GoFossilHunting

Neogene · 23.03 – 2.58 Ma

Neogene fossil sites

Modern mammal groups rose to dominance, including the great ape lineage that produced humans. The Calvert Cliffs of Maryland and the Peace River system of Florida are the iconic North American Neogene fossil destinations.

A megalodon tooth, its broad triangular blade still finely serrated along both edges
Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Neogene brings the world close to its modern form. Grasslands spread, grazing mammals diversified, and the Isthmus of Panama closed and joined two continents. Ice sheets grew in the north toward the end of the period. Most Neogene marine fossils belong to genera that still live today.

That familiarity helps in the field. Neogene shell beds hold scallops, clams, and snails that look much like beach shells, because they are close relatives of them. The difference is that fossil shells are usually chalky, stained, or partly recrystallized. Shark teeth are abundant, and Neogene beds produce the largest ones, including Otodus megalodon.

The Neogene list runs to forty-eight entries. California supplies ten and Florida six. Twenty-six are viewing sites and fifteen allow free collecting. The Calvert Cliffs of Maryland and the phosphate district of central Florida are the two best known concentrations of Miocene material in North America.

55 fossil sites

Updated 27 September 2026

Life of the period

Three to know from the Neogene

You will not find all of these yourself. They are the animals and plants that make the period worth reading about.

  • A restoration of a megalodon breaching from the sea among smaller whales.
    MegalodonOtodus

    Teeth reach about 18 centimetres. Almost nothing else survives, because a shark skeleton is cartilage. Every size estimate you have read is built from teeth and a handful of vertebrae.

    Hugo Saláis, CC BY 4.0

  • A pale green fossil scallop shell photographed beside a centimetre scale.
    Chesapeake scallopChesapecten

    Virginia's state fossil, and the species name honours Thomas Jefferson. The shell is common enough along Chesapeake Bay that a first-time collector can expect to find one.

    Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, CC0

  • A museum reconstruction of an early hominin standing upright with one arm raised.
    Early homininAustralopithecus

    The skeleton known as Lucy dates to about 3.2 million years ago, which places her in the Pliocene. She walked upright but kept a brain roughly the size of a chimpanzee's.

    anagoria, CC BY 3.0

All Neogene sites

Frequently asked questions

Where do megalodon teeth come from?
Miocene and Pliocene marine deposits, roughly 20 to 3.6 million years old. Calvert Cliffs in Maryland, the Florida phosphate district, and river gravels in the Carolinas are the main sources. Complete large teeth carry high value and are often restored.
How do I tell a fossil shell from a modern one?
Fossil shells usually lose their original luster and color. They feel chalky, sound dull when tapped, and often carry mineral staining. Modern beach shells keep a glossy inner surface. Some Neogene shells preserve so well that this test fails, so check the bed they came from.
What is the Calvert Formation?
A Miocene marine unit within the Chesapeake Group, exposed along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It formed between about 18 and 14 million years ago and yields shark teeth, shells, and whale bone.