Locality · Public beach: surface collecting
Venice Beach shark-tooth beaches
Sarasota, Florida, United States
Venice, Florida, calls itself the shark-tooth capital of the world: Miocene–Pliocene teeth erode from offshore Hawthorn and Peace River beds and wash onto Caspersen Beach and Manasota Key, where sifting the surf produces dozens of small teeth an hour. Divers on the offshore ledges bring up megalodon teeth. It is free, legal and the easiest fossil collecting in the country.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State / province | Florida |
| County | Sarasota |
| Land manager / status | City of Venice and Sarasota County beaches |
| Access | Public beaches; sifting in the surf; scuba on offshore ledges |
| Formations | Peace River Formation, Hawthorn Group |
| What is found | shark teeth, Hemipristis, Carcharodon hastalis, Otodus megalodon, dugong rib |
| Coordinates (public site) | 27.08, -82.45 |
Rules
Beach and surf collecting of shark teeth needs no permit; Florida's vertebrate fossil permit applies to bone and mammal teeth from state submerged lands, and offshore diving for megalodon teeth is popular with charter operators. No digging in dunes.
Source: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/resources/florida-fossil-permit/ (checked 2026-09-16).
Collecting rules
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Venice Beach shark-tooth beaches" (Locality). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/localities/venice-beach-shark-tooth-beaches. Accessed 2026-09-20.
@misc{stratum-venice-beach-shark-tooth-beaches,
title = {Venice Beach shark-tooth beaches},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/localities/venice-beach-shark-tooth-beaches}},
year = {2026},
note = {Locality article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.