More Teeth

 We took another trip out to Shark Tooth Island.

We ended up going at high tide

and the wind was blowing steady so it was pretty rough.

There was hardly any beach visible.

But we thought we might find something

since the water had been lapping against the cliffs.

 We managed to find 6 shark teeth.

 Three of them

(the longest ones)

are from a Sand Tiger Shark

It's very scary looking

but is actually quite docile.

The other teeth were from a 

Tiger Shark

The other is a possible 

Atlantic Angel Shark tooth

They're shaped a lot like a stingray

and hunt prey by burying themselves in the sand.

They aren't dangerous unless you mess with it,

then it has the ability to inflict severe lacerations.

So even though it looks kind of like a flattened dragon,

don't pet it.

 When we were ready to leave, 

we had to hike out to the boat.

But the water was warm

even if the wind was chilly.

Finding Fossils

 We took another trip over to Shark Tooth Island

(named by the Brat Child- It's not an island 

unless you consider the whole of North and South America an island)

We went looking for shark teeth.

I still have hopes for finding a Megalodon tooth,

more so after seeing the size of a tooth a local guy found 

on the very same beach we were walking.

 

 The Brat Child used his sifter to check the sand near the waters edge.

While I went walking along the stretch of beach looking along the sand.

 There's so many rocks and shell pieces

that it's hard to see what is there.

Everything looks like a tooth.

We did find 3 teeth.

Photos and more about them tomorrow!

Great Mother's Teeth

After my grandmother passed away, 

my dad and his siblings found a box she had in her dresser

marked "sharks teeth".

Inside were several old teeth.

My dad thought it was something the Brat Child would like to have 

to remember his "Great Mother" by.

We were all a little perplexed

over why in the world she would have a box of shark teeth 

in her jewelry box.

After reading up on all the fossil teeth in the area of the Rappahannock

and seeing the condition of the teeth (they look pretty old and beat up),

I'm fairly certain they're teeth she and my grandfather found.

The Brat Child, 

well, he thinks it would be cool to pull out his own teeth and replace them with these.

Did Megalodons Roam the Rappahannock?

The quick answer is: yes.

The Rappahannock River is part of the area known as The Yorktown Formation

which includes the Rappahannock, Potomac, Piankatank, York and James Rivers.

It is highly fossiliferous 

(that's an actual word. I love it).

While the most common fossils found are those from bivalves 

(clams, oysters, mussels, scallops,etc)

there are those lucky people who have managed to find Meg teeth

(Currently there is a megalodon tooth from the Rappahannock

 for sale on eBay for $2,300).

So far, the only teeth I've managed to find
were small ones
but I'm still hoping for that big Meg tooth find.

Washing Shells

This is what I've been doing.

Washing shells.

Memorial Day Weekend the family made a trip over to

Shark Tooth Island

to look for shark teeth and fossil shells.

There's a lot of art projects one can do with giant shells

and I have a few in mind.

So we loaded up the boat and took the shells home.

Because they've been laying in dirt and sea water for a few million years, 

they have a rather fishy odor.

Luckily a soak in some bleach water takes care of that.  

I'll be scrubbing them down (some have some green stringy sea grass on them)

and then coming up with various projects.

You know, 

in my spare time.

Fossils

A while back I posted about a place my son dubbed "Shark Tooth Island".  It's an area along the Rappahannock River where people said you could find shark teeth.  Always up for an adventure, we went to check it out.  We were surprised to find that within the sandy cliff walls of the beach were hundreds of scallop shells.  One particular area of the beach had them tumbling out of the walls, onto the beach and even layering the water. 

Chesapecten Jeffersonius VA state fossil

Scallop shells and barnacles were everywhere and we filled our buckets with the Pliocene treasures- treasures that could be 5.3-2.6 million years old. 

Imagine, these scallops lived during the time of the Wooly Mammoth, the Saber Tooth Tiger and the Megalodon Shark.

I am anxious to go back and spend a day rooting around there.  Wouldn't it be grand to find a Megalodon tooth?!

Read about the shark teeth we did find here