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A lot of concerns about going out today due to weather.  It turned out gorgeous: warm with a mixture favoring sun over clouds. But it was windy!!! My kayak, tied off to a small tree, was whipping back and forth in a semicircle banging into the bank.

I lost my baseball cap 3 times, twice chasing it downstream before it sank. After the 3rd time, I just dug capless! I was digging in heavy gravel, an 8 inch layer tightly packed under a sand layer 8 inches thick. It seemed like  heavy gravel (size of golf balls) discard pile but I was finding some nice small shark teeth and slightly damaged horse teeth (4), plus a damaged bison molar, plus 2 larger chunks of mammoth, and a number of various size earbones, and a few broken meg fragments.  A little strange but I was starting to anticipate a great! find.

Then this 2.5x3 inch fossil pops into the screen and my 1st reaction, only lasting a second or two was Rhino. But I was confused until I turned it over.

IMG_2116Side2.jpg

 

Side #2 makes it clear... Another great day in the neighborhood.

IMG_2105side!.jpg

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Nice report! But I don't know what I am looking at? :( Please excuse my ignorance. 

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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42 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

A lot of concerns about going out today due to weather.  It turned out gorgeous: warm with a mixture favoring sun over clouds. But it was windy!!! My kayak, tied off to a small tree, was whipping back and forth in a semicircle banging into the bank.

I lost my baseball cap 3 times, twice chasing it downstream before it sank. After the 3rd time, I just dug capless! I was digging in heavy gravel, an 8 inch layer tightly packed under a sand layer 8 inches thick. It seemed like  heavy gravel (size of golf balls) discard pile but I was finding some nice small shark teeth and slightly damaged horse teeth (4), plus a damaged bison molar, plus 2 larger chunks of mammoth, and a number of various size earbones, and a few broken meg fragments.  A little strange but I was starting to anticipate a great! find.

Then this 2.5x3 inch fossil pops into the screen and my 1st reaction, only lasting a second or two was Rhino. But I was confused until I turned it over.

IMG_2116Side2.jpg

 

Side #2 makes it clear... Another great day in the neighborhood.

IMG_2105side!.jpg

 

Hey, who knew it !!! It's windy here in Houston, Texas too. The wind even shakes the car!!! 

 

"Without fossils, no one would have ever dreamed that there were successive epochs in the formation of the earth" - Georges Cuvier

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2 minutes ago, ynot said:

I think @Shellseeker is playing a game here.

 

So who is right, or are We all wrong?

 

Tony

Sorry Tony.  We see a lot of it here in the Peace River.  It is a Mastodon tooth fragment that has been split (unusual) vertically through the lophs. That light colored enamel you see is unique to Mastodon,

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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6 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

Sorry Tony.  We see a lot of it here in the Peace River.  It is a Mastodon tooth fragment that has been split (unusual) vertically through the lophs. That light colored enamel you see is unique to Mastodon,

OK, That is a neat find.:dinothumb:

Thanks for the explanation for those of Us that are ignorant of such things!:blink:

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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I was on the river today south of the 70 bridge in Arcadia, if I may ask, whereabouts were you?

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27 minutes ago, Peace river rat said:

I was on the river today south of the 70 bridge in Arcadia, if I may ask, whereabouts were you?

Only reason I ask, I have seen a few guys just down from the bridge digging a few days in a row, just wondering if it was you, not trying to zero in on your "honey hole"

If it is not my business, that's ok.

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48 minutes ago, Peace river rat said:

Only reason I ask, I have seen a few guys just down from the bridge digging a few days in a row, just wondering if it was you, not trying to zero in on your "honey hole"

If it is not my business, that's ok.

 

I was digging south of the RT 70 Arcadia bridge on January 6th only. I have been digging in Horse Creek 3 times this year trying to find "Honey holes" All 4 trips were less than successful -- a handful of small shark teeth for a full days work. The reason that I am prospecting new honey holes is that many of the ones I had last year have "played out".  Usually, I can not share honey holes because they are not mine alone to share. - Like most fossil hunters I have friends who hunt with me and look dimly on me sharing their "honey holes".

 

Today, I was prospecting and digging upstream of Heard Bridge Wauchula. I have a general idea of where the fields of gravel are. The gravel may be under 5-10 inches of sand or other material. When I reach the gravel field, I get out of my kayak and walk the kayak up the river, probing with a 5 foot metal rod. When the gravel "sounds" hard packed or big enough chunks, I dig thru the sand, gravel, to bedrock, clay, or mud.

What I find determines whether I move on or continue digging there.

 

Good Hunting, 

 

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Cool, that sounds about right, I have been digging an area and trying not to dig to scattershot, but rather in holes fairly close so my area does not play out, either.

I wonder if a played out area is replenished next year after high water?

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8 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

 

 

Today, I was prospecting and digging upstream of Heard Bridge Wauchula.

 

 

Didn't lose any truck parts this time Jack?

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3 hours ago, Sacha said:

 

Didn't lose any truck parts this time Jack?

It is only the memory of the vandalism that remains, and unfortunately I can not help but think of the incident whenever I park the pickup at Heard Bridge. Life is too short, creating memories too important to allow past events to intrude.  Hoping those fossil gods are treating you well, John

 

10 hours ago, Peace river rat said:

Cool, that sounds about right, I have been digging an area and trying not to dig to scattershot, but rather in holes fairly close so my area does not play out, either.

I wonder if a played out area is replenished next year after high water?

 

The dynamics of the Peace River are complex and allow for various likely interpretations. In general, I do not believe that fossils are "replenished" from the surrounding land/river banks. Fossils are being depleted and the more people who seek fossils, the faster the fossils will disappear. However, high water moves massive rocks, boulders, concrete blocks and logs down river. It makes sense layers of sand and gravel move also, both exposing and covering up fossils.  The smaller fossils in the top layers of gravel will tend to move during high water, but larger fossils deep under the gravel do not move.

Effectively, small fossils are replenished from fossils in the river upstream.

 

An Example: My first fossil mentor, Bill Shaver and I had a honey hole that we worked 3-4 times a week for most of 2012.  It had Megs, LOTS of Hemis, dire wolf, horse, even a rhino horn... Fantastic.. We find thousands of hemis!!!

Twopoint5cm.jpgMatchedAt1point5inches.jpg

After a year, we felt we had dug out all the fossils and gravel and moved on...

In November, 2013 a new addition to our team stopped in the same general area and found some glyptodon osteoderms down on the bedrock. 10 feet from the hole I dug in 2012, I found this.. under 8 inches of gravel laying on bedrock.

Picture2 002cm.jpg

The lesson here was that we had NOT dug out the honey hole... There were great fossils down deep and close.  This time in the first 6 months of 2014 , we grided the area and dug every section of gravel for 100 yards, once again leaving the played out area.

One of my hunting partners goes back there today, He finds 100s of small shark (Bull, Lemons, Dusky, Hemi, Tiger) teeth with an occasional Meg or Horse tooth. These were redistributed from upstream.

 

 

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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I keep hoping for a mastodon, so far, only fragments:(. What you say about redistribution makes perfect sense. I cant wait to get a decent camera, I tried photoing a really large vert I found, my phones camera is useless. This vert is about 5 inches tall and big around as an 8 ounce beer can. Dying to find out what it is (flat on both ends). I know what 90% of what I have is. I cant wait to get a decent camera to share. Thanks for the input.

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On 1/23/2017 at 1:53 PM, Peace river rat said:

I keep hoping for a mastodon, so far, only fragments:(. What you say about redistribution makes perfect sense. I cant wait to get a decent camera, I tried photoing a really large vert I found, my phones camera is useless. This vert is about 5 inches tall and big around as an 8 ounce beer can. Dying to find out what it is (flat on both ends). I know what 90% of what I have is. I cant wait to get a decent camera to share. Thanks for the input.

It sounds like a whale vert.

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57 minutes ago, jlar7607 said:

It sounds like a whale vert.

That is what I was thinking, can't wait to post pics, coming soon. Thanks.

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