In my post for the 3rd/4th Feb, you'll notice I put one find down as "unidentified". I've since used my own List of Species page to identify it, and another tooth I found a while ago, as Isurolamna affinis. a mackerel shark species.
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Low tide: 0837 am 0.48m
Weather: drizzly and cool Finds: 222 I made a snap decision to chance the predicted rain and hit the beach again. I almost had to myself apart from 3 others (a family). Went to a promising looking spot near to my usual haunt and it paid off quite well. I found 131 fossils by the usual method and further 91 (!) by sieving. Basically I took a couple of scoops of 'debris' around a boulder, put them in the sieve, washed out the sand & clay in the sea, and took the remainder home to be spread out on a newspaper to be dried and sorted through. In fact, the 'sorting through' turned into family event, as my wife and a son ended up picking out fossils, every time they to be passing the newspaper. Finds varied in size from 15mm down to 3mm, and included a gastropod, 2 fish teeth and a bivalve. Finds: 3x Otodus pieces; 148x S.macrota (10 complete); 52x C.hopei; 6x P.rutoti (4 complete); 1x S.teretidens (Complete); 1x turtle carapace fragment; 1x bivalve; 1x gastropod; 2x wood; 2x Eagle ray 'bars'; 3x Bony fish teeth (Eutrichurides); 2x rabbit fish mouthparts. Low tides: 0835 am 0.18m / 0915 am 0.24m
Weather: cloudy and cold / cloudy, rainy, hail, very windy, and very cold Finds: 225 & 21 Saturday 3rd: There were around 20 people on the beach this time. Many seemed to be doing well for finds. I was finding loads myself. Most of the fossiliferous areas were well exposed but some were covered in slipper shells which made things a bit difficult. Otherwise conditions were ideal. Nice light, not too cold, and not much wind. Sunday 4th: By contrast, this visit was difficult. There was a stiff, chill wind from the North, and on/off rain (even hail) the whole time. This wind had the effect of raising the tide level, hiding most of the usual spots. In the end, a number of us hardy souls went off westward along the beach to find an outcrop of the Oldhaven Bed that was still exposed (Thanks, Phil). You find that the teeth from this area have hint of blue about them, making them stand out quite well. Not a lot of teeth to be found this time but I may go back in future. My 225 finds on the 3rd Feb were made up of: 9 Otodus; 3 Eagle ray bars; 1 rabbit fish part (See below); S.macrota x163 (25 complete); C.hopei x38 (4 complete); P.rutoti x10 (2 complete); 1 unidentified shark tooth. 4th Feb (21 finds): 1 fish vert (See below); 1 complete P.rutoti (See below); 1 S. teretidens ; 10 C. hopei (4 complete - Example below); 8 S. macrota (3 complete). |
AuthorHi, my name's Steve. Archives
March 2023
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