We Came For Fossils!

But the river had other plans.

Here it is, mid-December, and we are still shut out of the Peace River due to high water levels.  The fossil veterans assured me that this is within the range of normal for the "dry" season but I couldn't help feeling a slight sense of paranoia.  What if they were just telling me that the river was high?  What if I was exhibiting classic learned helplessness while everyone else was scooping up all the good fossils?

Had I been took?!

Driving south to attend the Fossil Club of Lee County's Fossil Fest, 

I decided to take the back roads and eyeball the river myself.  

There is no conspiracy.

I was sufficiently intimidated to see the river rushing under a bridge, only a few feet below the roadway, in an area where it needs to be about 20 feet below the roadway for me to launch a kayak.

So we find other ways to occupy our time.

The Fossil Fest was, as always, a lot of fun.  It kind of feels like a big family reunion to me, where I know some people better than others, meet new members of the fossil family at each event, and wander around eating hot dogs and hamburgers all day.

  

My general rule of thumb is I don't like to buy fossils.

I want to find my fossils so if my collection is on the light side, no worries because every item I have has a personal story behind it.  However, I was lured into the club's silent auction by the offer of oreodont remains.  I only recently read up on these extinct creatures.  They were about the size of pigs or sheep and roamed north America in vast herds during the Oligocene and Miocene, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merycoidodontoidea.

My winnings!

This is a section of oreodont lower jaw.  It's not in pristine condition but every time I hold it, 

its magic transcends the $11 I spent by an order of magnitude.  

I am used to finding individual teeth, not jaws with teeth and while many fossil hunters have found jawbones in the Peace River, I am not one of them.  When I hold this piece of oreodont jaw, the animal comes alive in my mind.  It's amazing!

Other club members have been lucky enough to find their magic at garage sales!

This collection of teeth, including a large, perfect megalodon, 

set the my fellow club member back a mere $20.

Score!

But Nothing replaces the visceral pleasure of digging for fossils,

and thus I found myself on the banks of the Alafia River:

low enough water for us to explore, but uncharted and potentially unproductive territory.

Such risk takers!

I've heard many a fossiler pronounce, when the digging isn't going so well, that they just enjoy being outside in a beautiful environment.  My backyard is beautiful so I don't need to drive 2 hours each way to enjoy the outdoors but truly, camping can be such a pleasant, relaxing experience.  

For the first couple of days.

After that, the grunge sets in, but I digress.

We set up camp at the well-maintained Lithia Springs Regional Campground 

and spent the next 3 days poking around.

The weather and water were both on the cool side and it's time for a new set of waders as mine have more leaks than I can patch (fossiling is tough on gear), but our stretch of the river was gorgeous and we had lots of sun to bolster our spirits.

And we needed some spirit bolstering because we couldn't find any fossils!

Lots and lots of rock but no fossils.  Not even scraps.

I used my fossil screen as an improvised drying rack (yes, I do my winter camping with a space heater these days) but it wasn't as much fun the second day getting dressed in cold, damp clothes to try it again.

We did a lot of probing and dug a lot of test holes on day 2 and towards the end of the afternoon, I decided to settle in an area of shallow rock and put in some "shovel time".

Imagine my surprise!

When you're not finding anything, it's a shock to find a tooth this perfect.

I believe this is from a camelid, maybe a llama, and as always, comments are welcome.

I was packing it in for the day when my hunting partner returned from his explorations upstream with a selection of agatized coral fragments.

What the what?!!!

We had both been tossing around the idea of cutting the trip short but when I saw this I was 

in for a penny, in for a pound!  Couldn't wait for the sun to come up on the third day!

Agatized coral is Florida's state stone and is composed of the fossilized remains of corals that lived in the shallow seas covering the state during the upper Oligocene to lower Miocene (23-26 million years ago).  This material was used by ancient humans to create beautiful stone tools and is used in modern times for jewelry and as polished specimens for collectors.  Looks like I'm going to have to learn how to use a lapidary saw because I can't wait to see what's inside some of these beauties!

I credit my friend for finding the location, but

I found the lunker!

Ignore the 3rd day camping hair and check out the segment of fossilized coral I'm holding!  This was far and away the biggest piece we found but all the pieces are stunning.

First, a couple of detail shots of the lunker to show the visible coral structures:

Here is a smaller piece with a covering of quartz crystals known as druzy.

I dug until I was worn out and had enough material that I needed to make sure my kayak was properly balanced.

The coral on my seat ended up in the stern crate.  Would've made for a rough ride back to camp if I hadn't moved it.

 When I got home I improvised a light table to show off the translucency and color

 of some of the thinner pieces.

Good stuff!

Finding a new and different kind of fossil was such an energizing experience.  I let my imagination run while I was digging, pondering how all this fossil treasure wound up in that spot.  The Peace River water level is dropping but I think one more trip to the Alafia might be in order.

My Little Corner of the World

How many women would be content with a shovel

and 4 square feet of gravel in a river bottom?

Me, for one!

My second visit to the Peace this season landed me in my comfort zone.  No, I didn't bag any big treasures, but I was immersed in what I find truly astounding about this Florida river: discovering a complex variety of fossilized animal remains in a small shallow area of gravel.

The weather and scenery were delightful and since I didn't have a set game plan, I poked around a bit with my probe and finally settled on an area of shallow water and shallow gravel.  From what I could tell by probing, I was working along an edge of limestone on the river bottom.  The area was well dug but I quickly turned up some small shark teeth and meg fragments so I got to work.

I love the symmetry of fish mouth plates.

It's more common to find segments so a whole piece is a score.

But the segments are great, too.

Look at the detail of this!

No, not my chewed up cuticles; the fossil.

This would be half of the palate, the top segment in the photo above.

I was in ear bone heaven.

Bottom right are 2 perfect dolphin periodics.  On the left is a decent ear bone from...a small whale? Some kind of cetacean, I am guessing.  The top is an ear bone from a good size herbivore such as a horse.  I realize my dearth of knowledge can be frustrating but I'd rather dig than research.  

Simple pleasures!

I always refer to myself as the meg-less wonder

But not anymore!

They're not perfect but at times, I found one or two in every screen, as well as loads of fragments.

Teeny tiny meg

About 5/8".

Great color meg

It's worn and lacks serrations but I like the blue-gray blade and tan root.

The other sharks were represented

Little shark teeth are said to be a sign of a good area to dig and that seems to be the case but I've definitely found amazing fossils in places that didn't yield a single small shark tooth.

Just keep digging!

But don't dig too hard...

It wasn't a tragedy but still, it was my first noticeable shovel ding.  It's still a great horse tooth but all I see is the ding. 

Dang!

As we loaded up to leave

an experienced local fossiler pulled over to see what we'd found.

She said she'd been fossiling in the Peace for 40 years and at one time, had 120 complete mammoth teeth stacked up in her house.  She told us about trying to boost herself into her canoe from an underwater log, only to discover the "log" was a 6' section of mammoth tusk that she had to beg her friends to help her take home; they wanted to leave it behind.

My consolation is that if I had been digging the river 20 or more years ago, I'd have better and bigger stuff, but I'd be 20 or more years older!

An interesting incident on the project side of things

When I pulled these 2 glyptodon scutes out of the river, they were pitch black.  Since they had a lot of damage, I smoothed out the rough sides, prepped them to be made into pendants, and set them out in the sun to dry.  And forgot about them.  For a long time.

When I spotted them again, they were completely bleached out by the sun.  Far from being disappointed, I'm intrigued by this unexpected look.  These will be showing up on my table at the Fossil Fest in December.

Fossil on!

Back in the Saddle Again

"Saddle" in this context means "kayak"

I had the gall to feel disappointed that my first day back on the Peace River was dreary,

but I'll give myself a break because it was really dreary.

The chill was a shock and it drizzled on us all day and I had forgotten a stocking hat and even a sweatshirt.  Still, my excitement at being able to dig again got me through, and it wasn't until I glanced in the rearview mirror after loading my truck that I noticed my lips were blue.  

I'm declaring the day a success!

I'm not certain but I believe this is a big honking ballast bone from a fish.  I'm taking it to the next club meeting to get some more opinions.

Tiny perfect molar.

Horse teeth.

Shell encased in crystal.

This was kind of hard to capture in a photograph but it is a shell encased in crystal. 

Very cool!

The odds and ends photo.

Some fun stuff including 2 more ballast bones, mastodon enamel, whale ear bone fragments, glyptodon scute, turtle shell, ray and fish mouth plates, a meg with no enamel (alas!), and an unfossilized pig tooth.  Oh, and check out the vintage marble.  Love.

I made it to the Orlando fossil show.

Florida Fossil Hunters...hear me roar!

(trying to add a little panache to the hobby)

It's fun to see so many great fossils lined up on tables.

More megs than you can shake a shovel at.

Mammal teeth set out like strange gemstones.

And discoveries that I have to admit are better than my vintage marble.

But not by much.

I was ridiculously excited to see a drug ad that features fossil hunters.

There is a TV version, too.  

It just seems so random to pick paleontology as a backdrop for a pharmaceutical but I suppose it's no  more random than two 50 year olds holding hands across individual claw foot tubs en plein air (and I use that incorrectly).

SolOpsArt fossil jewelry.

Help a fossil sistah out: Tweet about me.

Ha! That's officially the first time I've used that term!

I've probably used it incorrectly as well, but I would appreciate fossil fans letting other fossil fans know about my Etsy shop SolOpsArt.

I'm used to drilling holes in my megs...

...but I was sweating bullets drilling a hole in someone else's meg.

I've been commissioned to reconfigure someone's meg necklace and they requested the drilled mounting as opposed to the wire wrap.  I'm, of course, a fan of drilling, as I prefer the look but I took this project sloooooow...

I'm saving up my shop proceeds because

I can't stand lugging a 40 lb battery around!

I give in!  I'm going back to something in the 27 lb range to power my trolling motor and if it doesn't last as long, so be it!

If I pray for rain, will it stop raining?!

I've spent the last month, hoping against hope,

that it will

STOP RAINING!

The exact opposite has occurred, on an almost daily basis, so I'm now practicing reverse weather psychology:  every day I look forward to a heavy thunderstorm and imagine all the fossils being washed out of the river banks and deposited on the soft sands of the river bottom, waiting for me to come along and gather them up.

This river gage may look encouraging,

until you realize that the river is still about 8 FEET too high.

This summer, the credo appears to be, 

"When you can't go Peace, go Apollo"

I'd been wanting to revisit the spoil islands off Apollo beach since I paddled over there for the first and only time 3 years ago.  Back then, I found part of a beaver tooth and various bone fragments; enough to keep my interest intact.  This would also be a good opportunity to do a test run with the new kayak rack and do some provisioning for the slowly approaching Peace River season.

My first season digging in the Peace River was marred by stabbing muscle cramps in my hamstrings on the 2 hour drive home every week.  This inexpensive electrolyte mix solved the problem.  

But, of course, there is always another problem waiting to rear its annoying head.

Kayak wheels are needed to get from the parking lot to the actual Apollo beach and my wheels SUCK!

Ok, they were free, but sometimes "free" isn't enough to counterbalance "suck" so I made a mental note to secure a new yak trolley before attempting this venture again.

And the weather, too?!

A cold front had rolled through overnight and the morning was cold (by Florida standards, you know, 65ºF) and windy.

The placid nature of this photo belies the gravity of the choppy, haystacking waves I kayaked through.  I kept reassuring myself, "This is nothing. It's SOOO much worse on The Deadliest Catch."

Still...SKETCHY.

For anyone attempting this little jaunt, choose a calm day, wear sturdy dive boots, and try to cross at mid-tide as the channel side of the spoil islands is lined with a series of cement beams that sport patches of sharp barnacles: much easier to cross when submerged by at least a few inches of water, although you can wriggle through if the tide heads out while you're fossil hunting.

The shoreline is a daunting jumble of big broken clam shells and rocks.

Is it worth all the trouble?  

When in desperate need of a fossil fix, yes!

I climbed out of my kayak and almost stepped on this big chunk of mammoth tooth.

Another half hour of surface hunting yielded 2 horse teeth, one with particularly nice color and translucency in the enamel.

I only visited one little island and most of the rocky part of the shoreline was covered 

either by water or mangroves,

but it calmed my hankering to hunt and gather.

National Fossil Day: it's a real thing

I made it to my first National Fossil Day event.

I had a few people giggle when they asked me what my plans were for the weekend and it probably does sound a little odd if fossils aren't your gig, but the event was really enjoyable.  

Seriously, it was.

National Fossil Day is, well, a national event, 

and our special day was held at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton, 

tirelessly organized by my fossil friend and fellow club member, Pam.

Several members of the Fossil Club of Lee County were on hand to assist in manning our club table, including Dean in the above photo with Pam.

I don't know what that thing is in the poster but it's cool as hell!

The museum is small but it was a great space for us,

and has some interesting displays.

I've spent a lot of time considering this painting of a giant ground sloth.  Three tons and 18 feet tall, I'd almost rather see one of them than a t.rex:  equally interesting and probably a lot safer to observe up close.

I've been to a couple of fossil shows

but the emphasis there is on the vendors.

There were definitely things you could buy at NFD, 

for instance, these monochromatic yet appealing minerals.

And there was an arrowhead knapper who was making these amazing pieces of art on site.

If you wanted more information, you could take one of his clever business cards:

The true emphasis of NFD is education and there were 

plenty of highly educated and interesting people to talk to.

This is Dr. Richard Hulbert from the Florida Museum of Natural History.

He is sitting quietly in this photo but was ready and willing to answer anyone's questions.

So much to look at...

And this was the first time I witnessed a truly rabid children's dig.

There were no half-hearted toddlers looking confused by the concept; 

these kids were focused and competitive!

The kids' digs are always seeded with serious fossilers' rejects.  Being relatively new to the hobby, 

I couldn't help but snag a couple of the rejects for myself.

I WISH I had rejects like these!

I capped off the day as a guest of Pam 

at the Florida Paleontological Society's banquet

 where I got to hear Sharon Holte give her very interesting talk about the Thomas Farm dig, http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/thomasfarm/home/.

Cheers!