Florida Fossils! - Peace River and Venice Beaches

[JamieLynn]

Finally got photos of the fossils I found in Florida!  I was invited back to Florida with a friend - a working trip to get her family house ready for sale. She was kind enough to let us take a little time to do some fossil hunting! Since I had done Caspersen and Venice Beach last time (finding the requisite shark teeth and ray teeth and some other fun stuff) I wanted to "dig a little deeper". I contacted a fossil guide and he just happened to have a group going out the day after we got there. So we drove an hour or so up to the little town of Wachula and met up with Fred Mazza. his canoes and 9 other fossil hunters. We proceeded to paddle a mile and half upstream (hadn't done any paddling in probably 10 years! So that was a workout - but nothing compared to what was to come!)  We got to to "the spot" and Fred gives us all nail belts and a sifting box with pool noodles attached that we clipped onto our belts.....and a shovel. Standing hip deep in water, we shoveled gravel from the bottom of the river and sifted for FIVE HOURS!!  Having no idea what to expect, I have to say, I did not expect that. hahhahahah! What Fun! It was exhausting but it was addicting...you never knew what treasure you were going to find in the next shovel full!

 

I found over 100 Shark Teeth, including a broken megaladon "classic" tooth and i think some meg side teeth, lots of lovely ray teeth, and happily, some of the other things I REALLY wanted to find. a glyptodon scute! Plus I found a tapir tooth, a dolphin tooth, some beautiful turtle bits,  and lots of other good stuff. 

 

 

Glpytodon Scute! 

 

Meg tooth: 

 

Tapir Tooth:

 

Dophin Tooth:

 

Burr fish mouthplate 

 

Turtle Shells: 

 

 

Ray Teeth:

 

I also found a few nice Beach finds at Venice and Caspersen. A couple of nice Teeth (plus a bunch of well worn ones).

 

A Camel Tooth:

 

 

And a Snake Vertebrae (I think)

 

 

 

 

[JamieLynn]

Here are some pics of our trip on the Peace River. It was SUCH a perfect day. Warm 80 degree day, water was not too cold, low humidity (for Florida!) - just a beautiful beautiful February Day in Florida!

 

 

Fossiking with shovels: 

 

And of course, found some Dugong Rib bones: 

 

And apparently this is an ankle bone from prehistoric horse: 

 

Plus I found some lovely big chunks of bone of who knows what: 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieLynn]

I also did some inland fossil hunting. Here are a few finds from that little hour long trip!; 

 

[facehugger]

Wow, you did great!

[Notidanodon]

Nice!

[Bimcanes]

Very nice finds. I love nice days like that, perfect weather.

[PODIGGER]

Great finds!! I started my fossil adventures with Fred and was hooked after one day.  Now I go to the river as often as I can (at least once a week!)

[JamieLynn]

Lucky you to get to go on the regular! It truly was an amazing adventure. 

[jcbshark]

Looks like you had a great trip, you scored some really nice finds 

[JamieLynn]

thanks!! I was so excited to find such a variety. Most of the other hunters were just looking for shark teeth but I really wanted ALL THE OTHER THINGS.

[Monica]

Congrats on finding such a wonderful array of fossils!  I especially like your tapir tooth - it looks to have some nice colouration to it 

[JamieLynn]

1 hour ago, Monica said:

Congrats on finding such a wonderful array of fossils!  I especially like your tapir tooth - it looks to have some nice colouration to it 

 

Yes, I wasn't quite able to capture the beautiful blue enamel coloring! 

[caldigger]

3 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

thanks!! I was so excited to find such a variety. Most of the other hunters were just looking for shark teeth but I really wanted ALL THE OTHER THINGS.

It always the "other" things that make the trip more memorable.  Great times!

[minnbuckeye]

8 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

What Fun! It was exhausting but it was addicting

 

I was probably close by sifting at the same time!! Just returned from my trip to that area. Your finds are excellent! I also have the same philosophy  of desiring the "other things". Shark's teeth are just icing on the cake. And it looks like your cake is plastered with icing. 

 

Mike

[Bone Daddy]

Congrats on getting out there and getting some time on the river. I've been watching the gauges from home while sick with the flu and it's been killing me not to be out there. The weather has been beautiful and the river levels have been right. I've been lurking around here in the forum waiting for people to post trip reports, but not many have been forthcoming yet. I figured people were too busy actually hunting to sit and write reports. It looks like you had a good time and found some interesting oddballs. Sometimes those small oddballs turn out to be something really rare or interesting.

 

 

[Al Tahan]

Gorgeous weather and beautiful fossils!! Can’t get any better than that