Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Small Partial Mammal Jaw Fossil Find. |
You can find a lot of things on the beach. You might be surprised by what can be found on our beaches.
I've seen big sections of mammoth tusks on Treasure Coast beaches. One weighed over 45 pounds. Who would have thought?
Besides the tusks, one of the most surprising to me was a rhinoceros skull cap.
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| Rhinoceros Skull Cap Fossil. |
I just never thought of Florida as having rhinos. I guess, the mammoths should have tipped me off.
Of course, not all Florida fossils are from big animals. There are microfossils, which are hard to find. Microfossils is too tedious for me. You have to dissolve fossil bearing clumps to find them, but you can pick them up if you recognize the right kind of material.
The fossil shown at the top of this post is a partial jaw with teeth from a small mammal. I picked that picture out when I was looking through old find photos. I thought the photo was a really nice. The background could have been arranged more effectively, but the picture of the fossils itself is very nice. I especially like the coloring and detail. The jaw is only about 3 cm. or 1.2 inches in length. People from the University of Florida said it was kind of unusual for a beach find.
I always like small finds. Whether it is with a metal detector or not, I'm always glad to get the small finds because they present a little more of a challenge. If you find the smalls, you probably aren't missing much. The big finds are often easier.
Look at this conglomerated with all those embedded shells. I really like it. You can see a hundred or more individual shells on the surface. The whole piece has been smoothed down.
If you spot fossils, you know that you are into some pretty old material. Below you can see how silica is replacing the calcium. It is very clear how the calcium is dissolving and being replaced by silica.
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| Seashell Showing Silicification. |
Here is a smaller example.
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| Embedded Fossil Shell. |
Turning over the same piece, you see a completely different picture. Here is the other side.
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| Silica Crystals on Other Side of Same Shell |
You'll often see that kind of silification often referred to as druzy.
You might remember Ruck's Pit — the original quarry site in Okeechobee, Florida, famous for its calcite crystal-lined fossil clams. Ruck's Pit is no longer open for general commercial mining. The quarry closed permanently over a decade ago, and the property remains closed to the public, however, Pacific Geo Lab holds exclusive fossil and mineral rights to the site and offers limited, scheduled public digging events called the Ruck’s Pit Crystal Clam Festival. There are special, by-appointment digs that take place once or twice a year (typically in spring and fall). I think the next one is scheduled for March of 2027. You can find details at PacificGeoLab.com.
I started out today with a find photo that I especially liked and was going to talk about small fossils, but the discussion became more diverse. I do have several general points I want to make before closing.
1. There are a wide variety of types of treasure, and you can find many different types of treasure on the Treasure Coast.
2. If you are metal detecting, you should still be alert for other types of treasure you might happen to see along the way.
3. Some of those other types of treasure, such as these fossils, might tell you something important that you should take notice of while detecting. If you are seeing fossils, you know that some very old material has been somehow exposed.
4. By reading and studying, you will be more aware of the other kinds of treasure and be prepared to spot them when you are on the beach. I never liked the idea of passing up a type of treasure simply because I was not informed or prepared to recognize it.
5. You can "tune" yourself to different types of treasure. When you go out looking for coins, shells, bottles, or anything in particular, that kind of treasure will be on your mind. and you will be more alert and attuned to those types of items.
6. There are times when you do not want to be focused on any one type of treasure, but there will be other times when you do want to focus in on one type of target.
7. The tuning process takes place at different levels: sensory, perceptual and cognitive.
When scouting a beach, you might want to be into an wide open sensory mode - open to everything in the environment, including the wind, surf, feel of the sand, etc. When you are focused in on a specific target, it is a different state of mind and feeling. During a hunt you might make adjustments and change from one mode to another.
Detectorists tend to pay a lot of attention to tuning their detector. They pay a lot of attention to how well it works and how to best use it, but the detectorist is an also an instrument and, in my opinion, the more important part of the system. The operator should be similarly aware of how he operates and any preparations and adjustments that should be made there. I've always said that for success with detecting, the operator is the most important part of the system. How the detector is used is as important or more important than the capabilities that are built into it.
Monitor your success and how you go about things and see if you can identify any adjustments that you should make. Buying a new detector or trying new settings isn't all there is to treasure hunting and won't necessarily be the answer.
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Psalm 8:4 “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
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| Surf Chart from SurfGuru.com. |
The surf is kind of lazy this morning. Nothing special in the forecast.
Hurricane season will be here soon.
There will be a negative low tide early this afternoon.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net
