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Peace River near Arcadia, FL contains a wealth of land and marine
fossils. The marine fossils commonly found include shark, ray, pufferfish, barracuda, dolphin, etc. Land fossils commonly found include horse, glyptodont, alligator, bird, turtle, snake, deer, etc. There are two reasons that marine and land fossils are found in the Peace River. First, this part of Florida experienced numerous cycles of being land versus being submerged in sea water. Second, this area currently has a river running through past deposits which include intermixed marine and land fossils. So, it's quite common to find marine fossils (e.g. shark teeth) in the same area as a land fossils (e.g. horse teeth). The geologic formation is likely the Hawthorn Group, Peace River Formation, You will notice in the images below that my Florida paleo buddy (Ron Seavey) has a lot of specimens represented. That's the benefit of living in the area!  Snaggletooth Shark Teeth (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Ray pavement teeth (ray barb next to dime) (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  (R. Seavey)  Ray pavement tooth plate (connected) (R. Seavey)  Shark Teeth (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Shark Teeth (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Shark Teeth (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Drum fish tooth (2nd from left), snake vertebra (3rd from left) (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Turtle shells (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Possibly gar, barracuda and sawfish teeth (S. Wagner, 1/3/06)  Glyptotherium Species (Glyptodonts) armor plates off large armadillo like creature (R. Seavey)  Horse tooth (R. Seavey)  Whale inner ear bone (Tympanic Bulla) (R. Seavey)  Alligator osteoderm Bony armor plate off the Alligator's back (R. Seavey)  Deer antler (R. Seavey)  Sting ray dermal plate (R. Seavey)  Sting ray barb (R. Seavey)  Unknown. (R. Seavey)  Alligator scute 2" by 2 1/4" (R. Seavey)  (R. Seavey, 4/5/06)  Unknown mammal tooth. (R. Seavey)  In the Peace River  The Tools (Screen sifting scoop & shovel)  The Tools (Screen sifting tool for river surface. Shovel and screen scoop above are dumped into this screen. Note wood and flotation padding .) If you notice any errors in identification, please contact me.
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