"Drystreak.com"
Calvert Cliffs Trip
June 2004
Access is restricted at most of the cliff exposures. Kayaking is a fun way to get to them!
For those of you who haven't been to the cliffs, this picture gives you an idea of how tall some of the cliff exposures are. Notice the two fossil collectors at the beach.
This is also a good image to show how dangerous it is to dig in the cliffs, just think.. Hmmmm... lets see... physics... This section looks to be about 15 people high, that's about 83 ft, or 25.3 m... Vf = Vi + sqrt(2ax) = 22.3 m/s = 49.9 miles/hour. If someone caused a small collapse, the stuff from the top of the cliffs would hit the person at a speed of roughly 50 miles per hour! Yuck!
Digging in the cliffs is bad for your health!
"Drystreak.com"
Well, we went to the cliffs again in hopes of finding giant 7 to 7.5" megalodon teeth, but came home with non. I'm thinking about lowering my standards... Naaaa!
In the morning we decided to try diving again, give the dive spot 1 more chance... Boy we shouldn't have! The formation was there, but no fossils at all, not even little bone fragments that are everywhere. The next time we dive, I'm going near an old snorkel spot that has produced megs for me in the past.
After our unsuccessful dive, we kayaked to a nice section of cliffs that always produce nice specimens. We got there at low tide and started hunting. Amy found nothing over an inch. I found a few things barely over an inch. It was a very disappointing day. My best finds were some H. serra teeth that will go nicely in my snaggletooth dentition that I am making, and a PERFECT mako tooth. This mako is EXTREMELY well preserved, like it just came out of the sharks mouth. Unfortunately it's only 1.25" in size...
O well, all was not a waste. We did have fun moving out of our cool/rainy Pennsylvania, and frolicking in warm/sunny Maryland. We chased some rays in the bay, soaked up the sun as we aimlessly drifted down the bay channel, and even saw a rather tame fox.
Here are the fossils we found. Highlights are a nice porpoise tooth, an exquisitely preserved 1.25" mako tooth, and two hemepristis serra teeth. One of the H. serra teeth still has matrix on it. It had just fallen from the cliffs, top of Zone 11 I believe.
This is a pic of a rather tame Fox we saw at the place where we parked our car.
This ray was frightened; moments before I accidentally ran it over with the kayak.. Didn't turn fast enough.
When its sunny and calm, the rays like to come near the surface and soak up the sun.
Sometimes they look like sharks if only one fin is sticking out of the water.
Here's a close up of a cow nosed ray inches below the water. In the kayak you can sneak up on all kinds of wildlife. In South Carolina, we even got close to a shark in one of the inlets.
Notice how none of these pictures are of fossils.. I may have to rename the website if this dry streak continues... "natureguy.com" , "anti-fossilguy.com" , "no_fossils_here.com" , "drystreak.com"
