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15/16 patho tiger shark   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Galeocerdo cuvier
The wifey found this and she said she wasnt even sure it was a tooth.  ...
1" Yorktown cow shark   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Notorynchus primigenius

The best one of my collection so far.

...
Back to the war zone!!!   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

First I would like to thank DW for setting me up with being able to post my trips.  I just returned from a 7 month tour in Iraq and I had the itch to...

Lee Creek Fall 2007 - First weekend - Best trip yet   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA
What a trip…..

I could go on and on here folks but here are the highlights on my first weekend trip and the best ever trip ever for me to the creek:

Bests:

Best shape/condition/aesthetically pleasing Meg in my collection at just under 4”
Largest mako from the site for me at 2.5”
Largest modern tiger (cuvier) in my collection at 1.5” wide!
Largest section of ray plate in my collection at 14 rows...
Aurora Parotodus Benedini Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni
My first rare parotodus benedini....
Aurora Isurus desori Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Isurus desori
Great blade!...
Racking is the beginning of all achievements.   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

I took a road trip with the great Alopias Ali to the holy toothing grounds of Aurora. I knew this was going to be a good trip after seeing T$’s and Da f0ssz’s fine rack last week. I ha...

First Cooper trip   South Carolina, South Carolina, USA
I have been enjoying the posts on this board for a couple years now and figure its time to pitch in. Up to this trip my fossil hunting experience was limited to digging in the Peace River and diving off Venice here in Florida. I spent countless hours searching the internet for any and all info on diving the famed Cooper River. Current, darkness, and alligators....Oh my! I knew I wanted to do this but I have to admit, I was a little uneasy based on what I had read. I had dove in very low vis and ...
Pungo Amber   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Amber

I don't read too much about this stuff being found, but this is a really nice piece that I can see right through. There is at least one dark spot that could be a bug.

...
Pathologic Cow Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Notorynchus primigenius
I found this nice cow shark tooth in the Yorktown formation, and I assumed it was Hexanchus. I showed it to Pat Y. at the end of the day, and she was kind enough to tell me the difference. You can draw a straight line down the cones on Notorynchus teeth, while the primary cone on a Hexanchus is out of whack and messes up the straight line, even on juvenile specimens. Even though its not what I initially thought it was, it has a pathologic curvature to one of the cones ...
1 3/4 inch Lee Creek Hemipristis tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Hemipristis serra
A really big hemipristis tooth, much larger than I am accustomed to finding....
1 13/16 inch Transitional Great White Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Isurus escheri

I was very surprised when I cleaned the dirt off the edge of this tooth and saw minute ripples that resemble serrations. They appear on both edges and they begin near the root, only to disappear about halfway to the tip. It is identical in appearance to many of the Chilean escheri teeth I have seen.

...
2 11/16 inch Yorktown Mako Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Isurus hastalis

A huge mako that was a mere 3 feet from my best megalodon tooth of the day. Its the closest together I've ever found two such quality teeth anywhere except in the river.

...
4 1/4 inch Aurora Megalodon Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon
This megalodon shark tooth was in a flat area at the bottom of a hill of Yorktown. It has a bunch of wrinkles in the enamel on the flat side where the blade meets the root....
4 1/2 inch Yorktown Megalodon Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon
I was so excited when I saw the tip of this megalodon tooth poking out of the Yorktown. As far as I'm concerned, its the pinnacle of tooth collecting....
Float Like a Carcharocles   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

Hi Everyone, The fall 2007 collecting season in Lee Creek is upon us and my chance was today. I read that the area was big, but my concept of big did not match the reality of the size of the collecting spot generously granted by PCS. When I walked down the ramp, the area seemed limitless. The opening gun went off and the other collectors all seemed to know exactly where to go. Some people started looking almost immediately after the ramp. Some headed towards l...

First Trip to Aurora   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA
So I've been drooling for the past year over all the finds you guys post from Aurora.  Finally it was my turn to go.  I had an excellent time and even met a few folks from the site.  Although I didn't find nearly as much as some of you experts, I was happy with my haul.  I was also happy that I was able to make it back to and up the ramp without passing out due to heat/exhaustion.  Bring lots of water if you are sched...
Nice little crab   Calvert County, Maryland, USA
well we thought that the winds were going to be alot worse then they really were and stopped by Brownies before heading out on the boat. Brownies was boring as usual, hardly any teeth and a bunch of people, when we got to our usual location( Chris was there, his trip on 9-13-07), we did quite good, I found a nice mako and some hemi's, 4 BROKEN MEG'S!!!!! and a crab, its the thing 2nd in at the top right. I even found a nice porpoise jaw section. The worst part is this trip would be the start of ...
Man your stories are killing me!!!   North Carolina, USA
Alright you eastern fossil freaks, your driving me crazy with all your great stories!! :o) I have a western trip planned for the first week of November to STH area. I really look forward to the digging but want to try some eastern spots. I am a certified scuba diver and would love to make a trip out east and see if i can learn a few things from ya' all.

Is the winter best for Aurora? How about the rivers? I am retired and would like to do about 10 days to 2 weeks out...
2-1/2" Parotodus Benedeni   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni

A new premier piece in my collection. I found this tooth lying on a pedestal after the shower, labial side up (just like looking into the shark's mouth without the threat of being consumed). This specimen is robust and the enamel is razor sharp on the edges and tip.

...
1-1/4" Paratodus benedeni   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni

My second Parotodus of the day. This one has a dinged tip from feeding, but still a great find.

...
Gettin’ My Fossil Mack in the Outback   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

It was once again time for the bi-annual road trip to hunt at the PCS phosphate mine in Aurora NC. Or is it semi-annual?? Hmmmmmmmm.

 

The perils of fossil hunting   Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA
I met up with DW at GMR to kill a couple hours the day before our hunt in Aurora. We tried the area I found the monster meg last year, it's getting harder to find a spot that hasn't been completly sifted through. We would move along the creek bed , toss our backpacks down and sift awhile, grab our packs then move on to the next spot. At the one spot I saw the copperhead within a few feet of DW's pack. It could have easily slithered under or in DW's backpack. I'll definitely be paying closer atte...
Opening weekend at Lee Creek   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA
It was time again to make the journey to North Carolina for the Fall Aurora hunt. I could hardly sleep the night before , I was up at 3:30 and ready to go . On the way to the mine I had a feeling that I was forgetting something, then my cell phone rang, it was DW , he was suppose to ride with me from the hotel (DOH!). Luckily he had his truck with him and we  all made it to the parking lot on time.
The collecting area this season is huge! You would have a hard time trying to w...
Greensmill Run Snake Report   Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA

I met up with rivrdigr at Greensmill Run for some pre-Lee Creek fossil hunting fun. I had lousy luck, but the digr did much better. Maybe one day he'll post again and you can see for yourself how much he scores.

At one spot where we were hunting, we met up with a gorgeous copperhead. He must have just shed his skin because his colors were really vivid. He was so docile that he posed for photos for us before slithering on his way. They really do blend in well, and we ...

Maybe a bird skull???   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

Hit my favorite beach this morning, and I got there real late with the great beltway traffic.  To my surprise I was going to be the first one down the shore.

The conditions looked great, and I had a nice trip (was hoping to grab a meg...but not today).  I did find a real nice 1.5" hemi, an angel shark tooth and a real nice vert, but the interesting find is what looks to be a fossil bird skull.  I could be wrong, a...

xiphodolamia pair   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Xiphodolamia ensis
2 nice X. ensis from this weekend, an anterior and a lateral...
nj chub   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
I managed to pull another 2" chub out without damage this weekend. I was excited. My luck is changing because I have broken at least 10 or maybe even 20 this size while only getting a couple complete ones. ...
another long weekend   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA
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...
Cretoxyrhina Mantelli   Dallas County, Texas, USA - Cretoxyrhina mantelli
This would be the biggest and nicest Cretoxyrhina Mantelli I have found to date....
Rootless   Dallas County, Texas, USA

This is a combo of a few trips.  And this a bit old. 

The first day I checked back in at this spot I was just wandering around hopeing to find at least something.  This spot has been picked a lot and the machines have done their damage as well.  After picking up a few pieces, I spot a monster, (here in Tx thats anything over an inch)  It was perfect  Cretoxyrhina Mantelli, only a tiny bit of blade damage.&nbs...

Sweet Lee Creek Chubutensis Tooth!   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
The last of the chubs that I found today. It's a killer and large for a chuby too!...
Lee Creek Chubutensis Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
The second one I bagged today and it's a killer too....
Aurora Chubutensis Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
My first whole chub and it's a gem. It has every little serration and the very tip! Plus no chips in the root and a sweet bourlette....
Lee Creek Mako Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Isurus hastalis
A killer mako shark tooth!...
Lee Creek Hemipristis Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Hemipristis serra
A nice large hemi....
Lee Creek Mako Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

The best of the mako's that I found from this trip.

...
Aurora Hemipristis Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA
A sweet large hemi....
Master of the Pungo!   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

For this long anticipated trip to Aurora. First, I would meet up at Da F0ssz’s pad. Before we left his pad I had to gaze over his prime fossil specimens. Especially his screamer chubs from past

Old trip from february.   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

There was a cold northwest wind a first light. I was the crazy boy in his waders piled with layers of clothing and just as happy as could be. The first thing came from the swwet meg staring me in the face laying on some clay pebbles about two feet from where the normal surf line would be.....WOULD BE.....but today the wind had dragged the tide out about 50 feet. The beach was plentiful with tons of lil teeth I found over 300 teeth in total 30-40 tigers and contortus. The super nice thin...

creodont?   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Unidentified - Other
I found this when I was first getting into serious fossil collecting, about 4 years ago. I knew it was something interesting, but I was total noob. Finally this year I got around to trying to figure out what it was from. The best guess of the New Jersey State Museum is that it is likely a premolar from a Creodont, possibly something like Hyaenodon. If anyone could provide a better ID or their opinions, please contact me. The literature believes the best estimate for age of the deposit...
rhino tooth   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Diceratherium matutinus
I found this rhino tooth in the Spring. Its one of only a few known from NJ. I originally only found one half of the tooth, but I knew I broke it and the other half had to be around somewhere. So I went back a few days later and feverishly dug around for the rest because it would probably be lost forever if I did not find it on that day. It had been probably about 5 hours or so of digging in the same general vicinity without any luck, but then I found the other half unexpectedly and was abl...
a first?   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Unidentified - Whale
This is actually the 2nd of these I have found but I just recently had the first positively IDed. When I found the first one I kinda thought it had to be something different and interesting... it was too oddly shaped to be Squalodon so I thought it might be archaeocete, but I had never heard of any being found besides down south and it didn't really look like any of the archaeocetes I could find pictured on the net. Not even any from Maryland even though they have deposits of similar ages. So I ...
little eocene mako   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Isurus praecursor
only moderately reworked, if at all. ...
eocene tiger shark   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Galeocerdo eaglesomei
we almost always completely trash these neat little eocene tiger shark teeth but this is only one of a couple that i have that have come out perfect...
2" chub from joisey   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
I've broken so many of the larger teeth from this site with my shovel that this one was almost completely unexpected! But a wonderful site. It made my day and everything else was gravy... which also turned out to be quite tasty in the end. ...
walls of schmutz, screens of gold   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA
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...
Aurora Megalodon Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon

With all the success I had during my Aurora trip this weekend, I didn't find a complete Yorktown megalodon until I was walking back to the bus at the end of the day. I was at the top of a mound of Yorktown and Pungo mix, and this tooth was just to the right of a knee high ridge of material. There were some weeds growing near it that hid it from view of the other side of the ridge. Some other collector had walked the other side of the ridge, but didn't hit this side. The person walked wi...

Pungo Megalodon Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis

I found this tooth stuck in a block of limestone, its flat side completely exposed. I have never found a tooth in that stuff before, and today was the first time I didn't bring a rock hammer and chisel. I figured - why lug the extra useless weight? Poor decision...

How did I get it out, you ask? I put on the safety glasses and went samurai on the block with my shovel. It required a great deal of concentration, but I popped the tooth out in less than 5 minutes with no...

Lee Creek Cow Shark Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Notorynchus primigenius
I found this crossing a mound of Pungo towards the end of the day on the way back to the bus. I was getting worried I wouldn't find one. I don't find these often in SC, so I like to find one when I go to Lee Creek....
Aurora Chubutensis Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
This is probably the most perfect tooth I found during my Fall 2007 Friends' trip into the Lee Creek mine in Aurora NC. It was almost completely exposed at the bottom of a washout of Pungo formation....
Lee Creek Chubutensis Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles chubutensis
Barely exposed, I saw just the center of the enamel of this beautiful Chubutensis in a washout through the middle of a big pile of that black, powdery Pungo. The edge was kind of steep though, so I couldn't stand far enough away to get a ground shot without falling backwards down the hill. ...
Lee Creek Megalodon Tooth   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon

This is the first megalodon I found on my Aurora trip. I found it 10 minutes after the hunt started and I was too excited to slow down to take a ground photo. Sorry.

...
Lee Creek Yorktown Mako   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Isurus hastalis

This is the sweetest of all the makos I found at Lee Creek today and I found a lot of makos today, probably more than any other type of tooth even tiger shark teeth! Lots of other people had a lot of nice makos, too. I spent a lot of time in the Yorktown, but I crossed a lot of Pungo, too.

The hill of Yorktown I found this on had three rows of footprints when I arrived, but this was about 3 feet away from one of the trails that the person before me left.

...
Lee Creek Fall Season 2007 - the Rack in the Back   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA

Hunting for shark teeth at Lee Creek... Its so great, but Where do I begin? With catching up with friends in the parking lot, the awesome weather, the expectation of megalodon teeth on pedestals, or the electric excitement in the air from the other collectors? All of those are good ways to start, so pick whichever one you like the best and think about it for a minute if you want an intro. Else read on, because I'm ready to talk about the RACK!

The white hats told us ...

pushing through the schmutz   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA
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...
Unidentified Fossil   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Unidentified - Other
A cool looking fossil I found from the Edisto. ...
B-r-r-r! The river is getting cold.   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

Today, I decided to go do a dive at the Edisto. The sun was shinning and it was a beautiful day. The weather here had just dropped down to 40 degrees over night. I thought the river would have warmed up during the day with the sun being out. Man was I wrong. I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit...

New California Digging activity   California, USA
Hello all!

I have been trying to send you guys some pictures of the teeth I was lucky enough to dig out here in California for sometime now. I saw you very cool website about a year ago and talked to an old friend (Lefty) about places to dig here in California. He suggested trying Sharkstooth Hill (STH) via the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History.

We conducted our first dig there the weekend they had the memorial service for Bob Ernst. A sad ti...
A first from the bay for me   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

Just the other day I tried a new spot a little further down the cliffs than I usually look for fossils. At first I thought I had wasted my time only 5 small teeth after almost a mile of walking then I came to a area of cliffs with the water splashing up against them. I pushed on wading in waist deep water. After a hundred yards there was a small stretch of beach with huge blocks that had fallen from the cliffs. I kept looking in the surf and still had found very little. Then I glanced u...

Summerville Angustidens Shark Tooth   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens
When I first found this tooth I thought it had feeding damage on the tip. It turns out after cleaning it up the tip is just slightly rounded. It still has all the serrations, full bourlette and both cusps. Plus, the color is awesome! ...
Digging in the Muck of Riches   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA

I called up DW earlier in the week to see if he wanted to do some collecting. I arrived at his pad on time today! The first place we checked out was void of fossils. Then we headed back to an old trusty spot that we both knew had potential. This is probably my favorite spot to dig because when it comes to finding teeth with a combination of about a hundred different colors. This is the spot that never fails to produce them. It’s not ...

Summerville Megalodon Tooth   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon

I love SC land teeth. They are my favorite because the colors are so great! This megalodon is no exception. The spot I found it has some crazy colored rocks so the teeth, when whole, are always gorgeous. There are so many colors in the enamel I can't even start to name them all. Even the bourlette is intact and marbled. The tip is there, and so are the serrations. The root isn't the greatest, but its complete and the crack doesn't go all the way through, thank goodness. Else, I would ha...

The End of a Long Megalodon Drought   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA

t$ called me a week ago to see if I wanted to go do some fossil hunting and we made plans to check out a new spot and if it wasn't good, to revisit an old spot. Not wanting to be publically thrashed for collecting tardiness, he showed up exactly on time and we were off to the new spot.

New spots are always tricky. You never know if there will be digging, and if there is, whether it will be deep enough, and finally whether there is any good layer. The new spot failed...

The luck of the waves   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

This post is from a little while ago. I went to my favorite beach and was lucky enough to be first. I found only some small worn teeth while walking down the mile or so to the end of accessible beach. On the way back up I passed 4 other collectors. Just after passing the last of them and being almost all the way back to the beginning I found a really nice Mako and then only a few steps further I saw the tip of a root sticking up out of the gravel. I knew it wasn’t a shark too...

Extended lunch break   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

Here some finds from an extended lucnch break.  Every week I have one day that takes me close enough to hit the fossil beaches, and on this day a variety of neat items were found.

A porpoise tooth, ray scute, a couple of half way decent makos and snagletooth teeth are the highlights along with half of what would have been a nice 3" meg.&n...

a lot of mediocre   Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA
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. ...
Fossil Turtle Jaw   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Unidentified - Other
A cool turtle jaw. I don't know what species, but its very complete and probably Oligocene in age....
Reminiscing About the River   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

This post is from the beginning of the diving season. I was going a lot back then and I didn't have time to post everything. This is one of those that had to wait. I remember I swam the surface all day, but I really didn't find much. Its because we went back to Ye Olde Faithful spot that we've dived 100 times before. There isn't much left on the surface there. Sand moves, so there will always be something new to find, but probably not the quantities we got used to.

...

Les Go Fosslin!   Green Mill Run, North Carolina, USA

My wife was in NY two weeks ago leaving me and the kids to fend for ourselves through the weekend. My son who just turned five generally doesn’t last long on fossil hunts so its been a while since I’ve brought him along. While at the neighborhood pool on Saturday I asked what they wanted to do on Sunday and (with absolutely no coaxing) my son blurts out, " les go fosslin!". Not wanting to stunt his youthful ambition I felt obligated to oblige.

Matoakas good for something.   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

I'm Tony and this will be my 1st post. I do all my hunting in the bay area but do to the lack of a camera I can only post certain trips.

On this day I went alone down to a place called Matoaka Cabins. I had been there before and if your the type of person who likes to comb the beach for fossils...STAY HOME. Or go somewhere else. To ...

Summerville hemipristis tooth   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Hemipristis serra
Just a superior quality hemi. That color is so good!...
Summerville Angustidens tooth   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens
One missing serration keeps this beauty from being flawless. The color is amazing! I waited 3 days after I found it to take the picture because the color is so deep, I was sure it would fade when it dried but it never did....
September Tropics Update   Dorchester County, South Carolina, USA

Like clockwork, the dry season has ended and the rainy season has started. The lowcountry of SC gets all kinds of rain this time of year, and even though it kills diving, it makes land collecting great. This hunt is from the beginning of the month, after the first really big rainfall.

I dropped the weezling off at school and he reluctantly got out of the truck because he knew where I was going. I loaded up on the bug spray because the mosquitos are the wors...

Cow and meg   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

I decided to try a trip to a different part of the bay.  My normal spot is getting hit so hard it really has been very poor for a couple of months now. 

I broke out the little boat that has been dormant in my garage for a couple of years now.  Had to get a new battery and put some fresh gas in it.  Like my Honda CRV, the Honda outboard fired up like I had ran it yesterday! I like my kayak but traveli...

Punishing the Gravel Beds   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

t$ has been an animal about the fossil hunting lately - I like that. He wants to go all the time, just like me. We have the bug. Diving has been so good that we can't stop. This particular day we went looking for new spots in a new direction. The first one we found was just in front of a bend where a creek joined the river. There was a lot of gravel, but it was really picked over, and we maybe found 2 or 3 teeth each. We headed around the bend, past two incoming streams, and onto a mass...

Sulphur River   Hunt County, Texas, USA
I hit the river early today with a 60% chance of rain today.  After not finding much downstream I headed back the other direction.  The finds started coming right off the bat.  I usally surface scan the gravel before sifting just to get the easy stuff.  As I was crawling one of the bars I spoted a nice arrowhead.  My first Texas point.  A little worn, but still nice.  I managed to pick up a few nice teeth today, but before I could st...
4" Restored Lee Creek Meg   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Carcharocles megalodon

I decided to post a restored shark tooth for a few reasons. First, the blade on this Meg is great. Second, the classic Lee Creek coloration makes for an aesthetic tooth. With only some root damage, I thought this one was a good candidate for restoration.

Fosszlin with Da Fossz   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

Earlier in the week I called da fossz to see if he wanted to some diving at the Edisto. Before I arrived Da fossz already scored a nice whale tooth. I even watched him fan out giant angys that were literally a few inches a part from each other, but none were complete. I did come acros...

Fossil Angustidens Shark Tooth   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens

A nice serrated angy with the tip and both cusps from the river.

...
The Rack Continues   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

This is a trip from a few weeks ago. I met up with DW to do some diving in the Edisto. We had to leave the river at an earlier time than usual today because I thought I had a class later in the day. It turns out the class I had didn’t start until next week

When opportunity knocks.   Charleston County, South Carolina, USA

   If you've read any of my posts you've probably guessed that I do work for a major museum. One of the things I do is organize fossil collecting trips out west. I have permits for 45 square miles of White River Badlands in South Dakota. Another permit covers 20 square miles of Hell Creek formation in Northern South Dakota. My teams were selected months ago and I'm schedules to leave from Charleston on 14 September. This morning I found out that ...

Megalodon tooth   Calvert County, Maryland, USA - Carcharocles megalodon
Megalodon tooth
Paleoscan is my lucky charm   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

Paleoscan, I and our better halves got together for the Labor Day weekend for three days of fun along the Calvert Cliffs.  The wives spent lots of their free time with our jet ski and we used it when they weren't for quick trips to exposures.  Since it was a Holiday weekend and the beaches would be crawling with people we decided to go to spots that you could only get to by water.  On Sunday we headed south to Chopt...

Slow on the bay   Calvert County, Maryland, USA

This post actually represents three trips to the bay!! 

The first trip was about three weeks ago and was a complete bust.  I did finally get a chance to meet Daryl, the Daryl from this site.  This was cool, its always good getting some pointers from a bay veteran, but its not always good following this veteran down the beach...slim pickins!!

Parotodus benedeni   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni

A cool position.

...
Parotodus Patrol   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

I had a few hours to spare so I picked up my gear and hit the river. I've been in the zone lately so I was hopeful of a repeat performance. I was in the same spot as a few weeks ago when I scored the superhero angustidens. I swam over the spot where the aforementioned chomper was recovered and there was ANOTHER big root hanging out of the green. How could I have missed it when I was here last time? As luck would have it, I forgot my screwdriver so I swam the few feet back to shore, pick...

Pair of Squalodon teeth   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Squalodon atlanticus

A molar and incisor from an Oligocene whale.

...
Mo’ Money   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

A BRFC first occurred this weekend…T$ called me up to see if I was up for some fossilin’ over the weekend. With the river still low, how could I resist?? DW would be absent on this trip as he was retrieving prized minerals from the mountains of NC. T$ arrived with his posse’ of T$ family members around 11AM. I guess he was picking out his Hello Kitty gear. Meanwhile, I was beginning a decent day in the river around 10AM. W...

Parotodus benedeni   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Parotodus benedeni
A really cool position. One of the front teeth without much of a curve. The cusps are there, though, which is an interesting feature on these oligocene varieties....
Angustidens tooth   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA - Carcharocles angustidens
A little worn, but very nice with a sharp tip and awesome color. The flat side actually looks like the picture. I included a picture of the tooth before I cleaned it to show how nasty it was. Sometimes, that gross coating hides some really great color....
Chalk this one up to experience   Colleton County, South Carolina, USA

One of the best things about diving in the same general area is that I have gotten to know a pretty big stretch of the river pretty well. Today, I went to a spot that we haven't touched in several years. We killed there way back then, and I thought it was time to hit it again.

The first thing I remembered about this spot was how ripping the current was. The reason is because a small side creek empties into the river here, and the result is current that can easily rip...

Hexanchus upper, Lee Creek   Lee Creek Mine, Aurora, North Carolina, USA - Hexanchus gigas
The only thing found on what was otherwise an uneventful collecting trip. ...
Mica   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
There was mica everywhere in the mine. You can see right through it - its pretty cool. People used to make windows out of it before they were made of glass....
Peridot   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
Peridot
Topaz   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
Topaz
Tourmaline   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
I had never heard of this stuff until I went gem hunting. Almost all that we found was black, but my wife found a translucent piece that was the darkest green I ever saw. It was so pretty that she chose it over one of the sapphires to make a pendant....
Smoky Quartz   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
Smoky Quartz
Kyanite   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
My wife's new favorite stone. When its wet, its the most blue rock I ever saw....
Garnet   Mitchell County, North Carolina, USA
Garnet
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