Georgia Beach Trip

[James Puls]

Hey all!

 

The wife and I went down to the beach in southern Georgia, south of Savannah for Labor Day weekend. The beach was busy due to the holiday and while most people there were more concerned with getting some sun, I was walking around looking for shark teeth. It was slim pickings for a while. I managed to find a few Leon shark teeth and a piece of turtle shell. I thought I searched all of the beach in our area when I walked through an area previously occupied by some beachgoers and I found the best eagle ray tooth I've ever found on the beach. Unfortunately, it was split in two, but it was a clean break, so it was an easy fix. I was extremely lucky that the waved hadn't washed both halves away! I applied a thin coat of Paraloid B72 (5% solution) to help protect it and I'd say it looks pretty good. I usually only find the left or the right half of this lower eagle ray mouth plate so finding the whole thing is a first for me. I know they are a bit easier to find whole if you are sifting inland, but I just thought I would share. 

[Shellseeker]

22 minutes ago, James Puls said:

I usually only find the left or the right half of this lower eagle ray mouth plate so finding the whole thing is a first for me. I know they are a bit easier to find whole if you are sifting inland, but I just thought I would share.

Fantastic find.. Thanks for sharing.  I have been hunting fossils for 15 years and never found a complete ray tooth,  and then I almost !!! found my 1st back in April.. So I felt just some of that exhilaration you felt seeing this one.

I think your will find this post interesting   !!!!

https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/141084-peace-river-4132024/#comment-1486774

 

[Coco]

Is this tooth fossilized ? I ask this question because Aetobatus narinari is a current species, while the miocene species is more likely to be A. arcuatus.

 

The geological age of this island has not been specified.

 

Coco

[James Puls]

There are a mix of fossils that I find on this particular island that range from the Miocene all the way up to the Pleistocene. Hard to tell what formation it eroded out of exactly because of the huge mix of geologic time periods covered. What I can say is that this likely isn’t Miocene. I found some other broken ray teeth on the same beach that day that are definitely from that time period. But this tooth is definitely not recent, it’s pretty consistent with a lot of Pleistocene fossils I have from similar islands so I would guess this tooth is likely sometime around that time period. This would match with what I’ve read about the geologic history of the island which was formed around 50.000 years ago. 

[Yoda]

@James Puls

Fantastic find