Search the Community

I found these two teeth in a creek near the peace river pretty close to eachother. Not really sure what they are was hoping someone could ID them. They are listed as find 1 and 2 respectively.

Was looking for fossils in a creek in Florida, and I found a very strange piece of wood that I initially thought was a bone because it was dense/hard. I then noticed there were markings on it that looked unnatural. I’m guessing it could be something Native American but I also know nothing about Native American artifacts. Could someone help me. Also, could anyone id this leg bone and teeth? I’m guessing they are both mammals but I don’t know how to tell which is which, and I’m doubtful either of them are fossilized.

We took a spring trip to Florida in March and it started off on the right foot when we turned down the road to our motel and saw this street sign! Hopefully a good omen for things to come. Many sharks teeth were collected from the Gulf of Mexico's surf. The shorebirds, including this Willet, loved following us along, they looking for a snack and us looking for teeth. As much fun sifting shark's teeth in the surf is, my preferred objective was to slip off to Cookie Cutter Creek and collect micro matrix in hopes of finding a few teeth from Isistius brasiliensis, the cookie cutter shark. A picture of the creek show it is recovering from the dredging that took place a few years ago. So hopes of accomplishing my goal ran high. Success was not realized until returning home and processing some matrix. There it was, nestled between the grains of sand! Most of the micro matrix brought home will be given away to those who enjoy the dainty finds within it. Also found in the matrix was this vertebrae from a TINY mammal. Even smaller than the shark tooth. In addition to the creek hunt and beach combing, I did explore some land exposures looking to add new specimens to my large collection of Tamiami gastropods, corals and bivalves. I will burden you with just a few odd ones that I liked. First up is a weathered Strombus with a coral colony and an oyster using it as home. Staying with the same theme, here is a Nassarius overwhelmed by the attachment of barnicles. The next gastropod, Melongena subcoronata also came as a "twofer". When it came to cleaning this shell up, I was surprised that it had an occupant, and it wasn't a hermit crab! And no I did not take the bug home. While collecting fossil shells, I came across this nice Mako tooth, I believe Carcharodon hastalis is correct. It was a pleasant surprise. This year I had the privilege of fossilin with a few friends, one being a forum member, @Shellseeker. I so enjoy hoofing it through the wild Floridian forest to get to out of the way locations. And the selected location paid off! The hunt was once again the highlight of my trip! Plenty of nice fossils were found but unfortunately, I somehow misplaced, or lost as my wife always points out, the best of my finds. If or WHEN they are located, I will add to this trip report. In the mean time, my hunting partners gifted these gems to me. Tapir tooth And finally this prize from Jack. Thanks so much! I mistakenly thought these teeth were silky shark. @Al Dente said "Nice finds. These teeth are Negaprion." The only flaw in this fossil foray was loosing one of our members in the woods as we left for home. Jack, did you ever find him or is he still out there? LOL We did head north for a few days to the Crystal Springs/ Yankeetown area for fossilin and Manatee watching. The /Crystal River, being spring fed stays warm in the winter months and attract Manatees fleeing the cold Gulf of Mexico water. A photo of the Crystal River. And a photo of us snorkeling with Manatee! Echinoids are what the area is known for. The most common is the urchin, Eupatagus. This "double" was my favorite! A much smaller, unidentified urchin. We took a few hours on our return trip to visit Honeymoon Bay in search of geodized coral. Success was had, but a friend is prepping the coral. I will show it off later. It is special. As we trekked south, a stop was made at Norman Love's Confections in Sarasota hoping to top the trip off with a special desert like Jack gave to wifey for Valentines Day (see his post). It is called the "Chocolate Bomb". Five different chocolates and a special "cherry" on top. Jack, you split yours with your wife. I was thinking of my wife and ordered two bombs so she wouldn't have to share with me. After such a scrumptious dessert, I was ready to vegitate and what better way to accomplish this than taking in the evening's sunset. Hope you enjoyed our trip.

Hi everyone! This is my first post on here and I made an account just to ID this because this has been puzzling me for years. I found this in a vase of seashells that I bought down in Daytona, Florida in 2014. That’s pretty much all I remember about it. Ever since I’ve been wondering what it is. It has a very smooth and polished feel to it, like ceramic. There aren’t any ridges except for a very faint shell imprint near one of the edges, which I included in the photos. I think it is a shell fossil as well but I’d like to know what kind? It just looks pretty weird but cool to me. It’s a little over two inches, as pictured. I hope the photos provided are enough and thank you to anyone who helps out!

Found this bone on the beach in Marco Island Florida need help finding out what it is

Out hunting today, not many finds but a claw core is always exciting, even a small one. Pictures of the find. That last photo dried... I would have Identified this as Dasypus Bellus if only the last two photos did not show a different proximal shape.. Similar size/shape but very different attachment point. Could it be a different Armadillo ?? Working on it tomorrow.

(It’s the same thing btw just two different pics)

Hi all, we found these at the beach and I cant find anything comparable in my book. Hoping someone with more experience could have a look. I think the little one could possibly be an incisor and i havent a clue about the larger one. I guess if anything its a decent looking rock. The scale bar is 1cm squared. Looking forward to any feedback

Peace River, Florida.

Hey all! I went out last week and still cannot identify this. Please help end the madness of “what is this???” Thanks!

New member and first post! I Found this in a pit being dug for a retention pond in West, central Florida. Anyone know what it is?

I live in Orlando and I have been dying dying dying to find some shark teeth. The peace river and Venice beach and all that are just too far to take trips all of the time. Does anyone know of any locations that are within an hour of time that are not a beach for shark teeth around orlando or clermont

Hello! I’m a new member but I have checked the forum many times to identify my fossils and shark teeth. Usually I’m up by Calvert cliffs Maryland but recently I found a nice tooth at Jupiter beach in Florida, if anyone has any ideas on what type it is that would be awesome! Im still new to fossil hunting and identifying!

Hi everyone I’m very new to this and recently got two fossils that I’m hoping some of you may be able to help recognize. The first is a black bone found I believe in the ocean off Florida. I was told it was a deer humerus but looking at a modern deer humerus I’m not so sure. Could be deer just different bone? The other was one is the lower jaw bones of what I was told may be from a rabbit or rodent. Looking in a fossil book I’m thinking it’s possibly a beaver based on teeth. Old but not a fossil I’m thinking since it’s not stone? Regardless of what they are I think they’re pretty great so any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Below is a dolphin tooth being sold as that of a Goniodelphis hudsoni, from the Peace River Formation in Florida. The tooth does not look like that of a Goniodelphis, however, as they appear to much more rounded. I personally suspect it's from Delphinodon, given that I have seen some similar teeth identified as such on other ID threads on the forum, but I can't say for sure. I must once again call upon your wisdom, @Shellseeker, and I believe @Boesse is also something of a cetacean expert. I'm yet to purchase the tooth, so I haven't got many pictures at my disposal. Thanks in advance for any guidance Othniel

I wanted to take a few moments to share with you, all of the fun my family and I had in Florida this past week. We spent some time in Key Largo, the Everglades and Orlando. My favorite time was spent in Key Largo as it was our first time there and we had an excellent experience down there. Our hotel was located next to a marina which happened to be filled with a variety of wildlife. Most of you know that I am fascinated with sharks. The marina was full of nurse sharks. Every now and then you would see them swimming near the surface. We found out that when the fishing boats came in, they would clean the fish at stations other docks. All the scraps would go into the water. Sharks, barracuda, pelicans and other critters would then feast on the chum. We even saw a mother manatee and her baby. Our first full day there we took a guided snorkeling tour. The boat took around 50 people about 7 miles offshore to a coral reef. We were delighted to see many different fish species. One of my favorite ones were the parrot fish. The color combinations were beautiful. We also swam with many Barracuda, some which were between 5-6 feet long. These were rather intimidating. The absolute highlight came just before I was ready to get out. The tour was for an hour and it was getting close to being over. I was exhausted from fighting the current and my mask was pushing into my forehead and hurting. I told my wife I was done and was going back to the boat. As soon as I got the words out of my mouth my youngest Son yelled" Dad there's a shark!" Immediately the pain and tiredness disappeared and adrenaline kicked in. I asked him where it was and he said that it was right under him. I put my head under water and saw a nurse shark swimming below him. I started swimming towards it and maneuvered myself about 6 feet above it. I swam above the shark for a minute or two until it began to get to far ahead of me. I was ecstatic to be able to swim with this magnificent creature. To swim with a shark has been on my bucket list for a very long time. It was a great experience. We only spent a couple days in Key Largo. On the way there and after we left we made stops at the Everglades there we took an airboat ride as well as walked the trails at a couple of the parks. We got up close to some gators that were laying close to the trails. At one point we saw a mother gator with a baby lying on mom's tail. The rest of the time was spent in Orlando. We went to Disney Springs one day and Epcott another. Some time was also spent with my in-laws. We had such a good time we didn't want to come back home. Anyways I got some pics to share. Hope you enjoy! Dave

Dear fellow TFF members, The following two teeth are fairly strange to me. Im afraid Florida is as specific as I can get with the locality of the two. Could the first tooth be a snaggle??? Thank you for your time and expertise.

Found this little guy on a beach in southwest Florida. Grabbed it because I thought it looked interesting. Any ideas on what this could be? Thank you!

Hey everyone! My name is Josh. My girlfriend (totallydigsit) and I have recently gotten into hunting for fossils and decided to join the forum We are based in FL and have primarily searched along the Peace River near Zolo Springs and Arcadia (two spots we found during our initial research). We've found a variety of smaller bone fragments and shark teeth, but hoping to score the bigger pieces! Looking forward to sharing our findings and getting to know the community! - Josh

Below are two Pleistocene mammal teeth from "river gravels" in Florida. I have to further information on their age or locality, unfortunately. The left was merely identified as a "mammal tooth", and I strongly suspect it is from Trichechus manatus, but I have very little experience with mammal dentition and as such thought it would be best to check with someone with greater expertise in the field first. The right tooth was identified as a "peccary tooth", but given the fact that a number of tayassuids were present in Pleistocene Florida I wondered if the tooth could be identified to a genus, or better yet a species level. I will now take the liberty of "@ing in" a few people: @Harry Pristis and @Shellseeker Thanks in advance for any proposed ID's Othniel

Out hunting yesterday. Sun Shining, pretty warm and I could find deep water... A lot of small colorful shark teeth and other marine fossils but I was missing most fossils from land based fauna until the very end of the hunt. So, Hemi, Tiger, Lemon, Bull, Dusky, most with light roots and blue or cream colored blades. Add in sea urchin spines, Stingray teeth and Barb frags, Sawfish rostral frags. The 3 Megs... One early. I like the color , and the almost perfectly consistent serrations.. Even broken at 39 mm , a nice find Another Meg 44 mm late. Complete, good serrations, a little feeding damage on the tip. I took the photo on my screened porch.. Not an unpleasant effect. Also little cusp, An Atavism... This from @siteseer in an old thread. .... Having lateral cusplets remained in the genes of the species millions of years after it was basic tooth character. Occasionally, the gene for cusplets, which had been "switched off" would switch on randomly and an individual would have teeth with cusplets. You wouldn't call it a pathology but just a rare expression of an ancestral trait. A very good 36 mm Bulla, that I'll try to identify.. I found a Bulla identified as Beluga whale at this location last year. Two fossil fragments showed up in the last sieve.. The 1st one at 27 mm, I think is a mammal ear bone because I have found similar at other sites. I am a little mystified by Nerve/Blood vessel canal on the bottom photo. and then this 34 mm enamel fragment of a mammal tooth... Similar to Mastodon or Gomphothere, but the best match might be Rhino. I have never found any Rhino fossil here and it would imply late Miocene (8-10 mya). That would be exciting. Enjoy...

While the Megalodon tooth seems to exist as THE find for many fossil hunters and/or amateur marine paleontologists alike (and rightly so!) it's never been my own personal "holy grail." However. My partner, who graciously tags along and searches with me whenever I drag him out on hunts often hours (or even days) of driving away, is absolutely enamored by the idea of finding one of these guys. I've heard many good things about Ernst Quarries/Sharktooth Hill and the private land surrounding it in Kern County, but I've also heard incredible things about Florida creek hunting - mostly Peace River and some, unfortunately, Top-Secret spots. We luckily have the opportunity right now to go on one (or both if we play our (credit) cards right) of these trips and was hoping those more experienced in the culture of "Meg Madness" would be able to provide any advice, pointers, opinions, comments, concerns, etc.?