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Suggestions For Fossil Hunting Near Tampa Fl


therieldeal

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Alright - i'm from CT and as most of you know there isn't much for fossil hunting up here. i've actually yet to go fossil hunting ever as i never seem to have time to travel!

well - it looks like I'll be going down to Tampa (Valrico, specifically) to visit a friend in about a month and a half. She's not interested in fossil hunting at all, so she wont be much help... i was wondering if anyone could suggest any decent sites?

I'll need to plan this ahead of time before i get down there, which is difficult because i don't know the area at all. i'll probably be limited to spending just one day hunting (if that). I'd love to find some shark teeth or just about anything really. The oil spill might reach down there by then (although i hope it doesnt), so open ocean beach sites could be an issue.

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Hello therieldeal,

Try this -

http://www.venice-fla.com/capital.htm

About 1 hour and 20 min. south of Tampa. Go to a beach, and start looking - you can rent a screen or a "florida snowshovel" (Sand flea Rake), and your friend can sunbathe - sounds like a win- win.;)

I'm from CT too, so that's all I've got!

Others will probably be more helpful.

Good luck!

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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:D Hello and welcome from Florida.Try the Peace river.Go south on I-75 to Hgw-70 ,go east to the river.Hunt up-river from the bridge using a screen if you dont have one use a caulinder in a pinch.

If this isen't panning out go east on Hgw 70 to the first main road,turn left.Go north until you reach the Winn/Dixie grocery store ,turn left until you reach the river.Pull into the trailer park and ask at the office or someone living there for parking,I havent been turned down yet.Hunt up-river here as well. :D

It's another option anyway.Be reminded you need a fossil permit to hunt in Fla.

Bear-dog.

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone!! I will have to look into these locations and develop a game plan :D

Regarding the permit thing, I found some details here:

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/vppermit.htm

That said:

"Fossil sharks teeth are specifically excluded from these regulations, as are the fossils of plants, invertebrate animals (e.g., mollusks, sea urchins, crabs, etc.), and other organisms, so no permit is required to collect such specimens"

So as long as I don't find anything really cool or rare I should be ok... looks like it's only $5 though so I might as well get one. I don't see myself going back to FL anytime soon, so getting a permit would be a waste of money if it were much more expensive.

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I've had some luck on the other beaches south of Venice (Casperson in particular). You can try a scoop or bring a colander (worked pretty well for me). You'll find a lot of ray teeth, smaller shark (but pretty colorful) and a few miscellaneous items (found a pretty decent sized corpolite one day!)

If you want to do the Peace River thing, make sure to check the water level. If low enough, you can wade in a large part of the river. I used to walk up a mile or two north of Gardner. Gardner has a boat ramp and a place to park your car. It isn't a park and is not usually patrolled, so you have to park at your own risk. The good news is that I've been there over ten times and have never encountered a problem. Everyone is pretty friendly around those parts.

If the river is low, you'll see trails of black material that point out the fossil locations. Pretty much, you can bring a shovel and dig in quite a few places. Like everyone says on here, just listen for the crunch. There's plenty of that!

Make sure to bring a sifter and/or a colander, shovel, plenty of water, sunscreen and clothes that you don't mind getting wet and muddy.

Have a great time!

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I think people have provided probably the easiest solutions so far.

I have been to Casperson several times. You will certainly find shark teeth there, but I don't think it is likely you will find anything too exciting. Please anyone feel free (anyone) to correct me if I'm wrong.

I have been to the Peace River also. If you go with Mark or Fred Mazza http://www.paleodiscoveries.com, you won't need a permit to keep your finds and they provide the screens (that way you don't have to build one down there) and the scouting, so you pretty much just dig where they tell you to do so.

I would say at Peace River, you have a much better chance of finding something more memorable and a small chance of finding something really cool.

I think both Fred and Mark require at least three people, so you could contact both and see if either are taking out groups that you can piggy back off of. I think they both can also get you to some spots with private property which can help you.

Good luck

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i went to that area oncest with the wonder teen, and lived on google earth, etc. scopin' out everthing in advance and we found some stuff. i sort of figure anybody taking me somewhere for money would have to be really nice to take me somewhere they figured i might find something worth more money than i gave them to take me there for money. so i like to just sort of prowl around trying to get semi-out-of-the-way spots that they might go when i warnt with them. course i usually gots a webley-vickers 50-80 on me just in case...which i'm not recommending, but still.

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If your trip is in a month and a half the Peace river will most likely be too high for productive fossil hunting. You could get lucky though. Here's a link to the USGS Peace river depth gauge at Zolfo Springs: My link This is not the real time data but last years graph of water depth over time. Here's the real-time link: My link

Depths of 4'-6' at Zolfo is good for hunting.

                                                                 

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Been to Casperson several times also. You won't find the majority of what you can find on the Peace River but its a good way to get some decent shark teeth and a few other items. The rainy season is coming, so it will be harder to get on the Peace and do some serious searching.

I went with Mark Renz one time, he's a nice guy and can give you an id on almost anything. However, if you don't want to pay the 75 bucks per person, you can still try the river and find some decent shark teeth, bones, etc. if you're willing to dig and have a good eye.

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  • 1 month later...

well guys - i'm in florida! unfortunately i caught some sort of sinus infection, probably at the airport... ugh.

anyway, i'm checking the depth gauge websites... arcadia has dropped from 9.5 feet to about 6 feet over the last week. is that low enough to be able to hunt at all? maybe walk along the shore and just search by eye? with all that water coming down, something must have washed out of the bank right?

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I use the gage at Gardner to see if I am going to the Peace. At 3' it is huntable, but not great. Right now the gage says 9+feet. Fun paddling.

At the Arcadia boat ramp, there is an area to the west of the ramp that drains a pond into the river from under the SR70 bridge. It might be above water. It is hard digging, and you will make enemies with many fire ants, but it will produce some treasures. It does involve removing a lot of dirt from above the gravel layer. I like to start in someone else's hole, and make it bigger.

I was at Caspersons Beach on Mothers day, and didn't find anything. Even at its best time, I used to only find small teeth. Not sure if the beach re nourishment goes further south, but you might want to try Manasota Beach.

Good luck.

Pentax Optio W60

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Many years ago, I collected really nice mollusc fossils from the causeway to the Sunshine Skyway bridge (was supposed to be claming). Don't know if you are interested in that type of fossils.

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in the interest of not going too far out of our way as we have plans this evening, (just got home, getting ready now) we decided to go to Apollo beach at my friend's suggestion. she said shes seen a few teeth here before, and shes seen people hunting there in the past.

since she had last been, a vast majority of the beach has been filled over with large rocks, i'm assuming as some sort of breakwater/erosion prevention measure? for those of you who like mollusk fossils... check out Apollo beach!! all of these large rocks are LOADED with mollusk fossils! not sure how common they are around here, but i've never seen anything like it personally. i should have taken some pictures, but alas i left my camera in the car. anyway, they weren't really what i was after, and a sifter and plastic shovel are no good for excavating in rock anyway ;)

when we got there we sat down on the steps to eat our lunch, i promptly spotted a tooth in the sand right next to the steps! i took this as a good sign, but we didnt find nearly as many as i hoped. here's a photo of our final take after a few hours of walking the beach and sifting here and there. i actually only found two things with the sifter, the ray tooth and the small black curved tooth. we seemed to have better luck just walking the waters edge and keeping our eyes peeled.

IMG_0074.jpg

we may go back out tomorrow, perhaps at another location... we'll have to see :). if we had caught apollo at low tide there would have been a lot more beach to comb - the water gets up to the rock "wall" pretty quickly. sifting underwater is no problem but trying to spot these little teeth through the water with waves breaking is, well... a little challenging haha

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forgot about this... this is just a tiny small quarter sized chunk of the shell filed rock. the "large rocks" i mentioned above are like luggage sized chunks of rock, with fully grown mollusk fossils of various types.

IMG_0079.jpg

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We were in fl earlier this year and we found teeth and bone material at manasota beach.

I use the gage at Gardner to see if I am going to the Peace. At 3' it is huntable, but not great. Right now the gage says 9+feet. Fun paddling.

At the Arcadia boat ramp, there is an area to the west of the ramp that drains a pond into the river from under the SR70 bridge. It might be above water. It is hard digging, and you will make enemies with many fire ants, but it will produce some treasures. It does involve removing a lot of dirt from above the gravel layer. I like to start in someone else's hole, and make it bigger.

I was at Caspersons Beach on Mothers day, and didn't find anything. Even at its best time, I used to only find small teeth. Not sure if the beach re nourishment goes further south, but you might want to try Manasota Beach.

Good luck.

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Chris - i replied to your PM. Sunday is my last day here...

We are looking at maybe trying the Hillsborough river?

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  • 1 year later...

I am also from Connecticut, and I keep reading that you guys are convinced that there are no sharks teeth here to be found, or that its soo hard to even find anything ..I am wondering have the Connecticut folks here on the site actually searched here in Connecticut ?? abd if you have where are you looking ...because I pull sharks teeth out of the brooks and streams here all the time ...those of you who live near the CT River.. you might want to try there ... I have found some right on the shore ...Connecticut used to be the ocean floor millions of years ago ..I have not yet ID'd my teeth yet ..one of them I know is a a Mako or a Juvi great white .. I also yank out arrow heads..I got a some sort of molar tooth .. not sure if its horse or camel or bison or what ... there is a slow running stream near my house .. I pulled 15 teeth out one day ..also there is a a freshwater lake called Valley Falls Lake .I have sifted the water in there and pulled teeth from there.. so Connecticut has teeth ...and if anyone says no .. needs to go with me ,, if you visit valley falls in the summer dont park in the lor or they will ask for a permit ...access it through the nature trails where the streams are ...and start looking ...dont be so quick to write Connecticut off as a no teeth zone ...if they pull them out of the rocks in Colorado then they are here too..you might also walk away with indian artifacts too ..I thought I saw a huge tooth .. but it was a beautiful arrowhead ..

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I am also from Connecticut, and I keep reading that you guys are convinced that there are no sharks teeth here to be found, or that its soo hard to even find anything ..I am wondering have the Connecticut folks here on the site actually searched here in Connecticut ?? abd if you have where are you looking ...because I pull sharks teeth out of the brooks and streams here all the time ...those of you who live near the CT River.. you might want to try there ... I have found some right on the shore ...Connecticut used to be the ocean floor millions of years ago ..I have not yet ID'd my teeth yet ..one of them I know is a a Mako or a Juvi great white .. I also yank out arrow heads..I got a some sort of molar tooth .. not sure if its horse or camel or bison or what ... there is a slow running stream near my house .. I pulled 15 teeth out one day ..also there is a a freshwater lake called Valley Falls Lake .I have sifted the water in there and pulled teeth from there.. so Connecticut has teeth ...and if anyone says no .. needs to go with me ,, if you visit valley falls in the summer dont park in the lor or they will ask for a permit ...access it through the nature trails where the streams are ...and start looking ...dont be so quick to write Connecticut off as a no teeth zone ...if they pull them out of the rocks in Colorado then they are here too..you might also walk away with indian artifacts too ..I thought I saw a huge tooth .. but it was a beautiful arrowhead ..

I'd like to see pictures of these. :mellow:

I have never heard of anyone finding sharks teeth in CT. :unsure:

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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I'd like to see pictures of these. :mellow:

I have never heard of anyone finding sharks teeth in CT. :unsure:

Regards,

I second that! There's been quite a few threads regarding site in CT, but never were shark teeth mentioned.

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