Early Oct hunt

[PODIGGER]

Wanted to share a bit if a surprise from my visit to the Peace River the first week of Oct.  I posted a trip report earlier from that visit, but left this specimen out.  At the time I wasn't sure what it was and was leaning toward - just a suggestively shaped rock.  Being a novice fossil hunter I am still hesitant in making any fossil id's.  So I dug this thing up out of the river and gave it a serious look.  It was heavy, dense and looked a lot like bone to me.  I couldn't come up with what kind of a bone it could be and was thinking it was just my creative imagination.  It was most likely just a rock.  I placed it on the bank and went back to digging.  At the end of the day I gave it another look and decided not to take it home.  But, I did place it back under water in a spot where I could find it again.  I thought I would do some searching on line and see it I could find something similar.

 

Fast forward two weeks.  Back at the river digging in the same spot I pulled the item out and looked it over again.  Placed it on the bank still trying to decide if I should take it.  Later in the day while still digging away I was surprised to see a fellow Fossil Forum member appear - @Shellseeker!  I took the opportunity to show him the item.  He agreed that it did appear to be bone.  He thought it had to be from a large animal, but was not able to hazard a guess as to what.  At that point I decided taking it home for further investigation was warranted.

 

After getting the specimen home photos with measurements were taken and sent off to Dr Hulbert at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  Dr Hulbert responded within a few hours saying that from the photos he thought it could well be bone, possibly dugong.  But he did not rule out that it was just an oddly shaped piece of phosphate as it looked solid from the initial photos.  As luck would have it, I was due to travel to Tallahassee from south Florida this past Friday.  I asked Dr Hulbert if he would take a look at the item in person if I stopped in at his UF office on the way.  He agreed and I visited him Friday.  Upon looking at the specimen he related it was clearly bone, much larger and heavier then he thought from the photos.  He then stated that based on its size the only thing it could be is Proboscidean.  Further, that the only bone with the weight and density to match would be the jaw. 

 

So, what I could not decide was or was not a rock turns out to be a section of the jaw bone of a Mammoth or Mastodon as determined by Dr Hulbert.  I feel mighty lucky to have found this specimen to go along with the Mammoth and Mastodon partial teeth I found earlier this year.  I also feel extremely lucky to have found this great forum that is full of such knowledgeable members.  A special thank you to  @Shellseeker for floating by unexpectedly and giving me his opinion on the questionable specimen!  Attached are a couple of pictures of the section of jaw bone.  

[JamieLynn]

that's amazing!! 

[PODIGGER]

Thank you JamieLynn, I was thrilled with the find!

[MrR]

Identifying by weight and density is amazing to me. I guess that's why he's an expert. So maybe from now on people need to add weight in ounces or grams along with the scale for size?  Maybe I should have done that with one of my pieces of miocene mysticete jaw for a better result?  (Inside joke that probably only caldigger will get.) Very cool Congrat's on your find, and finding out.  

That said, I have a piece of miocene whale rib in front o me that is only about 3 1/2" long by 2 3/4" wide. It weighs a bit better than 9 oz.. I'm curious as to what your mammoth/mastodon jaw might weigh. Over 2 lbs?  Cheers.

 

 

[PODIGGER]

Thanks MrR.  The weight on this section of jaw bone is 3.4 lbs.

[minnbuckeye]

11 hours ago, PODIGGER said:

After getting the specimen home photos with measurements were taken and sent off to Dr Hulbert at the Florida Museum of Natural History.  Dr Hulbert responded within a few hours

 

 

Wonderful find!!! You must have a large sifter to fit that in it. LOL.

 

A few weeks ago, I had tried to message Dr. Hulbert for an ID on an avian bone that I found. So far no response from him. Could you let me know your contact info that you used. This is the second time I have tried to use him for identification and not received a response.

Thanks,

Mike

[PODIGGER]

Thanks minnbuckeye!  The sifter is a homemade one and just barely stayed above water when the bone went in!  I have contacted Dr Hulbert at this email address -

 

rhulbert at flmnh.ufl.edu 

 

Good luck! 

 

Note: I modified the email address.  Just replace "at" with "@" to restore it.

 

Everybody, please do not publish complete email addresses.  They are easily picked up by bot crawlers and can result in the addressee being overwhelmed with spam.

 

Don

[PODIGGER]

Thanks Don, I didn't think of that.