Posted on 01/01/2011 6:51:30 AM PST by Hotmetal
I found all of these on my first outting in one creek. I was told the large teeth are from a mastodon but they don't look like the ones I've seen on the web. The vertabra I was told, are maybe from a mosasaur.
/johnny
Thanks that clears things up.
Swamp gas?
Unlikely to find large mammal fossils in the same area as moasaur, but not impossible if they were washed together from very different strata.
You found my dentures!
I wish I could help you but I will say that it is pretty cool. Do you hunt for them or just happen by them? I’m wondering if the Smithsonian could assist you? Perhaps you could send the photos to one of their experts?
Second, wish I could help with the fossils, but this is really cool. I want to take my kids on an outing here in AZ specifically to hunt some down, maybe do some gold prospecting as well.
Good luck identifying them.
The large teeth I dug from the creek bank,only saw about 1/4 inch of one. If I had to dig down to them it would have been about 4’. All the other stuff was in creek bed.
Thanks for your support.
I'd caution against that, if you want to continue your collecting.
They'll try and get the area "roped-off" as a site of interest to prevent "further looting" and confiscate what you have. Same with any university.
Then they have it all and you will have nothing.
Works the same way as Income Tax.
Any idea on the large teeth?
Yeah, I took them to Ole Miss and they wanted to know where I found them, I only told them NE Mississippi. I looked at their map and the area I found them in was already marked.
You are probably right. Of course, he could say he purchased them from a man on the side of the road in another state?! I know that if you find any sort of Indian artifact that you better keep your mouth very tightly shut or they could take the land. Thanks.
I would read up on the local geology of the area where you found them and see if there are any descriptions of fossils. You can narrow things down a lot if you know the relative ages of the rock units the fossils came from, and origin of those rocks, i.e. marine, continental, etc.
The last pictures look like they could be broken parts from a mastadon tooth. Mammoth teeth are flat with ridges, but mastadon teeth have peaks on them.
It’s difficult to tell from the picture: Does the object in pics 2-4 appear to be a single tooth?
It’s too small for an adult pachyderm. And the tooth in 2-4 doesn’t resemble an elephant molar.
Also, the incisor would rule out a pachyderm. The bones look mammalian ... probably a pig of some sort based on dentition.
Any idea how old these are? You should have some estimate of ages of fossils commonly found in your area.
http://sharktoothcreek.com/
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