Peace River visit

[PODIGGER]

Back to the River for another adventure.  Luckily I am just an hour away on a nice straight route with little traffic. As I started out yesterday there was a really bad fog layer causing visibility to be extremely limited.  I had the fog lights and low beams on in the jeep and kept the speed down to 10 mph below the speed limit.  I have been hit by deer and have seen several on the trip in the past.  Didn't want to risk a wild life encounter enroute to the river.  After getting about half way there the fog lifted and I was back to normal visibility until I got to Rte 17 when I drove into another fog bank. I was happy to see it lifted on arrival at the river at about 8 am.

 

Launched the kayak and headed to my latest hunting spot with the intent to make this a quality over quantity day.  I promised myself I would leave all small and/or partial shark teeth to the river gods and only take home real "keepers".  With this in mind I figured I would have a much lighter bag of goodies for the ride home.  As I got into the river and started digging every so often I caught the odor of sweet soap or almost a perfume.  This was so pronounced a few times I looked around to see if someone was approaching and reeking of perfume.  I also saw my gator buddy up on his sandy spot soon after my arrival which was unusual.  I kept on digging and the first keeper I pulled up was a pond turtle Nuccal Scute.  It was a nice find and a little spooky as I had just been looking at one on a prior posting by @Shellseeker the night before.  I was pulling up lots of small and partial shark teeth and tossing them when I found a couple of nice Hemis and partial megs.  

 

About an hour in a young family came by in a canoe and after exchanging greetings and talking about the water depth the dad said it was weird the water was so cloudy.  He then asked if I thought the phosphate mine had made a release into the river.  A bell went off about the smell - could this have been some kind of cleanser added to a release from the phosphate mine?  Could that also be why my friendly gator was out of the water early in the morning?  Do any of our Florida members know of this odor being associated with a release into the river by the phosphate mine group?

 

Anyway, the day continued with the river gods being kind and helping out with my quality over quantity desire.  The rest of the day turned up more nice Hemis, some deer teeth,  a worn glyptodont scute, half a Tapir tooth crown, puffer fish mouth plate, and three partial verts. Also got a partial gator tooth and one item that may be a tooth or a claw.  I'll have to research that last one and post further pics if I need help with an ID. The largest vert, I stepped on and was able to just reach down and lift it out.  Some photos of the best of the day below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the one I am not sure about as tooth or possibly claw:

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Certainly worth a day out.

Nice finds. 

[jcbshark]

Nice finds, need a view of the thicker end for your claw or tooth but to me it looks More like a tooth 

[Bone Daddy]

13 minutes ago, jcbshark said:

Nice finds, need a view of the thicker end for your claw or tooth but to me it looks More like a tooth 

 

That's what I am thinking as well. It looks like the root end of a tooth with most of the crown broken off.

 

I am glad you got out there and found some good stuff. This "safer at home order" is only 24 hours old and I am already getting cabin fever. LOL.

I have never noticed the perfume smell you mentioned, but I have noticed periods of turbidity usually associated with low discharge flow conditions. When the river starts getting this low, the lack of flow becomes a detriment because the water gets increasingly soupy with suspended particulates. Let's hope we don't see another algae bloom as a result.

 

As far mining discharges go, I wouldn't put anything past Mosaic or their contractors.

 

[PODIGGER]

Thank you for the response gentleman.  Here are a couple of more shots of the tooth/claw.

 

 

 

[Harry Pristis]

This looks like one of the mini-physeterid teeth that @Shellseeker is trying to identify.

 

 

[PODIGGER]

Thanks Harry.  It looks like the cementum cladding is missing on mine except for a small amount just below the crown.  Maybe @Shellseeker will have some additional photos or info - I suspect he is out on the river today.

[Shellseeker]

16 hours ago, Harry Pristis said:

This looks like one of the mini-physeterid teeth that @Shellseeker is trying to identify.

 

I agree with Harry. I have yet to find a compelling case of a Peace River canine/tooth with the banding that is NOT whale...  By the way Harry, I love your photos...and will store them as examples.  Thanks

 

 

I was temporarily confused by the frequent blunt (broken) tips of these teeth like @PODIGGER

I am pretty positive this is whale .indet. Nice find..

 

Here is one I am not so sure of.... Is it my imagination or growth rings in the Dentin? It is about the size of Podigger's tooth  7 mm wide and 30 mm long (with the tip). Sorry for delay. Responsibilities have mounted.

 

[PODIGGER]

Thanks Shellseeker,.  I do think I see a ring pattern on your example.

[Harry Pristis]

Here's an image I've posted a while ago.  That's the head of the pulp cavity in the lower right, though the optical illusion is that it is the convex crown.