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So, I was out with a friend last Wednesday, and just to prove the fact that more than 1/2 the time my finds are "normal" and I get my joy from the river itself, I had one of those days, a small broken Meg, a turtle footpad, a small chunk of mammoth, a curved (?) piece of ray barb, and a nice 6 inch chunk of cypress wood. As we were packing up, Fred Mazza returned with a group he was leading and a lovely lady allowed me to take a couple of photos of this pretty fossil: Enjoy

It seems like forever. 2 months staying home due to heavy rain and deep water. A good friend took me to one of his spots -- I am blessed with good friends.. Consistent finds over time. Gator scutes, Horse Teeth, a few very nice Makos, with only a few unknowns. A very nice day, water depth a little high, but the sun was shining and the fossil hunting was sweet. Here are some unknowns.. My partner said both are whale, but I am not sure. Especially the jaw -- small for whale... And this one -- an ear ? A fantastic day of hunting, but I am really hurting today -- ligaments and joints, muscles in back, biceps, and forearms... It will take some pain to get back in shape... Enjoy, Shellseeker

I was traveling to Connecticut to visit family and friends just prior to Christmas and returned 11pm on the 22nd, but did get out on the 24th. My fossil buddy and I found some oddities, so I need some help here. #1 A tooth ?? #2 Tilly?? #3 A dermal denticle but which ray? #4 Fish vert 2 inches in diameter #5 Marine Mammal Thanks for all comments and guesses Jack

I am always sensitive to breaking fossils, especially rare ones... It is exceeding painful to realize that a fossil made it intact for tens of thousands of years and I broke it with my shovel finding it. I am very careful, but it happens: My worst experience was a broken major root on a Dire Wolf Carnassial.. the pain...the pain..!!!!! I also broke the tip of a point (twice) that was pinned upright in a crevice of the bedrock. I was digging in an area rich in mammal fossils -- some mastodon, mammoth bones & teeth. The chewing surface is distinctive. and this is a pretty nice "fragment"...almost 5 plates of a lower jaw tooth. Lower jaw because of length between roots and chewing surface. I found the 1st piece about 10:30 am and a 2nd piece of the same tooth 45 minutes later about 3 feet away. Digging in a mixture of 60% gravel and the rest sand -mud mix down to a base of grey clay. The fragments were on the clay. The 2 pieces fit almost like a glove. . At first, I thought I might have broken them apart but was relieved to note that, although the plates fit loosely, there was significant missing cementum and no telltale shovel marks. Whew! So, broken by some natural forces in the preceding decades. I'll consolidate and set the 2 pieces up in a display, but I do not intend to glue them back together... Where would be the story in that? By the way, my hunting partners and I have an agreement on all "fragment" fossil finds. Who ever finds the 1st piece, has title to all other fragments of that fossil found. This, of course, is from Chapter 3, sec. 5 of the 14th edition of the Peace River Fossil Hunters Code of Conduct and Rules of the Road. (PRFH-CCRR). I can quote chapter and verse to my fossil hunting buddies, but sometimes they do not listen. SS

Looking for an ID on this find today by my hunting partner!! Curious on the size... Thanks for all responses. Jack

It is interesting that these little teeth (without the jaw) are in the river, but I do not find them while hunting a 1/4 inch sieve. They clearly fall thru and unless I am hunting micros, I miss them. All IDs and comments appreciated. SS

A mixture which I find most enjoyable -- life is like a box of chocolates... First, kudos to Harry, who maintains a GREAT!!! Gallery. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/37880-bison-vs-camel-astragalus/ The 2 side "columns" measure 69 and 78 mm respectively, so I believe this is right side Bison Astragalus in fantastic shape. and next a large deer or small camel tooth -- it is 29mm long and 21mm across chewing surface. Finally, 28 mm GW or Meg, My 1st take was GW, but one companion said GW and the other said Meg and I am unsure... seems like a close call, but maybe not. Thanks for any/all comments, guesses, and accurate IDs. Jack

Mixing a thread with known finds and an odd bone. 1st the fragments, so nice that they are my finds of the day (yesterday)... The 2nd photo seems shaped like a camel or maybe a snail... Would have been fantastic to find the whole, but I am very pleased with fragments. I was not sure on the river but now I think an overworn Tapir pre_molar: Now the unknown -- strange little bone, bird ??? I will leave it to the experts. Thanks for looking. Did I mention? Zolfo gauge just dropped under 6.5 feet this morning. The Peace River is open for hunting. Happy days are here again!!! SS

Well, When I not in North Florida quarries, I am hunting the Peace River. Here are a couple of mammal bones that my hunting partner found and asked me to help identify. 1st up -- a Vert Sorry, I did not get exact measurements, and then what seems to be a toe bone:

A pretty impressive tooth. I think it is an M2, 70 mm long and 37 mm across the chewing surface. Seems to be fossilized but Peace River is a dark water river and can make a modern tooth look fossilized. Would larger size imply Bison? The tooth is in fantastic shape but that can be normal for many of the fossils coming from the sand, mud, clay, gravel mixture near the banks of this spot. What about the chewing surface, it seems missing/eroded. Poor fossilization or recently erupted or ?

I was at an NFD event Saturday and a fossil hunter came over to me and asked for an ID of some Peace River fossils. Here are a couple of photos: It is bone and it seems complete. Seems to be a terminal appendage and is 1 7/8th inches long. My initial thinking is marine mammal, but does not seem large enough to be whale. In any case, I could not ID it. Good Luck...

All of these are in great shape making me question whether or not any are fossil, Added the Birdbone to see if Auspex could ID. 1/2 x 1.125 inches 3/4 x 1.125 inches and the 2.4 inch bird bone: All comments appreciated.

These finds from last Saturday. When I first saw this tooth in my sieve, my immediate reaction was "bison", just based on the chewing surface where the chevrons seem more rounded than "v" shaped. Then my hunting partner noted no stylid, and this likely camel-llama I thought that the buttresses looked to be more like camel. Size is H35mm X W22.5mm X L26.1mm (occlusal surface). With the degree of fossilization, it's hard to believe this is Bos but that's a possibility. If camel, seems large enough to be Heniauchenia. Next up -- turtle center osteoderm -- different from the thousands of such osteoderms I have seem in the last 5 years. Any ideas on which Turtle and/or why so different looking? Finally a couple of fish verts: Are these fresh or salt water? Each is in excellent shape. Can these be modern? TFF identified a larger previous version of Vert1 as Sawfish.. Based on size, these are pretty small fish. It was a great hunting day, out in nature, fantastic weather, found some less common fossils. What could be better? Thanks for all comments. SS

A great Memorial day -- sunshine, a breeze, and friendly people on the river. Good day for Hemis, armadillo osteoderms, large tigers and a special posterior Meg -- with a cusp or maybe 2 cusps. Just sharing an uncommon find. SS

Today was my birthday and I kind of wanted to go hunting just to see if the river fossil gods would smile on me. I was set up to go out with my normal hunting partner but he ended up with a conflict and cancelled late. For a while, it looked like I could connect with Sacha but that did not work out either. So, worried about weather and rain that might start the end of hunting season, I arrived at the river about 7 am and parked under a bridge (just in case it was raining when I returned). I was very lucky with the weather. No rain at all until 1:30pm and just scattered drizzles until I was back under the bridge -- THEN downpour for the next hour. I found a productive spot with many small teeth, lots of horse teeth, lots of hosenose fragments including a chunk of tusk, and other nice finds. I have 3 finds that really made my (birth)day. First, a nice 1.9 inch Meg, dagger like, look at those cusps and serrations. This was early and gave me a real good feeling. Then a large gator osteoderm. I have heard that croc osteoderms are flatter than gator. Is this flat enough? Then, a very rare item. A jaw fragment with 2 teeth!!! I always have asked why I find so many osteoderms from this animal but no teeth. Yes indeed, the river fossil gods did smile and shower me with presents. The river was up 8-10 inches and muddy from the recent rains. Time is growing short. The wet season is coming.

I have a number of fossil hunting partners and each one is my favorite. TFF member Jlar7607 or Joe is really busy with his job and can only get out on Saturdays. We have had some not so memorable Saturday hunts like last Saturday when it seemed like there were hundreds of Air-boaters on the river and almost no fossils in the river. Then there was days like today. We met early with the intention of going long on one of these last few days of the season. For those of you who have not gone hunting with Joe, he digs like a machine processing about twice as much gravel as I do. That is impressive. We were having an OK day after an hour. A horse tooth, a whale vert, a couple of slightly broken Makos, and a handful of high quality Bulls and Duskys. A couple of the Duskys had brown roots, aqua blades and crisp serrations. Before you look ay the photos and congratulate me, please understand that I was just the bystander and photographer!! JOE found this tooth. I am pleased to report that I was gracious, but also envious!!! This is the highest quality Meg I have ever seen found in the Peace River. If anyone has seen or heard of a better one, please post it!! SS The tooth is 3.87 inches by caliper. Congratulations Joe !!!!!

1st let me make an admission about the title: There were a number of large mammoth bones found (but not by me). The largest fragment of a mammoth tooth WAS found by me and was about 3x1.25 inches. Possibly hunting partners will show some of the photos. Over the past 3 weeks I have been hopscotching over some of Sacha's hunting locations and to be truthful, I was invited to come along on the magic trip that found those 3 Mammoth teeth, and declined!!! Paths not taken.... Yesterday I met with Sacha at 7am -- he really likes to get there early and leave early. Sacha also had a couple of TFF members from northern states and one, Bill, was on his first trip to the Peace River. Before we launched, Bill said he hoped to find a Meg about 2 inches. We went to a location about 1/2 mile below where I have recently been hunting on my own. The river is low. We had to port kayaks at 3 or 4 spots where the water was below 4 inches deep. The weather was gorgeous, in the 90s but we all were cooled by the river. In the beginning, I was scraping limestone and looking for deeper pockets in the limestone. I found some small sharks teeth and a canine that I could not identify. I'll post that one below this line hoping for an ID. Somewhat strange, solid center seems to eliminate Gator/Croc. And then longitudinal rather than the latitudinal lines that could indicate whale. I moved closed to the bank, found a gravel vein running parallel to the bank on top of clay. This was far more productive. A couple of Horse teeth, camel tooth, a few broken Megs, Glypto-Dillo-Gator osterderms, horse astragulas, numerous small shark teeth and a few nice upper hemis. Larger turtle/tortoise chunks mixed with large bones started showing up. This next one gave my shovel that fossil chime, rather that wood, rock or bottle. Rather than risk mangling with shovel, I moved it with my toe halfway up the slope of the hole I was digging, took a gulp of air (emulating Bill's techniques) and grabbed it. I was thinking mammoth tooth, but was equally pleased with this find. !!! I think this is a great find and here is my strawman: Mylodon family Sloth lower right mandible with 5 tooth sockets. Using these photos can I confirm as Jeffersons or Harlans? It is certainly a big plus for my Sloth collection! A couple of more photos: Thanks to Sacha for sharing and for bringing non-Floridian TFFs members to the joys of the Peace River. I will look for other hunters on this trip to add their photos and comments. SS

I pick this up last Wednesday. Normally, this texture, heaviness, and "hard" fossilization means tooth or dugong rib. I paused because the sun seemed to glint off of Schreger lines. could this be a chunk of ivory? Size is.6x.9x2.0 inches, so a decent size making it less likely tooth enamel. When I finally took the photos, it does not have the Schreger lines I expected to see, but I have never seen this pattern on dugong. When I am stumped, I bring it to the community expertise of TFF. What is this material? Photo set #1 Photo set #2 Photo set #3 Photo 2b seems to demonstrate that this fossil has narrow growth lines. I am at a loss, and look for any/all suggestions. SS

I was out with a very good fossil buddy. Usually I cover the transportation gas, boat and he wants me to know that he appreciates the contribution. Today he gave me the 1st fossil photo below. I found the 2nd which I am thinking is Palaeolama Mirifica M3. He found the 3rd. and neither of us knew the ID. I am a very lucky man. Here is the request for an IDentification. Normally Serrations & Cusps belong to RICs. What mammal is this? Thanks for all responses, comments, and suggested IDs. SS