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Shark Tooth Hill Fossil Collecting Ernst Quarries near Bakersfield, CA
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Once in a while I need a change of scenery. Not that my
current fossil hunting digs aren’t excellent, it’s more that my inner explorer
craves the adventure of a new site. The past two years, we went to Venice, and before that Aurora.. This year we decided to try out
Shark Tooth Hill – long celebrated for its bounty of fossils just 20 minutes
north east of Bakersfield, California.
Da fossz, Scubapaul, the phat boys, DG, and I made the
cross-country trek. It wa... |
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Sharks Will Have a Week for BRFC this August
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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BRFC, straight-outta Summerville, brought its dope collecting skills to the West Coast. I met up with DW in ATL for the flight to LAX; we rented a fine squirreled-powered Hyundai and headed up to Bakersfield. The Phatboys, ScubaPaul, and DD joined us for the paleo-bonanaza later that evening. The famous Earnst quarry was open and we had secured a long weekend to collect the Miocene formations. So why will sharks have to dedicate a week to us??…ummm..we had several bag-filler days…ok, we racked! ... |
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Meeting the Grim Reaper
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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On April 29th I worked the night shift in my small town on the central coast of California. As I worked, I dreamed of the fun to come tomorrow morning with 4 new friends from Europe who had contacted me via email and requested a joint dig in an area new to them. The night hours drug on into the wee morning hours and finally 3:30 am came, I got off work and drove to Bakersfield. At 6:00 am we met at a local hotel and put all the digging tools into my big Yukon XL and headed off to the local bl... |
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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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STH Dig Dec 4th
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Day 2 kicked off and after the traditional feeding of the bunnies, we were off to dig the ‘special area’. (did I mention the bunnies don’t like caldigger?) Before we headed over, Digger Daddy let me paw over his special tooth. He was given one of the Great White teeth from the baby great white that was in the monterray aquarium. Tiny, but very cool. The ground had stabilized enough to make it over to the new area with the vehicle in 4wd. We did a quick once-over to see if the rain had e... |
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STH Dig Dec 3rd
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Day 1 of the 2 day hunt weekend. There had been a lot or rain the day before, so we were thinking that was a good thing. However, there had been too much rain and we could not get to the area we were supposed to dig. Instead, we went back to ‘slow-curve’ where we had been a couple of months back. Digger Daddy got us off to a start and joined us for a couple hours before he had to take off. As usual, before he had to take off, he spread the Christmas cheer and passed out a few of his ‘lesse... |
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Shark Tooth Hill Fossil Shark Tooth Dig : October 1, 2005
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Just got back from STH with Scubapaul and of course it was awesome. The first day I was digging completely by myself in one of Diggerdaddy's quarries and I was in fossil heaven. This is were good little diggers go when they die! My best find was a 2 1/2 upper Hastalis side by side in matrix with a seal tooth canine. The perfect predator and prey combo. Matrix pieces are easily my most favorite. The next two days Scubapaul and I dug in another one of Diggerdaddy's quarries with a group of a... |
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Shark Tooth Hill Fossil Shark Tooth Dig : October 1, 2005
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Caldigger clued me in on this trip. I quickly donned the tooth hunting gear and headed out to my private jet (which i keep at northwest airlines and let them use it, with their name on it too). I was soon out in lovely LA fighting the 2:30pm traffic jam. Just a four short hours later I had completed my 1.5 hour drive. No matter, the promise of virgin fossil bed awated me bright and early in the morning. I got up with my fossil bud Ira and we met caldigger at his place to carpool. Caldigger... |
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California Shark Tooth Hill Fossil Hunting
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Sept. 10 & 11th The day had finally arrived. I was actually going to dig on very primo and very private land adjacent to the famous Shark Tooth Hill. I have dug the "public" area a couple of years ago but that had been dug out for over 30 years so the work was massive and the reward quite limited. This was a diggers dream trip!! The land owner has been carefully developing numerous quarries over the past 20 years. We'll call him Digger Daddy because he enjoys his privacy. Digger Daddy is... |
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California gold rush
Sharktooth Hill, Bakersfield, California, USA |
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Here's some examples of what you can find at STH. Starting in Sept. I'll send you monthly updates. The one picture is a 5 inch Meg with awesome colors that make it look more like an antique than a fossil! The other photo is a nice variety of Colors and types of teeth typical of the STH bone bed. The top row has an Isurus, Planus, and another Isurus. The Middle row has a Cow Shark, Large Isurus, and another Cow Shark. The bottom row clearly shows what make Planus such cool teeth. It's eas... |
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