Hire a Fossil Collecting Guide?

I've always collected fossils on my own, for years, beginning with shark tooth trips with my Parents, sitting on the beach digging holes in the sand, sifting with our fingers, and finding shark teeth.  We found jars of them.  Later in life, I sought out better specimens and explored various sites in my region.  I expanded my collecting to the inland formations, searching the Devonian fossil beds for older material.  I did this on my own, with my daughter, and a few friends along the way.  I never imagined going with a guide to fossil collect...until recently.

Cathy Young, of Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures, contacted me via a fossiling friend, to help on one of her trips, using my boat to transport kids that were attending her paleontology camp to various local spots only reachable by boat, and some on private property where access is extremely limited except by her and her experts, who have permission on those sites.  I agreed to help and was very curious about her program.

As it turns out, looking back on my experience, Cathy, her experts, the volunteers helping as boaters and guides, really impressed me, not only on their knowledge, but how great they were with the campers attending her paleontology camp.  My bonus was to see a couple sites that I've never been to.  I didn't have much time to collect, as I had to be ready to move when the experts were ready to move.  That included gathering the campers assigned to my boat and keeping track of them so we could move quickly and safely.

Cathy Young is so nice and knowledgeable, and it was my honor to help her service out during the paleontology camp.  Cathy is the proprietor of the Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures.

The 2015 Paleontology Camp Experts:
In addition to Cathy, who is an expert in her own right, the experts, some world renowned, participate in each of Cathy's trips or activities, that occur from New York South to Alabama, ranging from fossil and mineral collecting expeditions to nature trips.  The experts for each trip specialize in the subject matter and location for each trip.

The 2015 paleontology camp had two experts.  I missed the first night's presentation by world renowned Dr. Bretton W. Kent, the author of one of my most prized books, Fossil Sharks of the Chesapeake Bay Region, that is so helpful for identification purposes.  I couldn't get off work earlier enough to make the trek down to where we were staying.  I did, however, get to meet him at breakfast the next morning, and that was a treat in itself.  Other than some small talk, I pretty much found myself tongue tied!

The other expert at the camp was Dr. Lauck "Buck" Ward, retired Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH), and is currently a Curator Emeritis at VMNH.  I was fascinated by everything that he said, because there were teaching moments for all of us, the volunteers and the campers.  He had a way with the campers too, seemingly grumpy at first, but they all loved him, and I believe the feeling was mutual for him as well.  I really enjoyed talking with him as he answered my endless questions.

Dr. Lauck "Buck" Ward presenting his fossils to the campers.  He had a way with the campers that grabbed their attention, taught them and made it fun for them.

Dr. Ward provided enthusiastic discussion on the geology, formations, and fossils of each site that we visited as the campers collected fossils of all kinds, including fossilized shells, shark teeth and other vertebrate fossils.

Dr. Ward in action teaching both campers and volunteers at one of the collecting sites.

Campers and volunteers having a great time collecting fossils at one of the sites.

Some of the campers and a volunteer searching for fossils along the beach of one of the sites.

Cathy's paleontology camp included all kinds of activities after collecting hours, most were organized, others just happened.  Meals were entertaining, and each evening there was a presentation about fossils and geology for the campers, and even a session about how to construct a necklace for shark teeth found during the trip!

One of the unplanned activities during free time between volunteers and campers was a water balloon fight.  At first, there seemed to be distinct teams, but eventually it was a free for all.  At any rate, I avoided getting wet, but many became drenched.

I was very impressed with the program itinerary.  It was very organized and well planned.  Everyone seemed to find their share of fossils and had a great time, campers and volunteers alike.  If the other trips are as well planned and organized as the paleontology camp, and in my mind there is no doubt of that, then you may have a great time attending one of Cathy's trips.  I'd say the trips are worth every penny spent.  You'll get to meet and collect with experts to some places that are off limits to most people, and others where access is limited.

So, would I hire a guide?  I'd say yes, and in this case, you'd get your money's worth.  I plan on attending trips as a customer in the future along with my daughter.

For more information, you can visit the website  Mid-Atlantic Fossil and Nature Adventures, or email Cathy Young at cathy@fossilandnaturetrips.com.  You have a chance to find some great fossils and learn from the experts at the same time.  More importantly, you'll have fun.

Shark Toothin' on Vacation

I took a visit to Myrtle Beach this past week and for the first time in many years, my vacation wasn't attached to a fastpitch softball tournament.  It was kinda nice!  Anyway, I didn't get any fishing in, but managed to log in a few hours walking the beach each morning and a few evenings to enjoy the beach and look for some sharks teeth.  I wound up giving about half of the sharks teeth that I found that weren't broken away to kids and families that were interested in learning how to find them.   

As I wrote in my earlier post, while I was out in search of prehistoric sharks, Tommy Fox was catching modern day versions on the beach, including a 3 1/2 foot cousin of the hammerhead shark.  While he and his girlfriend, Hannah, were reeling in sharks from the surf, I was finding fossilized teeth that ranged in age from two to 100 million years old.  The sharks teeth and other fossils found along Myrtle Beach are dredged up off shore from various formations and deposits as a result of the replenishment of the beach sand each spring.  Most likely, the formations include the Yorktown from the Pliocene Epoch, and perhaps the Black Creek Formation from the Cretaceous Period (when dinosaurs roamed the Earth).

These are fossilized teeth from the Great White Shark,
Carcharodon carcharias, found at Myrtle Beach.  Teeth like
these are not common, but with some diligence, a keen eye
and a bit of luck, you may find one amongst the shells.

With about 14 hours of roaming the beaches, I managed to take home about fifty or so sharks teeth and other fossils.  I found about twice that many, but gave a bunch away, keeping some of the better ones to show everyone here.  Included in those finds were three great white shark teeth Carcharodon carcharias, two of them broken, and one complete with just a tiny bit of damage to the tip of the blade (left most tooth pictured to the left).  This type of damage to the tip was most likely caused while the animal fed on marine vertebrates.  The right most tooth pictured to the left shows a broken blade, most likely caused after the tooth fell out of the sharks mouth and probably after it was fossilized.  Most of the sharks teeth that you'll find along Myrtle Beach are broken, so finding one that is in relatively good shape is quite a treat, especially a particularly rare species like the great white shark.  One family that I helped was from Missouri.  Laurie told me that she and her daughters were teaching her husband what to look for, when he looked down and found an entire great white shark tooth.  For most people, they may search for years without finding one, and some people have that kind of luck along with a good eye.

My fossil finds from Myrtle Beach that I managed to keep.
Top row, great white shark teeth, second frow from left -
bull shark, tiger shark, requiem sharks, and lemon sharks,
third row are sand bar sharks, next row are sand tiger sharks
and the next row are teeth from the Cretaceous Period 
including an extinct mako and a crow shark.  Below that are
drum fish teeth, sting ray spines, porcupine fish mouth plates,
and fossilized fish skull fragments, probably from sea robins.

This particular year was a bit tough to find teeth.  They didn't seem to come easily for me as in years past, and I'm not sure why.  Basically, you have to "find the eye" as my daughter and I call it.  She has better eyesight than I do, and has a knack for finding these cool fossils.  Finding teeth with the roots and other characteristics intact is a challenge.

How do you find teeth along Myrtle Beach?  The best took that you can use is your eyes.  Get "the eye" by focusing on shark tooth shapes and ignore the shells.  That's right, at least for me, ignore the shells and focus on teeth if you want to find them. They blend in with the shells, and if you don't focus on them you just won't see them.  In Myrtle Beach, most of the teeth are black or dark gray, but don't focus only on those colors, because some of them can be light tan or cream color, although at Myrtle Beach those are rare.  They can also be a dark greenish olive color.  One guy walked up and showed me a nice inch and a quarter long great white tooth that was cream and tan.  It was very nice.  If you only focus on one color, then you may miss teeth like that.  If you're having trouble finding any teeth, focus on the black ones first because they're the easiest to find.  Once you learn the shapes and can recognize them, then you can check other colored material.  Another clue is that shark teeth are quite a bit shinier than shells.  The confusing part is that there are so many broken shells that look like shark teeth at first glance, so you'll pick up a lot of "fake" teeth, or broken shells.  Even after your eyes are trained, you'll still pick up shells thinking that they're teeth at first.  Shark teeth characteristically have smooth sharp blades with sharp cutting edges, while broken shells have a squared off edges, like broken glass.  Also, the surface of shells are very irregular, not completely smooth like shark teeth are.  You can put a shell in one hand and a tooth in another, and you can feel which one is a tooth and the other the shell without even looking at them once you become proficient at finding these little treasures.

These are my daughter's finds.  She has better eyesight than
I do, and with less hours collecting than I had, she still nearly
found as many fossils as I did.  Top left, a worn broken "meg",
or megalodon, and a broken great white shark tooth.  Also
she found a crocodile scute, top right.

Another common question that people ask me about on the beach, is why are the teeth mostly black, and is color an age indicator?  The only indicator of age that is due to the color is the fact that they are fossilized.  The extent or amount of color does not correlate to the age of the fossils.  The teeth are buried for millions of years in marine sedimentary deposits.  The minerals leach into the teeth and change the color, so the color that the teeth exhibit depend on what minerals they are buried with.  Phosphate tends to turn the teeth black, while iron tends to give them a red tint.  Modern day teeth that fall out of the sharks mouth are almost pure white.  You can see modern day shark teeth at the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach at Broadway at the Beach.  The shark tank, also known as "Dangerous Reef", is home to several species of sharks, including sand tiger sharks, lemon sharks, nurse sharks, sandbar sharks, saw sharks and stingrays.  Many of these sharks lose thousands of teeth every year.  We visit this aquarium every time we vacation in Myrtle Beach, and each time I've seen pure white sand tiger shark teeth laying on the rocks of this exhibit.

What time is the best time to collect?  For me, any time, but, the real answer is, it depends.  Huh?  Well, most years moving tides or low tides have been the most productive.  Low tides expose more shell material on the beach, while high tides tend to hide shell material.  But this year, there seemed to be more teeth showing up at high tide than years past.  Moving tides seem to be the best, because the ocean waves are like one big sorting machine, moving sand and shells around, exposing teeth and other fossils.  The trick is to pick up the tooth that a wave exposed before the next wave sweeps it away or covers it with sand.  I guess the best time is any time that the tides are moving.  However, like most people on vacation, you have to think about what your family wants to do.  So, the best time to collect is really when you can get out there.  Also, I really like to collect during the early mornings before the crowds arrive on the beach simply because the teeth are easier to see when there are less footprints on the beach.

Where on the beach are the best places to look for shark teeth?  Anywhere there are shells deposited on the beach, you'll probably find shark teeth.  At Myrtle Beach, some of the best spots are where beach erosion occurs that expose shells.  There are several creeks that empty directly into the ocean and those tend to wash the sand away, exposing shells and other fossils.  Storms tend to erode more sand than other times, exposing more shells and fossils along the beach.

The fish fossils above include drum fish teeth (top row) and
porcupine fish mouth plates (bottom row).

In addition to shark teeth, you can find other fossils as well.  You can find fish teeth, like barracuda teeth, porcupine fish mouth plates, and drum fish teeth.  Also, you may find stingray dental plate fragments, stingray spines, and stingray scutes.  Stingrays feed with teeth fused into a crushing mouth plate, and these plate fragments can be found along the beach.  It's rare to find an intact plate at Myrtle Beach, but if you're lucky you may come across one.  Most of the spines are broken fragments, but you can recognize them by the serrated edges of the spines.  Stingray scutes are the bony protective scale like plates that run along the back of the stingray.  Also, you may find fossilized fragments of fish skulls. 

My daughter found this crocodile scute

You may find fossils from various marine vertebrates including fragments of whale and porpoise bones, manatee bone fragments, turtle shell fragments, and crocodile bone fragments and scutes.  Crocodiles have protective armor, or scutes, along the length of their back and down the tail.  In addition to the pounding of the surf, the process of replenishing the beach decreases the chance of finding complete bones and skulls of these marine vertebrates, so most of these fossils are merely fragments of the animal.

There are other places to find fossils if you're willing to spend money on them.  There are many beach and gift shops at Myrtle Beach that sell shark tooth necklaces and shark teeth.  Some of these resemble the teeth that you'll find along the beach, being gray or black, but those are from Florida for the most part (the Venice Beach area I'd imagine).  But most of the teeth that you'll find at the stores are from Morocco.  You can find teeth from extinct sand tiger sharks and the extinct white shark or Otodus obliquus from the Eocene, about 37 to 55 million years ago.  You can also find crow sharks and extinct makeral sharks from the Cretaceous period that are about 67 million years old or older.  Most of these teeth are priced a bit more than you can find while shopping on-line, but every now and then you may find a species or tooth that is well worth the price.  I'm always looking for a good deal, or a species that I haven't collected or own.  Plus, you don't have to pay shipping if you do find a good deal.

For example, the teeth pictured to the right are all from Morocco.  The top two teeth are from the extinct white shark, Otodus obliquus, and are quite common in Morocco.  Now, I can find Otodus teeth in my home state.  So why buy them?  In this case, the two pictured are known as pathological teeth.  These teeth have "defects" that simply make for interesting fossils.  These teeth may have been damaged during development or caused by some sort of other problem duirng development.  I have yet to find pathological Otodus teeth in my home state when collecting.  Also, these two teeth were inexpensive.  And, the bottom tooth is a species that I have yet to collect, Cretalamna moroccana (formerly known as Cretalamna biauriculata), from the Eocene.  Be careful when purchasing these teeth.  Many teeth found in gift shops are repaired or restored, which is OK, but not worth the price that they may be charging.  So, when purchasing a megalodon, for example, for hundreds of dollars, make sure the tooth is not restored or repaired.  If it is, make sure you know what it's worth so you can make an informed decision to purchase or not.  If the tooth is inexpensive to begin with, then it's up to you whether to purchase or not.  I personally like the looks of teeth that aren't repaired or restored better than those that are restored (at least in gift shops).  Some stores at Myrtle Beach that sell decent specimens are Shell World, Myrtle Beach Ripley's Aquarium Gift Shop, and the Gay Dolphin gift shop has a nice shark tooth section.  Many of the more expensive teeth in these stores may be higher priced than on-line stores, but like I said earlier, you don't have to pay shipping.  Furthermore, I prefer to find my own fossils.  But, my collection will never include some specimens,and those that I add that I can't find would have to be from the result of a direct purchase or a trade with another fossil collector.

So, if you don't want to spend money on sharks teeth but would like to own your own collection, hit the beach and go find some of your own.  You can make jewelry out of them if you like, but many people like me simply take their better specimens and put them in riker mounts (display cases) so that we can enjoy them later, and share our treasures with other people. 

Why collect fossils at Myrtle Beach?  Well, it's fun and another thing to do at the beach.  Some people really like to beach comb and find shells and I, like many other people, like to beach comb for sharks teeth.  And, every now and then you'll find something nice to add to your collection.

The Outdoors Calls Me - An Introduction

OK, before I let you in on what makes me tick, let me explain the title of my blog.  Fat Boy is my username on most of the forums that I frequent.  I picked it for use on one of the first forums that I joined many years back, Iceshanty.com.  I selected this name not because of a motorcycle, or my stature (although I tend to resemble the name now), but rather it was one of my favorite ice fishing jigs made by Lindy Fishing Tackle Company.  Here's a picture of a Fat Boy jig:

I've had a life long passion for fish in general.  I studied them as a kid all the way through college.  I am an aquarist and have kept many types of tanks over the years including freshwater tropical, freshwater local, marine and currently a brackish water local biotope, an oyster reef.  But most of all, I've fished since I was a young boy on the heels of my grandfather on his fishing adventures, for nearly 45 years.  I've been an avid angler for about 30 years now.

What do I fish for?  Well, I'd say that angling for bass is my favorite thing, whether it's largemouth or smallmouth.  I am fortunate to live in a great place with diverse environments that are home to these fish. 

I also frequently target muskie, walleye, stripers, trout and salmon of the Great Lakes and it's tributaries, crappie, yellow perch, and bluegills.  Heck, I love to catch anything that will bite.  Even on my bass trips, catching multiple species really is fun for me.  I've been fortunate to catch a lot of trophy sized fish over the years with many fishing buddies that have introduced me to opportunities to catch fish of a lifetime for many.  I'm happy to have many friends that fish with me on a regular and not so regular basis.

I've caught fish on all types of tackle, from baitcasting and spinning to fly fishing.  The picture at the top of the page was my first lake trout taken with a fly.  Prior to that catch, I've only caught lakers on spinning or baitcasting tackle.  In addition to the abundant fishing opportunities in my home state of Maryland and neighboring states, I've had the pleasure of fishing for trout in the Rockies and Appalachians, trout and salmon from the Great Lakes and it's tributaries, massive smallmouth from Lakes Erie and Ontario, and fishing on the ice in Wisconsin with my Iceshanty friends.  Well, you can tell what my winter passion is, ice fishing.  It's so much fun for those of you that have never done it.  Where else can you sit over a large school of biting fish without drifting away?  It's been a fortunate run for me that's for sure.  I hope to bring insight to those experiences and perhaps share some of the things that I've learned over the years.

Other hobbies of mine that will influence this blog:  I also love to bowhunt for whitetails, although being in the winter woods with my blackpowder is something special to me as well.  My daughter and I share a passion to collect sharks teeth and other marine vertebrate fossils in our region.  This competes with my hunting and fishing time, but is quality time with my daughter which I cherish.

Finally, I'd like to say that I'd like to dedicate this blog to my brother, Kyle C. Wilson, who passed away from a congenital heart defect at the young age of 36 a few years ago.  Although I introduced him to bowhunting, he wound up teaching me so much about deer hunting with the sticks and strings.  In fact, he had a knack for hunting those big bucks, many of which line my rec room walls. 

He was an outstanding angler as well, with a talent for catching muskie, walleye, and flathead catfish.  Kyle was an excellent bass angler.  Here's a pic of a nice walleye that he caught in my home state:

Kyle was an awesome swim coach too and many families across the country were touched by his coaching ability.  He believed in the pursuit of excellence at anything he did, and he obtained results too.  I miss him greatly.

Thanks to Bass Junky for turning me on to the blogging world.  His blog inspired me in addition to some great reading so make sure you visit his blog (linked on the left hand side of this page).

Now that we have the introductions in order, I'll be writing my next post.  I'm going fishing tomorrow, perhaps something worth reporting will happen.  If so, I'll have pics ready.  Until then, tight lines and thanks for visiting!