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Finding My Favorite


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Posted

A really good day. I was wondering what wetsuit to wear based on a forecast of clouds with showers starting at noon. Made the mistake of taking the 3 mm instead of the 7 mm. The air warmth was OK, but the water was very cold and I did some shivering.

Along with many small shark teeth and turtle scutes, here are the best finds of the day:post-2220-0-67041600-1421111062_thumb.jpg. Some nice Hemis, tigers, and a Mako with 2 Armadillo osteoderms and my favorite fossil on the lower right is a Sloth tooth -- very nice and 2 inches long. :meg dance: Happy! Happy!! Happy!!! Found it in the 2nd sieve and it makes a great day even if I had found nothing else.

Here is the ID request -- there are some likely candidates: Harlan's? Jefferson? and what likely tooth position? I am always a little unsure. A few more photos:

post-2220-0-64928300-1421111465_thumb.jpgpost-2220-0-35153500-1421111504_thumb.jpg

There is a rodent jaw with 2 teeth and the smallest nice Meg I have ever found. So new additions to the keeper collection. Blowup photo of the Meg.

post-2220-0-06389200-1421111678_thumb.jpg

Thru it all, my fossil hunting partner was only finding small shark teeth but raved about my finds. I have been on that side of hunting and his enthusiasm is just one of the reasons that I treasure him.

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Posted

Great finds today! Love the baby meg and the sloth. Peace river?

Posted

A partner like that makes the day; the rest is bonus!

Sloths are cool :wub:

"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!

Posted

Great finds today! Love the baby meg and the sloth. Peace river?

Yes, the Peace River. It is the equivalent of Linus' security blanket for me. Sometimes I go into the feeder creeks: Charlie, Horse, Joshua, Prairie, etc

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Posted

Two big thumbs up on the sloth tooth two inches that's awesome

Posted

Really good stuff there Jack! Yep the weather wasnt perfect today but the rain is almost out of here....

Continued hunting success! Regards, Chris

Posted

I've only one sloth tooth so finding something like that would definitely been the Trip Maker. Nice to have something that spectacular right away so the pressure is off for the rest of the day. Agreed that sometimes the best 'find' is a partner to keep you company while you hunt.

-Ken

P.S.: Doing my fair share of shivering today. Off on a coral reef research mission in Palau and even though the water is warm an overcast and windy day full of rain squalls can bring your core body temp down below the comfort zone. Looking forward to a little sifting between missions--save some sloth bits for me... ;)

Posted

A partner like that makes the day; the rest is bonus!

Sloths are cool :wub:

Well said, Chas.

Congrats on a very nice find, Jack. :)

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

Posted

Great finds Jack! I love the sloth tooth but that little posterior meg would be a trip maker on its own! Congrats: )

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

Posted

Those are wonderful finds! I was thrilled when I found a partial sloth tooth but yours is great! What part of the Peace were you at and how were the water levels? I'll be down in Gardner on Saturday and have noticed that the gauge at Zolfo has gone up to 5.6 feet. I've really got to study up on the shapes of meg teeth because I wouldn't have realized what that tooth was if I'd been the one to find it.

Posted

Rodent jaw? Pictures!

The plural of "anecdote" is not "evidence".

Posted

That is one sweet little meg. Awesome.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

Posted

Sweet Jack!!! Congrats!

Sloth material is definitely on my bucket list.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

Posted

Thanks for all the good comments. Now to try and answer in a single post.

1) Rich, certainly looks like rodent, but I could not tell rat from rabbit.

post-2220-0-16598400-1421193467_thumb.jpgpost-2220-0-15769300-1421193501_thumb.jpg

2) Khyssa, water levels are down everywhere -- Lots of good spots when Zolfo reads any point below 6 feet. My partner said the same: many would not recognize the tiny Meg -- the key is the comparative size of the root. I was a couple of miles above Crews Park Wauchula.

Now on my request for an ID and jaw position. That is a non-trivial request as I tried to do some homework. There were LOTS of sloths in Florida.

3 Florida Sloth families (The Fossil Vertebrates of Florida, Richard C. Hulbert) Mylodontidae: Thinobadistes (late Miocene); Glossotherium chapadmalense (late Pliocene to Pleistocene); Paramylodon harlani (late Pliocene to Pleistocene) Megatheriidae: Eremotherium (early Pleistocene); Nothrotheriops (early Pleistocene) Megalonychidae: Pliometanastes (late Miocene); curvidens (early Pliocene); leptostomus (late Pliocene to early Pleistocene); wheatleyi (late early Pleistocene) and jeffersoni (late Pleistocene). The molariform teeth of Megalonychids are oval to subrectangular in shape, with concave occlusal surfaces.

My tooth can not be Megatheriidae due to small size and occlusal surface.

It is almost certainly Megalonyx but that leaves us 4 choices. Here is an eBay listing of a jaw with teeth identified as Megaloynx.http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pliocene-1-5-Million-Year-Old-Megalonyx-Jaw-Bone-With-Teeth-GIANT-GROUND-SLOTH-/121238218131

Very interesting on the positioning of Megalonyx molariforms. Here is another link of a M. Jeffersoni m2 or m3. http://www.fossil-treasures-of-florida.com/sloth-tooth-sloth014.html

So as an initial likely identification: Megalonyx Jeffersonii, m3. I have some work to do to make that identification more certain. But that is also some of the joy of fossil hunting.

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Posted

I knew I would come back to this thread as I learned more about the Sloth teeth in the Peace River. I was out yesterday and on a very tough day due to water depth, my hunting partner found a sloth tooth. After not seeing one for over a year, this was the 2nd I have seen in 2 weeks.
post-2220-0-84160300-1421608501_thumb.jpg

The tooth he found was a match for the 2nd tooth from the top in this Darwin drawing, placing it in the Mylodon Sloth family. I believe it is an m3 molariform for Paramylodon Harlani. Note that these teeth are round/oval in shape and relatively flat on the occusal surface.

I found a tooth 18 months ago and in this thread http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/42230-holmesina-teeth/ PrehistoricFlorida noted that it was missing the chewing surface and was a Caniniform rather than a molariform.

post-2220-0-26477800-1421609023_thumb.jpg.

I did not really think about what that meant at the time, but using what I think I have recently understood, it is a Harlan's Caniniform.

post-2220-0-74417500-1421609739_thumb.jpg This last one is a Harlan's molariform which still has a flat chewing surface.

Here is a photo I grabbed off of eBay. It is from a different Sloth family Megalonyx and shows both Molariforms and Caniniform. The teeth are somewhat rectangular and concave on the occlusal surfaces.post-2220-0-26449300-1421609458_thumb.jpg

What is making me so pleased is that I have learned something new - how to differentiate Sloth species in the Peace River by their teeth. Oval shape with relatively flat occlusal surface == Mylodon family and very likely Harlan's Ground Sloth. Rectangular shaped with concave occlusal surface = Megalonyx family and likely Jefferson's ground sloth based on most recent and size of the tooth.

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The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

Posted
Thanks for all the good comments. Now to try and answer in a single post.

1) Rich, certainly looks like rodent, but I could not tell rat from rabbit.

attachicon.gifIMG_9607cm.JPGattachicon.gifIMG_9609cm.JPG

Nice Lagomorph, aka rabbit jaw! Someone may be able to shed light on a species...

post-142-0-26306100-1421621763_thumb.jpg

"Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"


We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.

Posted

Thanks for the identification, Kauffy. I did feel that, although small, it might be larger than rat, but had no experience. It is my first rabbit fossil. I suppose that there were lots of small prey around for the bigger ones to eat. SS

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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