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Excavating a Dolphin skull with a film crew at the Calvert Cliffs

Wouldn’t it be fun to hop from remote exposure to remote exposure in just minutes? I thought it would be. This trip I decided to test out the Jet Ski, and see how well it would work for fossil hunting.

A few days before my planned trip, I was talking with Paul from CHAPTours at Red Hill. He asked if I was heading to the bay next week . I said, "Yes I am!" and told him my plans. He said to move my plans ahead a day. The Calvert Marine Museum was quarrying out two skulls that week and wanted to know if I wanted to help. Also, a film crew for the Discovery channel was going to film one of the excavations. So, our plan of attack was to help quarry the skulls on Tuesday, then exposure hop on Wednesday with the Jet Ski.

On Tuesday we quarried out one of the skulls. Unfortunately, the skull we quarried was mangled and mashed. I thought it was hardly worth the time for someone to prep it. The other skull appears to be beautiful; it's a small Eurhinodelphis with a complete maxilla. It should prep out beautifully. We then watched the film crew meticulously film the excavation.

After the excavation was complete, we left and decided to take the Jet Ski out for the second low tide. He headed off to a very promising remote exposure, where the landowner, who came out to visit us found a perfect ~5" meg just laying on the beach about 100 feet from me!!! I have vowed to always return to that spot! It was the best meg I have ever seen, even better than the pristine Aurora megs, it must have just fallen from the cliff. By the end of the day, neither of us had found too much, but we did find a few good secret spots and a possible secret dive site for future trips.

On Wednesday, we again took out the Jet Ski, this time launching at a different boat ramp. This time we hit some promising cliff exposures that we have both collected at before. Neither one of us was finding much. However, after giving up at one spot, and deciding to leave to go to another exposure, I showed Paul a mangled fossil to see if he knew what it was. He looked at it, and walked away from the waves so he didn’t drop it, and presto! Right at our feet was a white 3" megalodon! Paul spotted it and swooped it up! This megalodon must have just fallen from the cliff, as it wasn’t even wet. That was be the best find of the trip. I can’t wait to get back and zoom to the secret spot that I have vowed to stake out, and just wait for another 5" perfect meg fall out of the cliffs!

Below are pictures of the trip and the fossils

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Recommended Books and Fossils:

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Shark Tooth Hunting on the Carolina Coast
By: Ashley Oliphant, 2015
A guide on how to find and identify fossil shark teeth on the North and South Carolina beaches. It also has an easy to use section for shark teeth identification. If you want to find shark teeth in the Carolinas, read this book first!