Venice Florida - A weekend trip

[JamieLynn]

I took a little trip to Florida with a friend who needed help cleaning out her parents house in Venice. So while it was a working trip (with lots of emotion all rolled into it) I got the chance to do a little bit of fossil hunting - dragged my friend along to get her out of the house and have a little fun amidst the difficulty. We tried to get out at low tide in the mornings, but since it was still dark at 6:30am, we didn't ever really get to do any serious hunting, just picking stuff up along the shore line. But i am super thrilled with the few items I did find. No megs, alas, but didn't expect any either, since my fossil hunting time was limited. I'm just happy to have found some cool stuff! Venice is a beautiful little town with lovely beaches. .We hit four different beaches and I found stuff on all of them. The best shark tooth hunting was definitely at Caspersen Beach, to the south, but I found teeth from Nokomis to Venice to Caspersen,  plus lots of other goodies along the way.  

 

Another pleasant surprise was the plethora of Pliocene shells I found at a bayou where we went to eat lunch. Fried Gator and fossils! hahahha! A question for y'all....are these shells actually fossilized or are they just FROM the pliocene? These were found in the dirt, not along the waters edge. I read about the geology and that whole area is a Pliocene shell bed. But are the shells actually replaced with minerals or are they just really really old?  

 

I look forward to someday visiting Venice again, perhaps going out on a dive to find meg teeth or hit up a couple of spots where you can dig for them (which sadly I did not get to do this time).  But Florida sure is lovely......

 

The whole hoard: 

 

Just beach finds: 

 

Sunset at Venice Beach

 

the Bayou

 

enoying a Jamaican Ginger Beer poolside....

 

my two best shark teeth

 

I think this is a hammerhead tooth:

 

all the teeth I found: 

 

 

Two best stingray barbs:  Big one is 1 1/2 iches

 

Stingray mouthplate : 

 

I think this might be a small vertebra? 

 

My favorite of the big shells: 

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure this is turtle: 

 

I also have some bits and pieces of things i can't quite identify. I'll post those in the ID section.

[Notidanodon]

Stingray mouth plate is my myliobatis sp. I think

[digit]

Correct. Which makes it eagle ray instead of stingray. Stingray teeth are fairly tiny and have two tiny leg-like roots. Doing a search here on the forum for "Dasyatis" will turn up numerous images of these stingray teeth.

 

Softshell turtle seems an appropriate ID for the piece with the wavy surface above. @MikeR could give definitive identifications on the two shells above. Not seeing enough detail to make me believe the vertebra is indeed what you hope it to be. Your two "best shark teeth" are a Sand Tiger Carcharias taurus on the left and a Carcharhinus sp. on the right.

 

Looks like you had fun beach combing.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Bone Daddy]

Your favorite big shell looks like Vasum Locklini. I am not a shell expert, so don't quote me on that. I found an identical shell once and asked around and somebody ID'ed it as Vasum Locklini.

 

 

[GallinaPinta]

You sure found a lot of shark teeth lol

[JamieLynn]

I know people have come away with many many more than I, but for just a short period of time over three days and just walking along picking up from the beach - I was happy with my amount! In Venice they have all kinds of collecting contraptions they sell to "maximize" your hunting experience and I probably would have ended up with more if I'd used one, but I like the experience of finding them on my own, with my hands alone. 

[White Feather]

I love shark teeth hunting! Congratulations on finding many