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I haven't done much fossil hunting in the past couple months due to doing so much caving. I made it out yesterday to find lovely low water. I found some good stuff but the highlight was a colorful meg

Found a spot with great colored bone valley formation fossils. Everything has nice blue tent to it. But sadly no complete meg teeth from there yet.

I was was catching strippers and drinking gin in Cape Cod a week ago, lower Vermont Sunday and Monday, ate cod in a restaurant on Long Island Sound Tuesday, spent Wednesday in Connecticut, on a plane home Thursday, out hunting fossils yesterday. Did not find much. 10 small shark teeth and a few worn bones. A whiskey bottle from the the 30s or 40s. It was brutal, lots of bugs, 95 degrees, high humidity... Loved every second of it. Had lunch with a good friend, went back to his place to take photos of fossils he found 30 years ago in BV phosphate mines: So think Florida Bone Valley, Miocene, 10-25 myas. I am just going to select individual photos. I have more but sizes limits in a single thread slow me down. A few of these I believe I know the species, but for the 1st day will encourage guesses from those who do not know or are not sure. Enjoy EDITED: Most Identifications added on July 30th Fossil #1: Fossil #2 IDENTIFIED as Large kentriodontid-grade dolphin tooth Fossil #3 IDENTIFIED as true Seal Cervical vertebrae Fossil #4 Fossil #5 IDENTIFIED as true Seal Axis vertebrae Fossil #7 IDENTIFIED as true Seal sacrum bone Fossil #8 IDENTIFIED as Rostral node shark snout. Fossil #9 Indentations on BOTH sides.... IDENTIFIED as symphyseal portion of a mandible where the lateral edges have fallen away - this is from a Large kentriodontid-grade dolphin. I will be thinking about these, looking at the internet fossil sites, checking with fossil identification friends.... Just sharing with my friends at TFF. These are miocene. Out of 9 fossils, maybe I would find 2 or 3 in the mostly Pleistocene Peace River. Jack

Found some more pieces of some mammoth teeth today. Also a lot of other stuff. And I apologize for not so great pics.

Hit another creek in bone valley today. The high water is paying off... a creek bank eroded and left a treasure trove.

Hi all, I bought this nice small shark tooth at a market in Middelburg, Netherlands. It's from the Bone Valley, FL, USA. From (I think) the Peace River Formation, Miocene, 9 mya. Anyone know what species it could be? If more pictures are needed let me know! Thanks in advance, Max

I saw this Hemipristis tooth for sale, and I’m falling in love with it, but I was wondering if the blue color of it is a normal occurrence. It is from Bone Valley. Thanks in advance!

I recently purchased a small lot of Alligator teeth from the Miocene bone valley of Florida online, and three out of the four looked as a Alligator tooth usually looks (two sutures on each side, straight, stubby) but one looks to me like a crocodile tooth, here's some pictures can anyone tell me which one it is? It's partial which muddles an ID a little.

I recently got some bone valley matrix (thanks @joshuajbelanger) and over my first search I found these, and I am horrid at identifying shark teeth, do you all know what they are? They are all around one millimeter in size. Thanks!

Found these items in a rock from Bone Valley in Florida. Any help would be appreciated.

I live in Florida and I've heard of some people going to locations in bone valley where it isn't restricted, I was wondering if anyone knows of any places where I could get in to find some fossils. Thank you anything would be helpful

Going back through some of the material received earlier this month in a trade and continue to find some small items. Most I can identify but need some assistance on these.

Found these in some Material from Bone Valley Fla. They are about .75" in height.

Hey everyone, I've just got back from collecting a ton(literally) of bone valley matrix. The fossils in this matrix will be really colorful and not your typical peace river black. I'm open for anything! You guys don't even have to tell me what your sending, I'll pack a small/medium/large flat rate box(your choice) and ship it out to you. I've already spotted a couple of small megs on the outside of these chunks. Any takers?

Found in Bone Valley area of Florida. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you and good luck out there.

Found in Bone Valley area in Central Florida. I can see a little light thru the hole down the center, cleaned out dirt, blocked with rock or blockage is part of formation, can't really tell. Any help is appreciated. Thank you and good luck out there.

It seemed like the Peace River would NEVER get down to the proper level for fossil hunting. Unseasonable (and possibly unreasonable) rains had continued to make the river level rebound with an incredible super-elastic quality every time it approached a workable level. I made tentative plans about a month ago and on the date I had chosen the rains spiked the river level upwards of two feet in a little over a day. But finally, the rains held off for a bit and the river was finally able to process the accumulated water load and having sent it on its way to Port Charlotte Harbor--the Peace River's final destination before it mixes with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the southwest coast of Florida. I watched in amazement as the river gauges seemed to be holding. I didn't even start making serious plans till Friday afternoon. Tammy was able to leave work a bit early and as soon as she got home I started loading the car with all we'd need for our trip. I usually have all of my fossil hunting gear relatively organized so I can toss things together pretty quickly. Last season I'd only gotten to the river twice for two weekday hunting trips with TFF member John (Sacha) so it had been almost two years since Tammy and I were making the three hour trip to the northwest to try our luck sifting on the river. I've done day trips on the Peace before but a combined total of six hours of driving and eight hours of shoveling and sifting makes for a very tiring day so we usually choose to head over the night before. With a fair amount of excitement we had a quick breakfast, checked out of our hotel and were waiting at the Canoe Outpost office to complete our paperwork for our canoe rental. It seemed that others had also realized this was a great weekend to get out on the Peace and the place was a mob scene of cars and people. We were able to quickly and efficiently fill out our paperwork and unload our hunting gear. Some large groups were going north to the Gardner put-in as well as to the Brownville boat ramp where we were heading. Once large group of about 50 people were packed on one of the retired school buses that Canoe Outpost uses to shuttle people to their drop-off locations. We were told to hold back and put our stuff into a white van pulling a small trailer with six canoes. Inside, we met the other couple who were also going to Brownville. Gladys and Jose were from Brazil and currently living in Miami (so they had come even a bit further than we did to paddle down the Peace). On the ride up to Brownville we had a pleasant conversation with them--glad to be in a civilized and quite mode of transportation and not on the "party bus" with the huge rowdy group. It turned out that Gladys had never canoed before and that she and Jose had made a deal to go out and do something around the state one weekend every month. Jose had learned about the Peace River and thought that the 8.5 mile full-day trip would make for a fun activity this weekend. Of course, we told them that we'd been on the Peace many times over the last nine years--always hunting for fossils but enjoying the river for its beauty as well. They had no idea that the Peace River had such a reputation (by those in the know) for fossil hunting--heck, we didn't have a clue till we learned out about it back in 2007. We filled them in on the types of fossils that could be found on the river and showed them our gear as we were loading it into our canoe. We suggested that they might enjoy learning a bit more about the fossils and that one of the gravel beds we'd be stopping at was only a few minutes from where we'd be entering the river at Brownville. Gladys did quite well for her first time in a canoe and they followed us to our first stop where we pulled the canoes to the bank and started unloading our gear. I stepped out into the cool (fast flowing) tannic waters of the Peace and I was home again! I had brought along two sifting screens--one outfitted with the 'standard' 1/4" mesh screen that we'd been using for years and one with the larger 1/2" mesh that many of the TFF members that I hunt with on the Peace have switched to in order to process more gravel. The smaller shark teeth and other tiny fossils find their way through the larger mesh but in return you can work through a higher volume of gravel and increase the odds of finding larger fossils. I loaded the 1/4" screen with a couple of shovels full of gravel and gave it to Tammy to take back to the canoes where Gladys and Jose were sitting. They didn't really count on getting out of their canoes and walking around in the river so they didn't dress appropriately for it--in particular, they didn't bring shoes they could get wet as the Peace is (sadly) littered with too much broken glass (beer bottles) to safely walk about in bare feet. Tammy set the sifting screen full of gravel on their canoe and then showed them how to sort through the gravel. In no time they had begun to find shark teeth (and other fossils). The ease at which things could be spotted in the sifting screen really entertained them. I gave them some of my plastic zip-top bags that I always take so they could hold onto their growing nascent collection of fossils. When I would find something new I'd bring it over to where I was sifting in the river (with the 1/2" screen) and explain to them what it was and how you could tell from even small broken fragments. The spot I was digging in seemed to be fertile ground for hunting and so there were a variety of things to show to the "newbies". In addition to the numerous smaller shark teeth they were finding in their sifting screen I was able to add items like worn horse teeth, a gator tooth, mastodon and mammoth tooth fragments, lots of different turtle shell pieces, gator osteoderms, a small (but identifiable) fragment of proboscidean tusk and more. We gave them all of the finds and as other canoes would pass us on the river the more curious would stop by to hear an explanation of what we were doing on the river and what we were finding. Despite not using equipment even vaguely resembling that used for gold panning, we'd often hear comments like, "Find any gold yet?" or "Are you rich yet?" For some reason this is the only concept that seems to occur to folks when they see some fool standing waist deep in the river with a shovel and screen--can't really blame them. We'd explain to them that we are looking for "black gold"--fossil and they would either continue to paddle down the river with a puzzled look on their faces or the more curious would stop over for a look. Those few were always rewarded with some fossils. At around noon we decided to head down the river to our other favorite spot to continue hunting in the afternoon. Gladys and Jose had accumulated quite the collection of fossils by then and were really bowled over by their collection and how much fun they were having (especially as it was completely unplanned and impromptu). The only two items I kept from the morning were a small gator osteoderm and a nice 3-toed horse molar. I suspect the osteoderm is likely recent as it feels light and is pretty delicate with nice sharp edges all in good condition. We were so busy introducing our new Brazilian friends to the fossil wonders of the Peace River that we didn't take the camera out much. Here is the only photo of me enjoying myself in the river at our first spot. You can see the technique that I use to save my back (well, limit the stresses and strains). I've seen people bend over to scan the contents of their sifting screens as they float in the water (hard to see at the water's surface and even harder on the lower back vertebrae). Others, I've seen hold their screens to their stomachs with one hand as they paw through it with the other. I'm both lazy and a computer programmer (related attributes actually) and I like to optimize my process whenever possible. I use my gravel probe (the custom-made Probulator 3000tm) planted firmly in the riverbed to hold my sifter stationary in the river by looping the rope lanyard over it. When I'm done filling the sifter with gravel (sifter buoyancy provided by the attached foam 'pool noodles'), I plant the shovel in the pit I'm digging in the river to mark my spot. This shovel also becomes key to reducing my ibuprofen consumption at the end of the day. After the sifter is shaken to drop out the smaller material, I shake the screen at an angle to shift all of the remaining gravel to the back of the sifting screen. I then prop the back edge of the screen on the shovel handle and with the front edge of the screen slightly lower I can easily and efficiently sort through the material pushing it bit-by-bit to the front of the screen methodically searching for any interesting bits.