Fossil Road Trip - Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina

[TRout]

Several months ago I took a summer vacation to road trip through several states while collecting fossils along the way. I’ve finally managed to organize, clean, and photograph my finds and figured I’d share some pictures and info about my trip here. 
 

My first stop was Venice, Florida. I started with some sifting at the beach and was able to collect a variety of teeth and other fossils. 
 

Here’s a sunset at Venice Beach:

 

And the finds:

 

I had good luck with finding a bunch of nice burr fish mouth plates

[TRout]

Next was scuba diving off of the Venice Beach area. I believe that fossils found here, and from the beach as well, are generally from the Miocene Peace River Formation, though younger Pleistocene fossils can be found as well. 
 

the megs:

 

Some other nice teeth: lemons, bulls/dusky, and sand tigers

 

Burrfish mouth plate, shark vert, and stingray barb

 

And here’s an example of before and after cleaning the encrusting algae off of a few teeth

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by TRout

[TRout]

Next up was a pay-to-dig site out in Bowling Green, Fl; my first chance to collect fossils directly out of the Bone Valley Member of the Peace River Formation.

Here’s the haul from the day:

One of my favorite finds was this big rhino incisor/tusk (maybe from teleoceras?)

 

The megalodon teeth:

the big one measures 3.29 inches

 

This flawless hemipristis tooth:

 

Some other of the nicer shark teeth - hemi, hammerhead, lemon, bull/dusky, tiger

 

A horse tooth. If anyone is able to determine the species or direct me towards any resources for IDing horse teeth I’d be grateful!

 

And last is a couple of bones, I believe the one on the right is an alligator tail vert

[TRout]

My next planned location to try to search for fossils was the Peace River. Having never been to the Peace, no access to a kayak, and basically no idea what I was doing, I headed to a boat launch access that I had read could be a spot to sift when conditions are good.   When I arrived and saw the high, fast moving, and murky water I realized that hunting the Peace was not going to happen for me this trip. With a little last minute research and google map searching I managed to find an accessible spot on a tributary to the Peace that had much better conditions for sifting for fossils. 
 

 

I was joined by this big Florida gar

 

Here are the finds:

 

A few favorites - tiny sand dollar, cetacean tooth, tiger sharks, croc/gator tooth, and possibly a tiny meg?

[TRout]

Next stop was to try to find some Eocene echinoids from the Ocala Limestone in Inglis, Fl. Luckily I was able to find a few! Here they are before and after a little prep (though I still have a bit more prep work to do on a couple). 

I believe the ID on these is Eupatagus antillarium 

[TRout]

Well that’s it for Florida. Georgia will be quick because it was mostly a bust. I was in the Savannah area for less than 24 hours so unfortunately wasn’t able to schedule a trip with a fossil charter out to any of the dredge islands, which I had heard was probably the best way to get some nice shark teeth in the area. I had heard teeth could be found on Tybee Island so I decided to go give that a try. After probably an hour or two of searching the beach with no signs of a fossil, I got stung by a jellyfish and decided that was a sign to call it a day and head back to the car. Still determined not to leave Georgia empty handed, I kept searching on the way back and managed to find these 2 tiny shark teeth. 
 

[TRout]

On to South Carolina! My first stop was Summerville to find some Oligocene fossils from the Chandler Bridge and Ashley Formations. I didn’t have super high expectations since I didn’t have a lot of time to search for a good spot, but I’m happy with what I found. 

 

A couple favorites - shark vert, hemipristis tooth, and thresher shark tooth:

 

[TRout]

Next up was a guided fossil hunting trip in the Charleston area, which involved kayaking out to an island along the river and searching along the gravelly beach area for fossils. Again most fossils found were from the Oligocene Chandler Bridge and Ashley Formations, but some younger Miocene and Pleistocene fossils can occasionally be found as well. 
 

 

While I didn’t find a complete one, I did manage a few broken angustiden teeth, a species I hadn’t found before this trip. 

 

A few other interesting teeth - burrfish, thresher shark teeth, an angel shark tooth (apparently a rare find for the area), and a big barracuda tooth. 

 

And the best find of the day - a huge, almost perfect, 1.5 inch hemipristis:

 

[TRout]

The last location in South Carolina was a brief stop at Folly Beach before making the drive up to Greenville, North Carolina. Since I had limited time I used the first beach access I could find, probably not the best spot to look for fossils due to the high traffic. But I still managed to find a few little teeth:

 

I think this one might be a great white but I’ve never seen one so tiny before (tooth is about 8mm):

 

[PaleoPastels]

WOW! Loooook them them all!  
Seriously congrats! Im DROOLING at the cusps on that last Hemipristis  

 

(Im curious if you have accidentally or unknowingly bumped into my mom in Florida! She is a Nat Geo underwater photographer and scubas all over Florida, lives near an area you went to. She refuses to share or trade her sharks with me!  ) 

Edited November 13, 2022 by AmmoniteDelight

[TRout]

My first stop in North Carolina was Holden Beach, another too-brief stop along the drive up to Greenville. I tried not to let my expectations get too high after seeing some of the super nice mosasaur teeth and huge squalicorax teeth found earlier in the year. Unfortunately the beach was pretty picked over (especially for the big stuff) but I did manage to find some very nice little teeth. I believe the Cretaceous fossils come from the Peedee Formation. And there are also some fossils coming out of younger Pleistocene formations and possibly some Miocene. 

 

serratolamna:

 

squalicorax:

Cretalamna and a couple enchodus teeth:

Some reptile tooth fragments, nothing even remotely complete:

 

Some more recent shark species - bull, great white, sand tiger, lemon

 

And a bunch of Hardouinia mortonis echinoids:

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by TRout

[TRout]

I spent 3 days in Greenville, NC and managed to do some fossil searching in Green Mill Run on each of the days. The creek contains reworked fossils from the Cretaceous all the way through the Pliocene, with the Cretaceous fossils probably coming from either the Black Creek or Peedee Formations.

 

Here’s the haul from my several excursions into the creek over the three days:

 

Some Cretaceous shark teeth - serratolamna, scapanorhynchus, cretalamna

 

sawfish rostral barb and reptile teeth:

 

Hybodont shark tooth

 

Tiger shark teeth:

 

Great Whites:

 

Cetacean periotic 

 

Fish and shark vertebrae:

 

3 species of squalicorax:

 

And my first ever pathological shark teeth:

 

bonus snapping turtle fossil hunting buddy:

[TRout]

My final stop of my fossil vacation was to the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, North Carolina. Visitors can search for fossils in the pits outside of the museum which are filled with Miocene Pungo River Formation and Pliocene Yorktown Formation fossils. 

 

Heres what I found:

 

Here are a few of the highlights.

The hemis:

 

The makos:

Hammerheads and threshers:

 

A mostly complete tiny cow shark tooth (these are some of my favorites to find!)

 

Even though the root is missing, I think this is a cool, pretty Meg:

 

This weird little tooth. The chunky root, bourlette, and weak serrations make me think maybe baby or fetal megalodon or meg ancestor. I’m curious to hear others thoughts on this tooth. Scale is in cm. 

 

And another odd tooth. First I thought croc, but now I’m considering big whale?

[Al Dente]

2 hours ago, TRout said:

This weird little tooth. The chunky root, bourlette, and weak serrations make me think maybe baby or fetal megalodon or meg ancestor. I’m curious to hear others thoughts on this tooth.

It looks like a posterior tooth, either meg or chubutensis.

[Meganeura]

On 11/13/2022 at 12:53 AM, TRout said:

Next up was a pay-to-dig site out in Bowling Green, Fl; my first chance to collect fossils directly out of the Bone Valley Member of the Peace River Formation.

Here’s the haul from the day:

One of my favorite finds was this big rhino incisor/tusk (maybe from teleoceras?)

 

 

A horse tooth. If anyone is able to determine the species or direct me towards any resources for IDing horse teeth I’d be grateful!

 

And last is a couple of bones, I believe the one on the right is an alligator tail vert

 

Correct on Teleoceras! And the horse tooth will need measurements to confirm - @fossillarry will know. I personally have found 4 Nannippus aztecus teeth at BVFF, and I know @Done Drillin found a different 3-toed horse tooth. Jealous on the rhino tusk/incisor - I've been to BVFF a bunch of times and still haven't found any Rhino teeth!

[Fin Lover]

What an amazing trip with some great finds, especially for just showing up and not knowing the best spots to hunt!

[RJB]

What a trip!  Looks like you had a blast and obviously made quite the haul.   I'm not a tooth guy but love the Bone Valley teeth for sure.  Love the nature photo's too.

 

RB

[PaleoPastels]

AAAAH every time I come back here to smile at the brag photos You add more pics! Jealous as heck over your sixgill shark, my top favorite animal!

 

 

Take me with you next time! 

[minnbuckeye]

8 hours ago, TRout said:

A horse tooth. If anyone is able to determine the species or direct me towards any resources for IDing horse teeth I’d be grateful!

@Shellseeker will know if he has time to visit.

[FossilDAWG]

You had an amazing trip!  So many teeth! 

It's amazing to me how productive GMR still is considering how much it has been hunted.

 

Don

[Chippewa]

Wow what a trip!  A fossil'in safari...

And thanks for all of your great pics and ID's.  You helped me ID many of my shark teeth from years past, AND a mystery fossil that I've always wondered what it was.  I found a Cetacean Periotic just like yours, but never figured it out.

[TRout]

12 hours ago, Meganeura said:

And the horse tooth will need measurements to confirm - @fossillarry will know. I personally have found 4 Nannippus aztecus teeth at BVFF, and I know @Done Drillin found a different 3-toed horse tooth. Jealous on the rhino tusk/incisor - I've been to BVFF a bunch of times and still haven't found any Rhino teeth!

Thanks for the info! I know a bit about shark teeth but absolutely nothing about horse teeth. Nannippus seems like a good option, and and from the limited research I’ve started doing today on horse teeth it appears this is a lower tooth. Here are a few additional pictures with scale (measuring tape in cm and grid is 5x5mm)

 

[Meganeura]

14 hours ago, TRout said:

Thanks for the info! I know a bit about shark teeth but absolutely nothing about horse teeth. Nannippus seems like a good option, and and from the limited research I’ve started doing today on horse teeth it appears this is a lower tooth. Here are a few additional pictures with scale (measuring tape in cm and grid is 5x5mm)

 

Yes - it's a lower right m1/m2 I believe. Or a p3/p4. But definitely right side lower. 

[Shellseeker]

23 hours ago, TRout said:

Thanks for the info! I know a bit about shark teeth but absolutely nothing about horse teeth. Nannippus seems like a good option, and and from the limited research I’ve started doing today on horse teeth it appears this is a lower tooth. Here are a few additional pictures with scale (measuring tape in cm and grid is 5x5mm)

Fantastic tooth... pretty. I can only admire your grit. Few people attempt or accomplish what you have done.

Daniel @Meganeura is correct.  It is a lower right m1 or m2 molar of a very small Miocene horse. The key differentiators are 13 mm APL ( APL, maximum anteroposterior length, excluding the ectoloph
and hypocone; BAPL, anteroposterior length at the base of the crown),  it was found in a Florida Mid_miocene site).  I think that  it is certainly Nannippus, species aztecus. It is the most probable identification. 

But I am not quite the expert that @fossillarry or Richard Hulbert represent. If you wish to know for sure.

Send your photos and location found to... the Florida Fossil Identification Service.

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/amateur-collector/fossil-id/

 

Here is a comparison of the Smallest horses in Florida in the miocene.

[Shellseeker]

@TRout

We have a member who seems to me , one of the best on identifying marine mammal fossils. @Boesse

You should provide photos from all sides, measurements, location found for the Cetacean periotic. Additionally, I am not sure you have a Rhino tusk,  it might be a whale tooth..Boesse will be able to confirm.