6/12/20 Report - Miscellaneous Sampling of Treasure Coast Fossils: Some Being Millions of Years Old. Evolution of Horses of North America. Labeling Finds.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Rhino or Teleoceras Skull Cap Fossil

I decided to show a different kind of Treasure Coast find today.   I often tell you to keep your eyes open when you metal detect.  You can find different types of things - some of them being really old.  One example would be fossils.

I think the fossil shown above is my favorite Treasure Coast fossil fins.  A real fossil expert told me it was a rhino or teleoceras skull cap from the Miocene period (25 - 5 million years ago).  I had no clue what type of animal it  came from but got an expert and friend of this blog to identify it for me.

I guess I like that one best simply because I find it difficult to think of anything like a rhinoceros being in Florida.

I think most detectorist like to find old things, but we are usually thinking in terms of maybe hundreds of years rather than millions of years.

Fossil Great White Shark Tooth.

A lot of people like shark teeth, and fossilized shark teeth are fairly common on some Treasure Coast beaches.  This one was found on the banks of the Indian River.  I wasn't fossil hunting when I found it.  In fact when I first saw it I thought it was a piece of glass.  And it is in very nice condition.

Below are a few more examples.

Camel Phalange Fossil.

If you are like me, you don't readily think of camels being on the Treasure Coast either, but above is what I'm told is a fossilized camel phalange.

Below are a few more examples.

Whale Inner Ear Bone.

Alligator Scute.

Fossilized Ivory From Mammoth or Mastadon.

I once saw a nice section of a tusk sticking out of the Treasure Coast sand.

Fossil Bone With Shark Teeth Marks.

Some fossils will show something a little extra.  Maybe it shows that it was worked by man or perhaps another animal left its mark like the bone shown above, which shows what appears to be teeth marks.

Keep your eyes open while metal detecting.  You might see something older or more interesting than what you were looking for.

I'll add one tip here.  It goes along with the mistakes I've been talking about in some of my previous posts.  Label your finds with as much as you know about the identity of the item and also the place and details of the find.  You might think that you'll remember all about it, but time takes its toll.  As you can see from the above photos, I had some of these labeled, and I am glad of that.  Some were not labeled.  That is a mistake I made a lot.  Don't put it off.  You might remember the details for some finds, but you might regret forgetting the details of others.

Fossil Hoof.

Concerning the item shown immediately above, I suspect it is a horse hoof, but I never got it checked out.  I'm sure an expert could give me the details, but at this point I simply don't have enough information to label it with any precision or certainty.

You might be interested in the history of horses in North America.  If so here is a link.

https://www.statelinetack.com/content/general-information/the-prehistoric-horses-of-north-america/

Horses changed a lot over the millions of years.

Horse teeth fossils are very common finds on the Treasure Coast, as are turtle scutes.

Bison, deer, peccary, sloth, snake, fish, wolf, bivalve and mollusk, coral, crab and wood fossils are some of the others fossils that have been found on the Treasure Coast.

If you are interested in finding fossils and haven't done it before, I'd recommend paying a professional guide to take you for a day trip to the Peace River.  It is worth the money, and you'll learn a lot.  I did it once several years ago.

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The surf is going to be around two feet today, and the tides are now small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/3/11 Report - Nice Looking Week Coming Up

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.


Fossil Found by Seagrape Trail.

Ken A. sent in this photo. He found this item up by Seagrape Trail.

I mentioned a few days ago that you can find fossils around there. This is one. It is a fossilized scute (plate or scale), probably of a gator, - perhaps Ice Age.

You can find fossils on several beaches of the Treasure Coast when the conditions are right. They are often found in piles of shells.


A variety of 16th Century artifacts including beads and iron tools recently found in south Georgia provide evidence that de Soto may have traveled more south and east than previously thought.

Here is the link to that story.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/111101-conquistador-america-de-soto-science-spanish-glass/


When the water is rough, it can keep you from detecting part of the beach. It can be difficult and even dangerous to hunt the low tide zone during while the seas are rough. Not only will the water make it difficult to detect, but there can also be logs and other debris that can hit you and knock you off of your feet.

I often recommend a loose zigzag pattern to scan a beach when you don't have any particular spot that you want to detect. A zigzag pattern can help you find the most productive zones for detecting.

You'll often find that coins are found in a line or area either high on the slope, middle of the slope or down at the waters edge. You can use a zigzag pattern to find any coin lines that there might be. It can also help you find a coin hole.

But when the water is as rough as it has been lately, you might want to consider an alternate scan pattern. If you get to the beach at low tide or when the tide is coming in, you might want to scan the area lowest on the beach first. Walk along the water moving either north or south and as far out to the east as you can get and scan that area first. The tide will be coming in, so then when you return in the other direction, do the same thing, but just a little higher on the beach, again staying as far to the east as you can. Work north and then south and so on, each time staying just out of the rough water and as far east as you can work.

When you come across a coin or interesting object, check that area more thoroughly. Mark that spot higher on the beach. Place a rock on the slope where the water will not wash it away. On your return trip, focus on the areas that you marked.

I was doing that the other day and on my first pass, I dug a few objects and marked them. On the way back, I could see where they were located, so then I shortened my scan pattern and worked the area around where the first finds were located.

That is one way to work an incoming tide to cover as much ground as possible while finding the best spots.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.


Conditions have not changed much in the last couple of days. I would rate them as being level 2.

If you look at the surf predictions, you'll see a slight drop off until Sunday when the seas pick up again. And then we have several days of near eight foot and higher seas. That looks promising.

The wind is now out of the east, which isn't ideal. And as you know, we have sand bars just in front of the beach and some slight building going on in some places. There are however, a few spots that remain pretty much at the level they eroded to a few days ago.

What looks good is that Saturday the wind is going to be coming from the north - if the predictions are correct. That could create some good cuts, even with the sand bars. We'll see.


Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net