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Hi Folks, Lately I have been finding a lot of small teeth in my sifter. Most are damaged and that doesn't help trying to ID them. I lack a reference collection and the necessary books to compare these to, so I am asking for some help from our resident Peace River and vertebrate experts. My photos aren't the best and I know that doesn't help, but I did my best with my dated camera and hand tremors. I have numbered the teeth in the photos and will provide notes for them below : 1) This is a complete tooth and a very attractive little guy. 2) This is a tiny complete tooth and I do not think it is a fossil. 3) This is a crown only. The roots are missing. 4) The crown is missing on this one. It's roots only and probably cannot be identified. 5) Broken tooth. 6) Broken tooth. 7) Crown only, no root. 8) Crown only, no root. 9) Broken small horse tooth or something along those lines. 10) Broken small horse tooth or something similar.

Here's one of those oddballs that shows up in your sifter and seems to defy easy ID. Does anyone know what critter this comes from? Found in the Peace River, Bone Valley, Florida. Thanks!

Here is a partial tooth I found in the Peace River (Bone Valley, FL) on a recent trip. It's broken, but the crown remains. I think it's horse, but does anyone have any idea what horse species this is, or if it's not horse, then what could it be? Thanks!

Found in the Peace River today... very rare as an m3. I think I know what it is... just need confirmation

Possible ear bone maybe ? Very light weight

Wanted to share a fossil hunting trip at peace river. Found some shark teeth, mastodon and mammoth enamel, a porpoise tooth, and some sort of mammal carnivore tooth. Can anyone identify it?

Hi Folks, Let me say up front, there won't be any photos in this report, unfortunately. To make a long story short, I am having camera and PC issues. Next trip out, I will have this fixed. I was reluctant to write a report without photos, but I wanted to share a couple of weird finds and events that happened out on the river. We went out twice last week. The first trip was to Gardner - one of my recent favorite spots to hunt. This trip out, I grabbed a bunch of that micro-matrix material, which was my main focus for going to Gardner. We had a nice paddle and spent an entire day on the river - we put in at the ramp at about 9am and stayed until 5:30pm. We paddled a couple miles from the ramp to one of our usual spots and found a decent amount of common fossils - small shark teeth, turtle, deer, mammoth tooth/ivory fragments, dugong ribs, and the usual suspects. Nothing to write home about, but good stuff for trades and give-aways. On this day, it was pretty outside - mild temps, cool breezes, and sunny. While taking a break and having lunch on the side of the river, my wife spotted a large softshell turtle that was stuck (wedged) into some dead tree branches on the bank. He was stuck pretty good, and looked like he was drying out. How he got there and how long he had been there was not known, but when we released him, he bolted to the water without so much as a thank you. LOL. So, I guess we did a good deed that day. A few days later, we decided to hit a new stretch of river. I will call it "Location A" because we did pretty good and I may have found myself a new honey hole. So, I am keeping this location to myself for now. I will say it is on the middle Peace and near an overpass. We had a nice paddle and found a remote spot with a lot of small teeth and other fossils. I found a nice tapir cheek tooth and more small to medium teeth than I usually find at Gardner. We spent the whole day on the river again, and on the way back, we decided to stop at the overpass and do some magnet fishing. My grandson just recently got interested in magnet fishing thanks to YouTube. He had just received is magnet fishing kit in the mail the day before, so we brought it with us. The overpass looked promising. The water was shallow and the sun was overhead, so the water was well illuminated. We could see a lot of rocks and debris in the water. We beached the kayaks got out. The water was about knee deep on me and waist deep on my grandson. Right away we found some odd stuff. Beside the usual steel bolts and rusty iron chunks, we found a Toshiba laptop. It was smashed and in two pieces. I wondered why it ended up in the river. I was suspicious. It looked like it was a nice laptop. Did it have some evidence of a crime on it? Well, it was in bad shape, so we put it in our garbage bag and kept searching. We found a lot of trash. Lots of bottles, cans, and just junk. We removed most of it (the stuff that wasn't too heavy) and paddled it out to dispose of properly later. Right as we were getting ready to leave, I saw a rectangular "rock" that was covered in algae and just didn't look right. I called my grandson over and had him throw the magnet on it. It stuck strongly and we hauled the object out of the deeper water and into the shallows by the bank. It was a safe. A small, personal-sized safe. The type that was about 12x12x12-ish (inches). It had one of those digital keypad mechanisms, which was missing from the front - obviously removed by a thief. The door to the safe was stuck in a slightly-ajar manner. Water and sand drained from the opening as we pulled it from the water. It was very heavy and we couldn't get the door open. So, we put it in the kayak to bring home. At this point, it was getting late, so we called it a day and headed back. The next day, after a good night's rest, I worked on the safe. I didn't have high hopes. The locking mechanism was missing and the door was ajar. I guessed that some thief stole it, broke it open, removed the contents, and tossed the empty safe off the bridge into the river. Well, my guess was pretty close, but the safe was not entirely empty. What we had apparently found was some drug dealer's safe. The inside of the door had a pot leaf sticker on it (still intact). There was a terry-cloth hand towel, a broken glass pipe, and some little plastic baggies that appeared to be empty save for some river sand. It was quite a disappointment and not the stash of gold coins we were hoping for. LOL. But, it was an interesting find for a first-timer and my grandson was pretty excited about it. He got to go to bed that night dreaming of gold coins and diamond jewelry inside the mystery river safe. He's definitely fired up to do some more magnet fishing. I still have a few oddball fossils that I found that need ID'ing and will try to get those photo'ed soon. Weather permitting, we might go again this coming week or the next.

A couple of curious finds from yesterday: First: A small osteoderm (33 x 25 mm) from a Glyptodon. The edges look like they have JUST been broken but looks are deceiving. The bottom edge is almost like a knife blade. I am curious on whether others have found/seem similar shape/size/edge and determined the placement of the osterderm on the edge of the shell. Second: What appears to be an Ungual, or toebone. There seems to be muscle/pressure marks similar to other unguals in the the 1st two photos and curious indentations (red lines) on the 3rd photo. All suggestions appreciated. Jack

I was out twice this week to an area of the Peace River that I had previously hunted extensively. I did far better than I anticipated. One of my finds from yesterday is a sirenia skullcap. Impressive. Whenever I get an interesting fossil, I ask questions of myself, friends, TFF members...This fossil is interesting because it is rare in my hunting area, this one is the highest quality one I have found, looking at those fine lines and lack of water erosion. It measures 100 x 85 x 35 mm Question #1. Does this skullcap come from Metaxytherium floridanum (14 to 7 mya) or Trichechus manatus (last 3 mya) ? Can I differentiate by bones? Similar question on teeth... Are these dugong or manatee teeth? What follows is to photos of same tooth There were lots of dugong or manatee ribs, many in excellent shape, pieces of dugong or manatee verts. In anticipation of future finds , I am trying to collect differentiators. Thanks for the help... Jack

Found yesterday in the Peace River. Need help identifying please. Thank you!

Life is good. I go out tomorrow to the Peace River. I was also there Monday.. There were a few nice finds. I found 1/2 of a carnassial, maybe dire wolf. Seems like I found a mostly whole one in early February. Here is an interesting toe bone. Back 10 years ago , I found a Toe bone, identified as Jaguar 39 mm Medial phalanx by TFF experts. Note the recess to accomodate a retractable claw in the left of the 1st photo.. Then Monday, another toe bone, only 25.5 mm in the sieve. BIG smile. I think once again it is a Medial phalanx. So, is it a Feline Medial Plhalanx (from a smaller cat than Jaguar) OR Maybe a Medial Phalanx from Holmesina floridanus, another candidate from the Florida Pleistocene. Photos below from online. and most of all, what do you see in the photos to choose one over the other... Thanks for all comments and suggestions. Jack

I went out hunting the Peace River yesterday. Spent a couple of hours with so-so results and because I was close to a favored location that has always been more Pliocene (lots of marine), than Pleistocene (few/no mammal fossils), I decided to spend 3 hours there. It's primary attraction are small pretty shark teeth. On the right are morning finds and on the left, one of my favorite hunting locations. On the left are dugong rib fossils, very dense, and not the typical Peace River black color. So , Let walk thru some of the many finds. I love the tiny upper Hemi teeth.. and especially when they are yellow !!!.. a relatively rare color, especially in the river. Next up are a Crocodile tooth (?) and something that looks like a claw, but is more likely a broken lower hemi. Here is a better photo of the croc tooth sitting on a piece of dugong rib. . and a better photo of the broken lower Hemi.... I have found fragments of megs here and one whole Meg, ray teeth, pufferfish mouthplate, sea urchin spines, Hemis, a few Makos, Galeocerdo cuvier tigers, but not aduncus or contortus. This spot has a very narrow range of fauna fossils. Always interesting , always relaxing.

My dad sent me some pictures of Peace River fossils that he would like to have identified. I am unsure about either - the mammal tooth might be partial camel, but that's just a guess. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I know it's a long shot but I'm sure they are probably rib bones but doesn't hurt to get a 2nd opinion!

Found In peace river near Arcadia camp ground 2018 . Any ID help will be greatly appreciated!

We found this on our first trip to the Peace River a week ago. What do you guys think? Camel? deer? Thanks! Tom

Last night I was discussing going Hunting today with an old friend, who is more susceptible to cold than I am. It might not seem cold to you, but starting at 6 am the temperatures ranges from 58 degrees F up to a max of 73 degrees. It was to be partially sunny which usually means about 25% of the time. If you are standing in water and the wind picks up, I might start shivering in a 7 mm wetsuit. Why we we go out today.. Tomorrow and Wednesday are raining almost all day and the rest of the week have lower temps. We decided to go to a location that used to have numerous Black on Black Megs... maybe there were a few left.... We tried hunting for 3-4 hours... evidently many others had sought those Megs also, there were bomb craters and discard piles everywhere. My technique was to avoid the discard piles and leverage the deep holes that some strong fossil hunter had dug for me. 1) Dig deeper than he did !!!! or shovel through a side wall in the discard pile to reach undug gravel. Not all that successful,, about 5 small shark teeth per shovel, many broken or worn. We kept on moving... probing for gravel that contains mammal fossils.. Took a break for lunch, and realized we were running out of time because the wind was picking up ... One thing that I have always thought is that it only takes ONE lightening strike fossil to make a great day... a successful day. Power of positive thinking, or maybe I am just lucky !!! At 1 pm, my friend moves upstream, probing and probing and finally after 5 hours, a couple of small Megs... and then a nice 2 inch lower Mako --- YES. I positioned myself downstream and same distance off the bank. In the 1st seive, a nice Dillo osterderm, and a couple of larger tigers ... Now we are in business !!!!, Next sieve ... nothing !!! Rats.... and then in the 3rd sieve a small posterior black on Black Meg.... big smile , big smile and Eureka !!!!... 5 inches above and to the left of the Meg, a lightening strike !!!! 15 minutes later, we left and stopped at Wendys for the hot Chilli... Great Hunting trip.. long to be remembered.

I was on the Peace River this past weekend, the weather was amazing for the middle of December. The water was a bit cool, but wasn’t really a bother with the sun and outside temp. I found about 5 “nice” Meg frags, heartbreaking they weren’t whole. I also pulled out this vert that I’m guessing is whale? Any help confirming is appreciated. Rick

Sharing the joy. I went hunting with friends on the Peace River today. It has been a while since the last time and we decided to check out a location that had significant fossils 10 years ago and was remote. We were prospecting... stopping frequently to probe for rock, I had found a small calcaneum, a couple of tapir caps, and then we moved on to the site none of us had hunted in 10 years. In my 1st sieve, it is 79 mm long. Over the last 10 years I have found a lot of Sloth fossils, most commonly Megalonyx jeffersoni, Paramylodon harlani, and once Megalonyx leptostomus. Is it possible to identify the Sloth species based on a single claw. It might be , because so many sloth claws are sold where the species is identified. Thanks for the help...

Hello all, I can’t figure this one out! I was collecting fossils from a highly yielding site in Peace River. In this little section of gravel that I reached, it was almost entirely fossilized bone from dugong and whale and turtle. Nestled in the center of this pile of fossils, I uncovered this stone and was immediately taken aback. I have been rock and fossil hunting my entire life, and extensively in this state and this river, and I have never seen anything like this. I have an enormous and worldly collection of rocks and fossils, and I have never seen something this smooth naturally. It is the smoothest stone I have ever seen. It is far too smooth to be riverworn. When I lived in TN I would find rocks that had been remarkably smoothed by the passing river water, but that is not the case with this rock, I am confident. It is soft and heavy and slippery. If I had seen it in a house I would have thought it had been professionally polished. It is not porous at all, it is not smoothed bone or a phosphate nodule. It is significantly heavy and deeply black, almost blue. It looks as though the color beneath the black exterior is almost a light greenish. Even the area where the green is showing through is completely soft. In the flash of my phone light the entire stone almost looks bluish green. The closest explanation I have reached is that it is either a burnishing stone used by Native Americans (I have found artifacts and bone tools nearby this site, so perhaps they smoothed the stone out while using it for processing hides, etc) or it is some sort of fossilized gizzard stone or gastrolith. I know this is unlikely, as we have no dinosaur fossils here, but I read somewhere that extinct whale remains have produced such fossils before, as they apparently utilized gizzard stones as well. If anyone could help me out, I would so appreciate it! Also I apologize for the photo quality and scale, I was trying to capture how different it is than bone and its unique colors.

Out hunting today, overcast 67 degrees. The guys fishing in the Jon boat questioned our intelligence. A premolar was my best find for a little while. Size L 12, W 8, H 17 mm I thought it was deer, but then found a deer premolar for sale and that did not seem exactly the same.

Hello All, After being to busy to make it to the peace river for about a year and a half I was finally able to make it onto the river. Certainly the best trip I have been able to manage thus far. A buddy and I hit the river around 7 and didn't get off till 8 at night. The water seemed to be at a decent enough height, although we were only able to find a 2 decent gravel beds, we managed to pull some pretty good finds. My buddy did much better than I did he got the perfect megs. I think Ive got two mammal predator and a whale tooth here.

Hi guys! I recently acquired this beauty from someone who had absolutely no idea what it was (he knew it was fossil mammal bone from the Pleistocene but that's it). It's from Peace River in Florida. measures about 9 x 4 x 4 inches. My best guess is giant ground sloth tibia, but I don't know for sure and would really appreciate a second opinion before I label it something that awesome. Thanks! Jacob

Lovely day, good friend, interesting finds. 1st of three. A small tooth. To me, this has the shape of marine mammal or alligator, more likely first based on enamel. No horizontal banding means not whale, but could be dolphin. However a very odd root core. 2nd up is an enamel cap. In mammal tooth development, the enamel forms first, followed by the root. In the event of death, the root is never added. These are rare. Possibly based on cap ridges, a slight preference for Hemiauchenia macrocephalus or Hemiauchenia gracilis. Comments appreciated. Finally, the 3rd is a tiny bone.. I am thinking turtle. @Plantguy might be able to confirm or eliminate. This one is 13 mm in length and 10 mm wide

Summertime presents challenges and rewards. Usually, you are digging in deeper water, even when you can find gravel. For me, this means 4 to 5 feet. Most times, I can not employ my favorite technique: dig down to whatever is underneath the gravel and spread out from the river bottom. I am basically scraping the top 6 inches of gravel. and thus I am depending on new gravel getting washed downstream by the faster currents. My finds tend to be less diverse and limited in numbers compared to winter hunting. So, 5 osteoderms, 4 Mastodon fragments, 3 mammal earbones, 3 gar scales, a bunch of medium" size shark teeth. But today, I am interested in that tooth, which I believe to be from one of Florida's Camel_llamas. So the tooth: It is quite small at 20 mm APL. A while back, @Harry Pristis indicated that faint crenulations on the enamel would more indicative of Palaeolama than Hemiauchenia. I seem to see faint crenulations. Twisting the tooth to match this comparison: makes me think it is a lower right or upper left molar. and specifically the one that seems most similar to me is the m1. So my net from all this speculation is that this is a slightly beat_up lower right jaw m1 from a Palaeolama mirifica. I am only about 70% sure and reach out to others who might have an alternative analysis or conclusion. Some alternatives: It might be an m3; It might be upper left m1; It might be Hemiauchnia; It might be a large deer tooth. Reinforcing the concept that single tooth identification is difficult. Jack