This past weekend, my family and I took a short trip to the center of Florida to look for sharks teeth on the Peace River in Wachula, FL.
This river is famous for producing thousands of fossilized sharks teeth from a lot of different species including mako, tiger, great white, snaggle tooth, and the most famous and hardest to find- - the megalodon.
After planning this around my daughter’s karate tournament in Lakeland, FL, I connected with a local paleontologist, Fred Mazza, who runs trips over to the Peace River to search for fossils. He has been doing this for > 5 years and has expert knowledge of the river and the best places to search for fossils. Check out his operation here.
I just want to tell you that this is one of the coolest activities that my family and I have done in a long time. We canoed up and down the Peace River spending time as a family digging in the phosphorous layer of the river panning for these historic fossils. It was awesome working as a team/family to uncover Florida’s historic past and being engaged in a common goal.
Now, I have found random sharks teeth on the beach and some in local marl pits here in FL. However, I can tell you, that I have never found this many sharks teeth in one spot in my entire life. In fact, I cannot believe just how many sharks teeth we found that day. My son counted his when we got home -380 teeth. I am sure that I found more than him - Ha Ha! But seriously, as a family (5 of us), we found close to 1000 teeth that day. We found sharks teeth from all species mentioned above including 5 Megalodon teeth.
If you want to plan a trip doing this, here are some of the tips that we learned. First, be prepared to be in the water all day. You will want to bring covered shoes - as the rocks there are very sharp. The guide will have the life jackets and canoes, but you will need to bring a cooler full of waters, snacks, and other food to last the day. You will also need plenty of sunscreen. And, that’s it. He supplies all the necessary tools to dig for the fossils.
If you have any inkling to be adventurous and go outside of your comfort zone and flip the script - then I highly recommend that you check out fossil hunting on the peace river with Fred Mazza.