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Hi guys I won some matrix from a forum auction, thanks @Monica for putting it up so I’ve searched about half of it and this is what I’ve found so far i need to do research on the species found in the creek but I have grouped them vaguely into families 1. Shells, I won’t bother identifying these 2. Fish jaws 3. the best quality ray bars, myliobatis sp. I think 4. Various carcharinus species 5. Various negaprion species 6. Phyllodus species 7. daysatis sp. 8. Mustelus sp. 9. daysatis sp. 10. Various button fish teeth 11. Lagodon sp. 12. Pointy fish teeth 13. ray spines 14. The real prize, Isitius triangularis 15. the random broken bits and bobs

Many years ago, Cookie Cutter Creek was the first location I had the opportunity to hunt Florida fossils at thanks to @jcbshark. That day, while he screened a 5 gallon bucket of matrix containing the Cookie Cutter teeth, I looked for megs. What an ameteur I was, not appreciating the special teeth Jeff had in his bucket of gravel. As time has advanced, I became interested in the micro fossils from this creek and decided on a trip to the area back in February to try on my own, sifting some matrix to take back with me. Hopefully the elusive Cookie Cutter (Isistius) tooth would be amongst all those grains of sand. So I cut a few different sizes of screen and packed them in my suitcase for the trip. Nothing fancy. Then proceeded to the creek one morning, all excited to give this a try. Could I remember how to get to the stream? Two hours later, the answer to the question was NO! So that night, I scrutinized the area on Google Earth and tried again in the morning. This time I was successful! Armed with my screens and a baggie, I attacked the creek. It didn't take long to fill it, so instead of returning to my son's apartment, I forced myself to look for larger shark teeth for awhile (another success). But it wasn't until yesterday that I was able to ascertain whether my hunt for the elusive Isistius was successful. Here are some of the SMALL teeth I extracted from the bag of gravel. Here is a picture showing that I was successful in my Quest to find a Cookie Cutter tooth on my own!!! These sharks are called "cookie cutter" for a reason. They attach to their prey and remove a circular piece of tissue, mimicking a cookie!!!

On this dismal pre-winter day, I slipped downstairs and looked at a few handfuls of micro-matrix from Cookie Cutter Creek. Besides a half dozen tiny shark's teeth, I came across this unknown. I am not sure if it is even a fossil. But it is different than anything else I have seen while investigating this interesting matrix. Opinions are welcomed!!!! @digit Mike

I occasionally grab a handful of micro-matrix from Cookie Cutter Creek and examine it. Very tedious work. Last night I ran across what I believe is a bone. Hopefully those educated on vertebrates can tell me if it is bone and if so, from what!!!! I am dreaming that it is avian in origin. So so delicate. I am shocked I didn't destroy it during it's photo-op. Thanks for looking. Mike

Hello to all my fossil friends! In the early hours of the morning, my family and I returned to the Arctic of the north, from a weeks vacation in sunny Florida. We had a great time at Disney and Universal Studios. But the highlight of the trip, for me, was a Fossilhunt at Cookie Cutter Creek with @digit (Ken) and his wife, Tammy. This trip was planned since the fall when I had asked Ken if he would be willing to meet up with me for a hunt. Originally I was wanting to hunt the Peace River. A couple weeks ago Ken told me that the water levels of the Peace were too high and we discussed other possible options he mentioned Cookie Cutter Creek as a possibility and I was all for it. I would like to take this time to mention that Ken was constantly giving me updates on the weather and water levels of various waterways and also tons of information about what to bring and what to expect while there. He really put a lot of time into this for which I am extremely grateful. At one point he brought @Shellseeker (Jack) into the conversation to ask if he could help out with any sites that were not flooded. Jack did a few scouting trips on the Peace but could not find a site which was doable. We were hoping that maybe he would meet up with us at CCC, but he could not make it. I would like to say Thank-you for reporting back with us the conditions. Also Ken got the OK, from @jcbshark to access this site so a big Thank-you to you sir as I had such a great time there. The trip was planned for Monday, March 4. I got up at 3:30am and left the resort by 4 i had about a 2 hour drive in which it was pouring rain and lightning. I was afraid that the hunt might be canceled but the rain and lighting stopped after about an hour into the drive. We met up at McDonalds for a bite to eat and then i piled my stuff into Ken car and he drove us to the site. Before we left, Tammy gave me a big bag of homemade Chocolate Walnut cookies. They were delicious. I ate a couple every day for breakfast for the remainder of my vacation. When we got almost to the site we were greeted by a couple deer. I always enjoy wildlife so it was a good way to start the day. A couple minutes after that, we were at the site. For anyone that doesn't already know, this creek is named as such, as it is the only place in Florida, known to produce the teeth of the Cookie Cutter Shark. To find these you must collect and search through the micro matrix. Ken had planned out a system that would benefit us both. He had brought 3 sisters. 2 of them had1/4 inch mesh the other 1/2 inch. In the 1/2 he put in a piece of window screen. He then would put the 1/4 on top, fill it with gravel, shake it so the smaller stuff fell through to the window screen. He then handed me the top sifter to look for the bigger stuff as he continued to rinse the micro matrix in the window screen and then dump it into the bucket. Then he would take the other unused sifter and put that one on top. As I got done searching through one we kept swapping sifters back and forth. It was a very efficient way for both of us to get what we wanted. Ken was interested solely in the micro matrix and I was more interested in the bigger stuff. One of the first things of interest when we entered the creek was a shell layer visible a short way upstream from the access point. There were so many shells jam packed onto the side of the banks. I was going to take a pic of this but forgot. It was very impressive. But I did grab some of these shells so I have pics of what I took. It was just a bit further from this were we spent most of our time searching the gravel. More to come...............

Here's another one I found in the "Cookie Cutter Creek" matrix I got from a Fla member - so no other age/location info is available. Looks like vert, but from what I don't know. My initial guess is a small mammal thoracic vertebrae, but I might be way off base with that. It might not even be mammal but maybe reptile or fish? Hopefully someone will share their thoughts and knowledge on this one. (Should I have posted this in the Micro section instead of here? Moderators please help.) Sorry for the poor quality pics but I took them with a "point and shoot" camera, held by hand to the eyepiece of my microscope; and the specimen is also very fragile, so I wanted to minimize handling. The first pic is for scale only -- scale is 1mm. Thanks for looking.

Here's a couple more finds from my Fla "Cookie Cutter" Creek matrix that have me stumped. No idea what they are, but the two look similar enough they may be variations of the same thing; or maybe they're just two similar looking rocks! (1st post has pics of the initial find, 2nd post has the other find plus comparison of the two. Scale is 1mm increments.) Hopefully some of you "CC Creek" or micro experts can point me in the right direction on these. Sorry for the lousy pics but its the best I could do with such small specimens without some better equip -- any suggestions? Thanks for looking.

Need some help with this one. I really don't have any idea what it might be -- other than possibly some skeletal bone or maybe even some kind of periotic ear bone??? The only age and location info I can supply is that I found it in a bag of Fla "cookie cutter creek" matrix that I got from @jcbshark -- maybe he'll chime in with an ID. Hope the pics are adequate; and please note they were taken without regard for the positional indicators on the metric cube. (This is my 1st attempt at resizing and posting pics, so please be gentle.) Thanks for looking...... and helping.

I was lucky enough to get some matrix from the famous cookie cutter creek this weekend from @digit and started searching through it grain by grain tonight. Came across this tooth and can't seem to find it in any of my papers and books. Sure I just overlooked it, but I'm sure someone can help me.