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I think North Texans will relate when I say that now and then, the urge to take a drive out to the NSR and spend the day hunting some Campanian gravel bars can spontaneously take complete hold. I had one of those moments just after the series of heavy rains and powerful winds our region encountered some days ago. Previously, my luck with weather at the NSR had been rather poor. Each time, the temps were either nearing a hundred degrees or only just above freezing, making a full on adventure crossing muddy waters and crawling atop unshaded gravel beds too much to handle. I had yet to experience a proper adventure at this historic site, so I decided that this week would be the one where I changed that. Luckily, my friends @PaleoPastels(Lari) and Cole where kind enough to invite me out to their special spot along the river. After waking up bright and early, I got in my car and followed the rising sun. After jumping out of our vehicles and exchanging brief greetings, we quickly slid our way down to the shale bed and beelined for the first bar. Cole has a bit of an aversion for water, so he stuck around at the entrance for most of the day while Lari and I got our clothes wet hopping from bar to bar. The weather and water temp were absolutely perfect, and the lack of footprints assured us it would be a productive day. It's not often you beat the crowd to a place as popular as this! Although I maintained measured expectations coming in, the sheer variety of strange and interesting fossils/artifacts that are known to come from this area kept me on my toes from the outset. When we arrived to the first bar, we started off strong, picking up a variety of shark teeth. Lari had an eye for them, immediately spotting a few super big Scapanorhynchus texanus, a staple of the Ozan Formation. Despite my protests, she was very generous in donating a few to me due to my limited NSR collection . Finally one I spotted myself! Scapanorhynchus texanus Scapanorhynchus texanus of the day. Some may be Carcharias samhammeri as I am still working on differentiating the two. In between crawling the gravel, I did some sifting which yielded a few interesting specimens including Squalicorax kaupi, Cretalamna sarcoportheta, Carcharias samhammeri, and a vole tooth which I will ignorantly assume to be Pleistocene in age. Cretalamna sarcoportheta, Squalicroax kaupi, and Carcharias samhammeri Sifting also yielded a plethora of shark vertebrae and I was fortunate enough to come across a beautiful spiral shark coprolite. I found one solitary coral which I assume is Trochocyathus sp. Shark verts, shark coprolite, and Trochocyathus sp. As I scanned the gravel looking to spot a complete Cretalamna, I was instead met with the first mosasaur tooth of the day! It was mostly in tact and showed some nice detail. I was relieved to know the entire trip was already made, and I could spend the rest of my time playing with house money. The only other mosasaur tooth previously in my collection has a beat up crown, so this new specimen certainly complements it. Don't know much about mosasaur genera in the NSR, but I will go with Tylosaurus proriger for now. Throughout the day, we also found tons of very large Enchodus fangs and jaw sections. I'm so used to finding these teeth in their miniature forms as I sift for micros, I almost forgot how big they could get. Lari did good with spotting the Ischyrhiza mira rostral teeth and quickly built up a small collection. She was nice enough to give a large one to me. Top: Fused fish vert and Pachyrhizodus tooth. Bottom: Enchodus jaw section and large fangs. Ischyrhiza mira By now we had hopped a couple of gravel bars and there was still plenty ways to go. It took me longer than it should have, but reaching the third bar finally brought me a large tumbled mosasaur vertebra. Not far from it, there was a section of finer gravel. Used to the routine, I once again got close to the ground and began scanning every pebble. After tossing the millionth shrapnel of shark tooth, I finally locked eyes with the most perfect mosasaur tooth I had ever seen. As I picked it up, I could tell something wasn't right, however. Of course the best side was on full display, but the rest of the tooth was cleaved cleanly off. Oh well, at least it'll look nice in pictures. Not long after, I found a second mosasaur tooth that was decently complete and hooked albeit tiny. Two nicest mosie verts. A slice of an exquisitely preserved mosasaur crown. The next oddball find came awhile later. My initial impression was that it might have been a segment of a Xiphactinus tooth, but the curvature suddenly ended along one of the edges of it. At this sudden end, there were two columns of small protrusions running longitudinally. I was debating on throwing it out, but my history of carelessly tossing neat finds convinced me to play it safe and take it home for identification. I'm glad I did because after the hunt, I immediately googled my hunch and it seems to be correct. This is a fragment of a hybodont spine! I wish I could pin down a more specific ID, but the info on them seems limited. I will say that, out of Moss Creek, I had found a tooth belonging to Lonchidion babulskii last year which could be the culprit. Quite an uncommon find for the NSR! Wondering if any shark experts here might have any ideas @ThePhysicist@Al Dente. Hybodont fin spine. Lonchidion babulskii is a candidate. By the penultimate gravel bar, I thought the best finds had surely been made. All day Lari had been talking about how this was THE spot to find Globidens teeth and how every visit she would find at least one fragment. Well, the walkable land was starting to run out and she expressed how disappointing it would be not to come across one that day. I find Globidens to be really interesting, but I think of it as one of those finds I would never expect to make on any given hunt. For me, not finding one would not define the day as a let down. As I was beginning to form those thoughts into words, I reached down to pick up a circular fragment of a tooth with a peculiar texture. Finding the right angle of light soon revealed the undoubted best find of the day: The top of a Globidens sp. crushing tooth! The whole day I had been hallucinating "finding" Ptychodus teeth. Funnily enough, this may very well be the tooth that ended their supremacy as shell crushers of the WIS. Seems too coincidental that Globidens suddenly appears right around the last occurrence of Ptychodus. I wonder if they directly competed Ptychodus out of existence or if Ptychodus went extinct on its own and mosasaurs simply filled in the niche . I don't think the Globidens of the Ozan Formation has been formally described yet. Globidens sp. Mosasaur teeth of the day! Despite having hunted for over a year in the creeks of Austin, I am surprisingly bad at spotting artifacts. Throughout the span of the day, the both of us had found a few chert flakes, but no sign of anything more even as I was trying to make a conscious effort to spot one. On the same bar as where the Globidens sp. was found, I noticed a worked edge of stone so big even someone as archaeologically blind as me could never miss it. Without an ounce of self control, I yanked it from the sand before I could finish yelling the word "arrowhead"! I seriously need to work on milking the moment . I did a little bit of searching online later and found that the point is likely a Darl or Hoxie. Both put its age in the thousands of years! Darl or Hoxie point. It measures 8.5 cm in length. On the way back, we kept our eyes peeled for anything we may have missed. I was sifting random spots of gravel, but not having the most luck. Lari casually handed me rock with a pearly white exterior and triangular shape. It was the most textbook mastodon I had ever seen, but she wasn't very impressed with it. She told me she had many of these already and that nonmarine fossils didn't interest her. I won't say I understand her terrestrial prejudice, but I will withhold my complaints since it meant I had acquired my first significant chunk of proboscidean . Mastodon enamel, mammoth enamel, and vole tooth. We finally reached Cole at the entrance. In our absence he had wondered off the other way and found a neat spider to pique his entomology interests and pocketed a few fossils. We managed to make it out by the mid afternoon, but I was so exhausted and content, I couldn't bother checking out any other spots along the river. The spoils of the hunt were amazing, but most of all I was happy to finally experience a classic hunt on the NSR as I had seen so many post about before. Doing it with a couple of friends made the adventure even better! Sadly this place has got not much time remaining, so those of you who have stumbled upon this post, maybe take it as a sign to give this historic spot one last go before the opportunity floats away. Thanks for reading!

Looking for Value Found in bone valley Florida From my own research I have found this to be a Mastodon tooth.

Hello. I have an opportunity to purchase this item but I am not sure if it is a Mammoth or Mastodon Tusk or a piece of petrified wood? It is 36" long and weighs 97 pounds. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

This link on a Facebook post in the Dallas Paleontological Society group had a comment from someone who saw a biface found with the Waco mammoth material that was rejected as unassociated and wondered if that could have been a mistake. https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-am-archeologists-projectile-manis-point-mastodon-rib/?fbclid=IwAR2dNh5SEN_gZq2AcyBP_iY0lqVLx1d1Qa4n9UIa3JheVgmlQVPhaFGjTDY&mibextid=S66gvF

Hi all! I am relatively new to the forum as well as to collecting but I have put together a small collection of various specimens over the last year. This collection will keep growing and I will continue to post when I get new specimens. I have some more small specimens but for now I am only posting a selection of my collection. Enjoy! -Ben

Got an interesting one for you guys. I recently purchased this Mastodon partial jaw bone which I was told had paleo people butcher marks. I know the fossil is real but was wondering if anyone of you guys had experience in ancient people markings and could confirm the markings. Found in FL, Withlacoochee River. I appreciate any information!!

Recently got back from a trip on Holden Beach, and just WOW. Words can't describe the uniqueness of being able to find Mosasaur teeth next to Megalodon teeth. The recent Hurricane brought in many new fossils and I had quite good luck. Here are some photos of the trip, I will post a picture showing all of my best finds shortly, but for now enjoy! First, here are some of the Squalicorax pristodontus teeth I collected. These were relatively common.

None of these were necessarily taken from the exact same location. https://imgur.com/a/YlLr3Os

Hi! Back when I was 10-12 I was hiking in Iowa when I found this "dinosaur tooth rock", which I have carried around for almost 25 years. I have always wondered if it was part of a mammoth tusk, a tooth, or maybe even a Native American whetstone. Or possibly just a weird rock? Any ideas? Thanks so much for any input!! Specs: Weighs = 2 lbs Length = 7 inches Circumference = 8.75 inches Height = 2 inches

Mastodon Skeleton Discovered in Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan Oakland County Times, August 2022 Kent County road crews discover Mastodon bones by Meghan Bunchman, WOODTV, August 12, 2022 Yours, Paul H.

I found this in one of the creeks (bayou) here in southwest Mississippi. I have found a number of mastodon parts in the same. The most noticeable feature is a curved channel, much like that of a tooth canal. Does anyone know what part of what beast if might have belonged to? Thanks in advance.

So last week in the heat of SE Texas I decided to go on a kayak trip (It was 102 F). I didn't find too much but did find this giant thoracic vertebra. It's about 25cm, 9.75 in to the top of the processes, 24 cm (9.25 in) wide across the processes. It looks different than most of my proboscidian vertebrae that I've found, it has a very round neural channel, like I've often seen in sloth thoracic vertebra. It's also stretched vertically. The front articular process extends farther out than what I see in my elephant vertebrae (could it be a xenarthra type process?). It also has rib attachments that are higher on the vertebra, more like sloth than elephant. I really just want imput from anyone who has looked at these large vertebrae. @PrehistoricFlorida @Harry Pristis @Shellseeker @garyc @Brandy Cole @JohnJ

Found in Northeast Texas, in Sulphur River.

I also had a good day on the Peace River, FL this past Monday. Topped off by a chance meeting with @Shellseeker Jack. I wanted to share the best of what I found that day. I was lucky to find a gravel patch while prospecting in an area I haven't hunted before. The results (minus the usual various shark teeth)- Right side of photos: 2 - Glyptodont osteoderms 2 - partial Armadillo scutes Left side: 1 - partial limb bone (deer?) 2 - Turtle leg spurs Left center: Partial deer antler Camel teeth Tilly Bone Right center: Mammoth tooth root Mastodon tooth crown Definitely enough to warrant a return visit next week (if the weather holds!)

Had some productive hunting and found this in a gravel bar. I'm hoping I've found my first gomphothere or mastodon tooth! Or at least a part of one. I've looked at several threads about differentiating them, but I still had a hard time identifying this for certain. Am I headed in the right direction or could it be something else? It does look smaller than I would have expected. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Found in South Texas. I still have a hard time distinguishing between more rounded proboscidean bones, even after looking at the University of Michigan's excellent mastodon examples. I think this one best resembles a patella, but I'm unsure

Found at a land site in Sarasota we have to go back tomorrow to excavate the rest there is so much more bone in the ground!! Could somebody please tell me what this is I'm leaning towards mammoth or Mastodon maybe a juvenile

Hi everyone, I recently stumbled across this and have been discussing the details with the seller. He called them Mastodon Molars, which they certainly appear to be, but the weird part is where he says they were found. Apparently they were found on the border of Columbia and Ecuador. I googled South American Mastodon and it came up with a lot of stuff on Gomphotheres and now I'm really excited but know next to nothing about Gomphotheres outside of them being a subgroup of Mastodons with funny faces. Here's the pics he sent me, can anyone give me some insight on these?

Hello! Found in beach, in 2014. It's a mastodon/mamooth feet bone? Local: Praia do Cassino/Rio Grande/ RS/BRASIL Thanks in advance. Flávio Pereira

This past Saturday I displayed some fish/shark fossils at the Go Fish Educational Center in Perry, Georgia. In addition to my display was one from the Geology Curator at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon. He showed me a tusk that was given to him from a local whose father used it to carve ivory figurines and was curious as to whether it is mammoth or mastodon. I know that it can be determined by a cross view, but I wasn't sure that it could be from a cut end section. Vertebrate paleontology is not my forte, but I was hoping someone here on the forum could tell. There is no collection data so we don't have the slightest idea where it originated. Hopefully someone can help. Thanks Mike

I found this reasonably well preserved partial sacrum (which I assume is either mammoth or mastodon), in the Brazos, a week and a half ago. It is finally dried out and I was able to treat it with paraloid. It was extremely fragile when found it. Size is about 290mm, 11.5 inches left to right in the photos. Is there any way to tell if it is mammoth vs mastodon? I've found both in this spot. I've not been able to find good images online, particularly for mastodon and nothing that describes differences (other than one note that said they may be hard to differentiate). Thanks! @JohnJ @Harry Pristis

Haven’t been able to get out to the Peace River in Florida for a variety of reasons. So I dug out a couple of bags of mammoth and mastodon tooth chips to try my hand at wrapping them with wire to make necklaces. I think they came out pretty well. I liked the look enough to re-wrap a Meg tooth I had made a necklace out of two years ago. Here’s how they turned out.

Mastodon tooth found by 6-year-old on a hike. He’s donating it to the University of Michigan Michigan Live, September 30, 2021 Rare mastodon tooth found in Michigan creek by 6-year-old boy By Megan Woods, WDIV, October 4, 2021 4:06AM Six-year-old boy discovers rare 12,000-year-old Mastodon tooth in Michigan creek Firstpost News, October 06, 2021 6-year-old boy finds historic mastodon tooth in Rochester Hills creek Tooth will be donated to University of Michigan’s Museum of Paleontology for research Yours, Paul H.

I may be embarrassing myself here, but I can only learn if I ask. :-) I found a piece in the sandy gravel of South Texas that looks similar to dugong rib examples I've seen on the forum. While trying to identify it, I found an article online from October of 2020 that indicates people have found dugong fossils in Texas, but it seems like it's incredibly rare. I would think it may be especially unusual to find any this far inland. (Around Waller County, TX). But I do know that so far I've found a lot of pleistocene fauna fossils here that generally seem similar to what people find in the Peace River. So I figured I'll post it and see how off base I am. Dugong rib? Oddly rounded petrified wood? Weird black rock? It would be great to know. One broken end does seem to have 'growth rings' I've seen discussed in other parts. I'll put that picture first. But I may need to take a picture in full sunlight to really highlight it. @digit @Shellseeker Thanks! --Brandy

I`m new to colllecting mammal fossils and thinking about buiyng this tusk. The seller said its a mastodon tusk and no the usual stegodon tusk, which seems pretty common. Couldn`t find much information about mastodons from indonesia. So I`m wondering if its real and also how "rare" is it?