Hunting Tips
Fossils are plentiful on Amelia Island and it's easy to learn how to find them. You can increase your chances by:
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Learning what fossils look like. Visit the Info Center and check out our exhibits, or pick up reference materials (ID cards, the Shark Tooth App) so you know what you're looking for;
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Location, location, location! The Island is full of fossils, especially the North end. Fort Clinch is a great starting point.
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Gear. Loot jars (to safely store your finds), sand diggers, mesh fossil bags, and beach supplies like water and sunscreen are important.
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Tide. Watch the tide! Midway through an outgoing tide offers the best hunting for less experienced hunters, because much of the beach is available and the outgoing tide works with you.
To kick-start your hunting skills, you can also join a guided hunt with Dr Foss L Hunter, who is a trained naturalist to learn how to read the beach and find shark teeth and other fossils. Alternatively, stop by the info center to get some tips and tricks before heading out to the beach and starting your own adventure. After your hunt, be sure to stop by the info center to get your fossil finds identified by our team. We provide a free ID card for your favorite fossil of the trip!
Our top 5 tips (as detailed on our postcard) for beginners are below.
The Surf Line
The surf is best for:
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small to medium sized teeth
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small pectens
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wentletraps
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shells
The surf line is one of the easiest and most consistently productive places to search for teeth. It is where we typically teach newbies to learn how to recognize teeth, because they shine when wet and are thus easier to distinguish. This tactic works best when the tide is outgoing.
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Find a spot where the surf line has a good amount of shells and other debris. If shell beds are sparse, scrape the sand with your foot until you have exposed underlying shell.
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Stand in the water a few feet from the surf line. (Note: stand sideways, so that you can see the ocean behind you; it is never good to turn your back on the ocean – not the least because sharks still patrol the area.)
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Watch closely as the waves wash over the shell beds, bringing material to you.
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Look for “T”, “Y”, and triangle shapes in a similar size of most of the other materials in the bed.
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Most of Amelia Island’s teeth are black or gun-metal colored due to the mud in which they were fossilized, so start by focusing upon black items. Once you become a master, you’ll be able to spot teeth with different colors.
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Grab any dark-colored “T”, “Y”, and triangle shapes. You have to be quick! Having a Sand Dipper tool is useful because it extends your reach. Having a kid with you is awesome too, because they are closer to the ground and tend to be quicker than old folks.
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Once you find a tooth, stay close – you’ll almost always find more nearby. We tend to find a good spot and then walk back and forth in a 6-8 foot stretch along the surf. We’ll often find a dozens in one spot, sometimes 100s.
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Note that most teeth found via this method tend to be small to medium sized, with one exception: items found in the ledge of sand just below the surf line. This ledge sometimes traps large teeth or pectens, so it’s worth scraping along the ledge with the sand dipper or your hands, throwing the contents onto the sand between you and the surf line. The water washes them clean.
High Tide Line
The high tide (or “wrack”) line is best for:
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small to medium sized teeth, esp sand tigers
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small pectens
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wentletraps
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shells
This technique is best used anywhere, especially after a storm.
The high tide line typically contains light or hydrodynamic items such as pectens, teeth (sand tigers are especially hydrodynamic), fragile shells such as figs & scallops, and wentletraps – along with seagrass, driftwood, and other “wrack” (marine debris).
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When walking the wrack line, start at the top which is where the lightest items settle. This area is often covered with seaweed; if so, it’s worth pulling the seaweed out of the way, as some great items often are tangled in or covered by vegetation.
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Watch for jingle shells, which are a similar shape to pectens, and much more common. A wrack line with jingle shells often yields medium-sized pectens.
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Learn to recognize upside-down pectens, as this is how the waves often deposit them.
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Wentletraps are often found in the super light debris a foot or so above the wrack line. Sometimes when there it appears that the beach is devoid of shells, you find that there is a wrack line and it’s full of wentletraps, augers, and other minis. Look for mica, “coffee grounds”, or a fine layer of dirt; then get low to the sand and really focus on the light debris. Augers or nutmegs are easier to spot then wentletraps, so look for them.
Shell Beds
Shell beds with large sized shells are best for finding larger sized teeth, pectens, and megafauna fossils.
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medium to large sized teeth
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pectens
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megafauna fossils such as whale teeth and turtle shells
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shells
This technique can be used anywhere there are shell beds. Remember that like sized objects end up in the same shell beds, so you're more likely to find large fossils in shell beds which contain large shells such as oysters, clams, and mudstone.
