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Well, I got to go to the Peace River again! Only for a couple hours this time, but still found plenty of stuff to make me happy Tons of tiny shark teeth, turtle shell bits, stingray mouth pieces, and assorted bone chunks. Below are pictures of the highlights, and I would love any help in narrowing down my tentative IDs. Thanks! ~Penny for scale in all shots~ 1- Carnivore tooth (?) No roots attached, but nice cusp. 2- Mammal molar. Could be recent based on color, but feels and looks old. 3- Small mammal tooth fragment. Peg-shaped, but probably not enough there to ID 4- Very thin bone. Was whole when it was found, broke between the river and home, but having it break let me see that it's pretty hollow. 5- Large chunk. Looks a bit like petrified wood, but I'm hoping maybe mammoth tooth piece based on how dense and smooth it is. It looks like it has been wearing down in flakes, and the flakes look like what I think mammoth enamel bits look and feel like. 6- Long bone. Could be recent, but feels quite dense. Mammal limb of some sort. 7- Shark tooth. Interesting curve, would like to know species.

Some fossils I have not come across before. Any suggestions?

These 2 items were the only finds of interest on my trip to the Peace yesterday. I'm assuming the vert is mastodon or mammoth, but the other little item is a stumper. I feel like I've seen it before somewhere, but I can't place it. One wing is broken, but I couldn't toss it back before finding out what it is. I'll post the 2nd view in the reply.

I was wondering if this little bone is distinctive enough to get an ID on. The photos are large and since I upgraded my MacBook to High Sierra I can't find an option to choose a smaller size. I'll post the other picture in the next reply. (hopefully)

Hello again TTF! This will be my second post about my finds from my first trip to the peace river! This post is dedicated to one of my favourite finds and one of my favourite animals, the mammoth! During my trip to the peace river, I found many beautiful fossils myself, but I seemed to have had the best luck searching through other people's garbage. The location where I went to collect in was already visited many times by other people. Everything unwanted that turns up in their shifters is usually thrown to the banks, creating garbage piles. One particularly productive garbage pile produced many of my favourite Dugong ribs, my only meg (more on that later) and a mammoth tooth! How someone could look at these things and throw them away is beyond me. Unfortunately, the tooth was already fragmented when I found it. I believe that all the fragments came from the same tooth, though, because some fit together perfectly! I also have a question about this tooth. Is it possible to identify the species of mammoth from the tooth, either from its features or by looking at the known species of mammoth present in Florida? Thanks!

Happy March break TTF! I hope you all had a fantastic holiday! I have just gotten back from a fantastic trip to Florida. Thanks to TTF, I was lucky to discover the peace river. This discovery caused an entire re-write of my family's vacation plans. My father, who was also looking forward to walking through a swamp, agreed to join me on an expedition there. This was my first fossil hunting trip in Florida. I would also like to give my thanks and free advertising to Fossil Funatics, the tour operator who organized the hunt and provided the resources for us. We had a very successful two days. The guy is truly helpful, knowledgable, and fun to be around. He kindly gave all of his Dugong ribs and some of his shark teeth to me. We actually went to a stream which feeds into the actual peace river. As soon as we arrived there, I found myself overtaken by a sudden obsession with Dugong bones, earning my the titular nickname given to me by my dad. Since I have literally hundreds fossils from the river, this post will be dedicated to the Dugong bones. More posts on this are to follow! Enjoy!

Long time reader, first time poster. Just hit Peace River for the first time, and I found a bunch of awesome stuff. Would love it if anyone could weigh in on IDs. (Let me know if I'm not posting this correctly) All fossils were found near Wauchula, FL. My thoughts for each specimen: #1 Equus upper cheek tooth #2 Alligator / crocodile teeth #3 Vertebra of some sort. Very curious on this one. #4 Mammal tooth. Again, very curious. #5 Softshell turtle fragments #6 Hemipristis tooth. Largest tooth of the day (not very big, but it was my first time out there and I'm happy) #7 Dugong ribs #8 Burrfish tooth plate #9 Bone. Not sure if this will be IDable #10 ?? Piece of tooth or maybe something manmade #11 Mammoth enamel? #12 Mammoth enamel? #13 Mammoth enamel pieces? Thanks! -Brian

Hi, I am a Florida history teacher and amateur fossil hunter. I would like to share my finds with my students, but want to make sure I am giving them the correct info. I recently went on my first fossil hunt on the Peace River outside of Arcadia. I wanted to know if you could help me identify some of the fossils I posted below. My thoughts were... #1 Shell Imprint or Mammoth Tooth Fragment. #2 Gator or Croc teeth. #3 Horse Tooth Fragment. #4 Horse Tooth Fragment. #5 Burrfish Mouth Plate Fragment. #6 Turtle Scute Pieces. #7 Glyptodont. Could someone also tell me if it is possible to distinguish between a fragment of a Mammoth tusk and Dugong rib? Thanks for your help!

I've been wanting to get back to the Peace River since I first ventured out this fossil hunting season back in early February. Back then the water was over a foot higher and much colder--the air temps were in the mid-60s and the water was a chilly 62F. I decided this was a good day to test my new chest-high waders. I ventured into a spot I like to visit when I'm on this section of the Peace as it has some pretty coarse gravel. While it doesn't produce a lot of finds they tend to me more interesting. I waded out to the small patch of gravel at the leading edge of a sandbar but before I could reach the spot I found myself on tippy-toes trying to find a shallow path while the water rose to within an inch or so of the top of my waders. Somehow gathering more than my usual amount of common sense I decided to turn around rather than risk scuttling my new waders with a catastrophic flood. While searching around for another path to this gravel exposure I tried various approached though none were successful in attaining the desired location in the river that was tantalizingly close. While I walk the river I usually have my fiberglass probe (The Probulator 3000TM) in one hand pushing the tip into the sand with each step to test for any gravel crunch. Much to my surprise I was detecting a decent layer of gravel well downstream from the tiny outcrop on the leading upstream edge of the sandbar where I usually hunt. I have probed around this area before and only detected sand save for this one tiny area. Though I had found gravel in water that was a bit shallower I couldn't stay long as I had to be real careful to not bend over much while digging for gravel as it would have meant cold water down the waders. I couldn't lift as much with my legs and my lower back was soon very vocal in its complaint of the shifted workload. My upper body was also getting quite chilled as my long-sleeved shirt (good for solar protection) was getting soaked as usual but the brisk breeze was doing an efficient job at evaporative cooling quickly dropping my core body temp. I could only work for about 15-20 minute blocks before having to sit in the canoe and try to warm up my gradually numbing fingers. Instead, I conceded and made a mental not to return to investigate this increased exposure of gravel next time. I had hoped to get out last weekend but there was a bit of a cold front moving through Florida and the chance for rain shifted from late Saturday and on into Sunday to instead start mid-morning. I've been on the Peace when passing showers have opened up and spilled some precipitation down from above--not so bad on a warm day but not optimal for preserving core body temperature on a cooler day. Saint Patrick's Day weekend looked to have weather much more conducive to standing around half submerged in a river. The water temperature had risen to a relatively balmy 70F and the air temp was forecast to be an unseasonably warm 85F--unexpected as this was still technically winter with the Spring Equinox still two days hence. I had guests visiting and staying over on Friday night so it was not possible to get to the river on Saturday as I usually do but Sunday was clear. The morning started off a bit cool. I was up at 3:30am and out the door by 4:00am. The trip cross-state over the top of Lake Okeechobee and on into Arcadia was quiet (as it usually is that time of morning). I usually monitor the outside air temp on the car thermometer and watch it dip as I leave coastal Florida and cross over through its less populated center. I usually expect the temps to dip several degrees but this time I went from 67F as I left my neighborhood to the usual dip to near 60F. This time it continued even more and bottomed out at the nadir of 49F for a brief moment before rebounding into the 60s as we approached Arcadia. Most of the trip on two lane highway 70 was made more interesting by a thick coat of fog that approached white-out conditions a few times. It can be rather difficult to locate the road when the oncoming headlights of an approaching vehicle light swirling fog in an effect worthy of a Pink Floyd concert from the 1970's. We arrived without issue and went through the normal procedure of checking in at Canoe Outpost and riding the old blue school bus with canoe-laden trailer in tow to Brownville Park where we departed from the boat ramp into a white ethereal mist. For some reason the Earl Scruggs song "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" came to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQIJuu3N5EY Since we decided not to spend time at our normal spots further upstream, we soon left the rest of the canoes in our group as we headed off downstream into the dreamlike fog. The heavy mist also muffled sounds a bit so it was peacefully quiet and most befitting of its name. For some time we heard nothing more than the sounds of our paddles and a few species of birds calling. It was well worth the effort of the early departure just to experience this quiet time on the river. We saw some ducks who took to flight at our approach and enjoyed seeing some Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, and Little Blue Herons hunting for a fishy breakfast along the banks of the river. There were lots of Cardinals, Gray Catbirds, and Belted Kingfishers in the trees that we would frequently spot flitting about or calling out to each other. Tammy mentioned that in all of the trips down the Peace that we had never seen an owl and she wished that for once she could see one here. Apparently, the officials at the Wish Granting Department had a light schedule this morning as, within 5 minutes of uttering this desire, she looked up into a tree at the edge of the river to spot a Barred Owl watching from its perch as we floated by. I pulled out the camera and we circled back for the photo. As we were leaving we saw the bird take flight. It is amazing how a bird this size can move on such stealthy wings as to be so utterly silent in flight. Our morning was made and I hadn't even broken out the shovel & sifting screen nor dipped foot into the water yet. I figured if this was a day for wishing that I'd put in my order for a reasonably complete mastodon tooth. These teeth are seemingly as fragile as mammoth teeth and mostly I've only found small but very distinctive (because of their thick pearlescent enamel in cross-section) chunks. I was fortunate enough to find a complete Colombian Mammoth tooth a few years back with John @Sacha but mastodon in anything but tiny fragments has so far eluded me. I made my wish and we continued to our destination. In time we made it down to my favorite sandbar and spent this entire trip focusing on seeing what this gravel had to offer. I couldn't determine if this was a new extended layer of fresh gravel that Hurricane Irma had chosen to spread out more evenly across the top of this sandbar or if the storm (and ensuing raging torrent) had stripped off a thick cap of sand uncovering an older previously-inaccessible gravel layer underneath. The water was lower that last time (and quite a bit warmer). No waders this time and after a few minutes for by legs to acclimate (read this as "becoming numb") I slowly worked my way into deeper water probing around with the Probulator and mapping out the extend of this newly expanded gravel. Tammy (being the wiser of the two) decided the morning was still too chilly for direct skin contact chose to sit in the canoe at the side of the river and drink from her thermos of hot tea. The river flow at this point in the river was nearly imperceptible (my tethered sifting screen occasionally floating slowly upstream rather than downstream). Being creative, Tammy decided that she could paddle out and position the canoe nearby and see what I was doing without the discomfort of standing in a river on a chilly morning before the sun was able to warm things up sufficiently. The sun finally burned off the morning fog and before long the sun's rays were counteracting the chilly water making the environmental conditions near optimal for standing around in a river. I got to work scouting out the extents of the gravel and picking some novel spots that I'd not dug before to see if I could detect some virgin gravel with worthy finds (nothing is worse than digging in spoil pile gravel with all of the work and none of the payoff). Before long some nice finds started appearing in the sifting screen. Because of the chunkiness of the gravel at this spot I choose to use my sifting screen with the 1/2" mesh rather than the finer 1/4" mesh screen. As a result, I found almost no smaller shark teeth (just a few larger ones that were not small enough to slip between the mesh back into the Peace). The gravel in this extended area was just as chunky as the former minor occurrence at the leading edge of the sandbar. It can bit a bit difficult to get a shovel into and a lot of wiggling around of the handle is necessary to slowly work the tip of the spade down between the stony chunks. Every now and then a shovel size chunk of matrix comes up on the shovel and threatens to sink the sifting screen with its bulk. I've learned to toss these behind me with reasonable care so as not to spray myself with the resultant depth-charge splash of chucking these bowling ball size chunks with too much vigor. There are some days on the Peace when even somewhat common items like horse teeth can be elusive. Today was not one of those days. The first horse tooth was a nice specimen of an upper Equus molar. It was soon followed by a nice lower Equus (the lowers are more thin and elongate to fit into the more narrow mandible). You can see the comparison of the two below.

Hi there guys, I was hoping you could help with the identification of three different fossils. The ones with the ridges that look like miniature mammoth teeth were found in peace river in Arcadia, while the flatter set of teeth and fang-looking thing were found at a land site in Venice. Thanks in advance for your help!

First request for information after a few weekends hunting the Peace River in Florida. Any help with identifying if these are fossils or other? Very curious on the amber, translucent items, the largest is hollow. Thanks! -Mark

Curious what you guys think. Found last saturday near Arcadia, pretty much all I found of note was this & a large sand tiger tooth lol

I think one is a broken vertebra and 2 horse teeth?

hey guys might be a long shot but here goes ! what could this be ?

Donated to the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida at Gainesville Soon to be named Brissopsis sp. this specimen likely a Paratype Late Miocene, Peace River Formation Hardee County, Florida

My husband found this apparent claw in the Peace River last week. Any help with ID? He has a preliminary guess, but I'm not sure. Thanks for any assistance.

I figured you guys would enjoy a few pictures of this Funky Pathological Meg I dug up in the Peace River a few weeks ago. It was a nice start to the season for sure!

I found this partial tooth at Peace River and I'm having some trouble definitively IDing it. I think it may be some type of cetacean.

I had a rather unspectacular trip on the Peace yesterday and I'll blame it on high water from the weekend's rain. Any excuse will do at this point. I did find this rather peculuar tooth that looks like a pre-molar but does not look similar to the cow or bison pre-molars that I have. I originally thought it might be a recent tooth, but now that it's drying, I'm not so sure. I'd appreciate help with an ID.

Any help will be appreciated on ID of this tooth, Found in Peace River north of Brownville.

I would appreciate any help with an id for the tooth I found while on a peace river dig. I haven’t been able to find anything that looks close and thought someone at sometime might have come across something similar. Thanks in advance,

I took the time to take a couple pictures while out hunting this time so figured I would post up a report The day started off horrible- an hour late leaving my house (and it's a 2 hour drive to the river), colder than expected and somehow I forgot my lucky shovel. I allllllmost turned around and said the heck with it but stopped in Ace hardware, bought a new shovel and got on with it. I decided to launch at a new spot and explore a bit since the day wasn't starting off great and most of my good spots are still under too much water to dig. I had already decided that I probably wouldn't find much but it would be a good break from life to spend the day in nature on this river I love so much. Did I mention it was cold? Well, it was cold enough I didn't see a single person the entire day and probably counted 50+ dead Tilapia and Snook as they can't take water temps under 52 for long. I paddled for quite a while until I hit a creek that had fairly high walls and decided to paddle up it to see if there was gravel. It was mostly sand but I kept probing and a ways up there was an opening in the trees and all of the sudden I heard sweet crunchy goodness a few feet down. Gravel in one of the only sunny spots? I thought Maybe my luck was changing... I also forgot my small screen which would have been great in this creek so only had my large screen with me but I made the best of it and started moving sand. 30 min in, I start to see nice big gravel and then the treasures started coming up. One of my best if not The best day I've had for mammal fossils so far in my hunting career. The highlight came about an hour into digging- a baby mammoth tooth! I'm not sure how complete it is but I was blown away when it came up. I immediately stopped and took a picture: This was my best screen of the day- (granted there were many with nothing) Glyptodont, Sloth and Megaladon A nice golden Meg Associated Horse teeth The best of the day- Mastadon tusk end The best Megs of the day I filled up a gallon bag with other broken megs, unique turtle shell pieces, verts and other cool stuff. It seems the hurricane and record high levels did some fossil replenishment this year so I hope to report back with more trips soon! Dig deep and fossil on!

Thanks to contacts made by FF Member Megaholic (Chuck), this guy will soon be on it's way to the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology at the University of Florida at Gainesville in response to their request to have it for analysis and display. . Abertella dengleri Echinoid- Late Miocene, Peace River Formation - Hardee County, Florida, USA Thanks Chuck for making that connection for me.

Really caught my attention while mostly looking for shark teeth today. My gut was telling me bone or gator part, but a buddy of mine thinks it might be a molar (gompothere frag maybe?) But it's also very dense (226 g, or 8 oz, only ~7 x 8.5 cm), lending me to believe it's from a dugong or whale. All I know is it ain't invertebrate or fish lol. Thanks! Trip report coming soon.