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Hello All, I am still fairly new to fossil collecting. I live here in South Florida and have been doing most of my fossil hunting on the Peace River. We have been using a sifter we picked up from Shark Frenzy in Venice Florida, which works great on the beach but less great on the river. I have been seeing awesome sand scoops and modified mud shovels here on the forum. I know lots of people on here seem to modify the items themselves, however that isn't something I have the experience or tools for. Can anyone tell me where I might be able to purchase or have one made?I attached a picture of one we used with a guide on the river, we loved the double handles and the reinforced scoop ,and would love to find something like this or have it made. Thank you all for your time.

I frequently return to interesting locations to hunt, so I have a history over time of what is available. and I note differences between the locations on the Peace River. I was out Sunday, We started at one location and spent 2 hours hunting... Always find shark teeth but that is quite a bit of time for so few teeth. I like the small bit of coral... likely could be Identified from the corallites. Note the number of Hemipristis serra and G. mayumbensis. I always wonder about the age of the fossils I find, even though I realize the Peace River is a washing machine of different aged fossils. So I think about just how old is the location that contains these teeth. I always have a lot of time to think while digging for fossils... Here is an interesting thread from TFF experts on G. mayumbensis.. Giving the low number of finds, we decide to move about 100 yards down stream... Definitely better, more finds but note the number of H. serra and G. mayumbensis. That is a LOT of Mayunbensis !!! more than I have found in any Peace River location in a day of hunting over 15 years... Note the whitish roots and colored blades right out of the Peace River. There is a single small P. contortus directly above the row of Mayumbensis. Above the shark teeth are 5 broken pieces of Stingray mouth plate, a possible broken Crocodile tooth, and a fish Vertebra. Top row on the left.... Some Sea Urchin spines, Sawfish Rostral teeth and one of my favorites I found this piece last spring, 50 feet away and finally a couple of fossils that might not be marine based... Likely Giant Armadillo or Glyptodon, but unrecognizable... and finally Unsure here, I usually associate this texture of bone with marine mammal, but the underside make it look like turtle, maybe sea turtle. Lots of questions, some hints, few answers... Enjoy

I sifted this up from the Peace River in Hardee County, I thought it odd against the gray and black of everything else in my screen. It's almost like a pretty stone with 50 layers of lacquer poured over it, 3 dimensional in appearance, you can see into the rock.

Found this tooth in the Peace river yesterday. I thought it was just a rock until I looked at the end.

Got back last night from a paddle on the Peace River and these are some of the unknowns I was hoping to get some help with. I am still totally new at this and my best guess for number 1 was maybe part of a manatee tooth?roughly 1/2 inch in length and height 2. some sort of mammal tooth possibly with missing inner enamel ? 3. some sort of vertebrate; its the smallest one I have ever found , curious about what species it might be from. Also it's so cute ! ( have yet to see anyone else on the forum think fossils are cute , but this thing is adorable )

Went out Hunting both Wednesday and Thursday. Very unusual, I usually need recuperation time, but it seems the extra exercise helped. So what is happening is that we are starting to Hunt the Peace River again because the water depth has dropped. We are returning to places we have not been in Months to "test" the depth. On Thursday we picked one of those After sorting out small shark teeth , these were my best finds of the day. I especially appreciate the green marble. Usually, I was digging in water just above my waist but lots of deeper holes all around me.. This was limiting how deep I could dig, even when I did find gravel. In my first sieve of the day up popped the premolar in lower right. Because of the size, I immediately thought it was deer. But I am frequently wrong, more so than I would like. It has an APL of 14 mm. and 3 roots.. I looked at deer first. I thought this would be premolar 1. But it was not deer. and that is exciting. I LIKE finding fossils I can not identify initially. After searching TFF and the internet for a while, I came upon one of @Harry Pristis great pictures. It is amazing that such a big animal has such a small tooth. This is a nice find , especially at the size. Next up a small Mako and a Dolphin... A layer of the Dolphin enamel has been stripped from one side. But the rugose nature of the remaining side enamel would seem to confirm Dolphin. I do not have many dolphin teeth like this and I am pleased to get this one. Then a small bone that has some unusual features and I will try to Identify. This is all about 1) I like to identify my finds so that I will recognize them the next time I see one. This bone might be a Calcaneum, but I am unsure. Finally , a large incisor... I was initially thinking Llama, but there are some features that do not quite match, so I went looking at Horse, Bison, Cow... and found little to change my initial opinion... The shape of the tip seems to be Llama ( Hemiauchenia macrocephala) but I have not seem similar curving folds of the lingual edge, and the rest of the incisor seems more similar to Equus than to Llama. but for the moment , I'll stick with Hemiauchenia. These are good finds, I had very successful day. It was nice to be in the Peace River again. It took me a while to prepare this post. Likely will get to describing Wednesday finds tomorrow. All comments welcome and appreciated.

Hello These are the adventures of myself and my dog Millie as we hunt for fossils and history along the Peace River. Our mode of travel is our 12’ Indian River Canoe, Balance. Im a 4th generation Polk county native, and Millie comes from a long line of Colorado ranch dogs. We do everything together. Including work, as I am a farrier for my day job, and the farm owners are more excited to see Millie than me! The goal of this journal is to document the learning along with the adventures. To go below our sieves, and learn why the river is presenting as it is. Other members have already posted pictures and info on every fossil I’m likely to find, but the river can still teach me/us why the hole I’m digging is delivering specific materials. Understanding what happened before what happened, happened. That’s what I want to know! Millie and I have been gifted this river and the ability to run it at a moments notice. That’s not the case for everyone. Even with access I still only get out for a morning or so a week. So this journal will also provide an avenue for those who can’t just jump in the boat with us. Jump in through this forum and help out along the way when you can/want. The more we learn the better the treasure!! Jp & Mille LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN! Season opener - Oct 2023 water depth day of - 8’ and falling. Like most things I’m impatient about, starting Fossil hunting this year was rushed. Millie and I ran head on into a river that’s a solid 3’ too high for me to handle any real working conditions. There’s places to work. We just haven’t found many at these depths! Yet!! After work arrived and we got started towards the river. Late arrival and definitely some dark water running ahead but at this water height you just gotta keep the boat in the middle. Got in late but just in time for a welcome back from the Peace! We woke up ready! Well, I did. Camp and my “Field Office” ready. Now to get wet! Because of the water depth I tied leashes to all the heavy tools and tied some extra pool noodle to them. That way I could drop them and just pull up the leader. Brought the “Velvet Touch” probe. No stopping us now! “What” I was after wasn’t an option this trip. I had only two available spots in mind that would be under 4’ deep. Both those spots are in a very recent deposit that I’ve been getting lots of Pleistocene and some Pliocene mammal material from. I ended up finding the time frame expected, and possibly an extinct sand shark nursery area. The river had sifted one spot completely away during the last flood so I was left with only one place to put in effort! At 4’ it was at my cap for height. I’m 5’6’’ and I could only dig 2 feet down before I ran out of shovel. So I had to figure something out. First I tried to fill the sieve on the River bottom and lift it up. FAIL! never got it to stay put long enough to do anything productive before I’d loose it and it would pop up down stream pulling on the leash. Next I tried to lift the gravel to the sifter on the surface. There was so much water the shovel load was gone before I broke the surface! FAIL! At a max depth of 2 feet down I wasn’t going to be learning much about the geography or layers I needed to work through. So I shifted gears and decided to focus on just the top 2’ as effectively as I could. The third try ended up succeeding. I would loosen the riverbed into a loose filled hole that had collapsed on itself and then use my scoop on a pole thing to transfer the loose material up to the surface. Not the best method but I’m grateful to have been able to stand there all day. I’d work forward 3’ and over 1’ then back again. All at 2’ or less deep or I’d go under. I suppose if I feel like moving a bunch of river bed again we could come back here and go deeper! One of my questions about this area is what is it old enough to find within it? Another trip! Here’s the gratuitous highlights shot! Not a bad day! The alligator tooth got a yell but the sand tigers and mammal teeth got me really excited. Millie and I were exhausted and COLD! I learned a few things this weekend to put in the journal. Before that. Let’s eat! Steak for me and steak for Millie. Yumm. Lessons: 1. I need appropriate clothes. Like wet suit stuff. Can’t be under water like that all day again. I got chilly and had to warm up several times. 85deg out too! What I wear is fine for knee deep wading but definitely time to upgrade the wardrobe. (I did try my new dive boots and that was the only part of me that wasn’t cold) 2. Regular shovel handles are way too short. Amend as needed to your stature. I need a 12’ handle to dig a hole in this water. So I’m out! 3. Jack, (Shellseeker) is insane!! This was my first time hunting this deep and it’s right in his sweet spot. You’re an animal! He tried to assist my tool tuning but until you run out of shovel that’s a new feeling to adjust to. 4. At two feet deep this area is where I will come for younger land aged fauna and I can expect the standard peace river sharks teeth assemblage with a higher than usual volume of sand sharks teeth. This was a great day hunting and I learned a lot. Maybe not about what my intended question was or the areas I’ve been thinking of but a ton about gear and technique! KEEP THE FAITH AND TRY TO DO GOOD!! Jp & Millie Here are the finds from this trip and some info used to figure out the unknowns. sand shark and some Hemi Serra Peace River mix fun and unique things - The mammal molar ended up being a Giant Tapir. By shape and size 3rd or 4th premolar. No root. Should have given it away. Mixed bag bottom to top of left- Gator tooth gator tooth Crappy Barbra’s incisor Canine- size 22mm broken suggest coyote or smaller domestic dog. 25mm would be the target. Tiny molar - it’s broken but by the face and measurements it’s most likely a rodent. Camel type tooth frag. Upper right - various tiger shark species to identify with Florida fossil hunters PDF middle - two deer horn buttons. One I already had but these were found 5 feet apart. Same deer?!? Bottom right- Eocene snail and crab shell fragments. Those are 37.5 Mya.?? Snail identification was general to the Ocala formation results of similar snail species.

After looking at the post made by Shellseeker earlier today it was time to figure out what these “horse teeth” actually are. I’m fairly confident in some IDs and lost on some. Went in high hopes for unknown glory! Seems I just have lots of pieces of horse teeth pieces — only a few solids and they are partials. This process was really fun though. I appreciate any guidance that you are willing to share. Advice on posting or photos is always welcome. In the words of Fossildude images were “cropped and brightened”. Numbers on info coordinate with image numbers All marking lines are Millimeters All illustrations came from the reference ID at the bottom of the post. Thanks to Everyone for making this first week very informative on my hobby and terrible for my work flow I appreciate it!!! Jp 1. Confirmation of “Horse upper molar” - Pleistocene - zolfo springs peace river tributary bone valley deposit - 48mmx12mm for larger piece 25mmx13mm for smaller piece. If you split a full tooth in 4 sections I believe I have two of 4 quadrants. Not the same tooth but in representation. Appear to have the lower and upper quadrant of the left side of the example photo. The longer piece was in two pieces in the sieve but luckily I saw it. 2. Confirmation of “ Bison Lower molar” - Pleistocene- peace river - bone valley deposit. 25mmx20mm larger example (lower left?) 25mmx12mm smaller example With this group I believe I have two different age/wear examples of a bison lower tooth. Appears to be half of a lower and the middle bridge section on the larger piece. The smaller piece I can’t match the squiggles exactly but length and internal coloring leads me to weathered bison molar. 3. Are these just broken horse teeth fragments? Height 30-35mm and width 12mm. Everything says horse except the lengths. I also think I was looking at one upside down. Color is beautiful. 4. Mystery tooth fragment Peace River Bone valley deposit 23mm tall 12mm wide. Did it have a cavity? The completed segment is unique to me. The length and internal structure match the other bison teeth. I’m thinking this might be an upper jaw first few teeth -ish. missing its outside section? 5. Mystery ID??? Peace river Bone Valley deposit 30mmx12mm it appears these are connected when whole and I have 1.5 sets. couldn’t find them in my books. Since I’ve been teeth heavy this afternoon I’m thinking maybe these aren’t teeth at all?? The two sided version leaves a void inside when connected. The split version shows the inside and a pocket. seed pods? Tiny frog peoples????

Sunday Sifter Build (AKA- spent way too many hours reading archives, got jazzed up with a river at flood stage, and had to do something fossil related to move forward with my life) Building a nicer sifter has been on my list for a long while. I saved a nice cedar board from a window sill repair, and have been “gonna make a sifter with it” since. My current sifter is fine so I decided to make something a little nicer that I can keep a while. A sifter that can live in the boat, is still lightweight but taller than my current version, and buoyant. Cedar should be perfect. It’s lighter than most, strong, basically rot proof and naturally buoyant. Since my material was limited I decided to use the CNC to cut it out rather than the bandsaw. Waste not want not. The construction fence is something I started using last year. Held up all season incredibly and my favorite part is it’s 3/8”. In my area that appears to be the sweet spot for speed and collection. It stretches like a trampoline and trims up with a razor blade. Anyone else got a cheese ball tub of chunkasaurous and dugong bits some sanding and shaping along with a little mantra for when I need reminding of why I’m out there. “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known” it’s In really deep so it’s hard to read but over time the letters will darken up while the surface keeps getting rubbed on and it will become really nice. Also cut some 1/8” veneer cover strips for the bottom. It’s a Sunday sifter. Time to wear the nice shirt. It’s screwed together. Predrill cedar or it will crack. To jazz it up I sunk 5/16” counters in and used dowels to hide my screw heads. You can use shorter screws this way too. Needs some oil and it’s ready. Best part is I won’t need pool noodles for this one. Needs a dog leash and an eye screw but it’s time for dinner. Have a great week everyone! Keep the faith and try to do good! Jp

Hi all My son and I are going through our fossil finds from Florida. We have been looking through multiple books and websites trying to figure out what this tooth is. We think it's from a tapir but would like the opinions of others with more experience. Thanks in advance! Bret & Zach

Hello everyone, Im Jp. New to the forum but super excited to have found it. Was already able to ID some unknowns from other post, confirm some hunches, and this fossil ID section might be the coolest part of it all! Below are some pieces from the collection that I’m either unknown on or need better opinions on than my couple of books on Florida’s fossils give. Please let me know if you know anything about them. Everything was found in the Peace River in Florida. Mixed medium size to fine size gravel. Location in the river system can be surface layer of the bottom up to 3’ down into the riverbed and gravel bars. All species come from the same general area as I only really hunt the north and north central river. I’m new to the layout system here but hopefully I can get these in order. First are these teeth. As long as they aren’t human I’m excited! : 1.) 2.) Next this jawbone is a mystery. The tunnel on the bottom matched a couple large rodent type species in my book but I couldn’t tell. 3.) What do we think these are?? I thought dolphin at first for the upper one but it’s kinda different. 4.) The curved one looks kinda like a unkempt dogs toenail?? Switching gears to these bones… 5.) The white one looks like the upper part of a Dugong rib but also kinda dolphin??? Kinda figured those grooves were for capillaries or nerves?? 6.) The darker second bone? Is interesting because it appears to still have the periosteum on it. Or it’s wood or coprolite, and I treasure poop. : ) 7.) This seems like an old massive gators tooth but it’s got way more character than my other gators teeth. So I’ve wondered if it’s different. (The peace river starts on Lake Hancock with more 10- 13’ gators than you can possibly imagine. Around Arcadia and Nacotee they get thick and huge again. So both sides of where folks hunt the river. I can’t imagine how many have traveled the peace to change locations over their massive lifespan) 8. ) These have puzzled me. Why is this napping type stone 2’ under the peace river bed? 9.) Why has this rock been shaped and grooved like a plumb Bob or a weight? 10.) Is this a bird point or can I just stop wondering? 11.) Under the See..Under the sea… so I actually thought these were stingrays inner barbs but I learned on this forum that those spines are dorsal and pectoral fish fin internals. 12.) The tiny crab claw tooth (also 2’ under the river bed) and 13.) coral are complete mysteries. 14.) Black thing? 15.) Let me start by saying if these are Geodes, I really hope the rest are still there. I collected a bucket worth in a spot but set them down to do something different and forgot to pick them up before I left. Literally last hunt of this year for me and the water in that spot is easy 6-8’ deep right now. 16.) I’ve located fish scale plates in my books but nothing exactly like this?? 17.) What kind of sharks teeth are these? I find various versions of both types and a decent amount. Lastly, if you lost your keychain, I found it. Guessing it went missing somewhere mid 70’s. (Also found deep under the bottom) Thanks for looking into these! Thanks for knowing stuff I don’t and please let me know how to do better with posting future find questions. Here’s my box with the stuff I’ve kept. My better half has pretty strict rules on bringing new stuff in. Can’t have repeats, which is fair enough. Thanks!! Jp

Found sifting on the Peace River

Piece of tooth found in the Peace River sifting

Found these sifting the Peace River yesterday glad to get out before the storm. First time posting vertebrae pictures let me know if certain angles are best. Thanks in advance