We didn't find the rest of that animal.
Pam and I both hoped to find an entire mastodon in the hole we started last week but it was not to be.
Honestly, we didn't really think we'd find a whole mastodon but we did expect to find some good fossils and that didn't really happen. Sigh...
Pam wins the fossil of the week award with the best of the 3 vertebra we found in our hole.
I was jealous, OF COURSE, but very happy for her!
Other than the big vert, we couldn't seem to pull much else out of the gravel so we distracted ourselves with the scores of paddlers on the river, enjoying Easter weekend. Normally, the groups pass us by, each and every person asking, "Have you found anything?" I'm going to be honest; regardless of what I've found, I always say the same thing, "Nothing too exciting but enough to keep us interested; small shark teeth, turtle shell, etc." It's not a lie but then again, it doesn't encourage the asker to pull their canoe over and start digging right next to me. This weekend, we were barely even finding that and there were lots of paddlers that wanted to try their hand at fossiling for the first time.
Big tiger shark tooth
Pam is extremely patient and nice. I am less so but I'm mostly obsessed with my own digging. I did assist a Chinese family and the language barrier kept their fossiling lesson on the short side. All the first time fossilers has so much fun looking through the gravel. There's something to be said for having a very low bar. Every rock was an adventure for them.
The Chinese family called us over to help them ID their finds. Pam and I looked into their container of discoveries and I didn't say a word as I was pondering the proper way to handle the situation. Pam dove right in, ever the kind, gentle, fossil diplomat.
"This one is a rock, " she said, then, "Rock, rock, rock. Actually, these are all rocks. But THIS..." pointing to an almost microscopic shark tooth, "this is a very nice tooth!" They beamed with excitement. We added some manatee rib, turtle shell, and mastodon enamel to their collection and sent them on down the river.
Beauty in the details: back of a small turtle scute.
We finished our digging a little before 2 as we had a long, slow ride back to the boat ramp which was only the midway point for me in an extremely long day: wake up at 4 am, drive for 2.5 hours, kayak for an hour, dig for 5.5 hours, kayak for another hour, drive 2.5 hours home, THEN collect my dogs and drive another 2 hours across the state to see Mike and the boys. I have an excuse for sleeping until 10 am the next morning!
Not much to show for such a long day.
I'm sure the saying "It's not the destination, it's the journey" works here, somehow. Maybe it's enjoying all the interesting things I see when I'm on the river, including the various types of rocks I dig up.
I can't even guess how the top 2 rock formations are made but they are crazy looking. I always keep the small round rocks I find (trying to fill a large jar) and I added 3 to my collection. The 2 black rocks are pieces of fossilized bone that have been worn round by the action of the river water.
Luckily it only takes a few good teeth to create some fun jewelry for my Etsy shop, SolOpsArt.
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