Peace River Trip Report

[Hunt4teeth]

Hello TFF members and lurkers,

As some of you may recall I was in Florida a couple weeks ago to do some fossil hunting, amongst other things. I had the fortunate opportunity to go fossil hunting with both John (Sacha) and Jeff (jcbshark) on the Peace River. Both were very experienced and knowledgeable guides, who were very patient and accommodating to a not so experienced or knowledgeable visitor. But more importantly, and as many of you probably already know, both are just great guys to hang out with. The weather was great both days and I learned a lot hang out with them. The pictures attached below are an accumulation of the two days I spent with these guys. I will do my best to describe the fossils in the pictures, but as I mentioned, I'm not very knowledgeable about most fossils, but I'm learning. So if I miss ID any items, please correct me, as I don't want to spread misinformation on the site.

1st Picture: I believe this photo contains the following: Two alligator scutes, a glyptodont scute, what I'm guessing might be fish tilly bones (not sure though), a porpoise inner ear bone, unidentified tooth, drum fish teeth, deer tooth, and some fish vertebrae.

2nd Picture: Antlers

3rd Picture: Three alligator teeth, three puffer/parrot fish mouthplates, two fish spines, two shell casts???, and a bunch of ray mouth plates.

4th Picture: Some turtle shell (found a bunch but only kept a few), big fish vertebrae, unknown vertebrae, and a horse tooth.

5th Picture: My best find of the trip, a baby mammoth milk tooth (I'll add better pics later as this is the only one I have on this computer), and a couple pieces of bigger adult mammoth teeth.

6th Picture: A ray dermal denticle, a clam cast, two fish scales, another fish vert, and part of a mastodon tooth.

7th and 8th Pictures: Unknowns that I will probably post better pictures of in the ID section unless anyone wants to venture a guess. The second picture looks like some kind of hand or feet bones, but I really have no clue.

9th Picture: I do not think this is a fossil, but a modern cow vertebrae. It is very light and the color has changed a bit since removing from the bottom of a dug out hole in the river.

Shark Teeth Pictures: Here are the shark teeth I found. I laid out a couple of the better ones. I was really surprised at some of the colors on these teeth (I added a close up of a few of them), as most of the teeth I ever found on the Peace are black. I did find a little posterior meg with a dinged tip, some fraglodons, and a little unknown with a really thick root (another for the ID section).

Thanks for looking!

Jay

[Hunt4teeth]

I almost forgot. I also attended the Venice Shark Tooth Festival, which was a lot of fun. My wife, who is not the biggest fan of all the fossils I collect and/or buy, actually bought me the teeth pictured below for our anniversary. The first picture is two makos I bought from Bill (Megateeth) and the second is a gorgeous Summerville Carcharocles angustidens (the picture does not do it justice). The tooth is just over 3 inches long, is missing a cusp and has a tip dink, but I just loved the colors of it.

Jay

Edited April 28, 2015 by Hunt4teeth

[fossilized6s]

Wonderful report and finds, Jay! Quite the variety!

That milk tooth is stellar.

Did you do the "this is my last scoop, ahhh nothing. THIS is my last scoop, ooooo a nice (insert fossil find here). I must be in a good spot. I'll keep digging and sifting". Haha, i literally have to be drug out when I'm down there.

[Hunt4teeth]

Thanks Charlie, I had two great guides. The first day out was with John, and we had a great day with some nice finds, but when we got back to the cars I was not ready to stop. So I decided to walk the river and dig a little more. Of course this was my first day hunting, so I had a little more energy left in the tank. However, after three straight days of digging (I spent one day at Caspersen Beach as well) I was pretty spent and it took the rest of my energy to make it back to the car. I found the mammoth milk tooth in a somewhat unlikely digging spot. There was a natural hole in the river with a hard limestone bottom. There was very little gravel in the hole, but since the shovel was already in it, I decided to scrap the little bit of gravel out. I saw it right away in the sifter, and when I picked it up, I immediate thought it looked mammoth, but was afraid to say what I was thinking. I asked Jeff, "is this" and thought I better not say, I might embarrass myself. Jeff was like, "do you know what this is" and proceeded to say he believed it was a mammoth milk tooth, but neither of us was sure because of the small size.

Jay

[digit]

Great trip report. You were in great hands with John and Jeff. Looking briefly over your finds it seems you've got a handle on the IDs.

I found a baby mammoth 'spit tooth' several years ago but never an unerupted milk tooth--still on my Peace River bucket list.

Cheers.

-Ken

[jcbshark]

Great pics and finds Jay! It was a real pleasure getting to hunt with you, nice pieces from the shark tooth festival too: )

[Shellseeker]

Very nice, Jay. Hunting the Peace is addictive because you are constantly fed small shark teeth and mammoth fragments (depending on the spot selected). And then you can keep dreaming about the next sieve -- maybe a Meg or a Mammoth milk tooth or ????

The great finds always seem to be in those odd places. In the summer of 2012, I found a 9.5 inch sloth claw in one of those natural limestone "holes".. barely room for my shovel but the claw was laying in the bottom of the hole. Like I said .. you can keep dreaming.

The fish spines are catfish -- I have found both modern and fossilized.

[Auspex]

Ya' done good! Having two great companions who are masters of the art doesn't seem to have held you back...

The first image, third row, has three Tilly bones (you are correct), and what appears to be 'an odd geologic object'.

[JohnJ]

Trip reports like this just make me smile. Congrats on your finds and the knowledge they generate.

[mrieder79]

That big cream colored mako is great! I love the color. Looks like you had a really good trip. Glad to see you came up with so many fossils.

[amour 25]

Looks to be a good trip.

Nice finds.

Thanks for posting them.

[Hunt4teeth]

Thanks everyone for the replies and kind words, I had a lot of fun and all I can think about now that I'm back in Ohio is when can I go back. Jack, whenever I do make it back, you can bet I will be checking every hole I come across. Thanks for sharing your story and IDing the fish spines. Chas, I thought the "geologic object" was a porpoise inner ear bone, but then again, I thought a tilly bone Jeff sent me was a porpoise inner ear bone, so I'm not very good at IDing those either, ha!

Jay