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Writer's pictureRockin' Ric's Blog

When Stressed Out With Life, You Get Fossil Therapy

It had been a rough week and a good way to end April 2022 with some fossil creek hunting! The stressful situation I face will get worse before it gets better with the passing of time. Thank goodness I have hunting buddies, whom I call dear friends at my side every step of the way and including me on fossil hunting trips that make you forget temporarily that being human can depress you. It was a moment but a good day!

It's the first creek hunt of the year and was so looking forward to this trip! I get up early on a cool Saturday morning that was overcast and go meet my buddies for the trip. The drive down was filled with conversation and laughter. When we get to the creek, I'm way to excited and can't wait to jump in and try out the ice spikes and sift for some marine fossils! Pictured below are those spikes, made mostly for ice. In the creek, that chalky bottom is about equal to ice! When we got to the site, the water levels were high but manageable, and the gravel siftable. One thing about this creek is beneath that water, the floors are made up of slippery chalk, one wrong step, and you are either diving head first or falling backwards into that cold water! I opted out of wearing boots for this occasion since the water levels were high and wanted to brave it with shorts and aqua shoes. This time I was equipped with ice spikes on those shoes and to my astonishment they actually worked on that slippery chalk bottom... I was cruising along with no issues and thought it was money well invested! When I got into the water it was freezing cold, in a matter of 30-minutes my feet and legs adjusted to it quickly and it no big deal for the rest of the day!

I found a spot that was filled with gravel and started to sift. Immediately I'm finding about 6-10 fossilized shark teeth in my sifter, so I'm off to a good start and pretty much was like this the entire day... omygosh! I probably ventured about 25 yards the entire day... everything we wanted was within reach of our fingertips, so I had no need to move beyond that and of course the conversation and laughter continued on during the hunt... it was awesome! There was a point my medicine bottle kept falling out of my pocket that contained teeth. It was seen and retrieved by one of my hunting buddies downstream. The second time, it got loose, and she caught eye of it at the last minute and tried to again... this time it had floated into the area of the slippery chalk and there was no way she could get to it fast enough. I bolted, figuring that I could catch it before it wound up further downstream and wasn't able to retrieve it. I was in disbelief afterwards over those spikes and how well they were worked running over that chalk! I became a believer and salesman of those spikes that day and convinced one of the hunting buddies to invest in a pair!

By my standards I didn't find much to scream about at least I thought? When I got home and went through my finds I realized I did find something significant! I found the large root of a Hybodont tooth, rarely I find roots at all but on this one it was just the root with the tip broken. Had the tip been attached it would have been a perfect specimen! I usually find the blades and not the roots of these older sharks that swam the Cretaceous seas.

I also found shark teeth of different species, bone, steinkerns of gastropods and ammonites... the standard fare when you hunt on this creek.

Also found some "what are they"? The first one may be a denticle, the second picture could be from a Squatina, and the third picture are jaw pieces from a lizard and fish??

The creek produces all sorts of cool fossils including these teeth. Pic#1 appears to be that of a Scapanorynchnus (Goblin Shark), the tooth has all sorts of cusps protruding at the base of the tooth! Pic#2, I would find lots of these and nicknamed them "stubbies", I was told they are the posterior very back teeth of the Goblin Shark. Pic#3, a combination of Squalicorax and Psuedocorax Shark Teeth. Pic#4, Cretalamna. Pic#5, I was told this one is called an Archeolamna, a rare find for this time period... also if you look closely the cusp is wrapped around the back? Pic#5, is definitely bone, the question is it a broken vert, the top portion has a curvature that indicates it???

What an awesome day with some pretty good finds to add to the collection! En route home we stopped at a local restaurant in Tuscaloosa called Foosakly's that has some pretty good fried chicken tenders to end the day. While driving down the road nearing our destination I developed a cramp in my leg and had to get the girls to stop, so I could work it out by walking to and fro. I see a beautiful sunset with a picket fence lining both sides of the road that was pretty awesome and had to take a picture!

Last but not least is this creek produces lots of microfossils that I'm totally obsessed with finding! I brought back a bucket full of gravel and this is what I found... When the wet gravel is brought home. I lay the gravel out on a plastic sheet to dry for 48 hours. I gather some together and fill a red solo cup full of gravel and put into a plate in the second picture. If you look closely, you can see the teeth that are in the plate.

The teeth pictured above are the specimens that were found not chipped or broken. Most of the teeth goes without saying has wear and are broken. So when you see most of the teeth featured in this blog that look near perfect they are a VERY SMALL percentage of what is found out of all the teeth I collect.



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