Trip To Gainsville Hogtown Creek!

[Williamrock]

This was our very first fossil hunting trip! headed down to gainsville and sat in the creeks for about 5+ hours here are some of the items we found we are not to sure about!

[Williamrock]

We got about 200+ ray teeth and 200+ shark teeth between the both of us on this trip nothing big but still nice smalls!

Edited January 28, 2015 by Williamrock

[fangirl0708]

This is an inlarged picture of the unknown tooth

[fossilized6s]

Pic #2 partial large alligator scute

Pic #3 i believe these are juvenile sand dollars (but im not 100%)

Pic #4 it looks like part of a turtle shell, but more pics are necessary

Pic #5 is a small to meduim sized mammal ulna (cat, dog, raccoon, etc.) Im not sure it's fossilized, but there are tests you can do to check.

Pic #6, 7, 8 are unknowns and multiple angled pics would help

Pic #9 is a premolar from a small to medium sized mammal carnivore (maybe associated with the ulna????)

Pic #10 looks man made to me......

All in all, a good start guys! Congrats!

[calhounensis]

Your finds in the first picture are Eocene foraminifera not juvenile echinoderms.. Except the very last one on the bottom of the third picture (far right in the first), that is the only one that looks like an echinoderm. I'll leave the genus/species to someone else.

The premolar looks like Mephitis.

[jcbshark]

Nice finds, congrats! : )

[Williamrock]

Here is a better Picture of number 4#

[fossilized6s]

Here is a better Picture of number 4#

Well it's not turtle material. It looks more like a large mammal bit. I can tell you that it has naw marks from a rodent, so that tells me it spent some time on land as well as in the water from the brown patina.

Edit: again, that's not to say this is fossilized.

You can check whether or not this is fossilized by a few methods.

Burn method - expose this to an open flame (lighter, match, stove, etc.) and see if it gives off a burnt hair smell. If it smells it's 10,000 or younger and has not fossilized yet.

Tongue test- nonmineralized bone will stick slightly to your tongue. Fossilized bones will tend not to.

Tap test- you can tap the bone with metal and see if it gives of a clear tone. Nonfossilized bones tend not to give off a clear tone, it's more like a dull thud.

These methods aren't conclusive and are a bit primal, but it will give you some sense of what you have.

GL.

Edited January 28, 2015 by fossilized6s

[Williamrock]

Probably the gem of my trip to gainsville's hogtown creeks , its small but i was told by a local that they had never seen a non broken tip ray stinger!

And my second favorite would be the small mammal tooth that I found!

[Williamrock]

Better pictures of 6 ,7 ,8

Im by no means an expert or even amateur lol but it looks teeth busted off at the root?

Now that I look at it, it looks like a shell imprint but at first i thought it was a chip from the toop of a big mammal tooth due to the ridges?

This im not sure of

I love rays teeth but I really like this one stuck in rock .

These are the teeth I found !

[Williamrock]

Better picture of the Alligator Scute , Ive read up on these , So its the bone armor of the back of the animal? the holes where once full of cartilage ? all that ive seen are black why is this one tan? older or is it due to the minerals and sediment its been laying in?

[Al Dente]

These look like the internal mold of barnacles.

Your large bone with the rodent chew marks might be from a steak or pork chop. It looks like it was cut with a saw.

[Williamrock]

Better picture of #10 its probably man made but I wasnt sure so i kept it .

[fossilized6s]

Your scute could be recent. And when i say recent i mean 10,000 or younger. But the brown patina of most river finds are from just that, the rivers and creeks. Fossils that are in the banks or have recently eroded into the river or creek will look like this. So im guessing this is a fossil that has recently been deposited into the river or it was a shoreline find.

[Williamrock]

Yes i pulled it from the mud bank in one of the creeks , I figured it was just from the sediment , All the rays teeth we found in our first area where all brown and tan , and abiut 300 ft away in a different area where the water was much darker they where all black .

[Williamrock]

Your scute could be recent. And when i say recent i mean 10,000 or younger. But the brown patina of most river finds are from just that, the rivers and creeks. Fossils that are in the banks or have recently eroded into the river or creek will look like this. So im guessing this is a fossil that has recently been deposited into the river or it was a shoreline find.

From what Ive read online since the scute I found doesnt have a central ridge , could It be from a florida crocodile ? once agian im not an anyway an expert but the holes seem bigger then what ive seen from the alligator ones ive seen ?

[fossilized6s]

Yes, it could be. But i am not sure. Someone with more knowledge on Crocs may be able to answer this. I am far from expert as well.

[Williamrock]

Indeed hopefully one will poke into the post and let us know !

[Khyssa]

Nice finds.

The fossils you find in the creeks in Gainesville come in a wide range of colors, most likely due to the wide range of colors the clay in the area seems to have. I've found sharks teeth there that are pure white, cream, varying shades of brown, black, blue/gray, and my favorite is when they are multiple colors. You can't judge if somethings a fossil by the color there.