Coon Creek Science Center (Tennessee)
The classic public Late Cretaceous (Campanian) marine site in the US. Operated as a science center by Memphis Pink Palace Museum — fee-paid digs let you walk out with mosasaur teeth, Squalicorax, ammonites, and the famous aragonite-preserved shells of the Coon Creek Formation.
Join a scheduled fee-paid dig day. Staff provide tools, instruction, and bag-and-tag for finds. Sift the soft Coon Creek matrix; rinse to expose teeth and ammonites.
Coon Creek Science Center near Adamsville, TN. Public dig days run by reservation through the Pink Palace; group days for schools.
Collecting is permitted as part of the paid program. Off-program collecting and adjacent private outcrops are not open to the public.
- Mud and slick clay
- Sun exposure on open dig pits
- Book months in advance — popular dig days fill
- Bring a flat-tip screwdriver and a soft brush
- Aragonite shells are still nacreous — handle gently and air-dry
Shark teeth findable here
Trophy = headline find · Rare = real score · Uncommon = some trips · Common = most trips.
Also findable here
The beachcomber's bonus round — what else the geology gives up.
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