Ellis and I took a vacation to Florida in June 2002.  With no destination in mind, we decided to drive until we found the perfect place to stay.   We ended up on the coast, not far from Sarasota, in a town called Venice Beach.  We had our dive equipment with us but had no idea we'd actually get to use it.  After finding a room, we were told that Venice was famous for fossilized shark teeth.  We spent the next few days combing the beach and found some great but small sharks teeth.                                            . . . click here for more details   ** PICTURES TAKE ABOUT 30 seconds TO LOAD (depending on your connection) ** ** If pop-ups are blocked, "Ctrl Click" on a small photo to view larger photo **

We also found several different kinds of fossilized shells.  After doing a beach dive with good success, we decided to search out a dive boat.  There was only one dive boat in town.  As luck would have it, the usually booked boat was out of service.  We chanced into a reservation pending the boat being able to run.   God must have been on our side because we were able to go out on the dive boat on our last day of vacation.  It was on that dive that Ellis found the biggest fossilized Carcharocles Megalodon tooth of the day.  It measured 4 1/2 inches across, tip to root.  I also found some Megalodon teeth.  Mine were smaller but a couple were in really good shape.  We found fossilized Whale bone, Manatee ribs, Stingray plates, and Stingray barbs.  Other fossilized sharks teeth found were Snaggletooth (Hemispristis Serra), Mako (Isurus Hastalis), Sand (Odontaspis Cuspidata), Lemon (Negaprion Brevirostis), and Tiger (Galeocerdo Aduncas).  These fossils range in age from 2 to 40 million years old.  The epochs range from Pliocene to Oligocene.  We were told that you can also find Mastadon teeth which come from the Pleistocene Epoch (0 - 2 million years).  They had some nice examples in the dive shop.  Florida is a great place to vacation.  This was one of the best vacations we've ever taken.