Why?

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

Please do not take this as an insult. I have asked this before on the forum. Why are people collecting such small pieces of teeth? I know that some members have actually found matching parts of teeth, but as for value, those are practically worthless unless the specimen is really large, and as for a show piece, they are not desirable.

I try to collect only whole teeth. The only partials I will collect are: 1. Brand new species to my collection 2: at least 75% there of a rare species 3: Absoltely not sure what it is. And even if I find a tooth that is missing just one little tip off its root, if it is a common type, I leave it there. Doesn't this type of collecting promote the idea of amateur collectors "vacuuming" a site clean?

(And yes the same for any commercial collectors. I find it horrible to take it all!)

But why shark teeth? Most are rather common. Only a few qualify as rare.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

I'm not sure if the same logic applies to teeth, but with rare ammonites and echinoids, I tend to keep the pretty ones and get the important partials into the hands of museums etc. Since ammonites for instance are used for global zonation correlation, diagnostic partials are of value to some academic types. That is obvious when looking at papers and seeing how many diagnostic partials are figured. So at times I can help further science yet still keep the stuff that looks cool in my collection.

[Fruitbat]

On occasion I will, as you so succinctly put it, "vacuum" an area of even fragmentary teeth because I find use for them in Science classrooms. Even the broken teeth of common species can be of considerable interest to young students and can be a valuable tool when doing activities on classification, anatomy or even general science.

-Joe

[cowsharks]

I usually pick up a few or more partial or worn specimens so I have something to give the families w/kids who can't seem to find a tooth. When they see me coming with all my getup on (waders, buckets, shovel, screens, etc), they think I must know what I'm doing and typically ask what I found that day as I walk past them. The kids usually seem especially interested, so I try to have a few teeth to hand out to each of them. Those that I don't have the opportunity to give away at the beach, I later donate as items to give away at club meetings, schools, cub-scouts, etc.

As for others, I know new collectors to the hobby seem to pick up anything and everything because they aren't 100% sure of everything that they find. Sometimes I get folks asking me to help ID stuff for them at the beach, and sometimes they have slivers of rocks or shells that they thought were shark teeth, or odd shaped rocks that they thought were bones, etc. So until they learn more, they tend to pick up everything just in case it's a fossil/tooth/bone, etc.

One place which I used to pick up most everything many years ago was along the Potomac River in MD. However, after a few trips you quickly realize that you really don't need anymore worn sandtiger shark teeth or ray teeth, so you leave them for others.

Daryl.

[Sundancer73]

Pieces of enamel or ivory if sufficiently large can be made into cobochons for interesting jewelry. I have lapidary equip.

~Mike

[frozen_turkey]

Ya i kinda have this problem.

Even though ive been collecting for awhile i still tend to vacume out any site i go to. But i dont go to the extrem like colecting tiny fragments unless its something rare. I think it has something to do with me finding every other fossil realy cool looking and i somethimes just get a bit carryed away.

-Frozen

[RickNC]

Even after only collecting since July I have gotten to the point where very common teeth and broken teeth are tossed backed unless there is something unusual about them.

[SharkTeethCollecter]

I have yet to find any teeth on my own, but shells are common at my site and I take only the most intact specimans I can find. But I also dissaprove of "vacuming" or "stripping" a site clean of fossils. But when you can only find one site, you kinda get dissappointed.

[Angus Stydens]

I have to agree with Mike. I tend to keep pieces of fossils if they are of no scientific value and use them in making jewelry. I don't vacuum a site, but only keep the pieces that have certain aesthetic qualities... color, shape, potential to be polished, etc. The rest of the common fossils I leave behind for other collectors. I have a full lapidary set up where I can use diamond polishing equipment to polish such things as mastodon enamel, ivory, large pieces of broken ray plates, etc. I also restore the roots on broken shark teeth and then electroform 18kt gold over the roots of them to make pendants.

I would hazard a guess that some people who really strip a site clean do so out of habits established when they were newbie collectors. It takes a while to get out of the "collect every single thing you can find" mindset.

[cowsharks]

... I would hazard a guess that some people who really strip a site clean do so out of habits established when they were newbie collectors. It takes a while to get out of the "collect every single thing you can find" mindset.

I agree A.S., even after 14yrs I still find myself just reaching for a tooth if it catches my eye. There's no time for looking over a tooth when you know there are other collectors on your heels coming up behind you. I tend to get in a mode where if it catches my eye because it looks like it could be a tooth, I reach for it with one hand, meanwhile my eyes are already moving and scanning another area while that other hand is placing the tooth in my container. I become a machine...sort of like a hoover I guess. I've actually developed the ability to grab the tooth, rotate it with my fingers so I can feel the tip, and if there's no tip, I toss it back on the beach.

I think there's a big difference between picking up all the teeth you see, and "stripping" or cleaning out a site completely. The reason I say this is based upon where I collect, which are beaches. THese beaches are constantly being replenished by the erosion of the cliffs/banks which border them. There simply is no way anyone person, or even all of the collectors combined, could ever feasibly strip or clean out these beaches if they kept every single tooth they found. There's literally millions more under their feet in the thick base of sand, and the banks/cliffs are always eroding which redosits more fossils on the beaches.

Now, I can think of some areas in the MD/VA region that can or have been "stripped" or strip-mined, and one is not too far from my house - which really ticks me off. THis spot would be awesome, but the collectors that went there literally under-dug the high bank/wall and dug out every last bit of material. It made the wall collapse and other parts of it very unstable and dangerous to the point that if you wanted to collect near it you really risked your life. As a result of all of this, this particular site is essentially dead. A few folks try to go there every now and then but have to settle for some left overs in the stream for previous years of sifting.

Daryl.

[ohiofossilhunter]

I collect every vert. fossil I find because I barely ever get to collect vert. fossils. But I am very selective of my brachipods and other invertabrets.

Edited October 12, 2010 by ohiofossilhunter

[tracer]

i just throw all the crummy stuff into the brush or water, whatever's closest, and leave behind the stuff i've brought from a different strata. then i giggle for weeks over people thinking they're in the eocene when they're in the pleistocene...

[Boneman007]

On occasion I will, as you so succinctly put it, "vacuum" an area of even fragmentary teeth because I find use for them in Science classrooms. Even the broken teeth of common species can be of considerable interest to young students and can be a valuable tool when doing activities on classification, anatomy or even general science.

-Joe

I agree with Joe. A friend and I donated over 30,000 common lower cretaceous echinoids, gastropods, bivalves and ammonite pieces to the Heard museum a number of years ago. They were used for their childrens programs. As for vacuuming sites, many times the common fossils simply keep me going as I look for the special finds. In Kansas, if I find ONE really nice specimen a day, it's a good day. Sometimes that comes after a dozen hours of hunting. If I didn't pick the common stuff up, I would loose interest.

Do your homework. Find the sites. When you finally find that virgin site we all hope for, you will vacuum too.

[Guest N.AL.hunter]

Thanks for the comments. For those of you doing lapidary work with your fossils, I for one would love to see pictures of your work!!

[barefootgirl]

When I first started hunting I kept everything I found because it was all new to me and all very very cool. Now I only keep about half of what I find and I try to only take the good specimens ( I said try!). When I hunt with Barry he hardly ever keeps anything and I end up with most of what he considers junk in my pack. It's hard to find perfect shark teeth here so sometimes partials are all you get to walk away with. 98% of my collection would be considered junk to you guys who have been doing this for years but so what. I found it, I like it and when I don't like it anymore and get better stuff, I'll toss it out in the flower gardens out front or give it away to a newbie who thinks it's still cool stuff. I always wonder what the next owner of this house is going to think when they go digging around in there and find broken teeth and verts all over the place.

[Mango]

I am still fairly new to fossil collecting. When I started, I kept everything. Since I usually collect with kids, this led to oxes of fossil fragments. We brought them all home, sorted them and then got out the books to i.d. them. This was a good learning experience for both myself and the kids. Besides the educational experience, it helped tune our eyes to be able to possibly find whole specimens when only a fraction is showing. This is not why we kept everything, but it is a result of it.

I think we kept everything because we were excited to hold a piece of a creature that no one had touched for 10,000 years. Since we started our hunting in the Peace River, I am betting that some of the turtle shell fragments we brought home had previously been held in another fossil hunters hand. I even remember bragging to my non fossil loving friends, "This is a piece of an armadillo like creature that was the size of a VW Bug." It just felt cool to have a piece of something I thought, at that time, was rare.

My keeping of everything did not last long. I am not going to raise the elevation of my property using dugong ribs anymore. My oldest son stopped keeping everything after I made him carry the bucket.

Now when I see someone keeping everything, I smile to myself thinking they are just getting started in a very interesting hobby.

With regards to shark teeth, I still keep much less than perfect specimens. When I am land hunting I will pick up pieces of what I call "decent sized" teeth, and even very small teeth. By bending over to get these teeth, it slows me down, and gets me lower to the ground. Many beauties have been found that would have been overlooked had I not stopped for the chunk of tooth.

Most of my collection would be considered junk by most too. I must now admit that my wife thinks I might make the third or fourth season of the Hoarders on A&E TV. I collect.

[frozen_turkey]

I agree A.S., even after 14yrs I still find myself just reaching for a tooth if it catches my eye. There's no time for looking over a tooth when you know there are other collectors on your heels coming up behind you. I tend to get in a mode where if it catches my eye because it looks like it could be a tooth, I reach for it with one hand, meanwhile my eyes are already moving and scanning another area while that other hand is placing the tooth in my container. I become a machine...sort of like a hoover I guess. I've actually developed the ability to grab the tooth, rotate it with my fingers so I can feel the tip, and if there's no tip, I toss it back on the beach.

Daryl.

Thats is exactly what happens with me. I kinda just get into it and boom in 5 min i have a bag full of rock. But my situaltion is like the beach new stuff is all was eroding out of here and its literaly imposible to vacume a site.

Also my friends little brother loves it when i give him a bage a of fossils that i dont want.......so there are both side to collecting most of the stuff.

[Terry Dactyll]

People just get more selective with what they collect as their experience grows.... we have all been there at somepoint....

[Haddy]

I'm still newer at collecting, but what I pick up depends on where I am. In MD, I don't pick up ray plates. In FL, no Dugong ribs!

Teeth I collect because they're small. I'm not taking the time to examine them, I just pick them up and they go into my jar. There are usually other collectors nearby so I'm moving along. I pretty much pick up whatever I see because if I didn't, on my return trip I'd have to go over and look at it again, and slow myself down (most of my collecting is going out a ways and then returning in my tracks). Bones I'm more selective about because they're less common to find and I can make a decision as to whether something will add to my collection or not.

I've given a lot of teeth away to neighbors' kids, so the small / broken ones have come in handy.

[Darwin Ahoy]

I vacuumed the first two times I went out. Then, came a steady decline as far as how much I take. Now, I generally leave behind 80-90% of what I find. I try to take only fairly whole teeth (pristine teeth are a rarity here), partial teeth that are very large, anything if it's relatively rare, and anything I'm unsure of. Any of the usual/common stuff, goes right back.

I DO tend to pick up EVERYTHING when I'm collecting the banks. I'll then leave piles of teeth/whatnot as I go along. This is mostly because I crawl across the banks, and it's basically just to get it out of my way, otherwise my eyes will keep glancing back to it as they catch the sight of enamel.

[Meghunter.net]

The majority of my hunting is underwater and I pick up most everything I see. Sometimes its hard to get a good look underwater so I take everything interesting up to inspect. Honestly, I would be disappointed if I thought I was seeing things others left behind. To me part of the fascination is the fact that these fossils have not been seen in millions of years.

I think that some land hunters in the heavily hunted areas like the Carolinas may pick up everything at a site to discourage others and limit the competition. If you were a new hunter and found some pieces and parts of shark teeth for instance, you would probably come back again. But, if you found absolutely nothing you might never return.

Al

[Boneman007]

Also, I use certain common fossils to help me determine if the site has eroded enough to hunt. In the Britton formation of Texas, There are straight ammonite pieces that are common. I pick them all up, that way if I am seeing them the next time i'm hunting, I know that enought erosion has occurred to keep hunting.

[Tony Eaton]

Paleoecology is one good reason. I.E., the first time I ever hunting a particular creek I kept everything. Later I was able to put together population counts and realize that over 1/2 of the teeth I found were Scapanorhynchus. It is also interesting to see the histology of teeth from where they are broken.

[MikeD]

For me, it depends on what I am hunting. My collecting time is usually limited, so I tend to pick up anything that looks like a fossil and sort it out later. In most of the places I collect in Texas, I tend to vacuum, because I know a good rain or two will refresh the site as good as new and who knows when I will ever get back there again. In other places, I look for the good stuff and leave the rest. When I collect wood, I tend to look for specific types, nice or unusual specimens, followed by nice colors. Sometimes I will cull my finds before hauling them out. I leave a lot of wood behind these days. Most of my rejects will end up as giveaways for the club or the museum.

[siteseer]

If you are digging rather than surface collecting, you might be more inclined to pick up and keep even a small piece of a tooth in case you find the rest of it. Around Bakersfield you might find some fossils exposed by a rain in a few sites but you really need to dig if you're going to find anything. As has been said, you probably won't find the missing piece of a broken tooth picked up on a beach or in a river so you would tend to keep only decent specimens and maybe an weirdly-shaped partial.

Years ago, during my first trip in a Florida phosphate mine I went with a longtime collector who kept handing me specimens I had walked by and he didn't want like a near-complete small megalodon, a three-toed horse tooth, and a dugong vertebra. It was all gold to me.

A few years ago, I started keeping track of what I found in a collecting day, keeping any tooth that was more than half-complete as a way of getting an clearer idea of relative abundance/rarity. A friend had done that in the past and we would compare numbers for beds/formations we had collected in common.

Please do not take this as an insult. I have asked this before on the forum. Why are people collecting such small pieces of teeth? I know that some members have actually found matching parts of teeth, but as for value, those are practically worthless unless the specimen is really large, and as for a show piece, they are not desirable.

I try to collect only whole teeth. The only partials I will collect are: 1. Brand new species to my collection 2: at least 75% there of a rare species 3: Absoltely not sure what it is. And even if I find a tooth that is missing just one little tip off its root, if it is a common type, I leave it there. Doesn't this type of collecting promote the idea of amateur collectors "vacuuming" a site clean? (And yes the same for any commercial collectors. I find it horrible to take it all!)

But why shark teeth? Most are rather common. Only a few qualify as rare.