Post #437605 by Polynesiac on Tue, Mar 3, 2009 2:54 PM

so....trying to get this topic back on track, I went to the gulf side of florida to do a little bit of beachcombing of another kind. I had heard a rumor about a beach where the sediment is comprised of fossilized sharks teeth (among other ground up bits of shell and whatever rock/coral is local). My brother-in-law reminded me while we were there and said that he thought it was close to where we were staying. So the whole fam piled into our cars and off we went!

We went to (of all places - you californians will laugh) Venice beach and went further south (to get away from the big crowds) to Caspersen Beach. We only had a short amount of time to hang at the beach, so we didn't walk far from the parking lot and started looking for fossil sharks teeth. I figured we wouldn't find any along the swash zone and shallow water, because TONS of people come here looking for sharks teeth. I thought for sure, you'd either have to scuba, snorkel or walk a fair distance from the parking lot to find any. We tried anyway....

looking for sharks teeth......

sure enough....it's true! Now, not every hand full of sand contains sharks teeth, but we found about 100 (among all of us) within about 2 hours of digging. And this was where everyone else was looking for teeth too. I can only imagine the types of teeth and the amount you could find in an area that is a little less accessible.

I'm usually not the type of guy to take shells and rocks from beaches, but I had to break my rule and take a few home with me....and share the experience with my work mates.

by the way, because I wanted to make sure that it was okay to take the teeth from the beach, I did a little research on what is permissible to collect from Florida beaches without a license and fossilized shark teeth (along with shells) are legal to take.

Polynesiac - putting the "F" back in "ART"

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2009-03-03 14:56 ]

[ Edited by: Polynesiac 2009-03-15 14:37 ]