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Fall Calvert Cliffs Area Fossil Trip - 2012

Potomac River - Aquia Formation - Paleocene Fossils
and
Calvert Cliffs of Maryland along the Chesapeake Bay - Miocene Fossils

Fall Calvert Cliffs Area Fossil Trip Report

I usually do a fossil set up at the Nanjemoy Heritage Festival each fall. It's a nice place to do a set up since it's close to some Potomac fossil hunting spots, as well as the Chesapeake Bay fossil spots. I usually make a weekend out of it, and fossil collect at a few locations.

This year I decided to try the Paleocene Aquia formation along the Potomac river, and then head to the Calvert Cliffs area for Miocene fossil shark teeth. Since most of the fossil spots are surrounded by private property, the best/only way to get to many of them is a boat.

The Paleocene Potomac:

After checking the tide charts, I decided to first go the Aquia formation and collect before the Nanjemoy festival began. Although I arrived at low tide, the area was mostly submerged. I often found myself in knee to waist deep water. Only a few tiny spots of beach were dotting the cliffs. As a result, I didn't find much in the way of fossil shark teeth. However, I managed to find a fragment of Indian pottery.

Below are the fossil found from the Aquia Formation

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The Calvert Cliffs

After the disappointing trip to the Paleocene fossil spot, I set up at the festival and had lots of kids look through the reject material from the PCS Mine in Aurora, NC. (See the Aurora page). Once the festival was over, I packed up and headed to a campsite for the evening and weathered through a storm. The next morning, I launched the Jet Ski and headed toward the Miocene Calvert Formation to fossil hunt. This time the tides were MUCH better, as the water was low and there was plenty of beach and gravel to scour. All in all, the fossils were far and few between. This was expected as the cliffs get hit hard by fossil collectors nowadays. I did manage to find a 2 1/4" megalodon with damage to the tip, a pristine 1 7/8" mako that is razor sharp, a beautifully preserved crocodile tooth (it was only 1") , and a few big snaggletooth shark teeth. Overall, I didn't do too bad. It's been a few trips since I have found ANY megalodons, so even a small 2" class megalodon was nice to find.

Below are the fossils found from the Calvert Formation

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Additional Images and Fossils Found

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Recommended Books for Shark Tooth Identification

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Fossil Shark Teeth of the World
, A Collector's Guide
by Joe Cocke, Copyright 2002

A great book for identifying all those teeth. This book is laid out "as simple as possible." It's ease of use and small size makes it great to carry during collecting trips. This book shows teeth from around the globe, but all the Calvert teeth can be found in it.

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Fossil Sharks of the Chesapeake Bay Region
, A Collector's Guide
by Bretton W. Kent, Copyright 1994

This is a classic for identifying all those teeth at the Calvert Cliffs. It's a must for any beginner collector that fossil hunts in the Maryland/Virginia area.
Unfortunately, this book is out of print. There's used ones on amazon for super insane amounts of money, but SOMETIMES there is a used one available for a few bucks.