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Peace River, Mammal Teeth And Others


TourmalineGuy

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Hi Everyone,

I took a trip to the Peace River over the weekend, first time. Being new to fossil hunting (though a long-time fan of paleontology) I don't have a great set of resources for identification. With that, I have a series of fossils that I have tried, and failed, to identify via the internet. So that's where these pictures come in! Also, any advice or websites about mammal teeth identification would be very helpful (because that seems to be most of what I found). I have gathered that the occlusal view is helpful for identification, but I can't seem to find great pictures or diagrams of examples to compare mine too.

To the details, these are from the Peace River, Florida. That means marine animals will be Miocene/Pliocene and land animals Pleistocene and if you want any additional views of the fossils, just ask.

Finally, the fossils:

#1

post-2423-12573069748477_thumb.jpg

#2

post-2423-12573069855335_thumb.jpg

#3

post-2423-12573069929025_thumb.jpg

#4

post-2423-12573070155104_thumb.jpg

#5

post-2423-1257307025897_thumb.jpg

#6

post-2423-12573070351272_thumb.jpg

#7

post-2423-12573070423013_thumb.jpg

#8

post-2423-12573073511822_thumb.jpg

#9

post-2423-12573073939733_thumb.jpg

#10

post-2423-12573074020362_thumb.jpg

#11

post-2423-1257307411117_thumb.jpg

#12

post-2423-12573074228148_thumb.jpg

#13

post-2423-12573074320536_thumb.jpg

And...

Identify a man's fossilized mammal molar and he'll make a label for it, teach a man to identify fossilized mammal molars and he'll make labels for life.

Thanks!

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not sure about the first pic, and bone fragments can be pretty hard to id, but the rest of the teeth and teeth fragments pretty much all look to be horse.

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the texture of the first item does resemble mammoth enamel, but i didn't see any cementum, and since i already mis-identified a dinosaur as a mammoth this week, i figured i'd punt on this one...

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i agree. the first one is mammoth and the rest of the teeth are horse. i can't tell if #12 is broken or an incisor tooth. don't know about the bones though.

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Well, I knew I had some horse teeth, but didn't imagine they were all horse teeth. I'm assuming that all means modern horse, Equus, not an earlier horse, correct? And could someone lead me along the direction of labeling the actual positions of the teeth...at least generally (like the difference between the skinny or short ones and the chunkier ones)

My initial thought was mammoth on the first one. But now, what about #12, take a close look, it doesn't have the texture of my mammal teeth, its lumpy. The closeup on the bottom right tried to point out a small "seam" that runs almost the length of it. Maybe part of a horn/antler...? A non-mammal tooth?

Also, the bones #5 and #8. Any takers?

Continuing, #13, its a strange little fossil which has some dirt I cant seem to scrub off, any advice cleaning? The surface I showed in the closeup has small ridges, but I'm not sure if they're dirt/clay or part of the fossil and I didn't want to get too aggressive with them, because they're neat looking. They probably didn't show up in the photo great to someone who hasn't already taken a long gander under a magnifying loupe, but if you look at the bottom center of that closeup you can see a small circle above some other oddly shaped closed-loops. Those are on the surface that I didn't photo in the other angles.

Thanks everyone. To finish, I'll post some things I could find out...just to see if I'm wrong.

Alligator mississippiensis (Gator)

post-2423-12573403814854_thumb.jpg

Tapirus Veroensis (Tapir)

post-2423-12573403725824_thumb.jpg

To my best knowledge I was right with these two...but let me know, I don't have anything but internet photos to compare to. The sharks teeth were much easier to identify, so I won't throw those up here.

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Great finds. You may not need i.d help, but ?I would like to see pics of your shark teeth? Any megs?

Pentax Optio W60

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Great finds. You may not need i.d help, but ?I would like to see pics of your shark teeth? Any megs?

Half Megs only(5 of those...), one nice, large hemipristis serra, which is the only one I photoed here:

post-2423-12573443479317_thumb.jpg

Also, a lemon and a very worn tiger shark tooth and some others. Overall I felt I had a low incidence of sharks teeth compared to horse teeth. Here's a picture of everything with the sharks teeth

post-2423-12573443617733_thumb.jpg

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12 and 13 i can't see well enough to hazard guesses. if you're in the pleistocene you're not likely to be finding the older, three-toed horses and such, and those teeth are different in the size and chewing surfaces. you can google up images of current horse teeth shapes and locations and pretty much figure out the differences between the upper and lower molars. horse teeth keep growing out as the horse ages and they wear them down over time and after they get worn down short, near the end, then they're near the end, because that's all she wrote. so a lot of times a real long tooth will mean a fairly young horse and a real short tooth will mean a fairly old horse. horse teeth seem to break along the long length a lot so you find a lot of thin, long pieces of them, which at first you hope is from some saber-toothed grazing x-fish or something, but after awhile you resign yourself to the truth and move on.

life is like that, in the beat-up pleistocene...

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I am real tempted to put a link to this thread in the "How to post in the ID section".

The requisite views are given in good, cropped, well-lit photos that are numbered and include something for scale, and you supplied what you knew of the site the fossils came from. Well done!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Thanks for the pics of your shark teeth.

What section of the river were you hunting? I haven't found that many horse teeth, and usually find lots of shark teeth.

What was the water level?

I am no help with ids, but am ready to hit the river in a couple of weeks. water level should be down even more.

Thanks.

Pentax Optio W60

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I was searching just north of Brownville Park in Arcadia, the water level from the Canoe Outpost posting said 16" below normal, but this was my first time, so I can't give you much beyond that. It was definitely lower than normal, based on the water marks on the banks.

Auspex, thanks for the compliment! I figured, you guys are helping me out, might as well make it as easy as possible for everyone.

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...Auspex, thanks for the compliment! I figured, you guys are helping me out, might as well make it as easy as possible for everyone.

You do everyone a service with your example.

Cross-linking might be undesirable in a fossil consolidant/preservative, but for information sharing it's A-OK, so here we are: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?showtopic=959&view=findpost&p=7304

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks everyone. To finish, I'll post some things I could find out...just to see if I'm wrong.

Alligator mississippiensis (Gator)

post-2423-12573403814854_thumb.jpg

Tapirus Veroensis (Tapir)

post-2423-12573403725824_thumb.jpg

To my best knowledge I was right with these two...but let me know, I don't have anything but internet photos to compare to. The sharks teeth were much easier to identify, so I won't throw those up here.

you are correct on both of these id's. cool stuff!

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  • 4 years later...

Well done! That looks like either a prime example of beginner's luck or a very determined effort.

What did you use for equipment? Did you bring a sifting screen and shovel all the way from California? How much time did you spend on the river? I usually come up with a horse tooth or two per day sifting on the river and tapir molars (especially in that condition) are not really that common on the river so I'd say you done real good. I'm surprised you didn't end up with a big pile of smaller shark teeth given the amount of more rare fossils you came away with. This almost looks like you were sifting with a coarser mesh screen (1/2" spacing instead of the finer 1/4" mesh).

Hope this whet your appetite for screening on the Peace River. Next time you plan on coming cross country to our corner of the country drop me a PM and we'll go out hunting if I'm in town.

Cheers.

-Ken

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