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Ladies and Gentlemen I do believe I have found the most productive fossil site I've ever found to date. We'll call it Hemi Heaven for now. This was an amazing one in a lifetime trip. I'd never been to this area to fossil hunt, and I really had no experience with alligators. I've been told the water level was too high and the area is super picked over. But as a surfer, I suspected the hurricane would open up new options. I packed up my kayak, tools, wetsuits, snorkel & mask, and camping gear. Couldn't convince anyone to go with, so I headed out solo to the Peace River Campground. They had just reopened after the Hurricane recovery and I had primitive camping all to myself. I set up camp next to the owners house at the boat ramp. First stop was Joshua Creek after setting up my tent @ 8am (I was waiting on the office to open). Went to SR 17 bout 10 mins from camp. Found a spot to park at a big paved gravel lot adjacent to the bridge. Think it comes up as Uling Oil on maps. They were letting semi trucks park for 6.00 and had a small food truck until they could rebuild a convienence store. I got some food even though I wasn't hungry, made some new friends, and paid to park and tipped em. I had read on your lovely forum that I could only head upstream to the Nocatee Ramp and off I went. Big gravel bed right away. Sifted here for the afternoon and the whole next day. Finds were decent but mostly worn and not colorful. These finds are not pictured. I tried going to Brownville for a day and attempted to kayak upstream after I saw an older gentlemen canoe that way. Did a complete about face after seeing a few gators, the water level was still rather high a 3.23 feet. Met a very nice German couple, and went back and poked around at the Peace at the campsite finding nothing interesting. Was cool to seethe Tamiami Formation and the Peace River Formation exposed in situ on the banks due to the Hurricane. The next day after hours of searching, and nearing dark I found the Hemi Heaven site. I returned by myself, daily in almost a frenzy for the next week or so, stopping midway through to drive my finds home and drop them off and then drove right back. Despite being exhausted, I actually lost track of time this place is so incredible. I think this might be the virgin Bone Valley Formation material. I have yet to find Clay at this site. Mostly sand with a 1 layer of gravel,mud balls, and clay balls on top. It's not bedded properly. I simply rake it up with my sand flea rake and drop it on the sifter. The next day i return, and more gravel has rinsed out of the sand in the same spot. However further exploration upstream is hindered by a large 8 foot Alligator. He chills on his bank all day about 50 yards away and watches me sift. Pictured on the table is the first half of my finds..more to come soon and also need pointers on how to process the micro material. I will be returning to the area in a few days at least until the 22-23 of Feb. I would love to share this site with others.. Anyone want to join me? NOTE.. Its about a mile walk form where I park. I use waders and yes there are large gators here. I'm in excellent shape and consider myself a woodsy person and this place scares me. Always had a great deal of respect for Shellseeker..wanna go??

Recently I found a really interesting article rom 2021 describing fossilized specimens (in the form of teeth) of the giant shark Carcharocles (Otodus) megalodon from Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Here is the article: De Pasqua, J., Agnolin, F., Rolando, A. M., Bogan, S., & Gambetta, D. (2021). First occurrence of the giant shark Carcharocles Megalodon (Agassiz, 1843) (Lamniformes; Otodontidae) at Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Revista Brasileira De Paleontologia, 24(2), 141–148. https://doi.org/10.4072/rbp.2021.2.05 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354201776_First_occurrence_of_the_giant_shark_Carcharocles_megalodon_Agassiz_1843_Lamniformes_Otodontidae_at_Buenos_Aires_Province_Argentina What really actually baffled me was the age the scientists who authored the paper assigned to the specimens. The specimen MMDA-1 was found close to the Atlantic coast in sedimentary deposits consisting of five depositional sequences (DS) dating between the Miocene and early Pleistocene eras. The authors state its possible the specimen came from DS5 or DS4, which date between the late Pilocene-early Pleistocene eras. If this is correct, this would make this incredible find even more incredible as it would represent the youngest known Carcharocles (Otodus) megaldon fossils (and no, I'm definitely not counting the HMS Challenger specimens as it's pretty much been confirmed those specimens are much much older than several thousand years old). Also, this is not potential proof C. megalodon survived into the Holocene! Though, I'm am a bit skeptical about the age give it was found in a pretty loose sedimentary deposit by the coast! What do you guys think? Do you think specimen MMDA-1 could be from the late Pilocene-early Pleistocene or do you think it could be older?

I recall not too long ago there was a pretty interesting scientific article published in the Journal Science describing how scientists analyzed the amount and diversity of chondrichthyan denticles in ichthyoliths from the North and South Pacific dating from around 20-19 million years ago and discovered a sharp drop in the number and diversity of denticles around 19 million years ago, indicating a massive extinction took place which took sharks 2 to 5 million years to somewhat recover from (it's still unknown if this impacted chondrichthyans worldwide or just in the pacific). Here's the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaz3549 E. C. Sibert, L. D. Rubin, An early Miocene extinction in pelagic sharks. Science 372, 1105–1107 (2021). But after reading it, I remembered how the Mississippian and somewhat Pennsylvanian periods of the Carboniferous era have been called the golden age of sharks due to the sheer diversity of chondrichthyan genera alive at that time. http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/evolution/golden_age.htm What I'm wondering is does this paper, in revealing this early miocene extinction event, inadvertently also reveal that the period immediately prior to the event was a second "golden age" for the chondrichthyans?

Hello, this is my very first find of thresher shark tooth over here in southern Slovakia (Lučenec region). Age: early Miocene/Eggenburgian (Central Paratethys). I have made some pictures from different angles to make the identification easier. It looks like Alopias exigua tooth to me., but since this is my first thresher shark I have some doubts... Have compared it to the extant Alopias superciliosus too (looks very similar), but this species appeared later in Middle Miocene, so I have exluded this option... If it is the Alopias exigua, I can add the first thresher shark species to my collection. Thank you in advance for your help.

A new paper is available online if anyone is interested: Lambert, O., de Muizon, C., Urbina, M., & Bianucci, G., 2020. A new longirostrine sperm whale (Cetacea, Physeteroidea) from the lower Miocene of the Pisco Basin (southern coast of Peru). Journal of Systematic Paleontology 18 (20): 1707-1742. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2020.1805520 Rhaphicetus is quite unusual for its long rostrum, so it provides new insights into how sperm whales began developing a supracranial basin to house the spermaceti, suggesting that early physeteroids were longirostrine like beaked whales.

Found this in some Indonesian amber (Early Miocene age). Not sure if its a bug molt, dead bug before the resin landed on it, or a leaf. Tiny little thing, measuring 3 mm long x 1.5 mm wide. 1 pic at 55 x showing main item & what looks like a leg, 2nd pic at 100 x showing main item itself. I couldn't get better pics unfortunately as I'm working the amber by hand, so the other end is thick. The entire piece is only 4 mm x 5 mm x 5 mm x 5 mm x 12 mm in size (rectangular & kinda hard to hold). Any ideas?

Archaeohippus mannulus, sp. nov. Monroecreekian/Harrisonian terrestrial claystone Arikareean, late Oligocene/early Miocene Pinellas County, Florida On permanent display at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Fl. I discovered this particular specimen back in 95 while collecting fossils in a shallow creek. Initially thought to be a new species of Miohippus, it was sent to the Museum Of Natural History in Gainesville Fl. for further studies. In 2003 it was determined to be a new species of Archaeohippus rather than Miohippus.

My first guess was an ear bone but I cant find anything that looks like it. Then I stubled on this mollusk fossil from England called gisortia coombii. Here's the kicker im in Maryland. Found it in an early miocene area.