Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'paynescreek'.
-
From the album: Florida Mammal bones and osteoderms
-
So yet another 3 days straight of fossil hunting… I may be a little addicted. Went out with @Done Drillin and his wife on Friday, to a decent bit of success, back out on Saturday to the same spot with much better success, and then out to Payne’s creek today for more success again! So the finds: Starting with what may be my all-time fav find, a piece of deer jaw with 4 beautifully preserved teeth in it: Next from today are 2 Manatee teeth - pulled them up in the same shovel, I wonder if they’re associated? They both still have parts of the root - and are my first manatee teeth: Next is the top half of another right M1/M2 Equus molar. Funny story - if you go to my post titled “Peace River tributary - July 17th and 18th” - you’ll see I found fragments of a horse tooth. This was in the exact same spot. Probably the tooth I found fragments of, if I had to guess! Next is a deer tooth: Then my Megs and frags as always - the middle Meg is from Paynes Creek and has stunning serrations, and the bottom right fragment is still partially in limestone: 2 C. Hastalis and 1 Thresher shark teeth: A partial long beaked dolphin tooth and partial whale tooth: Tiny Sloth? Claw core: Medial deer phalanx: Armadillo scutes, in order is a D. Bellus, a Pachyarmatherium Leiseyi (Which is apparently incredibly rare - Paynes Creek is one of the few places they’re found), and then a Holmesina Floridanus: Huge chunks of turtle shell: Surprisingly, coral! More ear bones and then dolphin jaw: And finally, mammoth/mastodon frags and tusk:
- 11 replies
-
- 6
-
- florida
- paynescreek
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
This winter has been very wet and opportunities to hunt the rivers have been limited. All of them have been running high ever since that major rain even back in December of 2018. Yesterday the USGS Zolfo gauge had dropped down to 6.1 feet, which is the lowest it's been in a long time. So, off we went to try our luck. We put in at Payne's Creek State Park and paddled upstream past the bridge and outside the park boundaries. We then paddled up to the area around the so-called "waterfall". The river was a bit higher and faster than we had anticipated, and some huffing was required to get through the shallow runs where the current really picks up. The last time I had seen this stretch of river was back in November of last year before two separate flood-stage events followed afterwards. There were some trees down, but nothing that required portaging.... until we reached the first major outcrop. It was not fully exposed due to the high water, so it made a single "speed bump" rapid that is split around an ad-hoc island, with a creek running off to one side. There is no way to paddled over/through this rapid against the current, so the best course of action is to paddle to the right and go up a narrow channel between the island and creek. One can easily paddle in, push up on the rock slab, and get out to drag one's kayak or canoe past this section of rapids - there is clear easy paddling on the other side for a good distance until the next set of rapids which is often referred to by locals as "the waterfall". Note, when the water is this high, the waterfall is not exposed and it's just a tricky section of the river that requires portaging. When the water is about a foot lower, it makes a nice waterfall effect, but that effect was not present yesterday. We spent a few hours having a picnic and hunting this area. There was some decent gravel trapped in the limestone depressions and that yielded small teeth and other oddballs. I did find one nice tapir tooth with root, but it must have fallen out of my bag back into the river - I was disappointed to find it missing when we got back home. Overall, the day was not a complete bust for fossils, but we didn't find any meg teeth, mammoth, or anything else sexy or interesting. We just found the usual suspects - scutes, small teeth, dugong ribs, antler bits, etc. The weather was beautiful - sunny with a nice gentle breeze and the temperature was perfect for paddling. We saw a lot of birds, but not many gators - just a couple of babies sunning themselves with mama nowhere to be seen. I'm glad we went before more rains come and make it too high and fast for casual paddling. More rain is in the forecast, so this might have been our last chance for a few weeks. (*fingers crossed that the rain gods are kind to us*) I shot a brief video of the spot. Note, if this spot is familiar to you, take note of the big jumble of fallen trees at the top of the frame when I pan through the rapids (far side) - that side of the rapids used to be clear and deeper - boats could bypass the rapids on that side. Not any longer. Two large palm trees must have fallen during the last flood and now there is a big gatory mass of trees and driftwood blocking the channel. Until another flood washes that obstruction away, larger boats won't be able to pass here (canoes and kayaks only) - as recently as November 2018, bass boats could pass through here. Video link -
- 6 replies
-
- 1
-
- florida
- paynescreek
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with: