Maryland

The Miocene Calvert, Choptank and St. Marys formations of Calvert Cliffs are the East Coast's richest shark-tooth and marine mammal beds, and the rule at every access point is the same: collect from the beach and from blocks that have already fallen, never from the cliff. The cliffs are unstable and have killed collectors; digging into them is prohibited at the state park and at every private beach, and it also undermines the houses above.

Calvert Cliffs State Park allows collecting on its small beach at the end of the trail, open roughly March to mid-November; the cliff face has been closed since the 1980s. Nearly all other shoreline is private. Matoaka Cottages near St. Leonard and a few other private beaches charge a day fee and allow beach collecting; Brownies Beach (Bayfront Park, Chesapeake Beach) is residents-only. Flag Ponds Nature Park is a county park that allows beach collecting under its own rules.

Maryland's other classic sites — the Cretaceous Dinosaur Park in Laurel (organised open days only; finds go to the park), the Eocene of the Potomac and Aquia Creek (mostly private banks; some public boat landings) — follow the same pattern: public access is at specific points with rules, everything else is permission.

State forests and wildlife management areas are closed to collecting; the Maryland Geological Survey's fossil pages list the current public sites and the Calvert Marine Museum identifies finds.