|
Post by liveoak on Jun 8, 2022 11:46:14 GMT -5
So being self employed we decided to play hooky yesterday, and drove up to Alabama to find some sharks teeth. The site is actually pretty well known, among those that know It's on the Conecuh river, just below the "Point A " Dam, just north of Andalusia. Here's a photo of the old dam, which is still quite active: And a shot of the river bank that we walked down - there's a narrow ledge along the bank that you can walk down, when the water is high, like it was yesterday. All the photos of the area that I've seen, were taken when the water was MUCH lower & the bank was wide.
Anyway, we made it down stream to the actual dig site. The teeth are found in a layer of compacted Eocene sand, which was an interesting bluish color (I've never seen that before).
You have to dig out lumps of the sand, and then wash them in a screen , in the river.
We were there less than 2 hours & found over 70 complete & broken teeth, and a number of sting ray spines, ray grinder teeth, and one small hexagonal scute from some armored creature.
The reason we had to leave after such a short time, was that the VERY active dam decided to release water into the river, & we realized the level was coming up fast In fact the little ledge we walked down on, was quickly under water, and we had to hike back through the woods. But we made it out alive with lots of sharks teeth, and now we just have to identify them. The largest one on the upper left (a little over 1 3/8" long), I think is from a Goblin Shark.
I would surely not want to get bitten by a thing with scary teeth like that .
There's a website just for fossil shark ID , we found out : elasmo.com/And heck who wants to work anyway, we have sharks teeth to identify.
OH, I almost forgot, I also found some ROCKS, but I will post them again in the ID forum. I think they are some kind of a quartzite vein, of a silvery blue color. I will add that those rocks were VERY heavy carrying back in our bucket through the woods.
Thanks for looking , Patty
|
|
|
Post by rmf on Jun 8, 2022 15:59:27 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this. very nice.
|
|
|
Post by rockjunquie on Jun 8, 2022 16:16:55 GMT -5
Nice haul. The rocks are intriguing.
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Jun 8, 2022 16:56:41 GMT -5
And I drove all the way down there and the water was high ! Lucky you guys and great haul. That funky green sand is from Mars. You'd think it was copper ore ! Those teeth with the little fangettes are an older shark if memory serves. The rocky island facing the dam about 200 yards back is where I found the Tallahatta Sandstone(you may have seen some freshly chipped material). Good eyes, impressed you found it with all the black coating ! It looks like quartzite but is very not. It is silicified sand, a cold process as opposed the heat and pressure to make quartzite. Tough hard rock treasured by Native man for knapping spears. The white patches are silica spots almost like chert. Some can be more white chert than grey silicified sandstone. It is much more common in Mississippi but some occurrences are quarried in Bama. In some places it is 40 meters/130' thick. Sand seems sub-angular in it suggesting it may have come from wind blown sands from dunes. Don't forget you guys live on the biggest sand deposit on earth... From that homework assignment . Be sure to click thru the article since it has about 7 subtitles : www.geoarchaeology.southalabama.edu/tal-sand_sedimentology.htmlCheck out the Dalmation point. It can be white with black polka dots and have red in it: www.geoarchaeology.southalabama.edu/tal-sand_archaeology.htmlPS I put in at the ramp about a half mile downstream and drove the Go-Devil up to the dam. If water was low that wouldn't happen as the prop was speaking to the rocks enough as it was. No green clay until you get to the dam area.
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 8, 2022 17:26:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the id on the rocks jamesp., and will go back a re-read those articles.
It's very different hard stuff, I'm going to try and cut it & make a cab out of it.
Tom wants me to inlay a shark tooth - we'll have to see about that.
Patty
|
|
jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
|
Post by jamesp on Jun 9, 2022 6:39:29 GMT -5
Thanks for the id on the rocks jamesp., and will go back a re-read those articles. It's very different hard stuff, I'm going to try and cut it & make a cab out of it.
Tom wants me to inlay a shark tooth - we'll have to see about that.
Patty
The guys that make spearpoints out of it complain about it being so hard. I find similar where the pet wood is. That would be well out of it's range according to the article.
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 9, 2022 7:09:17 GMT -5
I wondered if on the Conecuh, if the rocks were there from them blasting, to dam the river ?
Seems likely.
Ya know, I was walking on that island & looked down & saw a rock that looked like someone had hit it with a hammer & I thought, " that's funny, I wonder how that happened ? ".
Guess I shouldn't discount that people actually wander around with a hammer in their hand
Patty
|
|
|
Post by hummingbirdstones on Jun 9, 2022 8:58:56 GMT -5
Great field trip! Thanks for sharing. The sandstone is cool.
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 9, 2022 16:05:18 GMT -5
With the weight of carrying that sandstone out I WILL figure out a way to use it !
:-)
Patty
|
|
rockbrain
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2022
Posts: 2,482
|
Post by rockbrain on Jun 9, 2022 16:19:36 GMT -5
So being self employed we decided to play hooky yesterday, and drove up to Alabama to find some sharks teeth. The site is actually pretty well known, among those that know It's on the Conecuh river, just below the "Point A " Dam, just north of Andalusia. Here's a photo of the old dam, which is still quite active: And a shot of the river bank that we walked down - there's a narrow ledge along the bank that you can walk down, when the water is high, like it was yesterday. All the photos of the area that I've seen, were taken when the water was MUCH lower & the bank was wide.
Anyway, we made it down stream to the actual dig site. The teeth are found in a layer of compacted Eocene sand, which was an interesting bluish color (I've never seen that before).
You have to dig out lumps of the sand, and then wash them in a screen , in the river.
We were there less than 2 hours & found over 70 complete & broken teeth, and a number of sting ray spines, ray grinder teeth, and one small hexagonal scute from some armored creature.
The reason we had to leave after such a short time, was that the VERY active dam decided to release water into the river, & we realized the level was coming up fast In fact the little ledge we walked down on, was quickly under water, and we had to hike back through the woods. But we made it out alive with lots of sharks teeth, and now we just have to identify them. The largest one on the upper left (a little over 1 3/8" long), I think is from a Goblin Shark.
I would surely not want to get bitten by a thing with scary teeth like that .
There's a website just for fossil shark ID , we found out : elasmo.com/And heck who wants to work anyway, we have sharks teeth to identify.
Nice haul for that amount of time! The two book matched curved ones in the center of the second row from the bottom, are those stingray spines? I've found one but didn't know what it was.
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 9, 2022 16:51:13 GMT -5
No, they are more Goblin Shark teeth, but broken.
The stingray spines we found are among the pile of misc things on the right.
Stingray spines are quite long in life, and for fossils you usually just find broken pieces.
I also identified one of the other abundant ones we found, with the small " fangs" on either side of the main tooth, they are I believe from a Mackerel shark.
According to the Wiki both the Goblin & the Mackerel are related to a great white.
We also found what we think is a Mako shark tooth, but it's broken.
So today I purchased a new small "poacher's " shovel so I'm better prepared for next time digging, as I had to wonder if our blunt shovel was breaking some teeth.
I also need to come up with some kind of a pick for breaking out lumps of sand.
Patty
|
|
|
Post by jasoninsd on Jun 9, 2022 19:29:27 GMT -5
Patty, those teeth are amazing!! I have one actual "phobia"...and it's Galeophobia. Yet, I'd get a blast out of finding those...and I'm glued to the TV during Shark Week on Discovery! LOL
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 17, 2022 10:30:12 GMT -5
So I was really intrigued by that blue Eocene sand, ( jamesp called it "green sand from Mars") and cursed myself that I didn't bring more of it home. But we did manage to drag some home still stuck to the shovel & I looked at in under my cheapo digital microscope.
And here's the result - I'm wondering what the black specs are ?
They were all through the sand.
Patty
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Jun 17, 2022 13:02:15 GMT -5
Hi Patty That really cool pic According to Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child In their book, “Diablo Canyon" the greenish sand color can be an indication of the grains being melted or vaporized. This could be caused by high impact Or nuclear advent. Many of those grains will take on spherical shape form the droplets falling back to earth. A tell-tale sign of this are faint swirling lines on the grains called, Schlieren flow lines, This is mohs interpretation of a paragraph on page 95 hard back first edition. So take it with a grain of... m hsalty
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 17, 2022 17:17:46 GMT -5
Thanks @mohs.
My trouble with that theory is that would imply a single event, which would show up as a kind of thin layer in the sediment. The blue/green sand is a really thick layer , easily 3 feet thick, with the black specs all through it & also sharks teeth randomly.
So unless something was going on for a long time, I think we have to come up with another theory.
Maybe Agent Pendergast would have a theory ?
Patty
|
|
|
Post by mohs on Jun 17, 2022 18:26:59 GMT -5
liveoakHaha sure if you gave a sample to Diogenes he could run thoroughly Spectographic analysis. Though he'd end doing some bio Chemical dastardly deed & breed tiny monsters. Pendergast would say: Indeed,mostly
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 17, 2022 19:24:32 GMT -5
LOL @mohs
Patty
|
|
|
Post by hummingbirdstones on Jun 17, 2022 20:40:50 GMT -5
Dang you guys, I love those books! I've read every one of them.
|
|
lookatthat
Cave Dweller
Whatever there is to be found.
Member since May 2017
Posts: 1,360
|
Post by lookatthat on Jun 19, 2022 10:27:10 GMT -5
The little black things could be drumfish teeth. You really want to watch that digging in the side of the bank. It's a great way to get the site closed down to everybody and/or have the overburden come down on top of you. This is a huge issue in the fossil collecting world. Check out what happened in Summerville South Carolina -- bank digging gets sites closed. I LOVE LOVE LOVE looking for shark teeth, but there is a lot of backlash against the activity because of bank destruction. I know this comes off as a scold, but when I (finally) get a chance to get back out fossil hunting I want some areas to still be available to me.
|
|
|
Post by liveoak on Jun 19, 2022 10:44:00 GMT -5
Actually lookatthat, I understand where you're coming from, however that site and the banks, are naturally eroded from the river. Actually from the dam releasing massive amounts of water sometimes, so much so that the banks we were digging in can be under water sometimes, from the evidence we saw as we hiked back through the woods,how high the water can be there.
That site is a well known one for sharks teeth & has been utilized sparingly for many years.
Not an easy , drive up to it place that attracts lots of people, boy scout troops, etc.
It'll still be there if you wanted to go dig in the future.
Patty
|
|