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Excellent Day In Poor Conditions


Shellseeker

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This morning the Peace River was high (Zolfo guage around 7.5 feet) and cold (7am temps below 50 degrees). That is not cold for northern states, but pretty cold if you plan on spending the day digging in a river. I DID have a fossil hunting partner just to show that I am not alone in my addiction.

Depth forces digging close to the river banks or in scattered shallow spots. My last 3 times out, I have been finding mostly small shark teeth so skipping today was a consideration, but my hunting partner wanted to go.

I went back to a spot that has had a lot of digging in the last year (it looks like a mine field or would if the river was lower). The fossil were just there!!! I found a number of good lemons, tigers, hemis and broken mammal teeth and the best finds:

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I am positive on 3 of the find and really pleased with one of my favorites.

More photos on the other 3: I am pretty sure I know what the canine ID is, but appreciate confirmation. The last two I do not know. The last one I initially thought was fossilized wood or tusk, or a strange bone.. I am curious about the break -- has it "healed"??? or is there some other process going on?

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A larger photo of the break.

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All comments and identifications appreciated. SS

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Jack, glad to see you got out. I daydreamed about getting out there somewhere--instead spent the day not working and waiting for an auto repair..dang machines with breakable parts!

Unfortunately, have nothing to offer in the way of ID's...will sit and wait for the experts feedback.

Thanks for showing the latest.

Regards, Chris

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Nice finds Jack, that's a sweet Meg to see in your sifter! :fistbump:

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Nice finds Jack!

Your "fractured bone" doesn't show it being healed.....fully. It could have been in the process of healing. Healed bones will show a build up of extra bone around the fracture or break. I think this is postmortem anyways. Just my $0.02 Please correct me if im wrong guys.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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Looks to me like pet. wood with a natural crack in the wood. Pet. wood in my experience is not that common in the Peace.

Harry, I agree. My first take was that this was pet. wood with an odd crack on one side, and then some sort of concretion opposite side of the crack -- maybe slightly higher but seems to trace the crack and the piece would likely have broken w/o the concretion material glueing it together. I thought of burl,

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On the canine, I am thinking Puma Concolor due to similarity with the fossil canine in this thread: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/37132-canine-wo-root/

The enamel is 15mm of a 34mm length post-2220-0-05217300-1422467151_thumb.jpg

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Nice finds Jack, that's a sweet Meg to see in your sifter! :fistbump:

Thanks to all for good comments and congratulations. I was raised religious and tend to think of river and fossil gods looking out for me.

More than you know, Jeff. I was scrambling and potholing in deep water trying to find a productive location. I had been at this location for about an 90 minutes with 2-3 sometimes nice lemons, bulls, tigers per sieve for my efforts. Then I decided to expand the hole going upstream and in the 1st sieve, laying on top of the gravel, bourlette up, was this Meg. That is when I really know that I was NOT digging in a discard pile. 2 sieves later the Sloth tooth showed up.

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Thanks to all for good comments and congratulations. I was raised religious and tend to think of river and fossil gods looking out for me.

More than you know, Jeff. I was scrambling and potholing in deep water trying to find a productive location. I had been at this location for about an 90 minutes with 2-3 sometimes nice lemons, bulls, tigers per sieve for my efforts. Then I decided to expand the hole going upstream and in the 1st sieve, laying on top of the gravel, bourlette up, was this Meg. That is when I really know that I was NOT digging in a discard pile. 2 sieves later the Sloth tooth showed up.

attachicon.gifIMG_9617CM.JPGNice!!! It sure is nice too when you find some stuff that would be hard to miss! I hate thinking I'm in someones spoil pile!

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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Could the middle series be a scute of some kind? I have found a modern snapping turtle scute that is somewhat reminiscent of this, being keeled like your is.

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Could the middle series be a scute of some kind? I have found a modern snapping turtle scute that is somewhat reminiscent of this, being keeled like your is.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am really mystified on this one, and there is not much I find that can be so unknown. One of a kind. It has strange texture that may suggest ray dermal denticle possibly alligator scute, or shape that could be fish tilly bone.

I will try to check on turtle scutes but a web search gets too many "normal" turtle scutes. Here is a couple of enhanced photos of the "wings" on each side of the hole. Notice the symmetry of the overall oval and also the small indentation in the center of each oval, plus the texture. (clicking on either photo will enlarge it)

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Not sure we are going to get an ID on this one, but it is sure interesting

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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I believe the osteoderm is armadillo....not glyptodant but armadillo.

Thanks Evan, I agree on this one. It has that telltale ridge down the center. So IDs for 5 of 6 (Megalodon, Sloth Caniniform, Florida Panther Canine, Petrified Wood, and Armadillo osteoderm) and 1 unknown.

I am always thrilled at the variety of fossil material in the Peace River. SS

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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