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Hunting for fossil sharks' teeth
In addition to the plentiful Bull, Lemon, Sand, and Tiger sharks' teeth, a number of 2-inch and longer Carcharodon megalodon teeth can be found scattered over many miles of this coast line. For beach and coastal sites, any place where there are sedimentary rocks along the shore and a gently sloping sea bottom is apt to be a good fossil collecting area. Fossil bearing deposits may be part of the off-shore sea bottom or part of the land exposed to the sea along the coast line. It is from such rocks that entrapped fossils are freed by the forces of the ocean. In looking for a fossil bearing section of shoreline, the color of the beach sand is an important indicator. Generally, fossils (including sharks' teeth) are found in greater abundance where there is dark, blackish-colored, fossiliferous sand. At Venice, long stretches of the beach are this color and texture. Look for areas where the natural action of the water tends to pile up shell fragments, small rocks, and similar-sized objects. Look for dark brown and black shattered bits of fossil bone. Such bones are usually distinguished from ordinary rocks by the multitude of timy holes and channels in them. This is where the animal's blood vessels, nerves and other tissues once ran. A particularly favorable collecting situation is called a "wash in". Along the gently sloping beach at Venice, where the surf sweeps back into the sea, there is usually a small but sharp six-inch to over-a-foot drop-off in the sea bottom. This is a point of high water turbulence. Along this shore-paralleling trough there is often a heavy accumulation of pebbles, shells, fossil fragments, and other objects. While the surf is strong enough to carry the lighter grains of sand shoreward, it is not always strong enough to move these objects. Sharks' teeth are likely to accumulate in these areas. When the tide routinely changes from low to rising, the resulting strong shoreward waves may catch some of the material caught in wash-ins and push it up onto the tidal flat. Another condition favored by fossil teeth collectors is low tide. When the sea is calm and the water clear, the near-shore drop-off accumulations of shells, rocks, fossils and fossil fragments are under relatively shallow water. It is possible to wade along this shore-paralleling trough and look for teeth In addition to tidal washes, a number of other shore line conditions are favorable for collecting. Crevices and channels around sea walls, rock piles, coral formations and creek channels running back into the sea are places where the water running back toward the ocean tends to be channeled into a swifter than normal flow which scours away the lighter beach sand, revealing any heavier objects buried beneath. After a storm is also a good time to search for fossil sharks' teeth. Oftentimes, the storm-piled debris on the beach can yield a larger number of huge megalodon teeth. The information above was taken from Let's Go Fossil Shark Tooth Hunting, B. Clay Cartwell, 1978.
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