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Last month in an effort to relieve some of the late summer boredom, I went to Yankeetown to search the spoil islands at the mouth of the river. I was specifically looking for limestone cobbles that might be protecting examples of the large Eocene sand dollar Periarchus floridanus. I've worked these islands a number of times before so my expectations were not high, but I had hoped the high tides since my last visit might have mixed things up a bit. I did find a couple cobbles with edges of sand dollars showing, but with obvious damage. Since I have nothing but extra time on my hands, I took them home and cleaned them up. I think they're still interesting, but not display pieces. Last week after Hurricane Ian, I drove out to Yankeetown again since that section of coast was spared any damage. This time I wanted to look at a chain of larger spoil islands at the mouth of the canal which is about 2 miles south of the mouth of the Withlacoochee. I had never tried there because of the long kayak trip. I walked the perimeter of three of the closest islands and was surprised at the lack of any echinoids at all. Very different from the islands at the mouth of the Withlacoochee. After 2 1/2 hours of searching, I found 1 cobble with a good indication. After only a couple hours of cleanup, I was very happy with how this guy worked out. I'll not be returning to those islands again, but this guy made the whole trip worthwhile.
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Yankeetown, Fl. find: Peanut shaped object. Double concretion?
Shirley Fireball posted a topic in Fossil ID
While I was looking for sea biscuits in Yankeetown, I found this. At first I thought it was an actual peanut. Lol I tried doing some research on it but can't really find that much information about what it actually is. So I'm hoping y'all will have some more suggestions or details. The closest I've found online is it being a double concretion. It's relatively small compared to similar ones I've found online. It's a little over 3cm long and less than 2cm wide. Not magnetic. Thank you for any and all help! -
Last week I had the opportunity to be in Florida so I made my way out to the Withlacoochee bay trail for a little while to look for some loose echnoids. I didn't get any pictures of the finds in situ... poor planning on my part. Here is everything after I got home. They still need to be cleaned up. I believe I saw people soaked them in vinegar and gently use a toothbrush to get the sand and miscellaneous debris off? I also found the tiny 'clam' shell amongst the loose limestone chunks where where I found the echnoids, not sure if it is modern or fossil to be honest. The large mass of debris in the upper left was attached to one of the echnoids I had picked up. It must have broken loose during the ride home. I will try breaking it down to see if there is anything of interest in it. I think the 2 on the right closest to the cube are a different species since they are flatter than others.
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Although the Peace River stayed diggable through the end of June this year, I made my last trip on the 20th and was looking forward to the clear spring fed waters of the Santa Fe the following week. Heavy rains in North Florida and Georgia spoiled that plan by sending the Santa Fe to flood stage. I hadn't been to the Yankeetown spoil islands in several months and I always enjoy spending a few hours there. I intended to do a quick surface scan for the smaller less common echinoids, but was primarily looking for limestone cobbles that contained the large sand dollar Periarchus floridanus. This large thin echinoid doesn't survive erosion from the limestone like many of the smaller ones found here. It must remain protected within the limestone cobbles which, in a perfect world, would display just the edge of the undamaged sand dollar. Prepping is a relatively simple process since the echinoid test is slightly harder than the soft Ocala limestone. I was lucky to find 4 possible specimens and 3 turned out very decently. Here is a picture of the first cobble that I found right at the water line followed by the after prep picture. After Tropical Storm Elsa passes I'll make a return trip to these islands to repeat the search since high tides this week and the storm surge will mix things up a bit. It's always a nice getaway when high water levels make rive hunting difficult.
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The winter of 2018-2019 was rough on folks from Minnesota, people who normally judge their self esteem on surviving mother nature's cold and snowy fury. So when the time came to depart for my snowbird trip to Florida, I could not have been more excited to go. Here is the local landscape as we left. Then on arrival to the Sunshine State. What a stark contrast. I could never give up my winters for this , as nice as it is to visit. Hunting for fossil treasures in Florida is usually limited to a single day per trip for me. But this time I was blessed with three outstanding excursion from three wonderful members of the forum, JCBShark (alias Jeff), Shellseeker, (alias Jack), and Sacha, (alias John). Unfortunately my hopes for finding fossils were dashed due to high water, but my friends were nice enough to attempt to conquer mother nature and we pressed on. I will let you decide if they were successful. Here were the participants for Day 1, a trip on foot to get to some special spots. As can be seen, it was NOT an easy hike. Here was Day 2. Kayaking up the creek for a few miles was not easy due to high water. But going back was a very peaceful float, as these pictures of Jack show!! Something needed after an old man (me, not Jack) paddles like he did and then shovels gravel all day!
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Hey guys! Here's something a little different from me... Echinoid Hunting! This was an extremely fun and productive fossil hunt, finding some of the oldest fossils Florida has to offer. In this video you even get a tour of my fossil-filled vehicle, which could have been a whole video in itself hahaha! You may also notice a quality change. We got some sweet new gear! Give the video a watch if you're interested and have some time!
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In an effort to do something while the Peace and the Santa Fe decline from flood stage, I went back to Yankeetown to look for echinoids without any real expectations. Tide was low and the wind was strong out of the east so the water level was very low. Screening was pretty much out of the question without serious back strain, so I spent a few hours on hands and knees looking between all the footprints for something that holiday week hunters may have missed. I brought home nice examples of several of the more common species including Eupatagus antillarium ( only 5 examples which, I think, shows extraordinary self control) one of which was a nice matrix specimen, several Neolaganum durami (one pictured and one in matrix), 1 small Rhyncholampas ericsoni, 1 nice Agassizia clevei and best of all 1 Eupatagus ocalanus (still to be verified) in the bottom left of the picture. Sorry the picture isn't the best, but I can't figure out how to improve the contrast to how the detail. I'm pretty new to this echinoid stuff, really only interested since last years contributions to the invertebrate collection at UF. Posts like this one are probably pretty basic to most forum members, but I'm feeling pretty chuffed about the variety of species that can be found in Florida. It's nice to have access to echinoid sites during high river water levels too.
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