The stripes on these cliffs show different layers of sediment laid down at the bottom of an ancient sea, between 3.5 and 5 million years ago. As the cliffs erode, fossils from that era are released and wash up on the beach.
Fossil
Fossil Tooth
Fossil tooth from an extinct tiger shark, find at Westmoreland State Park, on Fossil Beach (of course!).
Miocene Fossils
The prize that everyone seeks at Calvert Cliffs is a fossil megalodon tooth - the hand-sized weapon of a 60 foot shark that cruised this area in the Miocene (roughly 20 to 5.3 million years ago). But other, more ordinary shark tooth fossils can be found (upper right), as well as mollusk shells (whelk, scallops…Read more Miocene Fossils