Here it is, the jar into which all our small fossils go into after each trip, plus the 'top shelf' fossils, the ones nice enough for temporary display on the window shelf above the kitchen sink, in front.
If our monthly counts were correct, we collected some 1313 shark's teeth. It may not be entirely accurate; 'top shelf' teeth may or may not have been counted sometimes; but that's a minor error. A bigger error is the really small teeth that often fail to come out of back pockets; many of these could be recovered later when we eventually clean out the drier vent ( Georgia once recovered over 80 teeth at one time). The fossils (including the 'top shelf') weighed 535 grams (about 1 lb 3 oz for metric-phobes). By comparison, last year we had 629 grams.
It was not the best of years for fossils, for a number of reasons. Two trips, one to Alaska, and one to Italy cut into the number of days we got out to hunt. As she ages, Skye is getting less tolerant of long walks, and that not only cuts off some distance covered, but it also cuts off some of the prime fossil hunting areas to the north, a double whammy. And as you may have noted (but probably didn't) Georgia stopped walking with us sometime earlier this year, due to still unresolved health issues. Since she has a good eye for shark's teeth, that has also cut into the haul.
Since I intend to work less this year, and walk the beach more often, perhaps next year will be better.
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