Spring, second of two

The guy who details the nursery's trucks lives on the Myakka river. Right on the river; he and his family were flooded out of home for 2 weeks during the last wet season. But the river is low this time of year, and Saturday he decided to take himself upstream and do some snorkeling--looking for sharks teeth and such. The rivers of southwest Florida are fossil-rich.

What he found is eye-popping. He found three leg bones and several vertebrae of what would appear to be a mastodon. He brought one of the leg bones to the nursery today to show it to me. This fossil is about 3 feet long; at one end [which I take to be the top] is a double ball joint in very good condition. The other end looks like it has been eroded away. The shank of the bone is at least 5 inches in diameter. A very large bone.

He has a friend who is a paleontologist. He's sending one of the leg bones to the paleontologist for a better Ident. He said "You can't believe the adrenalin surge after I found the first leg bone. I put the skiff under one arm and the bone under the other and walked on top of the river all the way home!"


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10

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