HoppeHunting Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Happy New Year, everyone! I was able to sneak in one more hunt before my winter break ended. I kicked off 2019 with another trip to my favorite winter location, Bayfront Park/Brownies Beach. The tides and weather looked favorable, not too cold and relatively low tide very early in the morning. I came more equipped than ever, complete with my new hunting gear that I got for Christmas, including a pair of chest waders (finally!), a sling pack, and a hat from the Calvert Marine Museum with an awesome Hemipristis design. I was one of the first to arrive, and quickly made use of the waders by rounding the cove that can be virtually impossible to pass without them. My waders feature a large mesh zipper pocket on the chest, and that proved to be remarkably useful. No more carrying around tupperware to hold my finds! I stepped foot on the beach about ten minutes before sunrise, and I was blessed with a gorgeous display of colors as the sun shone through the clouds. A few fellow hunters passed me, but I kept my head down and walked slowly, carefully examining every inch of the beach. I was finding a good deal of smalltooth sand tigers with awesome cusplets, but nothing too big for the first hour or so. Even though the majority of teeth found here are small, you can get some pretty stunning colors, not to mention the mind-blowing quality of preservation of some of the teeth. Even after millions of years, the teeth are still sharp enough to cut you fairly easily. That's something that never ceases to amaze me. Anyway, I soon stumbled across a larger tooth laying right out in the open, high up the beach in the dryer sand. It was a very pretty Isurus desori, a mako shark tooth! I happily dropped it into the pouch and kept moving. I continued to find small and medium sized teeth for the majority of the morning. At one point, I picked up a complete dolphin epiphysis, or "cookie" as many collectors call them. I had found a few fragments of them at this location before, but this was my first one to be fully intact. I found it increasingly difficult to navigate the beach as the tide came in, as there were many fresh tree falls and cliff slides due to the recent weather conditions. I decided to call it a day at around noon, so in total I hunted for about 5 hours. My haul consisted of a plethora of sand tigers, many tigers and requiems, a handful of small hemis, a few makos and hammerheads, one broken cow shark tooth, a few odontocete teeth, ray plates, the cookie, and a nice gastropod shell. A pretty typical Brownies haul. I ran into a few other collectors, none who seemed to have found anything incredible, but I always love talking fossils with fellow enthusiasts! I was even able to identify another hunter's find for her, which I always thoroughly enjoy as well. Overall, I had a very nice first trip of the new year and couldn't think of a better way to wrap up my winter break before heading back to school. Thanks for reading my report, and please check out the Hop 5, posted below. I'm starting something new with my trip reports in 2019! I HOPPE you'll enjoy! Sorry, I just can't help myself when it comes to puns. Hoppe hunting! ~David 7 The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues! ~Hoppe hunting!~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoppeHunting Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 PLEASE READ: From now on, I will post the Top ("Hop") 5 finds from each trip, which I've done before, but NOW I invite you to vote for your favorite in the comments! Whichever find gets the most votes will be crowned the Hoppe Tripmaker! The Hop 5: 1. Isurus desori: A very nice little mako, 1 ¼ inch slant height. Incredible how a fossil’s colors can change so drastically when it dries. 2. Carcharias cuspidata: This sand tiger has white enamel! Both cusplets intact and a bit of a curve at the tip. 3. Odontocete tooth: Either a dolphin or porpoise tooth. In very good condition, with a small hole at the bottom of its hollow root. 4. Sphyrna laevissima: This hammerhead may be small, but it’s a beauty. It’s razor sharp. Pics don’t do it justice. 5. Cetacean Epiphysis: A “cookie”! These apparently fuse with the vertebrae as the animal ages, so to find one isolated like this means it died young. Poor guy. 2 The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues! ~Hoppe hunting!~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilsAnonymous Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 @HoppeHunting odontocedete is my fav. The sand tigers there have been very nice recently. I found a thresher there and some beautiful sand tigers last hunt. I was there right after you, on the fifth. 1 On The Hunt For The Trophy Otodus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Nice haul and great photos. I vote for the cookie Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoNoel Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Really nice finds, I don't think I've ever found a hammerhead tooth before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimTexan Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I vote #3 odontocedete. I did not find one of those while I was there in October. Have you hunted Matoaka Beach. There were tons of shells in the stuff fallen from the cliffs/banks. I found a good size chunk of whale bone too. Nice report. I like the voting idea. It engages people more and you may learn something too about what others value or have difficulty finding. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoppeHunting Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 6 minutes ago, KimTexan said: Have you hunted Matoaka Beach. There were tons of shells in the stuff fallen from the cliffs/banks. I found a good size chunk of whale bone too. Nice report. I like the voting idea. It engages people more and you may learn something too about what others value or have difficulty finding. I went to Matoaka for the first time a few months ago and came away with tons of awesome invertebrate treasures! Check out my post titled "Matoaka Beach 11/07/18" for a detailed report. And I'm glad you like the voting concept! Thanks for your vote. The Hunt for the Hemipristine continues! ~Hoppe hunting!~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam86cucv Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Hard to choose between 3 & 4. I'm going to go with 3. We haven't found any cetacean material on our way hunts yet. Maybe this'll be our year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcbshark Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Great pics, love the lower Mako Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darktooth Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Great report and finds! I vote for #1 as it Mako me Happy! I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S233 Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Awesome finds! +1 for Mako : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClearLake Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Definitely #1 for me. That color is really nice!! Great finds. I have only been to Brownies once and we didn't have much luck, but I now realize I did not go nearly far enough south (need waders) and was not diligent enough. We had spent the better part of the the day at Matoaka and had nice success there, but mostly inverts (which is fine with me). Maybe next time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Jersey Devil Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Great finds! I vote for the Odontocete tooth. “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” ― Mikhail Tal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KimTexan Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 26 minutes ago, ClearLake said: Definitely #1 for me. That color is really nice!! Great finds. I have only been to Brownies once and we didn't have much luck, but I now realize I did not go nearly far enough south (need waders) and was not diligent enough. We had spent the better part of the the day at Matoaka and had nice success there, but mostly inverts (which is fine with me). Maybe next time... Maybe you need to read my Brownie’s Beach report from October. I got pretty specific where and how I found most of the teeth I found and it was all before the bend. Of course the turtle pieces, ray teeth, vertebra, cookies and other stuff were all found around the bend. I was quite happy with what I found. Bigger teeth would have been nice though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeepTimeIsotopes Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 #3 because that’s the most exotic, at least to me. 2 Each dot is 50,000,000 years: Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic........... Paleo......Meso....Ceno.. Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here Doesn't time just fly by? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rowboater Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Lots of nice teeth! I would go with the cookie; is it dark before drying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlefoot Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 I actually didn't know that cookies meant the critter died young! Sad, but interesting fact for me to learn. I love all your finds, but I'm going to vote for the cookie because I learned something new. Plus, it's a nice cookie! I love the voting concept! Great idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerzeke Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Great teeth and report as always! I vote for #3 because I don't think I've found an Odontocete tooth at Brownie's before... that's why I love it there I always seem to find something different or better. Look forward to further reports in '19! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Nice! I go for the Odontocete tooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoreThing Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 Great finds brother! I am glad it was a productive few hours for you. Slow and low is the way to go! These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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