgrimage to an Eocene locale in Monmouth County before heading back to school in Virginia. I’ve been to the site maybe 6 times this summer, and every time the site produces an incredible amount of teeth and always a good amount of great quality. Its going away present, though, was something I was not expecting in the least.
The original plan was to scou... |
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sometimes "potential" is more exciting than anything
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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On Sunday, me and a buddy checked out a spot that I had been meaning to get to for at least 4 years. We didn't find too much but the spot has good potential. I ended up with a couple small sand tigers and a couple scraps of bone and 2 very interesting teeth. The first was a Squalicorax-like tooth that I immediately knew was something different than the plentiful Squalicorax teeth I regularly encounter. It turns out that it probably is Pseudocorax affinis, a species which seems to primaril... |
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decent day
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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On Saturday I went back out to one spot I have been collecting. There was a chance of t-storms, but I decided to stick it out when at around noon one blew through. Luckily, it didn't last long and never really hit where I was dead on, but I did end up getting soaked which isn't really unusual for me. The weather cleared up after that and turned out to be a great day. The teeth were consistently showing up even though I had to move a lot of material. I didn't find anything too spectacular... |
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camping out in the campanian
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This is the best of the stuff I have found in the last month or so of Cretaceous collecting here in NJ. My buddy Toofsnob and I have been looking for a spot just like this one for the better part of a year and we finally found it about a month ago. It kind of happened by accident, but the only reason I was so thorough digging in the area was because I had a sneaking suspicion that I was on the right track. The spot produces some awesome quality teeth for NJ. I have been slightly confused by the ... |
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more cretaceous fun
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Not too much to say except this is from the past 2 weekends of collecting. Some nice Cretaceous teeth, the best things were 2 small worn mosasaur teeth and what I believe is a worn plesiosaur tooth.... |
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waiting for the thaw
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This past weekend we went back to the spot that we found the previous weekend collecting on the nastiest day of the winter so far. The weather was much better but the water is still cold and with my waders in a constant state of disrepair it was a little uncomfortable having soaked feet all day. The finds were fairly consistent with good teeth showing up here and there, but there weren't as many awesome condition ones as I thought there may be. The most interesting things I found were a worn Mo... |
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frozen waders
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Sunday was rough. Temps hovering around 20F and the wind was ripping a little as well. But toofsnob and I ventured out and did a little more exploring in a Cretaceous spot. The first couple of hours were very slow but we covered a lot of ground and then we found a nice little spot with some definite potential. We were getting a couple keepers in each screen, nothing really special but I did get a pretty good condition small mosasaur tooth. Our neoprene waders were freezing right on us,... |
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all or nothing
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Total Man Hours: 30+
Sand/Gravel Moved: ???? easily measured in tons
The Spoils: 3 nice Otodus, a 1.75" S. macrota, 3 Pristis, and a worn native american point
This summer we needed something for those lazy/short/tired/hungover days of collecting. I had a plan for a team dig at a not very productive spot, but where I knew there are SOME teeth, namely Otodus. Toofsnob agreed to give it a shot and the first day ... |
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mid january swim
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Saturday toofsnob made the call, we were gonna try site X. The conditions weren't going to be optimal due to recent rains, but the weather was too nice to pass up, a sweltering 50F and sunny. We were basically swimming but at least we weren't freezing to death. My day started off pretty good, got a decent small chub in my first screen, but I knew it was just a lucky start. I switched to another area and later with the help of Snag-A-Tooth moved a large obstacle that helped me get into where I wa... |
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a good start
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Cleaning up some small piles of Cretaceous teeth from some short lazy outings recently... But to top things off I made my first trip of the year to a popular stream on Sunday with low expectations but came back with my biggest mosasaur tooth so far at almost 2.25". It isn't in great shape, its missing almost all of the enamel as is typical of Mosasaur teeth from this stream, but its complete so I am very pleased with it. As I started washing that fateful sifter full of gravel I immediatel... |
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no xmas surprises
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I was hoping to get lucky the day after Xmas and pull something really neat from this Cretaceous spot, maybe a nice Mosasaur or something, but instead just got the usual sharks teeth for the most part. Pictures are combined with another pretty short trip to the same spot on Sunday which was very slow. The most interesting find was a pristine nurse shark tooth, probably Cantioscyllium decipiens but it is too small for me to get a good picture of. ... |
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slow, deep, cold
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Not much in my last 2 trips to the Eocene/Miocene site. Dug a long time on Saturday and hit a little pocket of teeth but I couldn't tell where they were coming from. And Just as quickly and unexpectedly as they appeared the pocket completely dried out. The best find was probably the first ray scute from the site. Isolated ray piece plates are overwhelmingly abundant and I had been wondering for a while why we didn't find any scutes. But finally I got one. ... |
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second chances
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I decided to give this Cretaceous spot a second chance this weekend. It was very close to another spot which had been fairly good but for some reason when I checked it the first time this summer nothing turned up even though it looked promising. But on its second chance the teeth started to show immediately and some were in beautiful condition. I dug twice for about 8 hours and this is most of the haul. The most interesting find was the Xiphactinus (tarpon) vert, a fairly common fish find ... |
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oldies but goodies
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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A collection of material from a couple trips to a Cretaceous spot way back in the summer. Some of the findings are from stream screening and the smaller stuff was from closer inspection of material brought back home. Theres some pretty neat small stuff in there but I don't feel like listing it all. I am particularly fond of the juvenile Squalicorax teeth. ... |
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slowing down
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This is a combination of a bunch of short trips over the past couple weeks. Things have really slowed down for me and its getting pretty cold out there. The Peccary tooth is my best find, but its not nearly as nice as the other 4 I have seen from the site. ... |
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back at it
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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These are my finds from a long 2 days worth of digging this weekend. I'm sore from it all but its always fun when you're finding teeth. The highlights are my largest mako and largest sand tiger from the site as well as what I'm going to say is a Squalodon tooth. ... |
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never leave fish (teeth) to find fish (teeth)
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Toofsnob and I braved intermittent heavy rain on Saturday for a few hours. It wasn't much fun and I found very little. Toofsnob actually managed to do pretty well despite it all by finding a couple nice chubs and an awesome eocene mako tooth. The only interesting thing I found was a dermal plate of an Ostracion sp. boxfish, the first from this site. On Sunday I broke an old fisherman's rule to go to another site that was some hours away and was completely skunked! ... |
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old trip
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This is from back in the summer. I don't remember much except that it was hot and we only stayed a couple hours. Toofsnob and I went to one of my old spots and it had some potential. I got a few decent teeth, 2 fragments of Mosasaur, and a really beat fragment of a Xiphactinus tooth. The best find was a near pristine sawfish (Ischyrhiza mira) tooth that only has a tiny chip in the root. ... |
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back to my church
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Services ran long on Saturday and I got lucky and ran into a little pocket of pretty nice chubs. I even got 2 posteriors which I almost never find from the site. The area really didn't seem that productive, but it ended up being a good day even though I thought it was going to be a real slow one when I started. I even pulled out half of a 3.25" chub, and I was just relieved to see that it was already broken millions of years before my shovel could do the same job much more easily. ... |
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another long weekend
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It started real slow for me on Saturday. I had been digging at least 5 hours and did not even yet find a decent mako or fragment of a chub. Instead I was picking up ridiculous quantities of smaller teeth just to fill my bag up for the day. I thought I would go home defeated, but then the nice chub came. I had toofsnob pull it from my screen because I was scared it would be broken if I touched it first. But it wasn't. Sunday was fairly slow also, but I did get a couple xiphos and makos by the end... |
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walls of schmutz, screens of gold
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It was a pretty good weekend at the hot spot. A new system has been developed and even these real tough spots to dig are yielding their bounties at a nice pace. The variety was good and I got a few winners like the 2" chub that I managed to pull out without incident from my shovel. I did break at least 4 smaller ones though, but oddly I managed to get every mako out cleanly. Most of the finds came fast and furious on Sunday morning, then I had a big drought of about 4 hours in which I was p... |
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pushing through the schmutz
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This is my haul from two weekends back. We had to dig through a ton of schmutz to get to the good stuff in this spot, but it was worth it and ended up not being as painful as expected. I did break off a piece of rootlobe of the larger chub but I was able to glue it back together and it looks okay even though the tooth has some other minor damage. I ended up getting a few makos and a nice amount of some of the slightly rarer, mostly eocene species. To top things off I found the land ma... |
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a lot of mediocre
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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This is about 4 trips worth to and Eocene/Miocene spot. Theres nothing really spectacular, I broke the best and biggest teeth as always at this spot. But the last of the trips yielded the fairly complete 2" range chub and mako and oddly I didn't break either of them. I am hoping it was due to the new shovel that I had to order from Nevada. Hopefully this weekend it continues to extract some nicer intact specimens. ... |
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a little E&M
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It was me and toofsnob on this trip to an Eocene/Miocene site. We were doing reclamation work mostly and the finds were decent. Toofsnob's find of the day was a small P. benedeni, not bad. I was actually doing pretty well for most of the day, but by pretty well I mostly mean that the interesting teeth I was getting I wasn't breaking for the most part. But as always that didn't last... I got a small chub that I damaged slightly and then the heartbreaker would be 2.5" one that I tota... |
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Outted!
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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On this day, me and two of my collecting buds, who will hereafter be referred to as toofsnob and the schmutzking, made a bad decision and ended up doing some exploration at a site that was a total bust. So after 3 hours we high-tailed it to one of our old faves, a popular Cretaceous stream. I was not expecting much because we did not have that much time and weren’t going to venture too far off the beaten path, but we all needed a little bit of instant gratification. But when we got to t... |
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Fossil Stop in NJ
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It was my Niece's 1st Birthday last weekend so early Friday afternoon I packed the kids into the car so we could complete the 9 hour trek to NJ before it got too late. We stayed at my Mother's in Lakewood which is just a stone's throw from the fertile fossil grounds of NJ and with a four hour window Saturday morning I couldn't pass up the opportunity to expand my NJ collection.
My daughter Juli and I arrived at the stream at ... |
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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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Rhino!?
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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One of the most fulfilling aspects of fossil hunting is finding an obscure item that looks like “something” and being able to identify it at home after spending a couple hours doing some research. One of the most frustrating aspects of fossil hunting is finding an obscure item that looks like “something” and not being able to identify it at home after many hours of research, and then having to throw it into the black hole that is my unID’d bin, almost certainly never to be seen again. It’s a ver... |
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My Days Are Numbered
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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As my days of regular collecting in NJ draw to a close, I’ve been hoping to find just one more really killer tooth before I relocate to North Carolina. My short list included any one of a nice Chubby, Ric or P. Benedeni. Not that I don’t appreciate the all of the great teeth I’ve found here, but I know that finding nice teeth of these species in NJ requires time and a lot of luck. Well I’m just about out of time and with only one or two trips left before I go, today was a day of exceptionally hi... |
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Familiar Waters
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today was a happy return to the familiar streams of New Jersey. I filled my first screen at about 5:40 AM with the temperature around 45 deg and little wind - very nice collecting conditions. I was meeting up with JP and Tooth Monkey today and prior to their arrival was able to score a couple of nice teeth out of an area that I had worked briefly on a previous trip. The spot had produced mostly partials in the past, but today it seemed to produce a nice tooth on just about every load. JP arrived... |
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Cold Feet All Around
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I met up today with fellow NJ collector JP for an afternoon of shoveling gravel. The forecast was for sun and 48 deg F but that must of been for some other New Jersey as it felt much colder with clouds and light rain. I worked a downstream spot for the first half of the outing, before JP arrived, but while I had planned on “shoveling gravel” I wasn’t ready for the literal interpretation - teeth were few and far between. I moved to an upstream location where the dry spell continued until I came u... |
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Heat Wave in January
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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For the past 4 weeks I’ve been in overdrive trying to finish my household to-do list that’s been growing for the last ten years in an effort to get my house ready to sell. During that period, I’ve been watching some of the mildest January weather NJ has ever seen go by, hoping that it would hold out long enough for me to make it out to the stream. The opportunity to get out finally came and the conditions couldn’t have been better: a dry week leading into the weekend, no wind and temps 30 to 50 ... |
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What Better Way To Start Off The Year
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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The car thermometer read 31 deg F as I pulled into the parking area this morning and as I looked down toward the stream I was relieved that the water was only a foot or so above normal from yesterday’s rain - not ideal for collecting but certainly manageable. I spent the first hour searching a new stretch of stream that proved to be fairly devoid of teeth. For the second hour I worked an old reliable spot, but with the added foot of moving water, getting even 1/4 shovel full of gravel off the bo... |
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Boot Full 'o' Fossils
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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My daughter and I headed back to the spot that produced the nice Cretaceous finds a couple of weeks ago. The weather was cold, but sunny with no wind. She wore her new hip boots with the specific instructions not to go in above her ankles, which isn’t too prohibitive considering even the deepest holes on the stream are only up to her waist (and those are few and far between). I loaded, then washed the first screen full of gravel and Juli picked out an awesome goblin shark upper lateral tooth, wh... |
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Who Needs Shark Teeth?
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Saturday was a father/daughter fossiling day with my daughter being able to sport her new hip boots for the first time. Our plan was to hunt Ramanessin Creek for a while in the morning and then make a stop at an Eocene/Miocene stream in the afternoon. We started out on a section of Ramanessin that I had never hunted before. After about 45 minutes of finding very little, Juli informed me that the back of her pants got wet from getting down too close to the water, so we quickly headed back to the ... |
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After The Flood
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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The deluge we’ve been receiving for the past couple of weeks finally let up enough to make a trip without worrying about where the nearest fast water rescue team was stationed. The water was probably 12 inches high, but based on all the debris laden underbrush, it was obvious that the water had been 5 to 6 ft higher than normal before receding. While I wasn’t able to scan any gravel bars, the area I had been working during the past few trips had some new life due to the sand being washed out, e... |
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Cold Feet
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It’s been almost a month since the last productive trip to my favorite Eocene/Miocene site and expectations were high for today’s return visit. The temperature was 42 deg F on the car themometer as I pulled in to park at 7:00 AM and being that I had left my waders at home, I was hoping the water would be a little warmer - it wasn't. I spent the first hour working to pry my shovel between the large chunks of impression filled rock that mark the fossil rich reworked layer, scoring a nice anterior ... |
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Another Day Out With The Kids
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today was another opportunity to be out with my kids while my better half was at work - fossiling in the morning and Sesame Place in the afternoon! We went to our familiar spot at Ramanessin and while we didn’t come up with any real killer shark teeth, we did manage a tiny, somewhat dinged, but complete mosasaur tooth and a good variety of Enchodus (fish) material. Upon arrival back at the car, I noticed some trace evidence of a visit by the famed Gerry Case. Two fliers on the car, one for his “... |
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Makos, Makos, Makos
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Signs of the impending Fall season were evident today, as I was greeted by a couple of Great Horned owls exchanging calls as I arrived at the stream parking lot at 6:00 AM - it was still dark. The temperature was a cool 63 deg F and as I waited for ToothMonkey to arrive, I decided to shovel a few screens in the stream right adjacent to the parking lot. Sporting my headlamp, I sifted about 5 screens and after picking up a decent Hemi, TM arrived and we headed out to where he scored the nice Ric t... |
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A Nice Day of Fossil Hunting and Sandal Cleaning
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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My wife ended up working today, so being that I took my kids to Sesame Place the last time she worked, I decided today was going to be a fossiling day!! My daughter really enjoys being on the stream but my son, who’s almost 3, can be a little particular in his needs. It took us many screaming episodes to get him to wear sandals this past spring and now he won’t wear anything but. At the same time if he gets so much as a grain of sand in them, he screams like a banshee. Put all that together whi... |
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A Day Out With Friends
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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NJ Hunt - 8/20/2005
After weeks of planning, a number of like-minded fossil enthusiasts meet in Monmouth County, NJ to look for some of our favorite shark teeth. Paleoscan and his wife, Xiphodan, Wrong way Rob and another fellow descended into the NJ muck.
The tooth du jour today was suppose to be squalicorax - crow sharks - the favorite and name sake tooth of paleoscan’s sweet boat. We spent several hours at different spots along the creek but as fate sometimes has it, he struck out wi... |
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A Day Out With Friends
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Fossiling can sometimes be a very solitary hobby but it is definitely at its best when shared with others. Exchanging stories and experiences, along with being able to see finds other than your own can really turn an “OK” day into an unforgettable one. M4 and myself had planned on meeting up today for the past two months. He and Mr. and Mrs. Paleoscan were going to meet at Ramanessin at 12:00. I was going to meet them there along with “KL” and Rob from Times Scientific after a brief Eocene/Mioce... |
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A Day Out With Friends
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Mrs Paleoscan reporting.
Given the glowing description of my finds (yes, when hunting as a couple, all
of the finds are mine), I decided I had to upload a couple of pics of the
gorgeous goblins. Unbeknownst to our hunting buddies, when we returned to the
Ramanessin on Sunday the 21st, we added a Mososaur tooth to our bounty (it
too is pictured). We were also blessed with three small worn squalicorax
that had eluded us the day before. It seemed poetic justice after the boys
cruelly shot... |
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A Day With My Daughter : Stop-1
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I’ve had today marked on my calender as a fossiling date with my daughter Juli for the past 4 weeks. We were going to Join Roy and Rob from Times Scientific at Ramanessin at 12:00 for their “Kids Dig” event, and decided to make a short stop at an Eocene/Miocene stream for a little fossil appetizer. The weather was absolutely beautiful, which was a great departure from the 100 degree days we’ve been dealing with for the past week. Not having alot of time, and not wanting to be late for the “Kids ... |
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A Day With My Daughter : Kid's Dig
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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We made it to the Ramanessin parking lot by 11:50 and met up with the Times Scientific Crew for their "Kid's Dig". The event is open to all and screens and shovels are provided - its an excellent opportunity for kids to be introduced to the world of Paleontology and Times Scientific does a great job running it. Thanks Roy and Rob! Check out the trip on their Website: www.TimesScientific.net - (it may not be posted at the time of this posting but keep checking in). We made our way down to the str... |
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Back to Reality
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I ventured back onto the stream this morning well prepared with a full bottle of bug repellent and plenty of water to quench what I hoped would be a good thirst from opening and closing my tooth container all morning. There was certainly a decent quantity of teeth to be had in the three hours I was out, but the really nice teeth must have sensed the bug repellent on my hands as none were to be found. There were a few in the “Killer if it was whole” category, two beat up Carcharocles blades and a... |
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Screening With The Skeeters
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today’s quest of expanding my collection of chubutensis teeth wasn’t quite as successful as my contribution at expanding the breakfast menu of the local insect population. I returned to the area where I found the nice chubbys on the last outing, but to no avail. I spent my first hour being patient, going through many screens without so much as a broken blade, but eventually I had to give in and make a move. I walked upstream a little bit and took a couple of scoops of gravel from behind a partia... |
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Pay-Gravel!!
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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The seeming eternity of the past two and a half weeks ended today as I was able to get out and continue working the area that produced the relatively high number of partial chubutensis teeth on the last outing. The long wait turned out to be well worth it as the stream yielded not only one, but two really nice chubbys, either one of which would have made the day and then some. Other nice finds included a couple of makos and a thresher tooth. The head scratcher of the day was an approx. 1/3 compl... |
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Getting Closer to the Carcharocles
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today I met up with fellow NJ collector "KL" and headed to an Eocene / Miocene stream we had both collected at previously. We started at an area where I had scored some decent teeth on past trips. Within the first hour, I was able to come up with a small, partial chubutensis and an auriculatus blade. Not a bad start, but other than those finds and KL’s nice little Hemi, the area seemed to quickly dry up, so we decided to move on to another location. We walked a ways along the stream to our secon... |
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Even My Daughter Finds Bigger Teeth Than Me
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today’s miserable morning turned into a great afternoon which allowed my 7 year old daughter Juli and I to get out for an impromptu fossil outing. I was worried that with all the rain we’ve had in the last 24 hours the water would be too high for Juli, so I brought a blanket along to set her up on the bank, away from the water, where we both could scan the screens just in case. Upon arrival I could see that the water was high and we would have to stick with scanning on the blanket as planned. Th... |
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The NJ Miocene Season Opener
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I was finally able to get back out to my favorite Eocene/Miocene stream which I stayed away from for a while as not to annoy too many hunters and fishermen (one hunter had a tree stand overlooking my favorite spot throughout the winter). Also, with all the rain we’ve had, the deeper water in said stream has been pretty much unworkable. Well hunting season is over, the trout fisherman are moving on to bass and the water level has finally dropped - its time to find some big(ger) teeth!! That was m... |
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Springtime comes to the Cretaceous
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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With the weather and the water finally warming it seems that spring is finally here. I was able to get out for some rare mid-week fossiling this week, so I returned to my familiar Cretaceous locale to hopefully pick up another mosasaur tooth or maybe a nice 2" goblin tooth before I begin collecting back at the Miocene streams that produced so well for me last summer. The stream was a little high from all the rain early in the week but it was nice to see that things had been churned up a little b... |
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Is It Springtime Yet?
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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It was another cold morning of fossiling in NJ. The forecast called for a high of 41 deg F, but as I pulled into the parking lot at Ramanessin it was 7:00AM and my car thermometer was reading 16 deg. I added my final couple of layers, put on my chest waders and headed down to the stream. Thankfully there was no snow to contend with as the weather has been in the 40's and 50's regularly in the past 2 weeks. Excited to get back to the spot where I’ve been scoring the mosasaur teeth, I walked quick... |
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One way to cure another Eagles season that falls short
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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After last weekend successful trip (and Eagles loss) I decided the best way to deal with the frustration of another Eagles season coming up short was a fossil trip. As I was driving to NJ there was no snow in sight. It looked like spring was on its way. It was only when I got to Monmouth County did I start to see that winter still held its icy grip. The walk to the site still included trudging through 6 inches of snow on the deer path through the woods. Not the best conditions for hip waders bu... |
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Fossiling in a Winter Wonderland: The Thaw
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Well, after years of ogling all of the awesome fossils posted on ditchweezeil’s site, and living vicariously through his hunts while sitting at a work cubicle doing the 9 to 5 grind, I’m finally making a post for a trip. It’s not for one to a spot for my favorite stuff - Miocene Marine Mammals, but it is for the shark tooth site closest to my home (100 miles one way) and from the area where I found my some of my first shark’s teeth over 14 years ago.
After seeing some of Xiphodan’s recent pos... |
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Fossiling in a Winter Wonderland: The Thaw
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today I met up with M4 at my house and then drove out to Ramanessin where we met up with Rob from Times Scientific. Even though there was still about 4-6 inches of snow on the ground from the storm 2 weeks ago, the temperature was 45-50 deg F with bright sun - great collecting weather! We met at the school and walked down to the stream following the deer tracks that marked what is normally an easy path to follow. With everything looking the same in the snow, I walked right by where I normally en... |
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Fossiling in a Winter Wonderland
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I was finally able get out fossiling today, but of course the forecast was calling for 14 to 20 inches of snow. Figuring that this may be the last chance to get out before the spring thaw and knowing I would have a couple of hours in the morning before the snow began, I decided to brave the cold and go anyway. I arrived at 9:00 with the flurries just starting to come down and headed straight for my reliable spot. The first hour was fairly slow in terms of items found, but I did manage to come up... |
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A taste of the Cretaceous
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Having spent my last few outings in the Eocene/Miocene streams of NJ, I decided to head back to my favorite Cretaceous creek. I headed to a spot that had produced for me in the past and it seemed that today would be no exception. The highlights of the trip include two pristine Archaeolamna teeth, a pristine Squalicorax pristodontus (crow shark) tooth, and two Enchodus petrosus jaw segments - any one of which would have made the trip a good one. Also not to be overlooked were two decent Goblin sh... |
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A Trip Back to the New Hot Spot
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I was finally able to get out again today and with the way I finished my last outing at this location(10/3), I couldn’t wait to get back. The two Carcharocles blades that I found on that last trip really gave me high hopes for the day. I headed straight towards my latest hot spot and proceeded to screen. The water had gotten considerably colder since my last trip in early October and with some recent rainfall the level was probably another 10 inches higher than normal - which made the stream ab... |
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Now this spot has potential!
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today I decided to head back to the Eocene/Miocene stream I had hunted during the summer. My last couple of trips there hadn’t produced very much, and other than “The Spot” I really hadn’t found much elsewhere in the stream. But the one word that kept flashing in my head was “Potential”. Since I didn’t have any time constraints today, I could take my time and explore. I had found some very rare teeth there for NJ (or elsewhere for that matter) and I couldn’t have found the only spot on the strea... |
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Yes sweetie, that is a REAL Dinosa....Uhh Marine Reptile tooth!
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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Today I only had only about 2 1/2 hours to collect, so I decided to go to Ramanessin where the collecting is fairly steady. Good decision. I found some nice items but the nicest was a 3/8" mosasaur tooth that is in perfect condition! This was the second mosasaur tooth I've ever found and it was about 5' from where I found the first one. And my daughter was excited because she thinks its neat when I find dinosaur teeth - I have to wait until she's old enough to explain the finer points of reptili... |
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Another trip to "The Spot"
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I had about a four hour window to collect today, so there was no hesitation in deciding where to go. I figured the spot that yielded the Xiphodolamia ensis and the C. Catticus on my last outing surely must have more surprises if I searched hard enough. I arrived at the stream at about 5:30 AM (being a converted fisherman, I consider a 5:00 summertime Saturday wake-up as sleeping in) and headed straight to the hot spot. On about my third screen I came up with a small Hemipristis that had some wea... |
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My first NJ Eocene/Miocene hunt - The luck of the 1/4 Irish
Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA |
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I decided take my first venture into the Eocene/Miocene streams of NJ, needing a change from the Cretaceous formations I've been hunting up until now. Having never collected at the area I was going, I decided to try and cover as much of the stream as possible, moving frequently if I didn't find anything. The first 75 yards were fairly unimpressive - a couple of Carcharhinus teeth and one Carcharias blade. After not finding much for about an hour I finally came to the spot that would yield two of... |
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