Search the Community

My mom is in town escaping the colder weather in Chicago and visiting the Boca house probably for the last time (we're moving to Gainesville, FL in a few months). We'd been talking about taking her out fossil hunting on the Peace River for some time but the last couple of years have been relatively short fossil hunting seasons with the water level on the Peace remaining too high for most of the normal "dry season". This year her visit corresponded well with perfect conditions for an outing on the Peace. The last time we were out was during the week between Christmas and New Year when our friends had their daughter in town. The river was about 2.5 feet higher then and we couldn't get to the deeper site that I wanted to visit which has chunkier gravel with lots of dugong rib bones and a chance of finding some larger fossils. I went walked into that site up to my shoulders and decided that spot was a no-go for that trip. Conditions this visit were much more conducive for hunting in the chunky gravel. Here's the trip report from our last visit: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/101024-peace-river-trip-before-the-new-year-decade/ We rented our canoes from Canoe Outpost as usual and put in at Brownville Park for our normal 8.5 mile run back down to Arcadia. We hoped to meet up with new forum member @Jen Morris but the timing didn't work out. We had a schedule to keep and had to move down from the big well-known gravel bed just downstream from Brownville to hit some other spots and still be able to get the canoes back before 5:00 p.m. (we were in with 5 minutes to spare). This trip we took our friend's granddaughter, Destiny, with us to fill out a small flotilla of two canoes. Destiny had been wanting to fossil hunt the Peace since moving back to Florida from the Pacific Northwest. After to abbreviated fossil hunting seasons in South Florida this season all the planets aligned and she was able to make the trip with us on her quest to find a meg tooth (a common goal for first time fossil hunters in Florida). We spent nearly 4 hours at the well-known and well-hunted gravel bed just down from the boat ramp at Brownville Park and it took us some time to prospect around and find some productive gravel. A couple months back on our previous visit we did pretty good here with a horse tooth and camelid tooth (but only tiny meg fragments). Though there were not the usual "bomb craters" and huge discard piles that we usually see at this site in the river indicating lots of recent hunting pressure, we had to prospect around quite a bit before we started finding more than just the common tiny shark teeth--even turtle shell and dugong bones were being elusive. Just before our planned lunch break around noon (cold leftover homemade pizza from the night before ) we hit paydirt with Destiny shouting out when a nearly complete meg showed up in her sifting screen. That was matched in kind pretty quickly when my mom joined the Meg Club a few minutes later. We decided that we had worked this site well enough for the day and decided to put a little more distance behind us and paddle for a while to get a bit closer to our destination in Arcadia. We made it down to the spot with the chunky gravel. This is a spot on a large sandbar. Previous to Hurricane Irma the top of this sandbar was just that--sand! The gravel area was limited to a small strip on the leading edge of this sandbar where the bottom rose up from much deeper water. It was a limited area but has delivered interesting fossils from time to time (like over 2 dozen cetacean tympanic bullae in a few hours). Post Irma we found the site deeper with the top couple of feet of sand peeled off and transported further downstream. While this makes the site more difficult to access during deeper water, it revealed that the gravel seam along the leading edge was just the margin of a much more extensive gravel bed that covers much of the top of this presently lowered sandbar. It is deeper on the upstream side and shallows as you walk downstream on it. Though the temps were very warm--near if not reaching 90F (32C)--the rest of our group didn't feel like venturing into water over waist deep and so I used my fiberglass probe to hunt around for some gravel in the shallower depths. It took me a bit of prospecting till I found the sort of very chunky gravel that this site is famous (to me) for. At this site it is not uncommon to dig up a chunk of matrix rock filling the entire shovel. These bowling ball boulders are shot-putted away from where we are digging a far enough distance that we are not soaked with the ensuing kerplunk of a splash. We turned up some additional nearly complete meg teeth and enough dugong rib bone pieces to pave a driveway. The finds here are less frequent with the smaller shark teeth being almost absent. The gravel is generally much larger here golf ball to softball size and so there are fewer but larger finds to be had. We scored a nice glyptodont osteoderm to go with the partial Holmesina osteoderm we found at the first stop. Destiny scored a really nice bison tooth and a very cool pharyngeal crushing plate covered with phyllodont enamel teeth from a wrasse or bonefish. It was getting toward the end of the day and the Earth's gravity had quite obviously undergone a recent local surge as the shovels of gravel and sand were getting noticeably heavier than they'd been at the start of the day. We had just about run out of time to be able to paddle our way down the last stretch back to Arcadia and our cars which awaited us with towels and a dry change of clothing. We were finishing up our last few screens and where I was digging the gravel was tapping out to just sand and the annoying sticky gray clay that makes digging and sifting a pain. I looked upstream and noticed that I had without realizing it worked my way about 20 feet from where I had left my probe to mark where I had first found this nice chunky gravel. I decided to return to where I had first found this nice chunky stuff and finish my last couple of screens there. While digging in this larger material you have to get the tip of your shovel down between the larger pieces of rock. This usually requires putting one foot on the edge of the shovel and leaning in some body weight while wiggling the top of the shovel around as the tip navigates down between the rocks so that you can scoop up a full load into the sifting screen. Quite often the bowling ball size chunks that pave the bottom here will fall off the shovel or become uncovered by digging around them and they will need to be pulled up and tossed away so digging can proceed. I could feel one loose piece that was located directly between my feet. I could detect a bit of the shape with one foot on either side and it seemed familiar (yes, I have feet that are trained to detect fossils ). The water was just shallow enough that I could bend down and grab hold of it with one hand. I told Tammy to pull out the camera. She gave me that look like "Really?" and I nodded my head. In hindsight, it would have been more funny as a video clip but we ended the day with a special find so my mom would remember this Pie Day (3/14) on the Peace River--a nearly 7 pound (3 kg) Colombian Mammoth tooth! Here are a couple of post-trip photos of some of the other interesting finds. A really sweet Glyptotherium and partial Holmesina osteoderm, a nice piece of softshell turtle carapace, and what appears to be part of the jaw of the Long-beaked Dolphin. Cheers. -Ken

In the course of my unprofessional research (mostly online, museums, personal finds, friends, etc..) I have only seen one mammoth tooth still "fully" incased in the jawbone. I'm sure that hundreds if not thousands must exist, but would like to know how rare or common it is to find a Mammoth tooth encased in the jawbone. Thanks for any feedback. Mike

Hey everybody, I’m new to the forum and was hoping some of you have some thoughts on a few rock/fossils I have. I found all three of them on a gravel bar on a river in Interior Alaska. I believe the geology of the area is mostly quaternary. I believe the first specimen is part of a mammoth tooth. (A friend of mine found a mammoth scapula on the same stretch of the river.) A sedimentologist at the university in town is also leaning towards the opinion that it’s part of a mammoth tooth. I’ve never seen mammoth teeth have that type of coloration before though. The second sample looks to me like it could be a very weathered and replaced bone? The third specimen I’m really not sure about. It just looks very suspicious to me. I know it’s not one but It almost looks like a belemnite and is oddly polished and shiny for a rock in that area. Any thoughts and ideas would be great.

So Monday my wife told me to go on a fossil trip. Actually she just wanted me out of the house so that she could have some friends over. I ended up picking a river stretch that I had covered twice over the last few months even though I figured it would be thoughly picked over. But it was sunny and 75F which is good even for Texas in January. It started out slow. An armadillo scute. A horse astragalus. And then I found this. I've only found a single camelops upper molar. This is a pair and partial palate.

Went out to the Peace River yesterday. The water flow and depth were down to very workable levels. Weather was very nice after several days of below normal temps. I still needed the wetsuit due to the water temp, but it was a really great day to be on the river. After an easy paddle up river I found my targeted spot was at a level similar to where it was in October. I was able to easily pull the kayak up onto a sandy bank and step out with no effort. A check of the bank for about 25 yards in either direction failed to yield up any finds. With that I began working my way along the river to the spot I had in mind for the day. Things started off slow with only various small shark teeth and chips of mammoth found through the morning. Feeling a bit disappointed I headed out more into the middle of the river, luckily easy to get to with the river level down. I was back at a spot where I found a Gomphotherium partial tooth in early October. Within only a few minutes and a couple of shovels full of gravel I was rewarded with another partial Gomp tooth! As I worked the area for the rest of the afternoon I came up with a horse molar, a partial vert, turtle scutes, a nice tiger shark tooth and many more small shark teeth. It turned out to be a great day. Photos below: Best of the day: New Gomph tooth: Gomp tooth from October alongside the new one (first find on top):

No more info sorry

Hello everyone! I recently dug up this juvinille mammoth tooth and wanted to know if anyone can tell me how complete it is? I know it's missing the roots but I wanted to know how many plates they usually have? Also- is there a way to tell if it was from a Colombian? Thanks in advance for any insights! Ill do a full trip report soon

Hi! I visited the museum today (Kyiv Archeological Museum). And noticed the thing I had seen before (in 2017, in Vienna Natural History Museum). It's the mammoth shoulder in which zigzag ornament inflicted red ochre. This thing occurs in Mezin. The site is one of the better-known examples of Magdalenian culture in Ukraine. (sorry for the low-quality photos)

All offers are welcome. I'm not looking to trade everything together, just willing to trade some of it. The black mammoth partial was collected in the US. The complete mammoth tooth is from the north sea I believe, and measures over 9" long. I am not sure where the mastodon teeth are from, but I got them from a very reputable member of this forum. Some of my favorite fossils are shark teeth, trilobites, ammonites, and stuff I can prep myself with electric engravers. Again, All offers are welcome!

Finished the last dive of the year off Venice with my first complete mammoth tooth and a few small megs to top it off.

Hi my name is Elias and I am new to the Forum! About a week ago I found a large piece of what looked to be fossilized bone, on Folly Beach SC. Upon further examination I noticed that it seemed to have a solid light gray center surrounded by a ring of bone. Further research has led me to believe this may be a chunk of Mastadon tusk, however the specimen is so beaten up it is hard to identify any Schreger lines. I am much more experienced in Cambrian and Ordovician fossils, and have just recently begun exploring fossils of the Pleistocene Epoch. I would appreciate any help on identifying what this is, and can send more or clearer photos if necessary! Thank you so much for your help! Elias

Hi all, I was given this piece of bone as a Christmas gift. From what I was told it is from the North Sea and is an Ice Age bone. It was suggested by the seller that it could be mammoth. Is it possible to confirm this and if so, what bone could it be part of? It has a hole that goes all the way through if that helps. Thanks in advance

Recently found on the beach, upper Texas coast.

Took a little overnight trip to hit up a few fossil sites. It was a lovely balmy 80 degrees the day before, but a cold front blew through that night and dropped the temp to the upper 30s with drizzle! But my husband and I had already commited to a dinner with cousins and a B&B stay in Waco and a "guided" tour to the Waco Research PIt the next day, so snarge the weather, off we went. First site was to Brownwood in an attempt to find a supposed Pennsylvanian roadcut to look for crinoids and such. The drizzle finally stopped when I found what I thought "might" be the site, but it certainly was not what I was expecting....I knew it was supposed to be a large roadcut....and this one was not. So I poked around, found a few crinoids and some branching bryzoans and one nice big hashplate, but that was IT. Not at all what I was hoping for. So, dissapointed, we headed down the road since we had dinner plans and needed to get to Waco. I figured I had time to stop at one more stop if I saw a worthwile looking roadcut. So over the river and through the woods (okay, scrub oaks) we headed down the road and over top of a hill, the sun broke through the clouds and WAS ACTUALLY SHINING ON A LARGE ROAD CUT on the next hill. I told my husband, "I guess I should stop at THAT one." hahhaha!! And I am glad we did. It was getting colder but I decided i could tough it our for 20 minutes or so and I filled my bag easily in that 20 minute. I think I was in the Walnut Formation due to what I was finding.....heart urchins, tylostoma gastropods, a nice sized Pinna comancheana bivalve, some turritellas and what always makes it a good day for fossil hunting ; two medium size Phymosoma urchins and a small Coenholectypus. Not well preserved, but I was happy with them nonetheless. Turned a dissapointing day around, for sure. Had a nice dinner at George's in Waco and a lovely stay at the White Rock Creek Bed and Breakfast (AMAZING breakfast....stuffed french toast, eggs, bacon, yogurt and fruit...yum) and then off to the Lake Waco Research Pit! Got our permits and met my new friend Matthew who was kind enough to give us a guided tour of the stie and helped me identify my finds (even though i did not find what I was REALLY after...crabs and starfish)! Ah well. Next time. Found a lovely hetermorph Mariella (which was one of the things I really wanted to find) , a pycnodont tooth plate (another thing I have been hoping to find for a while),a nice ammonite (not sure the species, Matthew told me but I don't remember...will have to look it up), and a Cidarid plate (would have LOVED to have found a whole one...still on my bucket list). Now I know that is four fossils... I took my husbands two. He was happy to give them to me. (You are only allowed 2 fossils from the site which is absurd because there are SO MANY FOSSILS THERE). Anyways, it was a fun gloppy messy muddy morning of fossil hunting with Matthew and his two galumphing doggos - Bella and Poppy. I did not envy him the clean up he was going to have to do on those dogs. Lastly, on our way out of town, we stopped by the Mammoth Site which is really astounding. I got to see it about 25 years ago, before it had really even been turned into a park it was just a dig site. My step-grandfather knew the land owner so we got to see it...hopped a fence to see the site even! So it was great to see it so many years later as a National Monument. Good interpretive tour by the guides, a good view of the mammoths and the potential for more in the future (they are in phase one of three parts to bring the original excavated mammoths back to the site from their storage, so the future site will be even better!). So that concludes a little two day tour around Texas. Next time I'll find that roadcut. It's there somewhere. I just know it. Pennsylvanian stuff: Cretaceous Stuff: Aside from the urchins, which are always a favorite find, this one was my "best finds" of the day. I have not found one so well preserved with the detail of the shell striations. I think its a Homomya bivalve, but I am not one hundred percent on ID. Greyson / Del Rio finds at Lake Waco Research Site: Galumphing Dog: Mammoth Site:

Hello everybody, So, a friend of mine gifted me a mammoth molar he's had for sometime now (he's not into fossils, got it himself from somebody else). The molar was found a long time ago, is as it was found (not stabilized), and in 3 pieces. 2 of them fit nicely together, one seems to be missing some smaller bits but could still go glued together. The molar itself is pretty stable, while there are occasional exterior pieces falling it is not a very fast degradation, but still, i would like to stabilize it. Somebody gave me a quick hint that i could use epoxy to glue the pieces together and then soak the mammoth molar into a solution of watered PVA glue, so that i can get into every hole and stop the degradation process. I was hoping some of you guys might give me a bit of a more detailed approach to this. Mostly, i am interested what is the ratio between the PVA glue and the water in the watered PVA glue solution and how much should i leave it soaked in it. Also, in case you guys know of an alternative stabilization method i am open to suggestions. I also attached some pictures of the tooth in question. Thank you very much!

How common is Wolly Mammoth hair? I don't have a specific auction to point out but I commonly see Mammoth hair listed on auction sites. Most of them from sellers with really good feedback. Is this stuff common enough that most of these auctions are legit or are the majority of the auctions available fakes?

My wife annoyed me by finding this at Myrtle Beach today. Can folks confirm this is a mammoth tooth fragment. She gets to spend a lot of time at the beach. She finds stuff on my bucket list and doesnt even know what's she's finding. Grrrr

Hey everyone! On Wednesday, as I finally had some time, I decided to take Sara out to my favorite hunting spot: the Zandmotor (Netherlands). I definitely did not regret that decision! If you've never heard of the Zandmotor before, it's an artificial beach extension just south of The Hague, and the sand that was used was dredged from the North Sea and is full of Ice Age megafaunal mammal bones and tons of Eemian shells. If you want to see some more of my finds and hunts there, just look up "Zandmotor" in the TFF search bar and you should find a bunch of stuff When we got there it was raining, which annoyed me a little bit because the forecast said it wouldn't... The rain also makes the sand stick to the fossils which can become annoying when looking for small fossils or trying to recognize the thing you just picked up. But, having just spent an hour in the bus to get here, I didn't want to turn back immediately. Luckily the rain stopped within half an hour, and I wasn't even on the Zandmotor yet (I have to walk about an hour from the bus stop to the Zandmotor itself) and after that the weather alternated between cloudy and sunny which was nice. While I usually always take a pass by the shell banks, today I decided to only walk along the shoreline to increase the chances of finding good mammal stuff. In fact, there had been a strong eastern wind on Tuesday which helped uncover a lot of the bones and make them wash ashore. This did not go unnoticed, there were a lot indeed! Here is my first big find of the day, a great complete horse astralagus!

These are some of the fossils I have acquired. Have some others I still need to photo and maybe a big one on the way soon. I have one other ammonite I have found. All 3 are from duck creek. The 2 mossasaur teeth and the mammoth tooth were purchased. The mammoth is coated in something to protect it. There is also a tooth fragment.

Woolly Mammoth Fossils Uncovered on North Carolina Beach By WWAY News - October 30, 2019 https://www.wwaytv3.com/2019/10/30/woolly-mammoth-washes-up-on-nc-beach/ Yours, Paul H.

cześć To jest kawałek mamuta? Lokalizacja: okolice Wisły, Kraków, Polska Południowa Wiek: plejstocen?

HELP! small central Texas museum broke mammoth leg bone. how do we fix it?

I had a pretty decent hunt recently. The highlight was bending over to pick up a section of mammoth tooth and as I was spotting the arrowhead less than 12" away.

My diving day was filled with technical difficulties. But after a frustrating morning I dove down to a fossil rich spot. I had to wait a bit to get back in due to tide changes, but this mammoth tooth was sitting right there for the taking!

To me this seems to be a toe or foot bone of some sort but from what? Found in an area where bison, mammoth have been found. thanks for looking and any educated guesses!