Peace River ID needed

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

Item #12

[familyguy16]

Antler?

Item #13

[fifbrindacier]

34 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Here there might be traces fossils.

8 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Artifact or some kind?

This : maybe a sponge ?

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

Found many pieces that are similar to this in shape and color in varying sizes. Still getting them cleaned up to take photos. 

Item #14

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

Item #15

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

Some of my bigger teeth and fragments from Day 2. I literally found the 2nd biggest meg just looking down one last time near my sift pile before we packed it for the day!! 

[familyguy16]

Looks like a rock but very strange shape. Found a few of these shaped very similarly in different areas of the river. 

Item #16

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

[familyguy16]

Item #17

[familyguy16]

[jcbshark]

51 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Repeat

[jcbshark]

52 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Sorry 

[jcbshark]

Sorry again lol

[jcbshark]

49 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

That is a horse tooth

 

48 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Tortoise dermal denticle

[jcbshark]

38 minutes ago, familyguy16 said:

Looks like a crab claw

[Coco]

Hi,

 

It would be easier to help you if you numbered your pics ! 

 

Coco

[familyguy16]

Coco, 

I did actually number them all. I took for granted the file name would show up which clearly it did not womp womp 

[digit]

Since I've recently been promoted to Moderator I now have new superpowers (which I've sworn to use for good and not evil). I've used the editing capabilities to go back and put item numbers on your finds. Hopefully, I've grouped all of your various images of individual items properly in assigning numbers to your finds. This should make things a bit easier for others to comment on your items.

 

Additionally, here's my two cents on the things you found (since I get out to the Peace River a couple times each season). First off, hope you had a great time fossil hunting on the Peace--it's a wonderful place with a wide diversity of fossils that can be found in the river. The more you get out to the Peace the better your search image will become and the quicker you'll be able to hone in on interesting fossils and ignore the infinite variety of interesting shapes that the phosphatic matrix can make. When you first start out hunting a new area it's great when you can get out with experienced guides (either paid guides or meet-ups with TFF members in the area). This is a great way of learning what to look for in an area and developing the proper search image. Searching for "peace river" posts is another great way of seeing what others have found and learning what the river is willing to give up to those who sift it regularly.

 

Most of the items you have shown are not fossils but are very suggestively shaped pieces of matrix. My wife collects a lot of these with odd shapes that she likes--my stack of napkins in the kitchen is held down with some of her favorite fanciful matrix pieces. The items that look not to be interesting matrix pieces I'll comment on below (using the newly assigned numbers):

 

Item #4: Slightly worn but a nice example of an upper horse tooth. Lower horse molars are more narrow and elongated (to fit into the narrow lower jaw) and uppers are more squarish on the chewing (occlusal) surface--with the squiggly ridges.

 

Item #5: I have several of these that look identical to your piece. I started collecting them as they had an odd "biological" feel to them (and I saw so many that I thought it had to be something). After showing these to experts it seems they are just phosphatic concretions of some sort and not fossils--I call them "mud bubbles" and have a nice little collection of them sitting off to the side on my desk.

 

Item #6: I agree with Jeff that this has all the markings to be an osteoderm (bones that grew in the skin and provided armored protection) from a tortoise. Do a google image search for "tortoise osteoderms" and you'll find lots of similar images (both fossils from this very forum) and images of live tortoises showing the armored legs. They are often referred to as "leg spurs" and doing an image search for that will yield more useful results.

 

Item #8: Not mastodon but probably mammoth tooth fragment. Both of these types of proboscidean teeth tend to be very fragile and get busted up into small fragments like you've found when tumbling along in the Peace River. Do an image search for "mammoth tooth" and you'll see how your piece fits into the overall tooth.

 

Item #9: This might be an infilled burrow cast but I've never been good at identifying these trace fossils.

 

Item #10: Interestingly and suggestively shaped but, sorry, not an artifact--just an odd piece of matrix.

 

Item #11: Dire Wolf (or any carnivore) teeth tend to be very rare in the Peace River. This one is a herbivore and given the size and shape of the chewing (occlusal) surface is probably fossilized tooth from a White-tailed Deer.

 

Item #12: My first thought on this was the tip of a deer antler (tine). Jeff's suggestion of a crab claw (pincer) could be correct as well. Usually, a crab pincer will have remnants of smaller bumps on the inside curved section which it uses for gripping. Do a google image search for "crab claw" or "fossil crab claw" and compare the imagery to your piece and see how it compares.

 

Item #15: This may be the internal mold of a gastropod mollusk. It's the smooth spiral that is giving me that vibe.

 

Item #17: Can't quite make it out from the photos but I'm wondering it it might be an internal mold of a barnacle.

 

 

Sorry that most of your items turned out to be cool looking shapes of matrix. Don't let that discourage you at all. You got a nice horse and deer tooth and some great megs so you did really well for a hunt on the Peace River. Hope you get back again soon and find some more for us to look at.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken