Peace River Florida, Pleistocene(?) Fossil Skull, Blue Tooth

[Bone Daddy]

I found this lovely skull recently in Florida's Peace River. It was near a spot of fresh erosion from a high bank that contains a thin gravely-shelly layer running through Holocene-Pleistocene overburden. You could see the fossils weathering out of the bank and falling into the water below. A gravel bar had accumulated near the bank in the river and it was littered with fossils. I did not see any evidence of Miocene fauna, like the usual dugong ribs or megalodon teeth.

 

Sitting in plain sight, upside-down (teeth up) in barely 4-6 inches of water was this skull. It is fossilized. Dense with a dark patina. To my delight, it had a canine intact and it is a beautiful color of blue that is similar to what you see in some Bone Valley fossils (and shark teeth) that have been buried in the right localized conditions. All of the remaining molars have some of the same blue coloration. So, I am thinking this is not recent and may be something interesting (hopefully)?

 

It's quite small, as you can see in the photos. Is it a small critter, or a juvenile-version of a larger species? I would love it to be something like a juvenile dire wolf pup, instead of something less sexy like an ancient opossum.

 

Any guesses on what this could be?

 

 

[caldigger]

What cool coloring!   Literaly!!!

[joshuajbelanger]

snarge man, I leave and you start finding the goods...not cool

[jcbshark]

That’s skull is beautiful

[RuMert]

It's definitely not a wolf, the molars are too flat. An omnivore such as a raccoon.

Fantastic find! Almost intact skull is incredible

[Bone Daddy]

Pleistocene raccoon skull for comparison : http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Galleries/Mammalia/Procyon-lotor/Procyon.htm

 

[goatinformationist]

Yeah, you did good.  And the ref site is nice to look at too.

[PODIGGER]

Bone Daddy - Great find and Beautiful coloring! 

[JohnJ]

Check this out, Mike.  Look at the "Roll" clip of the 3D Volume Rendered Movies at the upper right.  

 

How does it compare?

[Harry Pristis]

 

I agree with raccoon.

 

 

[Bone Daddy]

I just read in another thread that the Bonner Springs "Pleistocene" fossils in the link I posted above for comparison are likely bogus. I did not know that when I first found the link.

 

 

[garyc]

Very cool!

[CousinLarry]

So cool!!

[Plantguy]

That is mighty awesome....bullae still hanging in there..

Regards, Chris 

[Reebs]

Woaaaah!! That is a really awesome find! Congrats! 

[Bone Daddy]

Thanks folks. Yeah, I am pretty happy with this find. I find a lot of skulls and partial skulls, but this is the first fossilized/mineralized skull. I did the flame test on it and it didn't react at all.