May Mammoth Mania #2

[Shellseeker]

1st let me make an admission about the title: There were a number of large mammoth bones found (but not by me). The largest fragment of a mammoth tooth WAS found by me and was about 3x1.25 inches. Possibly hunting partners will show some of the photos.

Over the past 3 weeks I have been hopscotching over some of Sacha's hunting locations and to be truthful, I was invited to come along on the magic trip that found those 3 Mammoth teeth, and declined!!! Paths not taken....

Yesterday I met with Sacha at 7am -- he really likes to get there early and leave early. Sacha also had a couple of TFF members from northern states and one, Bill, was on his first trip to the Peace River. Before we launched, Bill said he hoped to find a Meg about 2 inches.

We went to a location about 1/2 mile below where I have recently been hunting on my own. The river is low. We had to port kayaks at 3 or 4 spots where the water was below 4 inches deep. The weather was gorgeous, in the 90s but we all were cooled by the river.

In the beginning, I was scraping limestone and looking for deeper pockets in the limestone. I found some small sharks teeth and a canine that I could not identify. I'll post that one below this line hoping for an ID.

Somewhat strange, solid center seems to eliminate Gator/Croc. And then longitudinal rather than the latitudinal lines that could indicate whale.

I moved closed to the bank, found a gravel vein running parallel to the bank on top of clay. This was far more productive. A couple of Horse teeth, camel tooth, a few broken Megs, Glypto-Dillo-Gator osterderms, horse astragulas, numerous small shark teeth and a few nice upper hemis. Larger turtle/tortoise chunks mixed with large bones started showing up.

This next one gave my shovel that fossil chime, rather that wood, rock or bottle. Rather than risk mangling with shovel, I moved it with my toe halfway up the slope of the hole I was digging, took a gulp of air (emulating Bill's techniques) and grabbed it. I was thinking mammoth tooth, but was equally pleased with this find. !!!

I think this is a great find and here is my strawman: Mylodon family Sloth lower right mandible with 5 tooth sockets. Using these photos can I confirm as Jeffersons or Harlans? It is certainly a big plus for my Sloth collection!

A couple of more photos:

Thanks to Sacha for sharing and for bringing non-Floridian TFFs members to the joys of the Peace River. I will look for other hunters on this trip to add their photos and comments. SS

Edited July 31, 2015 by Cris

[digit]

Sweet sloth mandible!

I don't know if the Peace River is giving up more interesting mammal items recently or if I'm just more focused on it than usual. Over the years I've found many a small fragment of larger bones and wondered if it could be sloth instead of horse, bison, or another large mammal. In many cases the only way to be sure is to find an entire bone instead of an out of context unplaceable fragment or even better, a tooth which is more diagnostic (at least to family or genus). A big old chunk of sloth mandible would definitely be a trip-maker for me. It's good to see that a few more prizes are being rescued from the hidden treasuries in the Peace River before the summer rains have us dreaming of next season.

Wish you could have made it with us when John and I were experiencing our "embarrassment of riches" with the mammoth bits we lucked into. Also wish I could have made it out again to the river yesterday but I was (uncharacteristically) a good boy and worked diligently on some editing that I'm behind on. (Wonder why I'm behind?--Oh, yeah, because of fossil hunting).

Looking forward to seeing what the others in the group found for their efforts out on the river.


Cheers.


-Ken

Congrats! Only three more to go.

I have whiskers and a tail but I don't meow.
Many of us are venomous and hunt at night.
What are we?

Edited July 31, 2015 by Cris
Scavenger Hunt Contest

[Raggedy Man]

Fantastic report! Thankyou for sharing. I look forward to posts regarding forum member meet ups!

Edited May 28, 2015 by Raggedy Man

[Sacha]

As anyone would expect, Jack came away with probably the best find of the day. Bill's meg took a close second place considering his first trip to the Peace. Herb and Pam were pretty quiet about their finds, but I expect some hard earned treasures.

My take was disappointing, more in alignment with my usual finds for a single day. I should have taken some trip pictures (Julianna rightly suggested it), but I was too busy shoveling to produce a historic record of us all neck deep in the river.

Here's mine. Best was a deer premolar, a broken ray plate and a sloth something or other (broken).

[digit]

It is often difficult to remember that I have a camera tucked away in a dry bag in the kayak and have often carted it to and from the river without ever pressing the shutter. For such the photo geek that I am, I find that my wife remembers to take more photos during these outings than I do. My excuse is "Sifter Myopia"

Hopefully, a few others might have captured a candid moment out on the river. Looking forward to seeing the things the others found (big or small). Oh, and a meg on the first outing on the Peace--I should have been so lucky 8 years ago.

Good work all. And a big thanks to John for organizing another group outing to grace this forum.

Cheers.

-Ken

[jcbshark]

Great find guys!!! Too bad that jaw doesn't have any teeth in it but sweet find nonetheless!!!!

[old bones]

Wow, You all did great again! Love the sloth mandible.

John, I think I can understand the reluctance to stop shoveling...if I were there, searching would be all I could think of.

[MrTrilobiteMan]

Wow, Looks like you all had some great finds and a wonderful time in doing so. I love the deer premolar, very unique and with a big gulp, that Sloth mandible- WOW very cool! I envy you all and wish I could have joined in on the fun!

Edited May 29, 2015 by MrTrilobiteMan

[PrehistoricFlorida]

The mandible is from a juvenile mastodon.

[Shellseeker]

Wow Nate. I was searching around all evening because I could not match up the 5? tooth sockets in this jaw to either Mylodon or Megalonyx. As I opened up this thread just now, I was thinking " I hope that Nate or Harry steps in here because I no longer have any confidence on which Sloth I am looking at.

Well I am relieved -- thanks. It is not sloth, but Mastodon. I am sure that you realized I am at least as pleased and probably more pleased that this is Mastodon rather than Sloth. Can you determine how many teeth this jaw contained. Is it three? Do you have photos of any teeth that could have fit this jaw?

Thanks again for the Identification. Jack

EDIT: Here is a TFF thread from PrehistoricFlorida that answers my question -- The jaw originally contained. A couple of 2 humpers and a 3 humper.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/27264-juvenile-mastodon-jaws/

Really impressive...

Edited May 29, 2015 by Shellseeker

[PrehistoricFlorida]

Wow Nate. I was searching around all evening because I could not match up the 5? tooth sockets in this jaw to either Mylodon or Megalonyx. As I opened up this thread just now, I was thinking " I hope that Nate or Harry steps in here because I no longer have any confidence on which Sloth I am looking at.

Well I am relieved -- thanks. It is not sloth, but Mastodon. I am sure that you realized I am at least as pleased and probably more pleased that this is Mastodon rather than Sloth. Can you determine how many teeth this jaw contained. Is it three? Do you have photos of any teeth that could have fit this jaw?

Thanks again for the Identification. Jack

EDIT: Here is a TFF thread from PrehistoricFlorida that answers my question -- The jaw originally contained. A couple of 2 humpers and a 3 humper.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/27264-juvenile-mastodon-jaws/

Really impressive...

Correct, three teeth. Keep looking, maybe you'll find them.

[fossilized6s]

Great finds guys! Color me jealous.

I think this tooth got passed up. Is this Rhino? Or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

[Sacha]

Great finds guys! Color me jealous.

I think this tooth got passed up. Is this Rhino? Or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

IMG_20150529_104509.jpg

I don't know what it is Charlie, but it's really worn. Here's the grinding surface:

[digit]

Whoa! Worn or not--that is a COOL looking molar. Too busy at the moment to flip through my ID books so I'm hoping someone sees this and saves me the research. At first blush it seems it might match up with a dugong molar but I'm way out of my depth when it comes to uncommon mammal molars.

-Ken

[fossilized6s]

I would lean more towards Dugong also. But here's a link to compare in-hand, John.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/gallery/image/27725-rhino-upper-cheek-teeth/

[digit]

Wow! Isn't the rhino jaw in that link amazing! I'd pass out face first into my sifter if I ever came across something that nice. Looks like that must have come from a land site (sinkhole?) to be in that spectacular condition. Rhino teeth seem bigger but, of course, there had to be baby rhinos as well. John's tooth is well worn but it kinda looks like two lophs and one of them (on the left) has an interesting infolding. Hoping that makes it distinctive enough to assign to a species. John may have a hidden trip-maker in his pile without realizing it.

Cheers.

-Ken

[Auspex]

"...found insensate, face down in his sifter."

There's an image that will stick with me!

[digit]

[PrehistoricFlorida]

I don't know what it is Charlie, but it's really worn. Here's the grinding surface:

tooth1.jpg

Dugong. Nice find.

[digit]

Thanks for the confirmation. Happy to see my instincts weren't off on this. John got his trip-maker with this after all. I still haven't found any dugong dentition yet so I still have a lot of open slots on my Peace River bucket list and this is one of them.

Cheers.

-Ken

[Sacha]

Well, that is a surprise. I almost threw it back because of the condition. It's much larger than the 2 or 3 other dugong teeth I have that Hulbert ID'd for me.

[FLINTandBONE]

Sorry for the late post, I have had to get back to the honeymoon stuff. I want to first start off by thanking everyone whom was there for this outing and especially Sacha for allowing me to use his equipment. I had a great time with a great group of people! I did indeed say that I wanted to find a meg about 2 inches for a pendant and the one I found will make a good one. One interesting find is a little claw (if it is what I think it is) in the meg photo. Shellseeker too seemed excited with this find and any help with the ID would be appreciated. I also wonder about that white sliver of bone/ivory. Among other things that will be coming home with me will be 152 small teeth of various species and 3 pieces of mammoth and mastodon knees and skull (which I didn't post pics of) and various other species bones and teeth and a nice piece of turtle shell all of which I find terribly interesting. You Floridians certainly are lucky. I now know where I will someday retire

Edited May 31, 2015 by FLINTandBONE

[digit]

You look like you did quite well for a first time out--helps to have Sacha on your team. Heard you wanted to find a meg and looks like you succeeded in that--a real nice one.

Glad you were able to get out and experience the special experience that probably 0.001% of Floridians know about. We're not all about beaches and alligators. Now that you've had a taste--you're well and truly hooked. Hope to meet you next time you visit our odd little state at the SE corner of the country. Glad you had fun--tell all your friends.

Not a clue what that little claw-like fossil is but with any luck someone will chime-in.

Cheers.

-Ken

[jcbshark]

That's a sweet posterior meg you found there. ) I think the other piece is a tooth but I'll let the experts decide

[Shellseeker]

The claw-tooth seemed different. 1) If it was tooth, no distinct enamel versus root material, 2) The back facing camera seemed similar shape (flattened) both above and below the notch and 3) the notch seemed deeper and circularly consistent.

It did not seem to be dolphin tooth and thus unknown to me, SS