A really busy week

[Shellseeker]

Last Friday , I drove to Tallahassee to participate in the Florida Paleontology Society Spring meeting. Some of my fossil hunting friends but NOT my wife, questioned my Sanity. But I thoroughly enjoyed hunting an Eocene quarry in South Georgia on Saturday. I even found a few shark teeth, hemipristis upper and lower, a colorful Mako and a Shrimp burrow,  a Chesapecten, and a druzy oyster. It was a lot of fun but I definitely got my exercise.

The shell stayed where it was attached to a 100 plus pound rock. 

Returned home on Sunday... The trip is about 7 hours for me.   and then went to the Peace River Monday and Tuesday because my wife is traveling for the next week and I can not go hunting until she returns.  But I did get a present yesterday!!!!

 

This is my 4th complete mastodon tooth in 11 years.. A great feeling. It shows how rare finding one is, when compared to the intensive hunting that I do..  I always feel blessed, this time included.

 

I research every key find:

 

http://floridapaleosociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fossil-Species-of-Florida-1-2002-Mammut-Americanum.pdf

 

By size, this fossil tooth is a M1 molar, and an upper cheek tooth based on the axis alignment at right angles to the Lopfs. 

Like I said, it was a busy week.

 

[digit]

Very busy week indeed!

 

When we finally find a house and get ourselves moved up to Gainesville I hope to be more centrally located so the FPS trips won't be so long of a drive.

 

Tammy and I had a free day yesterday between my other tasks and appointments so that we could make a daytrip to the Peace River. Only saw 3 other canoes all day--none of them fossil hunting. The weather was glorious and, through intermittently breezy, the water and air were warm enough to feel like a fine summer day. Unlike last time we were out, the wind was at our backs during the paddling part of our trip instead of having to struggle paddling into a strong headwind.

 

Dug the same spot as last time but didn't turn up any additional interesting Holmesina bits as we did two weeks ago. Scored a few nice finds but nothing as spectacular as a nice mastodon chomper. Still haven't found more than broken cusps from this fragile tooth type. Just about another month to go before the official start of rainy/hurricane season--time to make hay while the sun shines.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Fossilis Willis]

Nice finds. That tooth is amazing! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Excellent tooth! 

I do like those shrimp burrows too. 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Very nice. I'll bet it really hurt to leave that Chesapecten behind. The molar makes up for it.

[Shellseeker]

the

These great finds make me feel really good, but I realize that either of the 2 friends I hunt with could have pulled this beauty up. I am still researching Mammut on age of transition from baby to juvenile to adult teeth.. This tooth is 1/2 "used" and I believe it from a juvenile 4-5 years old on a life span of 60 years.

Quote

Researchers and volunteers digging through the muck in Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village today said they have uncovered the remains of mastodons of all ages, including a 7-inch long femur that may have come from a fetus.

 

The dig has also uncovered the skull of an infant, about the size of a basketball; the skull of a juvenile, about the size of a beer keg

Good luck out there. 

[Al Tahan]

That molar!!!  awesome trip and awesome finds  

[Bone Daddy]

Awesome find on that mastodon tooth. That would make my day (and maybe the season) right there.  I typically find little broken bits of enamel if I am lucky. 

 

 

 

[Shellseeker]

1 hour ago, Bone Daddy said:

Awesome find on that mastodon tooth. That would make my day (and maybe the season) right there.  I typically find little broken bits of enamel if I am lucky. 

 

Much the same,  These seems to break easily such than getting a chunk bigger than 2 lopfs is very rare, but there are numerous 1 and 2 inch chips around. The ones I have found mostly whole come from a mixture of mud, sand, clay with 40% gravel.

[Plantguy]

Hey Jack, nice report and awesome tooth! I love the shot with you holding it and the river in the background!

 

Glad to see your out and about taking advantage of things. I would have drooled over the Chesapecten but understand the difficulty/logistics of bringing that size stuff home...I do have a place for something like that in the front yard though--one less section of grass to cut! I also did find a few more of those guys stuffed in the garage in the past week! Also found a fragment of a cetacean? periotic that I'll have to put up ID. I dont even remember finding some of this stuff...lol...oh the memory...

 

Continued hunting success!

Regards, Chris 

Edited May 3, 2019 by Plantguy
spelling

[jcbshark]

Killer find Jack! Still on the hunt for a whole one myself 

[Shellseeker]

12 hours ago, Plantguy said:

Hey Jack, nice report and awesome tooth! I love the shot with you holding it and the river in the background!

Right, Chris. I love these photos of fossils with the river as the background.  I am not trying to identify my locations, just have a memory of the day that made me feel so good !!!

On the Pecten,  what really worried me was  traversing the broken steep mounds between me and my vehicle carrying 100 pounds... I am too old and wise for that...

[Jackson g]

On 5/1/2019 at 1:04 PM, Shellseeker said:

Last Friday , I drove to Tallahassee to participate in the Florida Paleontology Society Spring meeting. Some of my fossil hunting friends but NOT my wife, questioned my Sanity. But I thoroughly enjoyed hunting an Eocene quarry in South Georgia on Saturday. I even found a few shark teeth, hemipristis upper and lower, a colorful Mako and a Shrimp burrow,  a Chesapecten, and a druzy oyster. It was a lot of fun but I definitely got my exercise.

The shell stayed where it was attached to a 100 plus pound rock. 

Returned home on Sunday... The trip is about 7 hours for me.   and then went to the Peace River Monday and Tuesday because my wife is traveling for the next week and I can not go hunting until she returns.  But I did get a present yesterday!!!!

 

This is my 4th complete mastodon tooth in 11 years.. A great feeling. It shows how rare finding one is, when compared to the intensive hunting that I do..  I always feel blessed, this time included.

 

I research every key find:

 

http://floridapaleosociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Fossil-Species-of-Florida-1-2002-Mammut-Americanum.pdf

 

By size, this fossil tooth is a M1 molar, and an upper cheek tooth based on the axis alignment at right angles to the Lopfs. 

Like I said, it was a busy week.

 

That Chesapecten is beautiful. Would be very nice after some prep work, I personally would use the matrix as its own stand/pedastool. Nice other finds as well!

[Shellseeker]

On 5/1/2019 at 4:48 PM, Tidgy's Dad said:

Excellent tooth! 

I do like those shrimp burrows too. 

Some more photos of the shrimp burrow... What grabbed my attention was the inner circle edge.  It is blue and almost seems crystallized.  Our quarry trip was lead by Roger Portell, Collection Director of Invertebrate Paleontology and Micropaleontology , University of Florida. I had no clue, but Roger identified it as a shrimp burrow. My initial thought was "that's a pretty big shrimp". Probably also tasty, which could be a reason for the burrow.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Very nice, very interesting, very pretty and very tasty.

[digit]

21 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

My initial thought was "that's a pretty big shrimp". Probably also tasty, which could be a reason for the burrow.

I've seen some pretty big shrimp underwater and, "jumbo shrimp" oxymoron jokes aside, mantis shrimp (stomatopods, not true shrimp) get pretty large and can make a decent diameter burrow.

 

The largest I've ever seen was a dried exoskeleton that a local "doctor" had displayed hanging above his doorway--it was the length and diameter of my forearm! Mantis shrimp are fascinating to watch underwater and come in two basic "styles"--slicers and punchers. The ones with the bilobed eyes have long rapier-like appendages with nasty sharp points for spearing and grasping their prey (hence the association with praying mantis insects). The ones with round eyes have more like wrecking balls attached to their first appendages--called dactyl clubs. These can be shot forward accelerating faster than a .22 bullet and with much the same force--one of the fastest animal movements known. This is the main reason you don't tend to see these in aquarium tanks--they could bust the tank glass without even trying--imagine what they to to a mollusk or crustacean shell! Combine this with the fact that they have been around for nearly 400 million years, have 16 types of cones in their eyes (we have only 3--red, green, and blue) and can even see polarized light--you'll see why they are endlessly fascinating. 

 

Here's a couple of images of these colorful critters from Dumaguete in the Philippines:

 

         

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

[FossilFreak]

The Mastodon tooth is amazing, cool find.