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My last time out hunting was 2 weeks ago, just before the deluge. Found some nice items including 2 small upper horse teeth, and then stopped at a hunting friend's home, where he sold me a number of fossils, including 4 additional small horse upper molars. 1st tooth I believe to be Merychippus from the Miocene of Florida. I found/donated one of these to Richard Hulbert, Florida Museum of Natural History 18 months ago. It looks like some HSBs --- Hunter_Schreger Bands are more easily discernible than on Equus teeth. Tooth #2.... One of my finds... a Nannippus I think... there were 4-5 species in Florida Tooth #3 Another Nannippus.... little bit larger... Look at that isolated circle on the left ... I wonder if that is diagnostic. Tooth # 4 is once again larger... might be Nannippus, but I am less sure.... Tooth #5 is not Nannippus,, which leaves lots of other Genus and lastly an interesting , different and slightly damaged tooth... Definitely need a thread to follow on this one... I have sent the Photos to Richard Hulbert, but with his semi_retirement, I would like to start depending on TFF expertise.... Usual suspects, @Harry Pristis, @fossillarry @siteseer @darrow Thanks for any and all insights and threads to follow... as Always I am after Genus, Species, Jaw position. All this starts with Genus.

Back in February, my partner found a small tooth that I initially thought to be Gomph. I made him an offer he couldn't refuse. I sent some photos to Richard Hulbert and (surprisingly to me) Richard identified it as a Rhino upper cheek tooth. I did not argue, and once I spotted the Hunter_Schreger Bands in the 1st photos, thought the ID to be correct , although I have never seen an upper Rhino tooth that had this wear pattern. This is what upper T. proterum Rhino teeth look like in Florida, Does anyone recognize my tooth in this photo below? Fast forward to June. We are hunting the same area, and this time I find a small tooth that seems very similar ... especially when it dries out. and before it dries out, I notice those HSBs again.. Now as I compare this to the M3 in the above photo , it might be an upper molar, but in this case, Richard sees it as an unidentifiable Rhino tooth fragment. I am not so sure. So, here are the Questions... Are both teeth Teleoceras Proterum teeth or something else? Is the 2nd tooth an M3 ? Is the 1st tooth an upper Jaw tooth? I will flag @Harry Pristis in the hope that he has collected a baby/juvenile Florida Rhino maxilla for comparison purposes. Thanks for you r help on this one. Jack

From Wednesday. Are these all C. hastalis ? It the last one a symphyseal ?

Out hunting yesterday... went by myself. Not always a wise choice. But I was a Boy Scout some eons ago. Always be prepared. Heavy rains in the area increased the flow rate. Going a little faster than I should have on the way back, caught a log 6 inches below the surface, flipped the kayak as neat as you please. Having experienced this before, everything was in the hatches or lashed down, paddle leashed, no hat ,no sunglasses. Had my sit_in kayak, so as I resurfaced , grabbed the side of the cockpit and my weight pulled it over upright... along with 10 or 15 gallons of water. The water was well over my head, so I grabbed the kayak leash and dog paddled toward the bank while the current moved me and kayak rapidly downstream. Took me 10 minutes to empty the cockpit with a siphon hose and small bucket, which I always keep in the forward hatch for exactly this situation. On top of that excitement, I had a really good hunting. Lots of fossils, nothing spectacular. So, I pick and choose what to ID first... I found what I believe to be 2 Astragali.... First up, one that I have found many times before , and using @Harry Pristis gallery and pictures, identify as a camelid. It is too small for Bison and not cow due to position of the medial tubercle.. If anyone has knowledge, I would like to know if this is Palaeolama mirifica or Hemiauchenia. or Next... and even though it is badly broken, I am excited by the potential.... I have seen this before but NOT at this location. To give you a sense of where I am going... Capybara has a somewhat similar Astragulas, and the closest comparison in my collection is a (much larger) Teleoceras Astragalus I found in the Peace River in 2014 (photo below). The more realistic part of me is thinking a modern wild pig which can get up to 400 pounds wandered into my hunting area.

I just created a thread with lots of fossils. With those fossils, I found this bone, which has some unique aspects but may be difficult to ID, and since I wanted this ID the most, decided to put it in a separate thread. The other thread in case you need some easier IDs. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/125931-another-set-of-fossils/ All comments appreciated... I thought it might be jaw because of the groove in this 1st photo.... The 2nd photo had me thinking proximal phalanx At 5 inches, this is a large animal, and just taking a shot at someone recognizing the bone, of not the mammal... Thanks Jack

I have only been out twice this month. Life interferes. A couple of weeks back I posted this thread with the fossils I wanted to identify most and got good participation to identify 3 of 4. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/125703-hunting-florida-interesting-finds/&tab=comments#comment-1366710 I found a bunch of other fossils, some of which I thought I knew, some not... I am trying to use the fossils to date the layer... Here is a list so you can copy and replace with your IDs 1) sawfish rostral tooth 2) turtle Osteoderm or Deer ungual. 3) deer medial phalanx 4) Raccoon Calcaneums 5) 2 pre_Equus horse teeth 6) Harbor Dolphin tooth 7) Whale tooth 8) Snake Vert A sawfish rostral tooth: A turtle Osteoderm or Deer ungual. A toe bone... Medial Phalanx... deer ? 2 Small mammal calcaneum.... raccoon? Two horse teeth, too small to be equus. A Dolphin tooth that might actually not be a porpoise, sorry for the blur... A whale tooth A big snake vert or something else. I always try to payback. Although I found it, I gave it to Steve... he found the location.. and has an extensive snake vert collection.

I found this small tooth years back in one of the numerous Bone Valley creeks that produce colorful teeth. I never was positive on the ID, thinking it was likely Carcharhinus .sp, but not shaped like the common Bull or Dusky I was finding in the Peace River, similar to the one directly below. Just stumbled over the photo below, looking for well preserved fossils. I only have this single photo.. Hope it is enough....

6 months ago, hunting with a partner who found this tooth that I initially identified as Rhino. See those crossing lines in the thin enamel of the 1st two photos. I had seen that in other Rhino tooth enamel found in this location. Before asking TFF for an Id on any fossil, I search TFF for similar fossils and found a thread where @Harry Pristis identified a very similar tooth as Cow or Bison. I never put this one up for identification on TFF. Today, I was commenting on this FossilID thread posted by @Done Drillin http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/124645-peace-river-id-help/&tab=comments#comment-1358464 and noted that Harry Identified a very similar tooth once again as Cow or Bison.. The last find appears to be a bovid p3 . . . the enamel striations suggest bison. I have studied the enamel and see the striations on the outside of the enamel of Done Drillin's tooth, and not on the domestic cow example above. Here is an example of lines in the enamel ... So, now I am wondering on the identification of this tooth. I have thought for 6 months that it is a Bison premolar. Do Bison and Rhino have similar lines within the enamel of their teeth? and are those lines missing in modern cow?

In the summer, my hunting strategies change. The Peace River is too fast and deep for successful hunting. I travel farther into Bone Valley, either land hunting or very remote lakes, rivers, creeks. Generally, I see no other hunters. I have a few spots that I know about but hunt sparsely and save as last resorts. I am having difficulty making time for hunting. Wife is away to SC, and I am on dog sitting duty, guests and relatives are arriving later this week and next. So, Monday was one of the few days I could go.. My hunting partner called Sunday night, had to back out. I went anyway, but when going solo into remote parts of Florida, I take extra precautions. Monday was a beautiful day, sunshine, very warm, and for whatever reasons, noseeums, mosquitoes and horse flies were not as active as they normally are... I went back to a location where I had super success years before. I was finding little shark teeth, ray teeth, broken barbs and denticles and little else. Then I popped a very nice barracuda tooth, one of my best... this shape is not as common as the other shape I find and I started wondering if it was from a different species. Searching the Internet, I found this research paper that used Barracuda fossils from UF_MNH for analysis. I also saw comments that scientists and volunteers were finding bony fishes including Barracuda at Montbrook and we on TFF have members in high places @digit. The paper is : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347523589_New_Records_of_the_Genus_Sphyraena_Teleostei_Sphyraenidae_from_the_Caribbean_with_Comments_on_Dental_Characters_in_the_Genus It has this photo: A & B are symphyseal teeth, C thru I are "normal" teeth. I did not know that. I find many more symphyseals than normal Barracuda teeth. Back to the days hunting.. I got tired of this location after an hour, and moved 50 feet downstream.. I noted that there was gravel in the center and though I had dug here extensively years previously. So, I did not know why the gravel was there, but decided to try a sieve or two anyway. This screen is pretty full 4-5 shovel fulls. I am scraping some type of bluish clay material. It is the lighter stuff. I am always looking for black. Do you see it? How about now ? I saw it immediately, and paused to take an In_situ shot, just for TFF. Note the black root and gray blade. I have found Megs here before, Usually are bluish green and the roots lighten up a lot. I found this Blue 20 feet away , almost 2 years ago. Here is Monday's Meg, Both seem to have that lighter tip... I found a Tridactyl lower horse tooth in the next sieve. and it not matter how or why the gravel was there. I was finding good stuff and I would stay on this spot for the rest of the day. !!!!! I think this is a lower right m3, similar to example T, page 292 The Fossil Vertebrates of Florida. As you can imagine, I was really pleased. It was not quite over yet.. Back to finding little shark teeth, ray teeth, broken barbs and denticles, broken mammal teeth (likely horse). With 30 minutes to go, I picked up a chunky little tooth, no roots beat up. Did not recognize it and toss it into the collection bag without determining what it might be. At home, a couple of things occurred to me.. Minus the roots, this was basically a whole tooth because the photo of the root area has edges that are mostly unbroken.... the 2nd tooth has a ridge running down the right side with vertical striations.... I have seen that previously at this site. In February, Richard Hulbert identified the tooth on the right as "an upper cheek tooth of a rhino". I think this new tooth on the left is a premolar of a juvenile rhino. The two teeth were found 25 feet apart. Monday was a rather spectacular day. Life is like a box of chocolates. ......

Out Yesterday, Miocene Bone Valley.. Normally I find small broken and whole shark teeth, stingray teeth, barbs, and dermal denticles and an occasional prize. This was no different, The prizes were small Megs... Almost everything has a bluish tint.. I like the FAT roots on these Megs, and I especially liked this one which is my 1st whole Hubble Meg. I have been hunting 14 years. These are not common. Here are some very nice Hubble Megs from Harry's Gallary In additional to sharing the Meg, a question... Do any Sting ray Barbs not have side serrations/barbs ? Just wondering if all vistages have been worn off the bottom barb?

I was out hunting yesterday to a miocene_pliocene site that produces mostly small shark teeth with occasional surprises. In this instance there were three. 1st up... Upper molar Nannippus aztecus (11-5 mya) upper molar. Certainly Nannippus, likely aztecus based on size and location. Next , my unknown, a dolphin periotic earbone, 29 x 16 mm well worn and found in a miocene site. @Boesse And finally a Bison or Bos lower m3 unerupted enamel cap .. no roots. I was quite excited seeing the complete enamel in excellent unworn quality. But based on size and lack of wear, it is probably Bos... Looking for any different opinions

One of the enjoyable things of this hobby is friends sending me photos of their finds. Usually I try to post my own fossils, because I have them in hand and take additional photos and measure, etc etc. This one arrived today, a land find from a pit in Bone Valley.. I asked for additional photos and measurements, but felt I could show you the photo I have and request input. To me, it looks to be 3-4 inches and has some distinctive markings. I have a guess, but will wait on yours.. Jack

I was out hunting fossils yesterday and was quite successful, although many of the finds were covered with algae, concretions and unusually stained. There were fewer small shark teeth and many larger, broken, fragmented mammal bones. Found a number of Equus, camel, and possibly modern calf teeth... damaged and encrusted. The larger bones potentially identifiable are most interesting. That's a couple of Camel (likely Hemiauchenia.sp) Metatarsal 3s in the left middle. a phalanx and very small Ulna in the right middle of the photo. For this thread, I am interested in identifying the mammal that produced this fossil below. It is 180 mm long Cannon bone. Sometimes called a Metacarpal3 or Metatarsal3... Comparing to the Hemiauchenia Metatarsals in the above photo, this bone comes from a much smaller mammal. Here is the end of the bone, which is usually diagnostic. The narrow part of the bone (around 120 mm in the above photo) is 14 mm high and 16 mm wide.

When I first picked up this fossil, I noted lines that reminded me of fossilized ivory, but not quite. A friend polishes fossils and rocks....I asked that he polish one end... Sometimes it looks like bone.... And sometimes it looks like fossilized wood, and occassionally, I seem to see Schreger lines. All suggestions appreciated.

This is a 1st for me, a denticle that is this thin, this large. I dimly recall hearing somewhere that these came from sharks, not stingrays. Let's see if some more knowledgeable than I concur. @Al Dente @MarcoSr@siteseer

Hunting this week, and the highlights of one trip were 2 ear bones, one small dolphin and one larger. The dolphin is smaller than any I have ever found, @Boesse and then another, somewhat similar to Equus but a lot bigger, somewhat similar to mastodon but smaller. A couple of years back, @PrehistoricFlorida put a 2 inch mastodon ear bone up on online. I now wish I had purchased it for comparison purposes. Mastodon on the left of 1st photo. My new find is L 39 H 46 W 28 mm. There is not a lot of material out there on fossil mammal ear bones. Let me know if you see the similarities....

Finds from a week ago. I am used to finding Sawfish verts more often than Shark verts. This may be a Shark vert. If so, type of shark? Interesting and isolated damage. Here is a view after drying: Size Diameter 34 x 17 mm max/min, and 28 mm height A 2nd find: I immediately thought Drumfish, because I know of not other fish that has similar teeth ? Is it?

I have been sampling areas that I thought might have low enough water depths. It is also my exercise. I kayak against the current, go swimming along the way, pack a picnic lunch, enjoy the wildlife and scenery. Out side of small broken teeth, unrecognizable bone fragments , I found 3 fossils. A very nice Tiger shark tooth. Is this a scapula ? It is in fantastic shape, so might be modern. Can someone ID the mammal? And another bone. I do not think I have seen the like before... leaning toward turtle, gator, marine .. it seems to be mostly unbroken, with a number of facets...

With the River and creeks WAAAAY over my head, I have started to sort, review, reduce my collections from the last 3-4 months, starting from the most recent. I have a couple of interesting bones. The 1st I think in a cannon bone from a small pre_equus horse. Why small pre_equus horse? I find 1 Equus fossil at this location for every 100 pre_Equus horse fossils, plus this bone is too small to be an Equus cannon bone. Why Cannon bone ? Because it seems very similar to a photo of Equus Cannon bone created by @Harry Pristis. Harry identified as left leg, Mine seems to be the opposite oriented for a right leg. Metacarpal is the foreleg designation. How can the metacarpal be differentiated from the metatarsal (hind leg) that seems very similar? My find: Not impressive in this 1st photo. There are some differences with Harry's photo above, but I can not imagine what else it might be....

I was out today with a friend hunting the Peace River. You might ask how. 90% of the river is way too deep and dangerous to hunt. I have a temperamental back which does not allow me to hunt areas that are less than knee deep. During season, there are many isolated areas like that, and for likely places we dig probe holes to determine if the area contains fossils. We identify areas which might be hunt-able when the river is 4 feet above normal. So a lot of small shark, ray teeth, mostly broken and a few finds that make the trip worthwhile.. On this day, a posterior Meg, a chunk of antler, and an unknown. The unknown is definitely a fossil, but what... a Ray barb tip, a Bill fish tip, could it be a tusk, fossilized wood..... I need help... Thanks for any suggestions and comments... Jack

I found this one in early May. When it came out of the water, I thought it might be whale tooth or Gomph Tusk , but now I'm thinking it may be a rib. looking at this 2nd photo, I start to wonder if it is a complete rib, and then the next step down the rabbit hole, If complete, what animal has a rib like this... ? I ask myself such questions because sometimes , it leads to answers..... and sometimes , it does not... This is the 2nd bone I posted in the last hour, and I think I IDed the 1st, but on this one.....not so much.. As always , comments and suggestions always appreciated. Jack

Went out again yesterday (It's easy because I am retired,and planned to prioritize fossil hunting). It has been a while since I hunted here, and my friend and I commented that there had been intensive hunting since we were here last. While he was doing pretty well on Megs, Makos, and Hemis, I was having trouble finding a productive spot. -- it happens. The day was overcast and hot, but I am standing in water feeding the swarms of mosquitoes and an occasional horse fly. Did someone ever tell you that "Deep woods Off" would keep these varmints from pestering you? I have a not so secret strategy: Sink into the water covering the hairline on the back of my neck and up to my lower lip. Then I attempt to eat the mosquito that flies under the brim of my baseball cap to land on my nose. This is not particularly effective, but I enjoy trying to make them pay for my blood. It does distract me from fossil hunting, but they were doing that anyways. I always find a lot of small shark teeth, usually broken and fragments of bone and mammal teeth. This time about 150 of which 80-90% are broken. Here is what is left, after 5-6 hours of hunting. Most of this is marine, 10 shark teeth, 5 Ray dermals, pufferfish mouth plate, a couple of Ray barb fragments, and sawfish rostral tooth across the top. The only mammal is a chunk of Gomph enamel at 11 o'clock. I like the best Ray "button" dermal and smaller Sand Tiger.. Those are keepers. But, my find of the day is a broken 32 mm marine mammal tooth... I am easy to please. I love the enamel rugiosity because I do not find enough of it. Enjoy,

I went back to a location that I had not hunted in a while. It has a majority of small shark teeth and marine fossils, but occasionally provides me with a pre_Equus horse tooth. and that opportunity , by itself, is a good enough reward , to keep me coming back. So, I found lots of little broken shark teeth. Many of the other fossils are fragmented and/or very worn. Zoom in on the Mako on the left edge as an example. This is what I sorted down to: So, Some Gomphothere/Mastodon chunks, a few pieces of tusk, some worn dermal denticles, broken Makos, a few larger Hemis, a Sand Tiger or two, and then what keeps me coming back: This is the left side upper molar, likely a M1 or M2, of a pre_Equus horse. It is too large to be Nannippus, and so I'll reach for one of the more likely possibilities: Cormohipparion Ingenuum. If you wish to get better at identification of these, search the internet for examples and see if you also think they match. I see an oddity on this one that I have noted before on other small upper molars. It almost looks like a round file was used down the center of the tooth. I wonder what might cause that. and the 2nd tooth, a little smaller than the first. A LOT of wear on this tooth, but we are able to see the entire occlusal pattern that allows identification. This tooth screams "Nannippus" to me, one of the smallest horses from the Pliocene. However, it is larger at 17 mm APL than I would have expected at this location. 17 mm too BIG ???? Take a look at these Nannippus Aztecus M1 or M2 upper molars from the Bone Valley Phosphate mines --- 13 mm!!! I think I'll send an email to Richard Hulbert to see what Identification he would place on the 2nd tooth. You will find out when I do. I had a nice day in the sunshine yesterday, found a couple of my favorites, get to discuss them on TFF, and get my questions answered. Life is good. Enjoy Jack

Every now and then something weird shows up in my sifter. Look at this cute little guy. Hexagonal shape with a faint raised area in the middle. Texture, shape, thickness all seem right for a giant armadillo, but the size is tiny. I've never seen one this small. Can someone confirm or deny this? Could this be from a baby/juvenile? Could it be a baby glyptodont. I'm stumped.

I went out today in the forecast of Hurricane ETA. It was better than I anticipated. Less windy, less rain. The sun was out about half the day just North of Wauchula, Florida. I did not have a lot of success most of the morning, small shark teeth, 70% broken. My find of the day was a tiny broken dolphin tooth. Early afternoon, my luck changed. I found some gravel 3-4 inches deep with clay at the bottom. The small teeth were mostly whole and a little more colorful, then I found a broken Meg, then my find of the day (below) a Meg just under 2.5 inches. It is always better to be lucky. Character!!! Great Serrations/Tip, some curious color patterns, So, why put this in fossil ID. I had questions and thought it a good way to attract those who have a greater understanding of Megs than I do. Are those rock boring (baby) clam marks? Look are the indentations at the edges where the blade meets the root. Are there cusps there? I have Megs that do not have those indentations. Are they a common feature... Those are sort of preamble questions. Here is the one I really wanted to know. I have a number of Megs which, just like this Meg , is missing all the detail around the Bourlette. Was it dissolved by some chemical process? If so, why would the bourlette dissolve, but not the root material? This Meg came out of the clay... the enamel is in fantastic shape. This does not seem like water wear. I always think of questions on my finds, I do not always get answers.