Decided to gather some gear and go fossil hunting today. Never been before, but I had heard a lot of talk about the Apalachicola River Bluffs. Just bought a little river boat and got a Florida Fossil Permit, so I drove out to the bluffs. There were broken shells everywhere and so much ground to cover, so I gave up trying to dig. Just scanning the ground I found a few fossil bones, a few Indian pieces, and a big clam shell. I climbed to the top of one of the bluffs and found an ancient spring flowing down a sheer cliff. Can't wait to go back! BTW, does anyone have a fossil story to tell? Or can someone give me a few pointers? Here is the new boat:
Amateur Fossil Digging
- Thread starter 2find4me
- Start date
Welcome to our Antique Bottle community
Be a part of something great, join today!
My Mom got remarried and moved to retired in Florida. So I went Venice Florida to visit her for a week and see her new house this last January. And she shown all the beaches around there. Ran into some people who was looking for shark teeth. They shown me exactly how they find them. Where to buy the metal basket (all the walmarts had them) So I did that for 3 days out there. That was actually really fun. The books are all over out there so can look up your teeth see what shark they came from and guess aprox how old they are. I found lots and lots of them. Was spending my whole days doing that. And the little shops around there buy them too & resale them to tourists. I didn;t sell mine, still have them. You also pull up lots of other fossils while doing it. And most the books make easy to indentify them. Guy next me, doing it.. Found a old gold wedding ring. Old one.. But cheap one.. Made it even more exciting. Looking for big nice teeth and knowing you might even pull up gold in the process. After doing that... now I understand why Venice Florida Beaches is known as the shark Capital of the world... Or their sharks are harmless, toothless sharks... Because you find a lot of shark teeth there. From all kinds of sharks. -- I would not test my 2nd comment, they toothless. It might be painful to find out that was my joke.. lol But I recommend to try that there. If in Florida.. You'll find tons of shark teeth. Fun figuring which shark they came from and how old. And then finding the Bigger and nicer ones.
RED Matthews
Well-Known Member
Hello Deep Down, My daughter was digging here in NY and found what she thinks were dinosaur eggs.?!! Didn't know but found them on the internet. Her finds were big long egg shapes with one broken in half that had a dusty powder to it. One is about 6-1/2" long X 2-1/2" dia. and the other is about 8" long x 3" dia. We will be doing that study for a while. When the girls were at home we went to a creek that is well know for them and found some brackiopods.ASs a kid and at my Grand Fathers farm we used to fine arrow heads. It was a battle area between Sullivans Army and the Seneca Indians. Treasures are out there GOOD LUCK. RED M.
HI RED, That's very cool. Dinosaur eggs.-- I never found any Dinosaur Bones YET. But I'm in that part of Indiana where every year or 2, others seem to find them a lot... It Where the Ice age happened, near Lake Michigan. Like 10 miles west of me (wolf Lake) I know they found many. And Last summer about 20 miles east of me.. someone digging holes for a fence stumble on 20 or 30 Dinosaurs/ bones, all complete. It all ways in the paper by me. Someone finding a big discovery of them. In past 5 years, they all been found pretty shallow. The people didn;t even dig deep... So everytime I dig out here.. I keep thinking... hmmm Maybe this time I will find a dinosaur. But no luck yet. There no question.. There Treasures in ground everywhere. I dug a few up myself. A Hop a long Cassidy radio. It rusted shell, but looked cool. Took a gamble & Tossed on ebay (thinking I get $5 or $10 since it Hop along Cassidy) and got $800 for it. Turns out it was really rare one. They bought to restore, really hard to find one. A friend of mine in NY adirondik mts area. He found an old mid 1800's marble when building his porch. Got a pretty penny for it... Between fossils & Just things in general... The ground holds lots of treasures.
TJSJHART
Well-Known Member
my family moved back to mariemont ohio when my dad's dad past on . we lived there for a year then moved back to az. but in that short time i got hooked on digging up fossils in the streams and hills in the area . that collection , i haven't added to it for 10 yrs. numbers over 200 pieces. but my acl collection is well over 250 . thats what hobbies will do to you .
GEEMAN
Well-Known Member
Check out the Peace River near Arcadia. I was visiting my dad near Clearwater last winter and booked a day trip with a guy who takes people out to sift the river gravel for fossils on the Peace River. Found a pile of shark teeth and a host of other fossil bones. Found a couple hundred shark teeth,pieces of turtle shell, antler,a barracuda tooth,an alligator tooth, a large fish vertebra even a sliver of mammoth tooth. Found several bone fragments from who knows what as well. So many in fact, that I stopped saving them. It was a lot of fun and pretty easy ... if you don't mind digging with a shovel most of the day.I would post pics if I could = computer idiot here unfortunately We would find a gravel bar then shovel the gravel into a screen and sift through it looking for whatever might show up. The screen was pretty simple- a 2x4 frame with quarter inch hardware screen attached to the frame. The frame had sections of those floaty pool noodle things zip tied to the sides so the screen floated. You attached a length of rope to the screen long enough to tie off to your waist so it wouldn't float away on you. Your boat would be more than adequate for the job. We used canoes. I will for sure do it again if I make it down there next winter. All you need is a boat/canoe, a long handled spade type shovel,a screen and one of those cheapo cloth nail pouches from Home Depot, Menards etc to put your finds in. I could easily become addicted to fossil hunting like that if I lived down there.
Thanks Geeman, been wanting to go over there for sometime, waiting to see if my dad will take me. I made a homemade sifter with noodles for floats, almost identical to the one you described.It is a long six hour drive, but it is the summer and no school for me! I have heard many stories about the Peace River just have to make the time. If I do go, I will be sure to bring my camera!
