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So far this is the only tooth like this I have found. It's in some material from Gainesville, FL I bought several years ago. Rattlesnake Creek Coosawhatchie formation Hawthorn Group Miocene aged Any idea on what it might be?

Gainesville, FL Rattlesnake Creek. Hawthorn Group, Coosawwhatchie formation. Miocene aged.

I've been cleaning and remodeling my son's old room these past few weeks, making it a safe and presentable guest room for my son's son, my 4-year-old grandson. Lots of dinosaur stuff in the room now. As I was cleaning out old baseball and hockey cards I had a fossil-brained idea. Such ideas usually lead to many hours of neglect for all the responsibilities of a husband and homeowner, even one who is supposedly retired. This particular idea involved those "collectible" baseball and hockey cards. Why not "collectible" fossil cards? Not just photos though. Real fossils. Even better, how about using the cards to display my own small but growing microfossil collection. Some fossils I've found in gravel matrix I've collected myself, but mostly matrix I've obtained from other TFF members, especially @Sacha I thought about attaching those wonderful little "gem jars" to the cards, but they really wouldn't be ideal for this job. I ordered, instead, a package of 19mm coin capsules, exactly the size of a U.S. penny. Each capsule would hold a microfossil and each card would include a photo of that fossil and it's relevant information. I liked the idea, and I gave it a try. Here's how it looks so far. There are a few ID's I'm not actually sure about, but I wanted to get going on the cards. I'll fix them as need be. Each card has a catalog number that refers to the photo files for that fossil. I attached the coin capsules with either Velcro dots or that tacky putty stuff that's not supposed to damage walls. I wanted the capsules to be removable. Each capsule has a small label inside with the catalog number, in case it falls off the card. I put a bit of cotton in each capsule, and the fossils are sitting on the cotton. I would love to find 19mm foam dots, but the cotton will do for now. The millimeter rules are at the same scale as the photos. The cards fit in anything designed to hold a baseball card collection, mostly boxes and album pages. They also stand nicely in those little plastic frame holders. I used different colors for each location, so far, to make it easier to keep track the cards and the fossils. When I add more locations I might have to change the designs a little as well. It's been a bit of a slow process so far, it should be quicker in the future. I think any shark teeth that could fit in these 19 mm capsules would display nicely as well, as long as they aren't too thick for the container. I'd be glad to hear any ideas which might improve the usefulness of the cards, or any inaccuracies you notice. I'll be posting a few of my questionable ID's in the ID section soon. Thanks for looking. Mike Most of my current ID's are thanks to the incredible photos and research by TFF members @oldbones @MarcoSr and @Al Dente, and others as well. Thank you!!!

Hello everyone! My latest trip into the creeks of Gainesville proved quite successful, quite a few dozen shark teeth found, as well as some other questionable pieces. Can anyone confirm if these are fossils and if so what kind, or just stones? Collected from Rattlesnake Creek. Thank you and happy hunting!

Being the good dude that he is, @Jakuzi gave me a bag of some of the micros from Rattlesnake Creek that he had traded some POC micros for. I finished up the RSC bag today and found this nugget. Any clue what it is? I definitely have no clue.

I have some rattlesnake creek micro matrix for trade( 1/4" and smaller). I am open to any trades of something I can't get here in Gainesville. I have a bunch about a gallon worth and some to dry still. The pics are from 1 cup worth. I quickly went through. I know I left some was getting tired and my kids helped. Sorry US only international cost to much. Also willing to trade for rocks and minerals, for my daughter she got a small set at school and looks threw them daily trying to ID them. lol

Well, the Peace River was still about 7 feet too high to consider dipping a sifter in it (much less trying to stand upright against the current) so my wife and I set our sights on an alternative destination for our anniversary weekend. Yup, that's right--if you marry well you can actually go fossil hunting as part of your anniversary celebration. In the end we decided upon, not Niagara Falls nor Acapulco, but the relatively closer destination of Gainesville, Florida. We've been wanting to visit with Dr. Richard Hulbert, Collections Manager and Coordinator of the Program of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History located on the campus of the University of Florida campus in Gainesville and so we thought we'd make a long weekend of it. I'll post more about our visit to the FLMNH collections in a separate topic soon. Once we decided upon Gainesville as a destination we contacted TFF member Khyssa to see if she was available for some hunting in Rattlesnake Creek which, thankfully, she was. We rendezvoused at a local park nearby where we would go hunting (easier for us to find) an then headed off to Rattlesnake Creek. The trick to hunting any of the many creeks that run through Gainesville is to find a good access point. For those unfamiliar with Gainesville (which, I admit, includes me) there is a nice PDF available online produced by the City of Gainesville: https://www.cityofgainesville.org/Portals/0/plan/docs/GIS_Creek_Names.pdf The location we arrived at to explore Rattlesnake Creek must be well known by both the people of Gainesville and the local government as they have provided numerous parking spaces along both sides of the road where it crosses the creek. We parked, changed into shoes that we didn't mind getting wet, grabbed our shovels and sifting gear and scrambled down the slope to the culvert. Anybody considering sifting in these creeks should be wearing shoes with sturdy soles as there is a crazy amount of broken glass--remnants of those with little respect for the natural beauty of wild places. Some people have decided they needed to "beautify" the culvert and overpass by tagging it liberally with multi-chromatic grafitti. We passed through the culvert and emerged on the other side where there is a gravel bed a very short distance from where we had parked. This was important as my main goal was to collect some Rattlesnake Creek micro-matrix and buckets of gravel get mighty heavy when lugging them back to the car. We soon got down to work collecting the micro-matrix. I had brought along the same setup I've used before on the Peace River and Cookiecutter Creek. This consists of two of my normal sifters (one with 1/4" mesh screen and one with the larger and sturdier 1/2" mesh). The process is pretty basic--I place a piece of window screen material (1/20" openings on that mesh) inside the lower sifter and then stack the sifter with the 1/4" mesh on top of that. Then I toss in a few shovels full of sand and gravel dug up from the gravel bed on which we were working. In an area with deeper water it would be relatively easy to use the water to sort the gravel and sand through the sifters. The creek here was only a few inches deep and so with the help of a flexible plastic bucket I was able to scoop up some water and pour it over the sifter stack. This took a lot more time than sifting waist deep in the Peace River and was also much more tough on the lower back (and every single joint below that). Progressing slowly I was able to wash the finer material from the upper sifter into the lower one. Once most of the small stuff had passed through I took the coarser gravel (> 1/4") over to the sand bar where my wife had a quick look through it for larger items. I then shook the lower sifter to get most of the finer sand to pass through the inserted window screen. Once it was relatively sand-free I then picked up the piece of window screen by the corners and carried it over to my waiting bucket where it was dumped. I repeated this process till my 2-gallon bucket was filled (maybe a dozen or more times). I then lugged this bucket up to the larger 5-gallon bucket waiting in my car's trunk. Since the car was nearby it was easy to repeat this over and over till I had all the micro-matrix I felt I needed. -Ken

Came across this tiny tooth while sorting micro-matrix from Rattlesnake Creek (Gainesville, FL). I suspect it is not fossilized as the fossils in this micro-matrix are almost exclusively marine in nature. The color and delicate nature of this remarkably well preserved molar lead me to believe that it is something much more recent. It looks quite different from the rodent molars (Cotton Rat and Vole) that I have found before in this and other types of micro-matrix. As you can see it is quite decidedly dual-rooted and the occlusal surfaces are rather angled and scooped. It measures 4.5 mm from chewing surface to the tip of the root and 2 mm across the maximum width. Anybody have a clue on the possible identity of this mystery tooth? I'm wondering if it might possibly be a bat tooth? I know there is a large population of bats on the University of Florida campus (I've visited the "bat house" to see them emerge in the evening--quite the show). Thanks for having a look (and for any information). Cheers. -Ken

I recently collected some micro-matrix from Rattlesnake Creek in Gainesville. See my other posting if you want to read more about that here: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/58470-rattlesnake-creek-rendezvous/?p=622403 This morning while sorting through the micro-matrix I spotted an unusual (for me) tiny shark tooth that has me guessing. This little one is only about 4.5 mm across the base of the root and around 5 mm along the long edge of the blade. It is novel solely due to the presence of the side cusp(s). There is an obvious side cusp on the side toward which the main cusp angles and there appears to be a bit up a "bump" in the enamel at the other side of the tooth that is subtle but apparent when looking at the tooth under magnification but, unfortunately, does not photograph very well. Basically, there appears to be a faint "notch" at the base of the long edge of the main cusp and the enamel is ever so slightly raised past this notch. The tooth does not really resemble the tiny Tiger Shark or Sand Tiger teeth which I know to have additional side cusps. The root is too flat and not as U-shaped as I'd expect for a posterior Sand Tiger tooth. It also doesn't seem to have the correct "bend" that I'm used to for the various species of Tiger Shark teeth that I'm familiar with from locations in South Florida. Any help with a possible identification on this tiny little mystery tooth would be welcome and educational--for me and possibly for other readers. Cheers. -Ken

After researching my more obscure fossil finds from Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix, I am left with these four that I am not sure of. (E. Miocene - Coosawatchee Fm., Hawthorn Group.) Please have a look, and let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thanks for looking. 1) 2) 3) 4)

I found this broken tooth in Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix. I am wondering if it is from an alligator, or even a croc. Seems way too big for a fish tooth. Any help would be appreciated. Scale is in mm. Thanks for looking.

Found in Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek matrix. I am trying to figure out what this could be. It seems familiar somehow, as tho I have seen something like it before... Does anyone else recognize it? Scale is mm. Views from all sides shown. Thanks for looking. Before I give up on this completely, here is another picture showing the 'bottom' or larger end. Disregard the scale, as the specimen is standing upright. Does this help at all?

Here is another tooth from Sacha's Gainesville matrix. It's only the crown, but I'm hoping someone will recognize it's previous owner. I'm guessing a carnivore... Thanks for looking. Julianna

I found this little mammal tooth in Sacha's matrix from Rattlesnake Creek.The top most images are of the root base and the occlusal view. Can anyone tell me which critter it belonged to? Thanks, Julianna

I am hoping that someone can ID this tiny mandible that I found in TFF member Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek pebble matrix from Gainesville, Florida. Unfortunately, there are no teeth in it. I hope there is enough left to determine who owned it before me. The second photo is a very small molar from what I assume was a rodent due to the size. It is probably recent, but I'd still like to ID it. Thanks, Julianna

I found this tonight in Sacha's Rattlesnake Creek, Gainesville, Florida matrix. I know there is some Eocene in it as well as the more recent.

I have these last few odd finds from the Rattlesnake Creek, Gainesville, Florida matrix still without IDs. I am putting out there in the hopes that someone will recognize them. All 3 photos are multiple views of each item. This matrix is mainly Miocene - Pleistocene. Thanks for looking. 1 2 3

I found some interesting teeth in the Rattlesnake Creek, Florida matrix that member Sacha sent to me. Mainly Miocene-Pleistocene. This matrix has proven to be very productive and has wonderful preservation. This first tooth looks to be from a small mammal, and may be recent. It has 3 roots. Does anyone recognize it? There was this item as well that looks like a bead And I really want to know what this tooth is. All help and suggestions welcome Thanks for looking.