Wolves, Sharks and Armadillos, oh my! - Peace River Tributary - September 16th, 2022

[Meganeura]

(Decided to do a bit of a different trip report this time - actual story to it, so it’s a bit longer. If you want to just see the finds, skip to the end!)
 

So @Done Drillin and I had been individually exploring a certain tributary and sharing spots along it, and decided we should meet up and explore together yesterday. 
 

So as I’m bringing some of the stuff down to the water to load into the kayak, I see a little something poking out of the water. Should’ve taken a pic, but it ended up being this:

 

A partial, left P4 Dire Wolf tooth. So I’m already thinking… well, that’s by far the best find of the day, may as well call it here!

 

So we set off, passing by a 6’ gator (Having never seen any gators in this tributary before - just the “slides” they leave), and eventually reach the spot I had been hunting a couple weeks back. A Tapir must’ve died there - cause I found a senile incisor and some partial teeth, and Ron finds a complete tooth and a couple more partials - this after the rooted complete tooth and the canine I found 2 weeks ago. Ron also found some Mastodon frags, but it seemed like the spot was mostly tapped out, so we headed upstream to the spot he had last been checking out - where he’d found tons of associated mammoth molar frags and mammoth tusk, as well as some Megs.
 

His finds from the last time he was there - tusk top right, mammoth on the left. The tusk pieces fit together:

So we spend a while digging, finding more tusk and molar frags, Ron finding some pretty Megs, before I then find this:

Another Dire Wolf tooth - this one ALSO a P4, but from the right side, and nearly complete too. I’ve never found Dire wolf before - so finding 2 teeth in the same day was crazy. Ron’s digging about a foot away from me too this entire time - on the other side of a log, and watched me also find a canine from something, another Pachy osteoderm (A “flex” osteoderm/Imbricating band… which they shouldn’t have. But I’ll cover that later.), a pretty, small, posterior Meg, and what I later learned was a Glyptodont tooth (At the time I thought it was more Mammoth). Finally we decide to head back to my spot a bit longer, and I find a pretty Equus m3 spit tooth before calling it a day.

 

So finally the finds - starting with @Done Drillin‘s, all in one pic - plenty more tusk and mammoth frags, some very nice, almost complete Megs, a Tapir tooth and some partials.

And for mine:

Dire wolf teeth:

 

Equus m3 spit tooth:

 

Meg, partial tapir, tapir incisor, and Ray mouth plate that was really nice:

 

The canine from something (Most likely Peccary tusk):

 

First ever glyptodont tooth:

 

A D. bellus osteoderm and a “Pachyarmatherium” flex osteoderm (So story here - Pachy info is based mostly off a 75% complete carapace in a private collection, since Pachys are super rare finds. Said carapace doesn’t have flex osteoderms, it was believed to have 2 layers of immovable shells. But I’ve now found 2 “flex” osteoderms that are far too thick to be D. Bellus, and far too small to be Holmesina, so it’s either Pachy or an as-of-yet undetermined species. Rachel Narducci at the FLMNH has confirmed Pachys don’t have imbricating bands - she’ll be checking the collection to see if she can figure it out soon):

 

Snake verts, claw cores (nice ones this time!) a small gator coprolite, and some gator and croc teeth:

 

And finally, my own tusk and mammoth fragment finds:

 

Anyway, sorry for how long this ended up being! Hope you all enjoyed!

Edited September 17, 2022 by Meganeura
Removed extra pic

[Done Drillin]

Fun day on the water - sure beats working ! Between the gator, spiders and ants that were on the move from the high water we managed to “get er done” and find some good stuff. Now if the water will only go down.......

[Meganeura]

1 minute ago, Done Drillin said:

Fun day on the water - sure beats working ! Between the gator, spiders and ants that were on the move from the high water we managed to “get er done” and find some good stuff. Now if the water will only go down.......

Oh god I forgot about the ants.

 

Tree sitting in the middle of the water - wasn’t there last week. We ram it with the kayak and tons of large, red, bull ants start SWARMING out of it. Nasty. 

[deutscheben]

Those look like some pretty sweet finds! Thanks for the report.

Edited September 18, 2022 by deutscheben

[Nimravis]

Great write up Daniel. Love all of the finds, especially the Dire Wolf. Keep it up and you will soon have a museum in your house.

[Meganeura]

1 minute ago, Nimravis said:

Great write up Daniel. Love all of the finds, especially the Dire Wolf. Keep it up and you will soon have a museum in your house.

That's the plan! Or at least a room's worth. It's already getting there, honestly. I've got so many fossils.