A Tiny but Pleasant Surprise

I was having serious fossil hunting withdrawals during the week and it was all I could do to keep from going nuts waiting for the weekend to arrive so that I could hit the river. Thank goodness for YouTube! Watching fossil hunting video helped take the edge off a but but it also helped fuel the desire for big sharks' teeth even more.

I got up Saturday morning and got online to check the Peace River water level and it was still at a good level. I packed my gear and my cooler and headed out. I stopped for some much needed coffee to help me make it the hour plus drive that was ahead. Once I got to the river access I usually use I noticed, an over abundance of fossil hunters. I figured more the merrier and parked the car. The weather was absolutely perfect for hunting and after getting my stuff together I headed for the water.

The place I had hunted the previous week was good to me but I decided to try a different place to see if it would be as productive. I also had snorkeled the previous week but I decided to start out using my screen. I found a nice gravel bank and got to work. Some of the other people I saw earlier had migrated to my spot and I figured it would be nice to have a little company. It wasn't long before I made some good finds. The best find of the day happened to come within the first hour of screening. I think had I not been using the screen I probably wouldn't have made the find. What I found was a near complete rodent jawbone complete with teeth. I had something similar before and had been told it was a muskrat jaw. Not too shabby. I put it in a safe place and continued screening. The finds started to wane so I decide to go back to last week's spot and snorkel.

The snorkeling was definitely a lot easier than the screening and it didn't take too long to start finding tooth fragments. I did mange to find a partial alligator scute and a nice piece of fossilized wood. I also found some decent turtle shell pieces but the whole sharks' tooth was eluding me. The time was passing quite rapidly and still no decent tooth. The sky was starting to get dark and I could tell a storm would be rolling in soon. I told myself ten more minutes and I had better get going. Not soon after that promise I found a decent 1.5 incher laying flat on the limestone bottom after having fanned away a good 4 inches of sediment. By then the sky was blacker and it was a matter of time before things got nasty so I packed it in. At least I knew I would try to resume the next day where I left off.

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