Peace River, Florida May16th

[Shellseeker]

I am getting out to hunt about twice a week. I have interesting places to look.  It turned out that @PODIGGER and I chose the  same launch point,  and returned at the exact same time. It was hectic stripping the kayaks , storing the gear for the drive home in time for dinner. We did have a few minutes to exchange pleasantries and discuss finds.

 

Here are most of mine sorted for their photo.

 

I am more interested in the fossils you don't recognize than those you do.  This for example is a druzy cave inside a silicified banged up oyster.

 

I had not seen a fragment of a turtle Nuchal bone in months, but 1 whole and 2 fragments showed up in my sieve yesterday. I will use the post that @Harry Pristis put in this thread to attempt pontificating of mine.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/106885-turtle-nuchal-bone/

@fossilnut asked me to keep and eye open for turtle material.

I did find a quality tooth from a very old horse. Horse grinds down its teeth over a lifetime and many die of starvation.

 

That's a Harlan's caniniform on the right.  It was mostly orange coming into the sunlight. I have been very lucky recently finding sloth teeth once a month. It was my "find" of the day, before...

 

 

The nurse shark in slightly less than 9 mm.  At that size it will easily fall through the mesh on a quarter inch screen. Once I discovered that there small treasures dropping out of my screen,  I switched tactics for about 2 hours (see the collection of tiny teeth in the photo above). I stopped shaking the screen to clear mud/debris, I took much longer searching the screen for tiny teeth.

There is a tradeoff here.  I really like finding small treasures, mainly because it is unusual for me to find them (before they slip thru the holes). However, it takes a Lot longer to search for them , so that I do not process as many screen in a hunting day. No way to avoid it. and thus finding fewer of the WOW finds (Megs and Sloth Teeth)

Let me ask a member who has some focus on tiny shark teeth on how he handles it.  @digit

 

All in all, a great day out hunting on the River.

[Neanderthal Shaman]

Nice finds, as per usual! The oyster is particularly cool, crystals always make for more interesting shell fossils. 

[digit]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

Let me ask a member who has some focus on tiny shark teeth on how he handles it.  @digit

It's tricky to have your cake and eat it too. The only workable way I've found is to run your gravel through a stack of screens. I occasionally put a piece of loose window screen in the bottom sifter and use 1/4" on the top sifter. Larger items I hope to spot out standing in the river. The collected micro-matrix goes into a bucket (or two) and comes back to the dock in the canoe. Not as easy if your mode of transport is a kayak. I have collected once by pouring the micro-matrix into the reusable shopping bags that are made of woven plastic cloth and as such are porous enough to let out most of the water. Still, it was a pain to head back to the put-in location with a kayak weighed down with matrix stuffed inside the kayak or strapped on back--a real pain in shallow spots let me tell you.

 

Being able to bring home micro-matrix and rinse and dry it for later picking is essential if you are not to miss any of the interesting tiny treasures.

 

BTW: Nice silicified oyster shell. The white inside coating looks more like smooth botryoidal "common opal" than the sparkly druzy quartz. Seems it is rather difficult to find good web pages for druzy that don't focus on the "mystical healing properties".

 

https://www.geologyin.com/2018/04/what-is-druzy-and-how-does-it-form.html

 

Glad you are getting out and having success rescuing fossils that would otherwise never be appreciated.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Nimravis]

Wow some great finds and pictures 

[PODIGGER]

Jack, It was great to see you and Steve (?) yesterday. When I got to the river in the morning I saw two pick ups already parked there and wondered who they might be. Thanks for letting me see that sloth tooth fresh out of the river when we all got back to the launch site at the same time.  I also had a good hunt with my favorite finds of the day being the glyptodont scute and camel tooth I showed you. Turns out I actually had two of the scutes! I was able to ID another one when I cleaned out my collection pouch at home. 
 

Good luck on your next trip as the season is soon coming to an end!

Jim W.

[Shellseeker]

6 hours ago, Nimravis said:

Wow some great finds and pictures 

For the first 5 hours,  I actually had lots of nice small shark teeth but few finds beyond turtle shell and tooth fragments. My best finds were the tapir caps. The next 2 hours picked up the rest.  At this stage of my fossil hunting,  I am genuinely pleased with whatever comes my way.

[garyc]

Love the sloth tooth!

[Family Fun]

A great question about focusing smaller on teeth.  I create a case each year of my my best finds, and I always include a special spot for the smallest teeth I’ve found for the year.  

 

keep in mind though your weekly trips would fill up my small display in a week with your finds.