Second trip to the Peace River this season

[digit]

Heard back from Dr. Hulbert today. It's always a great treat when a busy person takes a little time out of his day to spread some knowledge.

 

As expected, the best identification likely for that small 1" (2.5 cm) phalanx is some sort of medium-sized carnivore (something like a raccoon, fox, bobcat, otter or similar). Daniel (@calhounensis) was right on the money noting the carnivorous tendencies of its former owner. Daniel, was also spot on for the mystery cheek teeth. The little 3-rooted molar is probably an upper from a raccoon. From the images I can locate online, this looks to be a probable match. The thinner tooth with the two broken roots is, as Daniel called it, a lower premolar. Dr. Hulbert thinks it is likely a deciduous lower premolar from a deer.

 

Nice to be able to understand my finds and enjoy the research process involved in learning about them.

 

My brother and his wife are escaping the cold of Chicago and spending a long weekend with us in (hopefully) sunny South Florida. If weather and water levels hold, we're going to try to get out to the Peace again this weekend. We'll likely hit the extensive (and well-known) gravel bed downstream from Brownville which will be an easy (and hopefully productive) spot it we can get into some material that is not some other hunter's spoil pile. Fingers crossed for another trip to the Peace (and possibly another trip report if we turn up anything worthy of one).

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Harry Pristis]

1 hour ago, digit said:

Heard back from Dr. Hulbert today. It's always a great treat when a busy person takes a little time out of his day to spread some knowledge.

 . . .

Cheers.

-Ken

 

I, too, am happy to have information from Richard Hulbert.  You do understand, don't you, that providing information to collectors is part of his job description.

[digit]

I do understand that but the fact that I can get that information with a minimal turnaround and not weeks after an inquiry is nice. I deal with a lot of scientists on a range of topics and many times I've almost forgotten the question by the time I receive the answer.

 

Between Dr. Hulbert and the knowledgeable experts on various subject matter on TFF, I just might learn something if I'm not careful. Harry, pictures are worth 1K words and I'm grateful for your illustrated posts.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[digit]

UPDATE: The little carnivore phalanx that Dr. Hulbert confirmed for me earlier has revealed itself to be modern and not fossilized. Before I had a chance to take a flame to it to see (or rather smell ) if there was any protein left in this specimen (outing it as non-mineralized), the still porous bone dried out and the stress during desiccation popped off a chip of the surface revealing its bone colored interior. The phalanx felt heavy for its size leading me to believe that it might be mineralized but now that it is dried out it is clearly too light and I would likely have deduced its non-fossil status the next time I picked it up.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken