THE BEST Method to Find Shark Teeth on the Beach!! (Professionally Tested & Approved!)

So a fossil Hello from CFA, what's up guys? This is Ash Pigel, owner of Charleston Fosil Adventures and photographer and co-author of a

beach

lover's guide to fossils. Today I'm here on the

beach

to help you maximize the number of

shark

teeth

you can

find

. the shortest time possible let's put aside the dispute whether it is better to search for the shore with your eyes or it is sifting the

best

method

to get away from the beach with a hand full of

shark

teeth

let's test four different

method

s against each other to see which supreme queen fair warning the answer might surprise you make sure you watch to the end to see which method produces the most teeth okay chat let's get into it first let's try to look at the material that's already been discovered so we're collecting in the surface outside the waves.

One thing you should notice about these segments is that I'm collecting all these shark teeth from the beach line. The ocean has sorted all this stuff, packed it into these nice little clumps of gravel and shark teeth and has already done all the heavy lifting for me, the waves previously washed the stone clean, there is nothing hiding these teeth, as you can see, are right in the middle of the open space, okay guys, the next method What I'm going to try is to walk along the coast while the waves break through the gravel and of course the frequent spectators of this channel you know I'm not just keeping my eyes open for shark teeth, there are so many more cool fossils that will show up on our beaches, if you know what to look for, take this shark vertebra for example, absolutely stunning, this is a huge vertebra to belong to a shark with huge teeth, like this chub utensis tooth, right here, absolutely beautiful fossils, this time they have been discovered by the waves. and the waves are still passing by there so there is a chance that these fossils may have been covered or that I walked on equally amazing fossils and just didn't know it, why are you keeping me for our next method, let's try looking at the sifting.

So specifically, let's sift through the material where we already see shells. Now sometimes there are no shells visible on the beach. You may just have a bare stretch of sand. So what happens if you take your sifter and try to sift the sand to see if you can get it? Some shells and shark teeth got mixed in there, so one thing I've noticed is that I've gone down into the sand a little bit, probably about four or five inches, and you can see it changing color. We have a darker layer. Every once in a while it gets a little lighter on the bottom, all that light stuff that's just sand, but what I've noticed in the darker layer is that there are some little bits of phosphate sticking out of the wall and, hopefully, are associated with them. they're shark teeth, look at that tiny tooth, another observation, all this stuff suddenly gets covered in sand, it's very hard to see what's gray and what's black, so if it were a little closer to the water, washing this would be a It's a good thing to do and please, if you use this method, always remember to fill those holes.

Fair warning, digging in the sand can be dangerous. I cut my finger on a shell. Thank God I always carry a first aid kit. Well, our four. The tests are over. I have four bags of teeth here. Let's get back to the studio and see what the

best

method is for

find

ing shark teeth on the beach. As you can see, one category outperformed the others by more than twice as much just by walking. Along the beach and using my eyes on the dry sand, I found 64 shark teeth and seven other types of fossils in 15 minutes. That's pretty incredible.

The next two categories yielded fairly similar results. They both walked along the shoreline as the waves crashed against the gravel and shells. The material, as well as sieving sand where rocks and shell material are seen, produced 27 shark teeth each, while the wet sand produced five additional fossils and sieving the dry sand produced another four, finally which leaves us to search for that layer of shell hidden beneath. the sand now, this was quite a difficult task for me. It was in a place known for fossils. They are everywhere in this town, so finding a band of rock hidden beneath the sand shouldn't have been a difficult task when I found that layer.

Although I was searching through that material, I found two shark teeth and a stingray tooth. It's a pretty terrible result considering that if I had spent those same 15 minutes walking through an area where I saw shells and rocks, I could have found over 60 fossils, so what's at stake? Here's why walking on the surface is the most productive method for finding shark teeth while you're at the beach. I hinted at it before if you let the waves do the hard work for you, washing the sand off the fossils and congregating them in areas that have The same size shells of material at the high tide line are a couple of inches wide, maybe You might find some shark teeth that are also two inches up there, working their way up the beach into what I call oatmeal to cereal flake sized material.

You will find a lot of teeth in this section, that is simply because most of these teeth will be the same size, they are about half an inch to an inch long and as you can see from my general opinion, that is the size of most common tooth I found, regardless of the species or the location where I look. Sifting in many localities is really not that good. If you're using this method, you're actually looking for less material than walking along the surface where the waves have discovered it. All in 15 minutes I probably searched for about a cubic foot or two because I had to find the sand where these fossils were discovered.

I had to pick it up and put it in my sieve and then once it was there I sorted it by shaking it. In the sieve I had to look through all the rocks and shells that were piled on top of each other and find all the shark teeth and fossils hidden there. That took time and that time is very valuable. I want you to find as many teeth as you can. It is possible when you visit the beach so just walking around and using your eyes will be your best option if you only have a limited amount of time and a quick note here about sifting if you are going to bring a sifter to the beach please.

Check local and state regulations regarding collecting fossils and artifacts. Some states, such as Florida, allow sediment screening with the use of shovels and other tools statewide, as long as you have a permit. North Carolina has no restrictions either, but here in South Carolina you are not allowed to sift or use tools of any kind in the waterways, so if you are on the beach between the low and high tide line and you are simply crossing the sand that's on the surface, that's completely fine. It is allowed, but when you go into the water, when you are in our streams and waterways, you cannot use a sieve or tool of any kind.

I mention this because I want everyone to enjoy this hobby. I want you to find it amazing. shark teeth, but mostly I want to make sure we don't ruin this for future generations, so be diligent about what your state allows, so if you're one of the 33 percent of my viewers still watching right now, yeah he wants it. I have earned it, I would love your subscription to the channel and a like on this video, it really helps to spread more people who are fascinated with fossils and want to learn more about the prehistory of our earth, as always happy hunting, collecting responsibly. and see you next time