To log this cache please message me the answer to the following questions:
1. How many feet apart is the water and the first set of dunes? Do you think that this would make it high tide or low tide?
2. Find a collection of sediment. Are you able to find a fossilized shark's tooth or any other fossilized things?
3. Do you see any signs of active dredging while you are there? Would the dredging make it easier or harder to find shark's teeth?
4. About how many teeth does a shark have in each jaw?
5. Take a picture on the beach or a picture of any fossils/teeth that you found.
One of my most favorite hobbies is finding shark's teeth. Over the course of many years, I have found thousands and this is one of my favorite places to search. The teeth that I have found range in size from 1/8th inch to 3 inches with my prize tooth being 5 1/2 inches! I hope that you enjoy learning about fossilized shark's teeth and that you are able to start a collection of your very own today.
Sharks have been on the planet for over 200 million years, and frequently shed their teeth and grow new ones. Most sharks can shed thousands of teeth every year. They have 40 or more teeth in each jaw. Behind the functional rows or teeth are seven other rows of teeth developing into mature dentures to replace teeth as they are shed or lost. In ten years , an average tiger shark can produce as many as 24,000 teeth. As these teeth drop onto the ocean floor, they are covered by sand and other sediments. Over the course of around 10,000 years, the teeth fossilize.
An old tooth covered in sediment does not mean that it becomes a fossil. Specific conditions are needed to prevent the tooth from decaying over time. Scavenging animals and insects, bacteria, weather, and erosion all can prevent fossilization. Most fossilization occurs in sedimentary rock formations, meaning that the surrounding environment is a combination of sand, rock, dirt, and other sediment materials.
Fossilization means that the bone of an organism, protected from decay by sediment, must become rock. Like our teeth, shark teeth contain calcium and oxygen. To become rock, the sediment-covered teeth are covered by even more sediments, creating intense pressure. As pressure increases, the minerals from the sediment try to fill in any empty space. This forces the oxygen in the teeth to absorb the surrounding minerals, creating a fossilized tooth. While newly shed teeth are white, fossilized teeth can be black, brown, gray, creme, or red. The color of the fossil depends on what minerals surround it during the fossilization process.
The best time to find fossilized shark's teeth is after a storm or after the sand on the beach has been dredged. Dredging digs into sand well below the top of the ocean floor, uncovering sediment formations that contain fossils. As the tide comes in and out, called wash-in, shark teeth are uncovered and washed onto the shore. The geological formations here produce fossils from between the Cretaceous period (about 145 to 72.1 million years ago) and the Pliocene Ephoch (about 5.3 to 3.6 million years ago), meaning that the fossils found on the shore from dredging and wash-in were formed long before humans evolved.
Take time to enjoy a sunrise and to walk on the beach. For more information on Fossilized Shark's Teeth, you can check out this article.
https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/shark-teeth1.htm.
To log this cache please message me the answer to the following questions:
1. How many feet apart is the water and the first set of dunes? Do you think that this would make it high tide or low tide?
2. Find a collection of sediment. Are you able to find a fossilized shark's tooth or any other fossilized things?
3. Do you see any signs of active dredging while you are there? Would the dredging make it easier or harder to find shark's teeth?
4. About how many teeth does a shark have in each jaw?
5. Take a picture on the beach or a picture of any fossils/teeth that you found.