# Shark Teeth Fossils



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Last weekend I went to Big Brook in Pennsylvania and I managed to find these shark teeth  They are fossils from 65+ million years ago.

I'm probably going back this weekend. And since I know you'll read this Amanda its about 2 - 2.5 hrs from your house sooo want to join me this weekend?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

THAT is pretty cool!!! Can we see that again, but with a ruler so that we can guage size?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I'll try post new pics tomorrow but they are pretty small. The two big fish teeth on the left are about 1.5" long, so most of the other teeth are around half an inch.

I hear you can sometimes find big 1-2" inch shark teeth. 

As I said I'm probably going back this weekend so with any luck I'll find some nice ones. I made a screen to help me sift through all the mud instead of using my hands to sift.

There should be some fossil sites near you in Texas by the way. Texas has its fair share of fossils. Unlike CT...


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Very cool. Living in the Gainesville, FL area, there are creeks here where you can also find them. It's pretty cool thinking of sharks inhabiting the land where we now walk.


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## Bruce_S (Jun 11, 2012)

In those days, there were more sharks in freshwater, as well. A few years ago, I spent a week in the early Cretaceous of Maryland, at a site that was once a freshwater stream running through a forest. There had been a forest fire, and carbonized wood was the most common fossil we found. Called "lignite", IIRC, if you dried it you could probably still cook over it - after 110 million years in the ground!

We also found shark teeth, nodosaur teeth, sauropod teeth, small mammal teeth and dienonychosaur teeth. Busy place, back in the day!

~Bruce


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## pjb9166 (Apr 2, 2012)

Zapins said:


> I'll try post new pics tomorrow but they are pretty small. The two big fish teeth on the left are about 1.5" long, so most of the other teeth are around half an inch.
> 
> I hear you can sometimes find big 1-2" inch shark teeth.
> 
> ...


Nope Ct. has been swiped out from the ice age. I hate living here. I go up state new york for fossil hunting. Or a short ride up to hollioke mass for some beautiful dino tracks.

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## Axelrodi202 (Jun 7, 2009)

I'm pretty sure Big Brook is in NJ, not PA. 

Fossil hunting/collecting is another one of my main hobbies. Here's a riker mount of stuff from my first collecting trip at Ramanessin, a stream in the same general area as Big Brook.










And here's a riker mount of stuff I received from a guy in Maryland.










I also collect other types of fossils (shark teeth aren't my main focus). My main passion is ammonites. I can post pictures of the other fossils in my collection if anyone's interested.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yes I meant NJ haha I have Philadelphia on the brain.

I heard about Ramanessin today when I went back for the second trip to Big Brook. It seems like the Ramanessin teeth are bigger than the Big Brook material.

You have a really fantastic collection of teeth. Very well preserved and they look huge!

Here is what I found from my 2nd trip:










And I found this tooth as well. Its some sort of fossil mammal canine tooth, but I'm not sure what animal its from yet.


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## Bruce_S (Jun 11, 2012)

Beautiful preservation, and a rare find indeed!

~Bruce


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Thanks Bruce. Have you had a chance to look around CT for fossils?


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## asukawashere (Mar 11, 2009)

...Given that you appear to be looking at the remains of an ancient sea bed, perhaps a species of dolphin or some other small, toothed whale?

I'm still jealous. I totally would have come if I'd only been able to find someone to drive with me... -__-'


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

People over on the fossil forum are saying everything from a raccoon tooth to young dire wolf or bear from the Miocene. 

It took me 2 hours to drive there since there was traffic on the highway.


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## benderisawesome (Sep 10, 2008)

What kind of camera did you use to take those great close-up photos?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

For the 2 zoomed out pictures I used my cell phone. For the 2 zoomed in ones with the coin I used my canon 5D mark ii with 100mm 2.8f macro lens. Then I took 5 pictures of each side of the tooth at slightly different focuses and focuse stacked them using CombineZM to get a fully focused image with all the detail.


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## chrislewistx (Jun 8, 2012)

What a great thread! Thanks for sharing, APC becomes more interesting to me every day.


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## Bruce_S (Jun 11, 2012)

I haven't, though many years ago, when we were small children, my brother once did find a chunk of limestone (the hard, pale gray variety) which had a reef-type impression on one side. It appeared to have gone through some reworking, like a river cobble. I wanted to keep it, but he was into breaking open rocks in those days, and insisted that since he'd found it, it was his to smash. (T_T)

There were a few small shell bits inside when he finally broke it open with another rock, but the original outer impressions were bashed to bits. That was in southern Fairfield County, but CT hasn't offered me a lot of fossils, otherwise...

~Bruce


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## pjb9166 (Apr 2, 2012)

We don't have much to speak of in Ct.
We have way to much sandstone here. Ice age cleaned us out. There are some out crops you can find leaves and twigs and such. Some of the streams have given up a few fish fossils. We do have a few good places for minerals though.

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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Yep that is about what I figured pjb.

I'd love to find even a leaf fossil. A fish fossil would be out of this world amazing but I haven't found any locations in CT for fish yet. Most of the fossil rocks are burried 100s of meters deep under lava flows or they were gouged out by 2 miles of ice...

If you know of any places to find fish I'd love to know unless they are secrets


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## pjb9166 (Apr 2, 2012)

I know stony brook in suffield ct and please excuse me for the spelling but farmington river in poquanock / windsor ct. Have produced some nice fish fossils. The road side cuts on rt9 just south of the west farms mall down to berlin trnpk for plant material.

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