South Florida Fossil Hunting Help!

[mizzti123]

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! 

[grandpa]

Hi Mizziti and welcome to TFF.  You sound eager to get involved in the hobby of fossil collecting!  You have certainly found a group of like-minded folk.  A warm welcome to TFF from Austin, Tx. 

The first thing I would recommend to you is to contact a local fossil club.  Florida has a number of great clubs.  See:

http://www.fossil-treasures-of-florida.com/florida-fossil-clubs.html

for clubs and pick one or more in your area to connect with folks like yourself and join them in their field trips.  If you want further advice, just ask.

And again, welcome to TFF.

[jcbshark]

I’ve read you can find spots along the Icw west of lake O that you can find stuff but haven’t been myself. Good luck 

[caldigger]

Where in Florida are you? That would give a better indication as to what is closer to you.

[Bone Daddy]

Welcome to the forum and ditto what Caldigger said : where are you at in South Florida? Just give us a ballpark area and then we'll know what's close to you.

 

 

[PODIGGER]

Welcome to the Forum!  I see you listed your location as Lake Worth, FL that puts you in Palm Beach county on the east coast.  I am on the west coast so can't really recommend any spots near you.  The local fossil club is the way to go.

[digit]

Welcome to the forum!

 

12 hours ago, mizzti123 said:

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 .

Let me know when you find them--I still drive the 3 hours to the Peace River.

 

She's from Lake Worth which is just a long stone's throw north of me in Boca Raton on the SE coast of Florida. There are a number of locations (including my yard) where fossilized shells and corals can easily be found. We used to have a heavy machinery operator who lived down in our area who (on rare occasion) found some interesting fossils beyond shells in our area but I don't think he's been on the forum for a few years. I don't see why there wouldn't be some nice fossil material on our side of the coast but the problem is that the good stuff is some 15-20 feet below ground level and unless you are a heavy machinery operator digging retention ponds for new developments, you are not going to easily get down to the productive layers.

 

The beauty of the Peace River (beyond it natural beauty) is that it cuts down through the multiple fossil layers and aggregates the fossil material into (sometimes) convenient gravel beds that make fossil hunting for shark teeth and other items fairly predictable. Trying to find fossils in the unconcentrated fossil layers is usually too much work--and illegal if it means excavating waterway banks. If you think about most of the Florida peninsula as having the possibility of containing fossil material but that material being tantalizingly close but "two floors down" below our feet, you might be able to figure out where waterways or human excavations have penetrated down to that magical level. I've been too lazy to make the effort to explore locations between here and the Peace River to see if there are closer places to hunt for fossils. That doesn't mean that you can't spend some time looking over Florida on Google Maps to think of places that might be closer which could contain fossils. Just make sure you are doing it legally and not trespassing or digging into banks above the waterline. If you have any connections in the building industry (still running rampant in Florida) you might be able to turn up some opportunities where you could visit construction sites with permission and staying out of the way. Liability concerns make this a real longshot unless you have connections to the right people.

 

The southeast coast doesn't seem to have as many nice deep natural rivers as the gulf side. We seem to have mainly deep manmade canals which tend to be too deep to search for fossils. Many of our rivers and creeks on this side tend either to be too shallow or part of parks where it is not permitted to take fossils (or other things besides photos). Waterways on private land can be searched assuming you've asked permission of the owner. If you do manage to find a waterway that penetrates down to the interesting fossil layers but is shallow enough to stand in and is not on park or private land and it turns out to contain the fossil material you are looking for, then jealously guard that secret and share it only with those you trust. Good spots that are honey holes that nobody knows about have a way of turning into over-exploited spots that everybody knows about way too easily.

 

Most of the fossil clubs I know about in Florida tend to be in Orlando or the gulf side. I suspect the Miami club may no longer be active.

 

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/resources/floridas-clubs/

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken