Maryland Shark Tooth Questions

[newsharktoothfinder]

I recently came back from a trip with kids (6 + 9) to Brownie's Beach in the Calvert Cliffs region of the Chesapeake. Nice short trip from Washington DC. I've only gone looking for fossils a few times, and this was a great time. Fortunately there were no jellyfish, so we could just sit in the water a few feet in from where the waves were lapping the shore, and found a nice bunch of teeth in an hour or so of sifting (mixed in with swimming and watching fish and crabs). I have two topics I'd appreciate any input.

1) The teeth were all small, and while the kids weren't disappointed, they did wonder where the big teeth were. I'm no paleontologist, so the best I could do is come up with a bunch of possibilities. Can anyone provide more details?

Possible reasons: These sharks were young. These sharks were small. These sharks just had small teeth. These sharks had mostly small teeth with just a few big ones. Small teeth are more likely to wash over to the beach from the cliffs due to their light weight. Small teeth are more likely to be left behind by fossil hunters. Big teeth are more likely to get smashed into little pieces. Small teeth are more likely to be fossilized. Big teeth are more likely to sink into the mud. Sharks shed their little teeth faster than their big ones.

This article provides a lot of detail, but it's also more advanced than my basic understanding.

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/section?content=a918962511&fulltext=713240928

It sites the most common types of shark fossils in the area -- "archarhinus spp., Carcharias spp., Galeocerdo spp., Hemipristis serra, and Isurus spp" but I'm not sure how big these were or how big their teeth were. The article does suggest that smaller teeth are more likely to be left behind by collectors.

2) Any good ideas about displaying them? I'd love to do something more than dump them in boxes, but I'm not sure of the best way to display them. They're quite small -- 1/4 to 1/2 inch tall -- and I'm afraid if I let the kids play with them they'll be gone in a minute. I'm thinking it would be nice to attach them to a backing of some kind with a water-soluble glue, so that they can be unattached and stored in a different way when the kids are older and able to handle them without losing or damaging them. Any advice?

At any rate, for anyone in the area who's interested in a fun day trip where young kids can look for fossils and do other fun stuff, this is a great place. The water is very shallow, no waves, and very warm. As long as you get there before jellyfish season, that is.

[Auspex]

Great to hear that you and the kids had a nice time

The preponderance of smaller teeth is due to a number of factors; small sharks vastly outnumber bigger sharks, bigger teeth tend to be seen and collected first, and (here's the "money point"), the wave action sorts things of similar density.

As for displaying, consider an inexpensive Riker Mount (a shallow, glass-topped, cotton-filled cardboard tray). They come in all sizes, but get one bigger than you need right now because you'll probably be adding to the collection!

[newsharktoothfinder]

>Great to hear that you and the kids had a nice time

They were a little disappointed to hear that the fossils weren't nearly as old

as the dinosaurs, but they still thought that 16 million years was pretty

impressive. I'm certainly impressed by how well preserved the teeth are after

all that time.

>The preponderance of smaller teeth is due to a number of factors; small sharks

>vastly outnumber bigger sharks, bigger teeth tend to be seen and collected

>first, and (here's the "money point"), the wave action sorts things of similar

>density.

Could you clarify the wave action part? Is that saying, essentially, that waves of

a certain strength can be expected to move lighter objects farther, so the heavier

teeth tend to stay a lot closer to where they fell out of the cliffs? It seems counterinuitive to me that something as big as some of the fossil bone fragments

I saw could be moved at all by waves away from the cliffs, but then I realize that

waves can get a lot bigger than they do on the calm day I was there, and stuff has

been eroding from the cliffs and moving for millenia, and the current site of beach probably was once covered by the same cliffs once.

>As for displaying, consider an inexpensive Riker Mount (a shallow, glass-topped,

>cotton-filled cardboard tray). They come in all sizes, but get one bigger than

>you need right now because you'll probably be adding to the collection!

Thanks -- I see a million places selling them after doing a quick search online.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Auspex

[Auspex]

The vast majority of fossils to be found are not fresh from the cliffs (though some can be); they have been stirred and sorted for many moons.

Low tide, with the wind blowing the water out of the bay, will expose the areas of larger material (which also gets less casual collecting pressure). Large, flat, algae-covered rocks = larger fossils.

[siteseer]

As for displaying, consider an inexpensive Riker Mount (a shallow, glass-topped, cotton-filled cardboard tray). They come in all sizes, but get one bigger than you need right now because you'll probably be adding to the collection!

Yes, I like Riker Mounts too. I have made a few small fossil displays (shark teeth, small mammals, brachiopods, trilobites, etc.) for a friend who teaches 5th grade. I take out the cotton/foam insert so I can create a background customized for the fossil group. Sometimes, the fossils slip out of position if you use the insert and you have a little more room if you take it out in case you want to put in a somewhat bigger specimen. For shark teeth I either traced or photocopied a large megalodon tooth and then cut the outline out and glued it to a light blue piece of printer or construction paper, drawing in some detail. A large tooth wouldn't fit inside but the kids can see how big a shark can be along with the fossils more comonly found. I glued (Elmer's) the teeth onto the paper. Depending on how many teeth you're using, you can make small labels to display with the teeth or use price dots to number the teeth and then provide the numbered ID's on the back of the mount.

Rikers can be hard to find locally but watch for the next gem and mineral show in your area because there is usually at least one dealer selling them. I tend to use the 8x12 size which sells for about $8-10 though you can get them wholesale in Tucson during the shows for $3-4.

[PaleoRon]

Believe it or not I just bought 4 cases of Riker mounts today from SGT. Riker in Ashland, Virginia. I picked up four different sizes and I got 1 1/4 inch depth as well as 2 inch depth cases. I used to buy 3/4 inch depth cases, they are a lot cheaper than the deeper cases, but I found over the years that some teeth were getting broken from the pressure of the synthetic material behind the cotton facing. Even though the teeth were thin, the synthetic material is springy enough to push a tooth against the glass with constant pressure that can, in some cases, damage the tooth. This is especially irksome when it is a lower cow shark tooth that gets broken.

If you find yourself on Interstate 95 heading to Richmond the shop is less than 5 minutes from the Ashland exit. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday. You don't have to buy them by the case, you can also buy them individually. For really nice finds they have locking wooden boxes with glass covers. The Riker boxes range in size from 3" x 4" up to 14" x 20".

[siteseer]

"...but I found over the years that some teeth were getting broken from the pressure of the synthetic material behind the cotton facing. Even though the teeth were thin, the synthetic material is springy enough to push a tooth against the glass with constant pressure that can, in some cases, damage the tooth. This is especially irksome when it is a lower cow shark tooth that gets broken.

Yeah, that's another reason why I take out the insert. Some people have shipped teeth in Rikers with the insert still there with no problems. I tried that once and some teeth were cracked or broken. They were Moroccan teeth without locality info but it was still aggravating at the time.

I know what you mean. A complete fossil lower cow shark tooth is a miracle find. It would be a real shame to break one within the space of a human lifetime after it survived intact for millions of years

[bmorefossil]

I would say you could try purse state park for shark teeth it is closer to you than the cliffs teeth tend to be more abundent yet the size of the dsmaller teeth tend to be larger than the ones found at brownies it's still hard to find large teeth, most are in the 1/2 inch to 1" range.