Some Musings on Florida Fossil Hunting

For the first time this season, we went out on the Peace in search of old bones and teeth. We got a late start this year, but we were rewarded with lower water levels and a gentle current. In previous years, in my haste to be “first on the river” at the start of the season, I would end up hunting in higher water with faster currents. So, we waited this season until the river dropped to “slow and low” levels.

We made two trips. The first was two weeks ago and was more of a scouting trip and didn’t result in any finds worth writing home about. The weather was pretty, albeit a little windy. It was a pleasant day, but I came away with a confirmation to something I have suspected for a long time – my usual haunts are played out and getting too popular… a little commentary coming...

I have noticed more and more people out on the river the last few seasons. Spots that used to be considered off-the-beaten-path are now heavily hunted. There has been a noticeable increase in the amount of hunters on the river and some of my favorite spots are now overrun with visitors and competition. I have also noticed a general increase in boat traffic in recent years, both paddlers and the motorized variety.

Some would take the view that “the more the merrier”, but the solitude and tranquility of being in the wilderness is one of my main reasons for visiting the Peace. I’m a friendly guy, but I just don’t like seeing boats full of hunters around every bend or paddling by every fifteen minutes. Most are nice people just out doing the same thing I am doing, but I’d rather be out alone and isolated because that’s how I recharge my batteries from dealing with the rest of the world. And frankly, all of those other hunters are competing for the same fossils as me, so there is a selfish element there as well.

Having said all of that, I decided to make a few changes to my hunting habits going forward. I will be tight lipped about exactly where I hunt. My public comments and reports will be stripped of specific location information, so my new spots will not suffer the same fate as other places I once loved to hunt. I say this, because on that first trip out, we found a promising spot that does not appear to suffer from extreme hunting pressure. It’s a different location than my previous haunts, and more importantly, it’s a place that is quite remote and secluded. It’s not an unknown spot, but it’s off the radar of most people and I want to keep it that way for as long as I can. (says the guy posting in public… I am aware of the irony.)

So, enough editorializing and back to the hunt. I found a spot with chonky gravel in an area that is somewhat “gatory”. I feel confident hunting it in low water, but I'm not sure if I would linger long if the water was a few feet higher. There was a big bull about 10-12’ long patrolling the vicinity and we had to be aware of him while sifting. I’m not sure if he/she is a resident of that area or just passing through, but I took it as a good sign, because my previous overcrowded spots are less gatory.

Maybe Big Boy will scare off some of the competition. I plan on getting better acquainted with the spot over the coming weeks, so I hope me and Big Boy will have an amicable relationship if I am in his backyard. Unlike some of the more popular hunting spots, this place requires a little more caution and attention to one’s surroundings.

About that chonky gravel I found : A surefire way to judge a gravel bed is how many small to medium sized shark teeth it has. You can tell pretty quick if other people have hunted that gravel by how many teeth come up in your first couple of sifters. If you see a ton of dugong rib, turtle scutes, and chunkasaurus and no teeth, then you know that gravel bed is somebody else’s leftovers. People might get picky and leave behind ugly chunkasaurus or common dugong ribs, but they never leave behind a decent snaggletooth or even a small bull or mako. People like teeth and they keep them when they appear in their sifter. They don’t toss them back unless they are very tiny or broken. So, if your first two or three sifters are producing everything but teeth, then there’s a good chance that other hunters already worked that gravel long before you found it. Just because you don’t see bomb craters and spoil piles, doesn’t mean somebody wasn’t there previously.

My first two sifters produced some nice small teeth – two snaggles, a nice bull, and a bunch of the other usual suspects. My third sifter brought up more teeth and a glyptodont scute. The finds were not spectacular, but tantalizing. Lots of broken fragolodon pieces, broken mastodon enamel, broken ivory sections, and large chunkasaurus that is not identifiable, but obviously came from megafauna. Broken fragolodons are a good sign – where there are broken pieces, there will eventually be intact teeth.

I dug a few test pits, filled them back in and re-scattered my gravel. I didn’t want anyone to notice my holes and piles, which might draw attention. We picked up the little bit of trash in the immediate area, took coordinates, stowed our finds, and headed back to our vehicle. I plan on returning and spending some serious time there. We just ran out of time that day. Hopefully, we won’t be greeted by a bunch of beer cans, holes, and spoil piles when we return.

I took some photos of the spot, but I will not be posting those – just in case an eagle eye recognizes the area. It’s new to me, but I bet a couple of the old-timers probably hunted this spot before and I don’t want to tip them off. Sorry folks. The Gravel Ninja strikes again! LOL.

In fact, looking through the photos we took, there are not many that I can share because they reveal too much. So, here are a couple of artful shots. One is a juxtaposition of light/dark with a fallen leaf and feather. The other is a gnarly tree that looks like a wizard in a pointy hat with his two glowing eyes looking at you. Can you see him?

I am going to wait to post photos of my finds until after the next trip when I have more to show for it. We spent most of the day scouting around and I only had about an hour to work the site before we had to leave. So, the finds I recovered don’t represent the full potential of what I suspect is still there.

What we did find is a horse tooth, two glyptodont scutes, and a few nice medium-sized shark teeth. I also picked up a sizeable quantity of “low hanging fruit” to bulk up my stash – all you can eat dugong ribs, turtle scutes, and small/tiny teeth. Basically, I kept everything that showed up in those test pits. Promising, but nothing to get excited about just yet. Until next time...