1st Time Huntin' Hogtown Creek/ N FL

[Cam28]

No work today so decided to have some fun & at least cross this off my list. Being same age as Peace River/creeks (mid mio- possibly early plio) & hearing some hype about it, knew it couldn't be too shabby..

 

 

 

Very very shallow, like about a foot or 2 of water on average (most digging/sifting done on my knees). Surprising for a long creek. Seeing gravel on some of the banks, gut feeling I wouldn't have too hard a time finding rocks and indeed didn't for most of the spots I hit. Mostly smaller stuff, might be bigger gravel spots I'm sure, just no luck with it this time. But didn't mean I didn't find nothing noteworthy..

 

 

Early on found a unique vertebrae, looks like snake, surprised the delicate spiny processes were still intact. Mostly typical grey shark teeth from the time period (lemon, bull, tiger, snaggle) but I'm sure there's lamnids too in there.

 

 

Eventually found my largest grey shark vertebrae to date, a whopper compared to my micro one in my trip to a phosphate mine! But still relatively small, almost the radius the size of a dime, bought one recently before today that dwarfs it, but still a great uncommon find in my book.

 

 

Lots of trash, I suppose from decades of "good ol boys" being there, both large stuff along the banks and remnants dug up, exponentially more than Peace river & Joshua creek. But also more colorful shark teeth on average & some pretty rocks (threw back frags of red ones early on, thought it was man-made before finding more of them). Overall lighter colored rocks too than the area much farther south I'm use to digging up (fortunate I guess I live in central FL). 

 

 

 

Yeah felt like I found more than that, some holes provided more than others.. definitely felt on par with the Peace river overall, just not as scenic of course. Still, I'd go there again perhaps..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Macrophyseter]

Nice haul!

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds! 

Definitely a good days work. 

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice finds! Hunting for sharks teeth in river must be cool.

[digit]

I especially like the fossilized pop-rivet underneath the shell in the upper left of the last photo.

 

If you get up that way again, I encourage you to take a second sifting screen and stack them with a piece of loose window screen in the bottom sifter. This will allow you to screen out the larger material (greater than 1/4") and let the finer sand pass through. A 5-gallon plastic bucket or some sturdy reusable shopping bags with comfortable handles are a good way to carry out your collected micro-matrix. Wash and sift out more sand when you get home and then spread out on a tarp or black yard waste plastic garbage bag to dry. Going through the micro-matrix from the Gainesville area can be quite fun. The colors can be a lot nicer than Peace River material and I was drawn to do this a few years back (in nearby Rattlesnake Creek) to see if I could find some nice specimens of Nurse Shark teeth after seeing some that Julianna (@oldbones) had found earlier. We found a few nice larger teeth when we went and a sweet whale tooth but the real prize was the micro-matrix. You'll find a lot of images of micros from the Gainesville ares with searches on this forum. Here is the link I just dug up for our trip with @Khyssa a few years back.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/58470-rattlesnake-creek-rendezvous/

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Calvin Jenkins]

Like the colors of the Tiger & Hemis!

[jcbshark]

Nice haul Paul, that vert is interesting. Hopefully someone can ID it 

[Cam28]

10 hours ago, digit said:

I especially like the fossilized pop-rivet underneath the shell in the upper left of the last photo.

 

If you get up that way again, I encourage you to take a second sifting screen and stack them with a piece of loose window screen in the bottom sifter. This will allow you to screen out the larger material (greater than 1/4") and let the finer sand pass through. A 5-gallon plastic bucket or some sturdy reusable shopping bags with comfortable handles are a good way to carry out your collected micro-matrix. Wash and sift out more sand when you get home and then spread out on a tarp or black yard waste plastic garbage bag to dry. Going through the micro-matrix from the Gainesville area can be quite fun. The colors can be a lot nicer than Peace River material and I was drawn to do this a few years back (in nearby Rattlesnake Creek) to see if I could find some nice specimens of Nurse Shark teeth after seeing some that Julianna (@oldbones) had found earlier. We found a few nice larger teeth when we went and a sweet whale tooth but the real prize was the micro-matrix. You'll find a lot of images of micros from the Gainesville ares with searches on this forum. Here is the link I just dug up for our trip with @Khyssa a few years back.

 

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/58470-rattlesnake-creek-rendezvous/

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

Huh interesting, wondering what that was.. looked almost like a mini toy sword but looked a bit too well put together for that.

 

Thanks for the comments guys! Yeah @jcbshark in one of Fruitbat's pdf's there's a North Carolina book that shows how to ID grey shark vertebrae, seems somewhat tricky but I'll have to give it a shot when I have time. 

 

Indeed seemed like an ideal place for micro matrix, several of the keepers here almost slipped through my 1/4" screen. Still enough smallish-medium quality finds to make it worth it though imo. 

 

But yeah now I mostly want to hit a marine Eocene formation sometime (inbetween hunting my usual areas) so if anyone has leads or wants company let me know

[digit]

If you have a kayak and wish to collect Eocene marine deposits then it sounds like the spoil piles at Yankeetown (just offshore from the ill-fated Cross Florida Barge Canal) would be the place for you. I've never been able to get access to the piles offshore but hunted once for a short time in the bare patches of the long spoil pile they tossed up along the southern bank as they got further along. Mostly, lots of echinoids with an excellent chance of finding Florida's proposed state fossil, Eupatagus antillarum. There are also smaller echinoids (small urchins and sand dollars along with disarticulated spines) in the smaller stuff (if you collect micro-matrix there). John @Sacha has been there more than anybody I know and has also collected micro-matrix there (and had available on TFF for some time). He would be the best person to contact for information about Yankeetown if you are interesting in crossing that off your list.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[oldtimer]

Very nice finds. I love the vertebrae with the appendages.

[Darktooth]

Congratulations on a successful hunt!

[Max-fossils]

Good haul Paul! Well done!  

[Miocene_Mason]

On 3/1/2018 at 8:42 AM, Cam28 said:

, seems somewhat tricky but I'll have to give it a shot when I have time. 

 

According to my book by Bretton Kent, it isn’t that hard, can you post pictures of it from different angles? I won’t be able to say for certain but I’ll be able to give you a family. When you have the family it will be within a reasonable guess what it is.

[Cam28]

On 3/3/2018 at 8:47 AM, WhodamanHD said:

According to my book by Bretton Kent, it isn’t that hard, can you post pictures of it from different angles? I won’t be able to say for certain but I’ll be able to give you a family. When you have the family it will be within a reasonable guess what it is.

 

Cool I might be looking at the same ID guide in the North Carolina ID 3 eBook; pretty sure I know which family they belong to respectively, but curious what you'll get (bigger one I bought & is from Aurora)

 

edit: I knew they were grey shark (Carcharhinid) verts since acquiring both, the larger one looks like tiger shark & smaller like a requiem shark (Carcharhinus sp.) vert, if anyone else knows otherwise let me know =)

 

[Miocene_Mason]

Yes, I think Carcharhinid is the likely ID. Caudal verts as well.

[Al Dente]

6 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Yes, I think Carcharhinid is the likely ID. Caudal verts as well.

Why do you believe these are caudal verts?

[Miocene_Mason]

15 hours ago, Al Dente said:

Why do you believe these are caudal verts?

Sorry, the book (fossil sharks of the Chesapeake bay region) says ‘posterior’. It shows two centrum and one is disk-shaped (says this is posterior) and one more cylindrical (says anterior). I’d post a picture but I don’t want to infringe upon any copyrights.

[Al Dente]

9 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Sorry, the book (fossil sharks of the Chesapeake bay region) says ‘posterior’. It shows two centrum and one is disk-shaped (says this is posterior) and one more cylindrical (says anterior). I’d post a picture but I don’t want to infringe upon any copyrights.

That's a good book but I don't like that particular section. Shark centra vary greatly from shark to shark. Here are some x-rays I pulled off the internet. The first one is a species of Carcharhinus that goes counter to Kent's suggestion that thick centra are from the anterior of the shark and thin centra from the posterior. The second x-ray shows a hammerhead that has fairly uniform centra from head to tail. Somewhere I have a x-ray image that shows a shark with thick centra and an occasional thin one in between.

[Miocene_Mason]

@Al Dente, that certainly seems to break that argument, thank you for telling me!

[old bones]

Nice finds, @Cam28. I do love the micros from those creeks. I am very interested in your exquisite little vert. Any way you could take some close ups of it from multiple angles?

 

Julianna