Christmas Eve Peace River Group Hunt 2017

[Cam28]

Very humbling as always to fossil hunt with people as enthusiastic, if not more in some ways, this sunday morning/afternoon with @Sacha and @Max-fossils. Great time talking fossils, Florida, etc. as well as finding my favorite commodities. Not very many people on the river today, still wonder why lol.. 

 

Not my best day on the Peace by any means, but still very fun & if I had to choose between quality & quantity, I choose the former and got just that. One really seems to be a wolf/bear dog?/ at least coyote premolar or molar in a jaw frag, has to be one of those or a similar species based on size alone. Not many hemi's, megs, few tigers, but I was barely getting any shark teeth in the first quarter of the hunt (using my 0.5" screen) so I'm happy to walk away with that haul lol. Also like the colors on my largest hemi of the day (the lower w/o much root). Also a nice porcupinefish/pufferfish mouthplate pretty early on, along with the carnivore tooth. & my 2nd glyptodon scute ever, also a nice christmas surprise.

 

Saw a few gators on the way back, got quite a workout on the way upstream to the digging spot (would be suprised if nothing is sore tomorrow). Few more unknowns, maybe mammoth ivory, but I might post those later if need be. Just mostly curious about that canine molar/p. molar. Ironic or at least funny bc I just found my first terrestrial carnivore/omnivore tooth on my previous fossil hunt (a much smaller bear molar)

 

Not to steal all the thunder, spoiler alert a sloth claw core was found along w/ some colorful shark teeth..

 

(not many pics on the river because I know Sacha & Max/his family took a few)

 

P.s. Thanks again Sacha for organizing this hunt & loaning the kayak, & thanks Max for the unexpected goody bag; I'll have to get with you to confirm the correct ID's after I give it my best attempt. +Merry Xmas to all & safe travels!

 

[Spinosaurus]

nice ones!

[Nimravis]

Great trip report- looks like the 3 of you had a great day on the river.

[Sacha]

It was a beautiful day to be out and Paul was right, we had the river to ourselves. I only took a couple of snaps, but you can see these guys are serious fossil hunters. Max (Max-Fossils) on the left and Paul (Cam23) on the right.

 

 

 

 

I'll post my limited take after the sun comes up.

[caldigger]

What would you say the temperature of the water was?  It has been a very long time since I have been in a river that didn't require a minimum of a full 7mm wetsuit and still be chilled.

I miss those days!

[Sacha]

34 minutes ago, caldigger said:

What would you say the temperature of the water was?  It has been a very long time since I have been in a river that didn't require a minimum of a full 7mm wetsuit and still be chilled.

I miss those days!

 

I wore a full 5 mm suit, but with the air temp in the 80's these guys and Max's family were comfortable so it must have still been in the 70's.

[Sacha]

Here was my rather meager take for the day.

 

 

It included these 2 little weird things that I can't judge the completeness of. The narrow one looks like a type of fish grinding plate/jaw. The other one escapes me.

 

 

[jcbshark]

Nice finds guys, congrats!

[caldigger]

1 hour ago, Sacha said:

 

 

 

 

I would ID that as a light Sea Foam green terry cloth towel, perhaps of an Egyptian cotton make up.  Great find!

[Max-fossils]

The hunt sure was a lot of fun! 

 

Paul already took the time to make a good trip report, so all I have to do is add a few personal details: the kayaking, which was my first time, was pretty fun but tiring at the same time. There were some cool animals though: two big gators on the way back, some big herons, creepy yet cool buzzards, and nice ibises (apparently the ibises are very common here in Florida; but to me they seem like very exotic birds, like the buzzards! Probably because you’ve got nothing like them in the Netherlands). Also, I was only in a small t-shirt and swimming trunks, no wetsuit or water resistant clothes. Though I didn’t feel cold at the time, I am now not feeling very well (very tired, slightly dizzy and lots of coughing)... Should have been more careful!

 

John and Paul were great company! Very generous and knowledgeable people. They both taught me how to dig holes the best, and it sure was useful because I found a lot. They also gave me some fossils that they found: Paul gave me some nice turtle scutes; and John gifted me with two nice glyptodont scutes, half of a meg, and a wonderful sand dollar that will be very fun to prep!

 

Here is my total haul:

 

Though some of you guys that frequently go there might think that this is not a very impressive haul, I am still extremely happy with it, especially for my first time there. Also, I wasn’t as picky as others might be, because every fossil really impressed me. For some reason I found lots more hemi’s than tigers; though I thought that hemi’s were less common. 

 

Highlights:

[Max-fossils]

A small dolphin tooth. Not 100% complete, but most of it is there and I sure like it a lot!

This one looks like a small shortfin mako tooth, Isurus oxyrinchus. Apparently a rarer species here in Florida.

A really tiny pufferfish mouth plate, ?Chilomycterus sp.

And some very colorful fossils! My hole was next to some clay, and apparently clay like that are from sediments imported from the Bone Valley. So I got lucky to find some Bone Valley fossils in the Peace River!!! Definitely didn’t expect that. 

[Max-fossils]

And likely my best find of the day: a partial (likely three-toed) horse tooth!!! 

 

 

 

John and Paul, thanks once again for this unforgettable day!

[Al Dente]

3 hours ago, Sacha said:

 The narrow one looks like a type of fish grinding plate/jaw. 

This looks like one of the grinding plates from a red drum.

[digit]

Looks like you all had good fun and had a memorable day out on the Peace. I'm glad that John and Paul were able to take you out so you got to experience first hand what you've likely read and seen here on TFF many times before. Any day out digging and sifting on the Peace is a good day--when you get some cool fossils it quickly becomes a great day.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Cam28]

3 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

A small dolphin tooth. Not 100% complete, but most of it is there and I sure like it a lot!

This one looks like a small shortfin mako tooth, Isurus oxyrinchus. Apparently a rarer species here in Florida.

A really tiny pufferfish mouth plate, ?Chilomycterus sp.

And some very colorful fossils! My hole was next to some clay, and apparently clay like that are from sediments imported from the Bone Valley. So I got lucky to find some Bone Valley fossils in the Peace River!!! Definitely didn’t expect that. 

Nice finds Max forgot you found that mako, believe I didn't see it while being busy attempting to play catch-up lol. I've found several hastalis's but no Isurus sp. specimens yet

[jcbshark]

Nice little Mako Max and congrats on the bone valley colors, definitely a nice change from the normal black stuff

[Max-fossils]

6 hours ago, digit said:

Looks like you all had good fun and had a memorable day out on the Peace. I'm glad that John and Paul were able to take you out so you got to experience first hand what you've likely read and seen here on TFF many times before. Any day out digging and sifting on the Peace is a good day--when you get some cool fossils it quickly becomes a great day.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

You got it all right! But it wasn’t just a great day... It was a fantastic day! 

 

John and Paul, and you too, as well as many others on TFF, are very lucky people to live next to such an awesome location. 

 

5 hours ago, Cam28 said:

Nice finds Max forgot you found that mako, believe I didn't see it while being busy attempting to play catch-up lol. I've found several hastalis's but no Isurus sp. specimens yet

Well I must have forgotten to show it to you. I remember asking John if shortfin makos occurred here (he answered that they did, but were pretty uncommon) , but I’m not sure if I showed it to any of you. I wasn’t actually that excited to find that one... probably because they are pretty common in Miocene-Pliocene sediments in Europe. But when I got back to the hotel and took it out of my bag I realized that it must be slightly special. 

 

2 hours ago, jcbshark said:

Nice little Mako Max and congrats on the bone valley colors, definitely a nice change from the normal black stuff

Indeed it is! A great surprise for me.

[oldtimer]

Sounds like and looks like you guys had an amazing time.  Very nice finds.  Max, glad our Florida guys treated you to such a fun place to go.

Very nice pictures and write ups.  Thanks for sharing.

I think the fang tooth is my favorite.

[ynot]

Was very nice of  Paul and John to show You around their home turf.

Looks like all 3 of You made out with the fossils!

Have a safe trip home Max.

[DENKIDUDE]

Thanks for sharing makes me want to go back to the Peace River. You guys had awesome guides as well! Merry Christmas! To all!

[Max-fossils]

@oldtimer @ynot @DENKIDUDE Merry Xmas to you guys too  And I was lucky to have such great company in such a great place!

 

Tony, thanks for the “have a safe trip home”, hopefully it will be easier than the way to Florida... We had a connecting flight, so first Amsterdam-Atlanta, then Atlanta-Orlando; unfortunately we got caught up in the Atlanta power outage  So instead of the total trip lasting about 12 hours, it lasted 48 and we didn’t have our luggage for two days... I really hope that the way back home goes better!

[smt126]

Sounds like it was a great tff trip out there.  I too would probably keep every bit I found no matter how good it was or not. Thanks for sharing with us.