Amateur paleontologists BIG TIME!

Today as an early Mother's Day Present, my family took me Fossiling. It was great fun. We got up bright and early and headed two hours south.

We met up with my friend Melissa and her family and crew to have a day becoming hunters of fossils. She has written a great curriculum for Florida Fossils, and we were proud to partake. She was super patient with all of us who had tons of questions.

Mostly "What's this?" and after a few scoops, we were moving to a new spot. She clued us in quickly that it is best to stay in one spot and hunt. We were on the Peace River south of Gardner FL. The river is so completely low and so much of the sediment has been washed away, we were finding fossils left and right.

Have collindar will work.


Water shoes are a must. So is sunscreen.

This is a great find. Steve found this shape in the hard limestone. It reminds us of a dinosaur footprint. I put my flop next to it so we could tell how large it is...the only problem, is there was only one print. Steve named it the unipedisaurus...the One Foot Dinosaur. Can you see the three claws and the heel print?

Dugone bones.

We came home with about twenty sharks teeth, even a tiger shark's. This is when you remember that we are on a River. Fresh water. Dead center of the state of Florida. Two hours from salt water, either direction. We were told this center of the state is called "The Valley of the Bones".

We gathered about fifteen dugone, (similar to manatees) bone pieces, one even looked like it had been bitten because of the marks. I am not sure about most of these black things...someone could just be really foolin' me and I would be caught hook line and sinker.

Speaking of a sinker, we found one of those, Olivia thought it was the coolest fossil because it already had holes in it so we could make it into a necklace. Gotta love the girl. I did try and share the truth with her, but she would have none of it.

We all had a complete and utter stinkin' good time, the girls kept saying they can not wait to go again.

It was a wonderful family time to celebrate my special day.