Prospecting Trip

[Shellseeker]

Jlar7608 and I have been on many successful fossil hunting trips together, but at this specific time, we are lacking a favorite spot that produces lots of fascinating fossils. As a great example , I found a sloth mandible with 2 teeth on Jan 2nd, 2016  !!! It was a WoW.

This year we originally decided to go out December 31st, but postponed to Monday due to a cold front rolling thru. It was a prospecting trip to a creek location we had never been to previously. There were some concerns like low water, not likely to be above 2 feet, lots  more vegetation in the smaller creeks.  steep side walls and the likelihood of bumping into animals.

It was not what I would say was my most successful outing.  My single fossil was a piece of a turtle shell.  Jlar did slightly better with a maybe cow/bison astragulus, a complete but modern turtle shell, a nice coral head, and a couple of fossilized bones. And we did see a couple of river otters, one of which disputed our pretense in his/her hunting grounds.

 

The REAL story of the day was the vegetation crossing the creek!!!

 

Let me do a blow_up here just in case you missed it.  That is Jlar in front of his Kayak -- We agreed that I would be the trip photographer, sooooooooooooooo I could not be holding the hacksaw, machete, or whatever..

 

Jlar is up to his waist in creek water, trying to determine which path is going to be easiest to cut through.

There were 10 or so of these types of barriers in the approximate 2 miles we advanced into the interior, porting kayaks and gear up , over and around, the obstacles. 

The GOOD news is that we did not find any outstanding honey holes that will encourage us to go back to this creek. I was bushed when I got home last night, and every muscle hurt when I woke this morning. But I did have a lot of fun --- Jlar and I always have a great time when we go fossil hunting

 

A couple of non_fossil finds...

 

Here is an odd modern turtle shell:

 

 

So, a question: the turtle shell has 4 tiny holes, 2 on each side. I have speculated but would be interested in other suggestions on how/why the holes are there.  I am still thinking about it. Shellseeker  -- my name matched this creek -- there were lots of broken fossil shells in the creek'.

[digit]

The two cusps on the inside lip of the carapace about 1/3 down the body from the front make me wonder if this isn't a carapace from an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)? It would seem to me that there might be some sort of indication on the upper carapace where the hinge of the two parts of the lower plastron meet. My only experience with this species is the solitary individual I find wandering around my yard every couple of years. It has a distinctive scrape on the shell so I know it is the same one visiting periodically.

 

I can think of no reasons why the carapace might naturally have a pair of holes on either side. It certainly would not have had these while the creature was alive. In the second photo above it appears that there might be a beveled edge to the hole suggesting that it was punched from the exterior. Box turtle is pretty immune to most predation due to its unusual capability of tucking in its legs and pulling its plastron tight to its carapace like some sort of weird terrapin-mollusk hybridization experiment.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_box_turtle

 

The fact that there is a symmetrical pair of holes punched through the carapace in the front and the back seem to discount predation marks. There likely would be some scratches and scrapes accompanying any successful bite wounds on either end. I'm starting to wonder if these might not be man-made perforations? I wonder if the Native Americans might have used such a carapace for some utilitarian or ornamental purpose and possibly some sort of cords might have been strung through these holes? This is, of course, just wild speculation but I cannot at this time come up with any other potentially credible explanation. I wonder if you might learn more if you cleaned up this specimen a bit and shot images from all appropriate angles and sent photos to FLMNH?

 

Did just come across this on an internet search:

 

https://tennesseearchaeologycouncil.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/the-production-of-prehistoric-turtle-shell-rattles-in-tennessee/

http://www.academia.edu/5366065/An_Exploration_of_Turtle_Shell_Rattle_Manufacture_in_the_Mississippian_Period

 

Not much on this prospecting trip but you sure got a mystery out of it.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Shellseeker]

Thanks, Ken GREAT reply.  It got me thinking and searching the net -- looking for the same kinds of holes,  http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/native-american-pottery-non-lithic-artifacts-gc23/182776-new-museum-turtle-shell-artifact

Following your thought process, I eliminated these holes being natural or caused by predation, and that leaves the concept that these holes must have been done by humans. If you read some of the suggestions on the above posts, you see possibilities for both Indian and modern humans over the last couple of thousand years.

I know that there are some "tells" you can discover from the type of hole. Because of the tools they had, artifact drill holes should be cone shaped. There are other points discussed in the link above.

In another thread, I stated that I met an artifact collector /expert on Sunday.  Here a a couple of thought provoking Florida Artifacts that might relate to holes in turtle shells. 1st - An Artifact drill:

 

Hmmmm, Can not show you the 2nd photo of a drilled Meg Artifact because I added & deleted a 1.5mb incorrect photo and now it refuses to add the correct 1.5mb photo even though I only used 923kb of the 4mb max allowed.  Oh well, another time.  Thanks again

 

[ynot]

3 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

, Can not show you the 2nd photo of a drilled Meg Artifact because I added & deleted a 1.5mb incorrect photo and now it refuses to add the correct 1.5mb photo even though I only used 923kb of the 4mb max allowed.  Oh well, another time.  Thanks again

 

When that happens You can hit refresh and it will let You upload the picture.

Tony

[Shellseeker]

Thanks Tony.  I learn something new every....

This Meg has conical drill holes and also a COA...  ENJOY !!!!!

[ynot]

I agree with the turtle shell being an artifact, possibly used as a rattle.

The meg had to be a big chief's prize pendent.

Nice finds!!

 

Tony

[digit]

Turtle rattle was my (completely uninformed) opinion as well after doing some internet searching. Can't claim to be an expert but I could get in a lucky guess.

 

I've seen some guys coming down the Peace River in a camo-painted canoe with a pit bull and a cooler full of Miller Light and Lynyrd Skynyrd playing loudly on the boom box who I could see sporting that meg tooth around their necks.

 

An artifact of that type might make you think twice about hacking your way back upstream again.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[JohnJ]

My kind of creek hunting. 

 

I'll submit that the tortoise shell is not an artifact.  The holes can result from four spots where the carapace is naturally thinner.  I've attached some quick photos of one I found about 25 years ago. 

 

Notice the larger and smaller hole worn through in the rear of the shell.  Also, notice the cupped divots (part of the natural morphology) on the underside of the front of the shell in the same location as holes on your find.  On my specimen, they have not worn through, yet.  The symmetry of the holes on your carapace are due to natural morphology inside the shell. 

 

front

 

rear

 

 

[Harry Pristis]

I don't see both pairs of holes in Jack's images.  If the holes are indeed drilled, this may be a box turtle rattle, a well-documented Native American artifact.  Maybe it was only recently excavated after several hundred years of burial.  Still, it is more than amazing that the carapace is still intact.  On the other hand, maybe this was a re-inactor's prop not long ago. 

 

If the holes are not drilled and more-or-less symmetrical, it is the recent remains of an unfortunate Terrapene.

 

 

[digit]

John, funny you mention the natural weak spots in the carapace as I did consider that as an explanation as well. Good to see that that line of thinking had some merit as well. Not real easy to see from the photos presented above but it appeared to me that the holes might have been broken through from the outside of the carapace leaving a conical fracture rim around the hole on the inside. I think a new set of photos showing a more close-up view of both the inside and outside surfaces of both sets of holes (with good lighting so there are no shadows) might provide better evidence to support a more certain diagnosis as to how the holes were formed.

 

Looking forward to when Jack has some time to provide more photographic evidence on this interesting find. The Peace River area is due for some unseasonable rain this Saturday and then a cold snap on Sunday so maybe Jack will stay home and play photographer instead. Hard to keep a passionate man like Jack from the river but inclement weather might do the trick.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken