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I can not recall seeing this bone previously. It is very light. I am not (yet) after the animal, I need to figure what type of bone is this. The bone is 32 mm in length, 19 mm height. I keep getting the feeling that I should know what this is....

I found this vertebra in Bartow county Florida along with some other mammal Pleistocene fossils. It was found in close proximity to some deer antler pieces and Mastodon incisor pieces. I found an almost identical vertebra online that said that it was a giant ground sloth vertebrae. The piece is heavily mineralized. Any opinions on this vertebra would be greatly appreciated. It has a diameter of 2 1/2 inches and a width of 1 1/2 inches.

Hello I live in Orlando, Florida and have been trying to find good spots for a while. Just a problem is I would prefer a thin creek or river and I haven’t been able to find one yet. Any tips or locations? Sorry if I chose the wrong place to submit this I just recently found this website.

I have been hunting in the Peace River so long that anything I can not identify must be unusual. Small molars are difficult. Maybe @Harry Pristis has seen this before. It is 7 mm long and 5 mm wide. I also said Canine.... a little broken but it has character !!! 2 inches in length All comments, guesses, and identifications appreciated.. Jack

Made a quick trip to the peace river today near Bartow today. Nothing too crazy but did find two things that I need some help on. My best guess on the first one is dolphin / whale tooth, but I haven't found many of them and the crown is kind of weird... maybe broken and then smoothed over by the river? The second is a very small fossil. I have found very similar ones before but never bothered to get them ID'd. My best guess is some kind of small mammal tooth. It is so small that I couldn't get a great picture with my iphone. The ends of the fossil (not pictured) are zig zagged, carrying on the patter from the sides (kind of like horse teeth). Definitely not ray dental plate like I originally thought. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you.

This is a beach find from Ponte Vedra, I’m pretty sure it’s a jawbone but all teeth are missing. Both marine and terrestrial fossils are found here. What kind of animal does it belong to?

Hi all! I am planning on taking my 3rd fossil collecting trip to Florida next week. I had an amazing time in previous trips and am planning one that will be a bit longer! I plan on collecting in Gainesville at Hogtown Creek (my first time) and the Peace River, where I will be kayaking and camping a good stretch of it over the course of 2 or 3 days. I have my own gear and kayak, but will reach out to canoe outpost for their services in the drop off up river. It is 5 degrees in Chicago today and i am excitedly spending my week over-planning the trip. I have a few questions I’d love some feedback on from this who are more familiar with the area. For 2-3 days where would you recommend to launch the kayak at on the Peace River? And are camp spots easy to find along the way? I’ve floated between the Gardner and Brownsville boat ramps before, but looking to extend that type of trip, i really enjoyed it. What other areas should I look to collect around Gainesville? Are there any other rivers I should look into? My timeline is flexible I’ve read a bit into the Suwannee River, is that worth a stop? And any advice on prospecting or collecting there? Also, where is your top-secret spot where I can find the mammoth teeth and 5’’+ megs? (Feel free to pm this info ) If anyone is interested in joining me (tentatively Jan 25-29), I would love to connect and collect together! Below are pics where I camped at a couple years back (Brownsville) and some of my finds in the area.

My wife and I found these yesterday and I need some assistance ID'ing them. These were all found near Zolfo Springs Florida, Peace River, Bone Valley formation. 1) is a tiny vertebra 2) is an oddball that I cannot decide if it is a chunk of tooth enamel/dentin, or a partial claw or tooth of some kind. 3) is a partial jaw with a tooth in it. 4) is an oddball that I cannot decide if it is an antler tine or a tooth of some sort. 5) is a partial vertebra with a pattern on one end than might be diagnostic (or not). First up, the tiny vert :

My wife Tina and I hit the Peace River yesterday for some fossil-hunting. The weather was mild with the temps hanging around the mid-70’s for most of the day. The forecast had called for a partly-cloudy day, but the sun was rarely seen. It was mostly overcast, so the sun wasn’t going to help us much with water visibility. One thing the forecast had mentioned was gusty winds coming out of the north. We both made note of that, but didn’t expect it to be an issue. We were wrong. More on that later. We made good time on the way out. We left the house just prior to 7am, and we managed to beat the majority of the morning rush-hour traffic out of Tampa. If you don’t leave before 7am, you run of the risk of getting caught in the death-grip of Tampa/Brandon traffic. Trust me, stay away from I-275 and I-4 during rush-hour. You can easily lose an extra 45-60 minutes of sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to go the first 20 miles out of the Tampa/Brandon metro area. We arrived at the ramp shortly before 9am and began unloading the tandem kayak and our gear. While we were getting our yak ready, a Canoe Outpost bus pulls up and dumps off it’s load of 8 canoes and a gaggle of surburbanites. They proceeded to monopolize the entire ramp, leaving no room for anyone else to launch. Poor ramp etiquette for sure, but surely it wouldn’t take them long to get out of the way, right? Well, these folks looked like they were packing for a 10-week overseas safari. I had never seen so much junk loaded into canoes for an overnight or weekend camping trip. These folks just kept unloading more and more boxes, containers, coolers, and bags from the bus, that it started becoming comical. Those canoes looked so overloaded that I doubted they would float and they left little room for the paddlers. There was literally almost no room to sit in these canoes. Time ticked away and they made no sign that they were aware that at least two other boats were waiting on them to launch. “We didn’t make good time on the way out here to sit and waste it all at the ramp while clueless people piddle around with their excess of gear.” - is what we thought to ourselves. Finally, we decided to carry the yak across the ramp and down the hill-slope and just launch from the muddy bank. We were already a 1/2 mile down the river before the first of the canoes started to launch. So, after putting the crowd of rookie canoeists in our rearview mirror, we started the paddle to the search area. The wind was at our backs and the river was running harder than we had anticipated. I had hunch our work would be cut out for us on the paddle back upstream. The paddle downstream was nice. We saw a lot of birds of every possible type, but only a single small gator and no turtles. I guess the cool overcast day was not good for reptiles looking to soak up the sun. We made it to the search spot about 45 minutes later and unloaded our gear. This particular spot has been good to us in the past, but the last couple of trips made it apparent that this spot is hunted out and cleaned out. The haul from each trip was becoming a game of diminishing returns. On this trip, we decided to hunt the snarge out of this site one more time before crossing it off the list for the remainder of the season. My hunch was right. We didn’t make any major finds on this trip, but we did find a lot of interesting small stuff – some of which I will need help identifying. The spot is still productive, but it’s 90% tiny teeth, turtle scutes, and other very common pieces. The amount of highlight specimens coming out of this spot has definitely decreased and I think it’s time for this spot to “recharge” until next season. The highlights from the sifter this time included : a small but very complete fossil vert, a piece of tiny fossil jaw with a tooth in it, another vert, an unknown odd tooth, and some geological oddities including a nice piece of botryoidal chalcedony. Tina found a turtle leg bone, some nice (but small) teeth, and some oddballs that will need a closer look. The pieces are drying now and I will post some better photos later after they dry. All in all, we spent about 4 hours searching at the site. This includes a thorough walk-around to look for low-hanging fruit and obvious surface finds. Then the digging began. The last flood season had exposed a gravel bar in a new place that wasn’t there in previous years. In this season alone, we have spent a combined 30-ish hours searching this one spot. This represents hundreds of full sifters worth of gravel that has been searched. I sampled the entire length of the deposit working from one end to the other. The gravel layer is relatively thin – less than 12 inches in most places. Digging much deeper rarely yields anything other than fine sand, organic muck, and clay that is not very fossiliferous. So, we mostly worked the exposed surface layer, although I did dig numerous sample pits that were substantially deeper – all of those yielded nothing of note. We always fill our holes and re-distribute spoil gravel in a natural pattern. If you come across one of our search sites, you will never know anyone was there, except perhaps for the total lack of trash in comparison to the rest of the river. Well, this time around, one of the first things I noticed was fresh shovel marks in the bank near the gravel bar. There were no obvious spoil piles, but there were definite signs of someone digging the banks well above the water line. This tells me that “my spot” is no longer off the beaten path. Other hunters have also noticed the new gravel bar – and some of these hunters are illegally digging the banks and being obvious about it. Having said all of this, I now feel comfortable giving a bone to the reader – this spot is just downstream from the town of Zolfo Springs. Feel free to go look for it. It’s a healthy paddle downstream and you’ll have your work cut out for you on the paddle back upstream against the current. But feel free to go look. You might get lucky and find something I missed. I likely won’t be returning to this particular spot this season unless it’s for a group hunt. This is probably still a good spot for a beginner hunt, but I personally feel like I have tapped out this spot for the year. Plus, this specific spot has never been a good source of megalodons, so I don’t feel too bad about leaving a few hints about the location. While I am not just interested in megs, I’ve always been disappointed with the lack of them in this general vicinity. You will find everything except megalodons around there. And it’s not just me, the handful of other people I have brought to this specific area have never found any megs either. Weirdly, there are lots of small teeth from other shark species, but no megalodons – not even fragments. About mid-afternoon we decided to head back to the ramp. The wind was really whipping up and gusting strongly. When the wind picked up the water would get choppy and really start to run hard. The wind was coming out of the north and blowing directly in our faces while going back upstream against the current. The USGS Zolfo gauge said the discharge flow rate was approx. 321 cfs. Usually, that is not a difficult paddle for your average able-bodied or slightly-aged-bodied (like myself) person. But, trying to paddle it with a 16-20mph gusting headwind in your face is a different matter entirely. We had to take several extra breaks on the side of the river to catch our breath and wait for lulls in the wind. When the wind would calm down, we would set out again and paddle a couple hundred yards before pulling over and waiting again. We finally made it back to the ramp a little later than usual and we were both tired as heck – I’d use a more choice word to describe it, but I want to keep this family friendly. My arms, shoulders, and back were shot. My neck and shoulders are still sore as I type this – the old grey mare, she aint what she used to be. LOL. My next trip out will be to revisit some old honey holes that are in remote areas that are difficult to reach and will require an overnight trip. These spots near public ramps are just too hunted out and I am curious about what some of my old spots look like now. Some of my favorite honey holes have not been visited since about 2017. I am confident that few (if any) other people hunt those same stretches, so I am keen to see what Mother Nature has “recharged” for me at those spots. Those spots are next on this list for this season.

Hi all! I'm making a sudden and quick trip to Gainesville FL and will have about a day to do some fossil hunting. I have heard about the hogtown and possum creeks and will likely visit those no matter what. But I was wondering if anyone had any advice for other places to check out. I can travel a little bit out of town but won't have access to a kayak so would need to get somewhere on foot. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks and I'll post my finds after the trip!

Several years ago I found this item on beach in the Fort Myers, FL area. I don't remember what beach if that matters, possibly Lover's Key. I thought it was just an oyster shell but kept it because it looked like an ear. That was before I started collecting fossils. Now I see fossils everywhere!! Do you think this might be part of a tympanic bone from a small cetacean? Or just a weird shell? I've never examined a tympanic bone in person, just seen pics. Thoughts?

Found this specimen at the edge of the water while shelling this past Sunday, January 12, 2020, at Navarre Beach in Santa Rosa County, Florida. My first guess is that it is the top portion of the beak of a species of bird, but found nothing when I Goggled it. It measures 35 mm in length and 22 mm at it’s widest point. I really appreciate your help and apologize in advance for my “beginner” status and lack of knowledge in the field. Sincerely, DB

Last Friday, January 10th, is a day I'll remember because of this tooth. It is always a thrill to find one of my favorite fossils, and this one, by size alone, makes it a tooth from a small horse that predates Equus sp. I find enough of these teeth to consider my self above average knowledge on these late Miocene horses. An early Miocene horse: Parahippus is a horse that evolved in North America about 18 million years ago and one of the best examples of Parahippus in all the United States comes from Thomas Farm, a fossil site that’s about an hour northwest of Gainesville. Unfortunately, I do not find Parahippus teeth. I do find Calippus, Nannippus, Cormohipparion, Hippohiparrion, neohipparion, many of which filled the gap between 13 mya to 3 mya. Look at this Cormohipparion from FLMNH and compare to my newest find above. Having seen 100s of these small teeth, the new find is very different, even though the size (17 by 15 mm is exactly the same as Cormohippaion that I have in my collection.) My new tooth has to be pathological or extremely rare. Here is the new addition after it is completely dry: So what did I do. Sent an email to Dr Richard Hulbert, Director of the Vertebrate Paleontology Research Lab at the University of Florida. What does he think? Not many choices here. This afternoon, I sent this tooth (after taking photos) to UF Vertebrate Paleontology Research Lab so Richard and his team can perform that "detailed analysis" he indicated at the start of his email. @Harry Pristis @fossillarry@PrehistoricFlorida Maybe the tooth will become famous, mentioned in many research papers. Maybe not, either way I love this hobby..... Jack

These pictures are one a fossil a work friend gave to me. He said he dug this up, on the opposite side of where I dig, twenty years ago when the plant first opened (I was 2 to 3). I'm thinking medium sized mammal, somewhere in the cloven hoof family. any ideas?

Here are some of the fish fossils I have found, the first picture are some bones that I was hesitant to call fossils at first because they where scattered on top of a pile, but after find several other clay pockets ful of these I feel pretty good about them being gar fossils. Can anyone confirm, the internet is not being super helpful on this one? The next two are encased in a calcite geode i picked up while picking through the overburden, I didn't even see the imprints until i had washed it at home. Any ideas of what they are? From what i can barely tell, there are more in the geode, just not in convenient positions, and i don't want to break it to find them, a bird in the hand kinda deal.

More overburden mammal fossils, these two are some of the better mammal vertebrae I've found. Any guesses? I've had a hard time trying to pin point it based solely on their shape. Ill post the fish vertebrae next. s, these two are some of the better mammal vertebrae I've found. Ill post the fish vertebrae next.

No time, Out today with TFF friends. Found this oddity. Up at 5am to go out again. So, Is this a mammal tooth? What are the options? Tapir ?, Mammoth? ... ? I will not be able to check this thread until 6pm Eastern Sunday..

Hey guys, I live in south Florida and I have been trying to find good locations to hunt for fossilized sharks teeth. I have gone to peace river with my boyfriend before, but we want to try and look for locations that would be closer to us . Please please please help!

My son invited me down to visit him in Bradenton, Florida and to take in the Minnesota Auburn football game at the Outback Bowl in Tampa. Of course, I couldn't visit Florida without taking a few fossils home with me. Normally I search the countyside with forum members @jcbshark, @Sacha, and @Shellseeker. But I thought this time I am going out on my own. One afternoon was spent looking at unfinished housing developments around Sarasota. Another afternoon took me to Polk County phosphate mine areas where I scoured any exposed material along backroads. I think I did alright!!! First, Polk County: Now, Sarasota County:

Found by a friend in Northern Florida. I thought it was a tooth to maybe Gavialosuchus? What are your thoughts?? Thank You.

Hello everyone, I was looking through a small bag of finds from a year ago from the little digging area outside when I visited the museam in Polk county Florida, and came across this tiny mammal toe that I don't really know what animal it came from, any and all help is appreciated

I am a new member from Montana. I collect petrified deer antler pieces. I live too far from Florida and at 75 years old, can't get around easily. Thank you.

I had the opportunity to visit my son last week. I did poke my head into a few spoil piles and exposed "dirt" and found some nice things that I could ID. Will hopefully provide a post on everything good later! But I also found the following specimens that I am unsure of. They are not impressive but could use identification. Thanks!! 1. Possibly Tagelus divisus? 2. Possibly fish vertebra? 3. Now IDed as Turbo castanea. 4.

Hello Fossil Forum, it has been a long time since I've been on here, but I managed to get back down to Florida for a couple weeks and went out to the Peace River twice. It's been almost 10 years since I dug the gravels and I had a blast. I have all sorts of fun stuff to look through, identify, and label. This bone is particularly puzzling to me. It seems pretty distinctive with the large elliptical/rounded articular facet and the planar facet on the opposite side. Without a comparative collection to look through, I haven't been able to pin it to anything. (I have a couple leads, but nothing convincing) Relevant Information: Peace River gravel beds, Florida Miocene-Pleistocene Possible Dimensions in photo. I wanted to make the photos more clear, so I sketched a rough version of each and color coded corresponding parts. I didn't place a key, because I don't have names for the corresponding parts. Thanks for taking a look Roddy