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Even after having a night to sleep on the fact, I'm still in shock. I was tempted to not even go on this trip since part of me wanted my plesiosaur tooth from last week's Woodbine adventure to be my final impression on North TX. The other part of me wanted one last crack at the Kamp Ranch and a new potential site. It's fine to return to already known locations, but I was thirsting for one more journey into unknown territory where the risk of failure is greater, but the taste of victory is sweeter. After swimming/wading a ways, I found the first small outcrop of Kamp Ranch. I've had some previous experience with this layer in the past, and the knowledge I picked up from then proved useful. While most of the outcrop was relatively devoid of vertebrate material, there was a thin pasty layer cemented to the underside of the thickest limestone that proved to be rich in teeth. I pried out the odd Ptychodus tooth here and there, but pretty soon I was out of real estate. The thick limestone slab looked precarious and the rest of the pasty matrix I was after was nestled deep in the crumbly wall. Noticing the slick shale beneath my feet, I decided jumping away from an avalanche was out of the question and it was time to move on. Ptychodus from the outcrop. All P. anonymous except the top right which may be a P. marginalis(?) lateral. On the walk over to the next outcrop, I made sure to scan the loose pieces of Kamp Ranch matrix scattered about. Most of them were only comprised of oyster bits and Collignoniceras woollgari impressions, but once in awhile there would be some shark. I went for a rock with a shiny black Ptychodus anonymous that had caught my eye. As I dug it out to have a closer look, I saw there was a tiny tan mosasaur situated next to it! Unfortunately it's cracked and in super hard material. If I try to bust it out, it will probably explode! Ptychodus anonymous and mosasaur tooth (Russelosaurine?) Just a few feet further I found an absolute heartbreaker. I could see black striations coming from the edge of a slab and my hopes shot up. As I turned the rock, I realized it was a shattered piece of a pliosaur tooth . Don't even think it's worth keeping... Pliosaur tooth, likely Brachauchenius lucasi I picked up my pack and headed to the last outcrop of Kamp Ranch. I was relieved to see the thick limestone was much more secure. As I examined underneath, I had my mind set on small Ptychodus teeth when I almost fell on my back from surprise. Cemented to the slab was a truly astonishing sight: Pliosaur Tooth! If that wasn't crazy enough, just centimeters below was a limb bone jutting out. I got out my excavating gear and carefully went to work. I don't carry b72 in the field, so each tooth fragment was extracted separately. Afterwards, the bone slid out pretty cleanly. I didn't find other similar material, so I'm not sure if the two are associated or it's just coincidence. Maybe someone familiar with reptile anatomy can say if the bone came from a pliosaur. The tooth came in 6 pieces Once I was home, I got straight to cleaning and gluing. The fragments had held up alright along the journey thankfully and the prep went smoothly. By the end, I was holding up the newest and greatest tooth in my collection! It is most likely Brachauchenius lucasi although Megacephalosaurus eulerti is also a rarer possibility (I don't have access to the paper distinguishing their dentition). Both of these pliosaurs represent the youngest pliosaurids in the fossil record which adds some extra coolness factor. That Woodbine plesiosaur tooth (possible basal Polycotylid) I found last week is interestingly tied evolutionarily with the demise of pliosaurs such as B. lucasi. Polycotylids had traditionally been placed in Pliosauridae until more recent findings moved them to Plesiosauroidea instead. This confusion is likely due to convergent evolution. As pliosaurs disappeared in the aftermath of the Cenomanian-Turonian Anoxic Event, it seems some Polycotylids evolved to fill a similar niche, moving away from gracile dentition (like my Woodbine specimen) and into a more robust form similar to B. lucasi. At least that is how I understand it. Brachauchenius lucasi most likely The second half of the neat discoveries is this reptile bone I found several centimeters below the tooth. I'm not sure it's associated. The high energy nature of the Kamp Ranch makes me wonder if it was just coincidence. Anyways, it seems to be a limb bone. If you look closely, you can see toothy scrapes that are probably from scavenging sharks. I tried to look for signs of serrated teeth, but I didn't see anything obvious. Some of the attached matrix is vertebrate rich with tons of little fish verts and other goodies. Anyone know if this is pliosaur in origin? @pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon Reptile Limb Bone So glad I decided to have one last exploration before my move. I guess it's not like I will never hunt in North TX again, it's just that it will be much, much more rare. I've added so many new, fun, and interesting sites to my list this past half year, I'm a bit sad to leave them all behind. At the same time, I'm itching with excitement to make new discovers in the southern half of our big state. It won't be easy though! Look forward to more trip reports in the not-so-distant future . Thanks for reading

Last weekend was one I'll never forget... I've barely processed it, but now that I can be more coherent, here is the story of the mosasaur we found --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On September 11 & 12, I researched and found new fossil hunting area (to me), that exposed the Eagle Ford formation. I decided to scout it, and that scouting trip ended up being wildly successful. On the first weekend of my scout, I walked away with several ptychodus teeth, a great squalicorax, and two small mosasaur teeth, all still in matrix. Many of the ptychodus teeth here represent a species that will be described next year by Shawn Hamm, and are similar to Ptychodus anonymous. (Below - one of the teeth from the scout - this tooth is one from the Ptychodus species that will be described next year) Fast forward a week. It's Friday, September 17. I returned to my new honey hole a second time, intent to explore a little more. The spot I was working on the week before produced more ptychodus, fish bones, and fish teeth. It was fantastic, and I decided to keep a keener eye out for a different spot to work on next (still in the same area). Walking back, I spotted a great exposure of dense shell hash, at the bottom of the creek. The barren, blueish layer of shale that usually covers this hash had lifted up in one big slab, probably with a flood, and revealed the nice patch I was looking at now. Feeling pretty lucky, I sat down and got to work. "This is the spot to spend the rest of my time here on", I decided. I got to work lifting slabs, expanding the exposed patch, and had some nice results. More Ptychodus teeth, and the odd Scapanorynchus tooth revealed themselves. One slab had a little ptychodus on it that I popped loose with my finger. Immediately below it sat another tooth, in the same orientation that it would be as part of a mouth plate. That was crazy! Perhaps I have a partial mouth plate on my hands (spoiler alert - I still need to prep it to find out) By now, it was late afternoon, and the day flew by. I suddenly had the realization that I was about to be late for work, and had to speed back. I made a mental note to come back to this excavation I had started the next day. Saturday, September 18 Recently I had gotten my older step brother interested in fossil hunting. Today marked the first day he was keen enough to go on his own, rather than with me....however, I should preface this by saying he was only alone because he wanted to hunt quite early, at 8 AM.....my gears were barely even turning yet, so I told him I'll meet up with him a little later. Over the phone, I told him where to go, what type of rock to investigate, and where the spot I was excavating was located. After finding the excavation I had started the day before, he sat down to continue my work until I got there. As he told it to me later, he picked around in the rubble I had left the day before, to see if I missed anything, and then got bored and decided to lift the next loose looking slab...and BAM, he was met with bones. Once I picked up the phone, I was off like a shot. Upon arrival, I immediately realized that we were out of our depth, as it seemed like the bone continued further on under the slabs. Before we even touched them, I hastily contacted @JohnJ, since I had no idea what to do next. He couldn't be there due to a commitment, but the advice he gave to us about continuing the excavation gave us enough confidence at least start. Throughout this dig, John was the crutch that made the whole endeavor manageable - without him we would've been completely lost. (Here's what we saw, before any excavation) One Walmart run later, and we got to work. The rock quality wasn't great, and crumbled easily. We worked carefully, but soon had to learn to deal with the fact that some bones would break in the condition they were in. Nothing glue couldn't fix later. (what we saw after the bones had a chance to dry a little, and after some excavation) At this point, we had found three associated mosasaur teeth. With the first tooth, I was hesitant to say it was associated, because there were tons of little teeth of all sorts around. A second, much smaller tooth made me reconsider. (Below, the third associated tooth) It's worth noting that we found quite a few Squalicorax teeth (maybe 7 or 8), and a few Scapanorynchus teeth as well - suggesting a scavenging event. What was really bizarre though was the sheer number of little Ptychodus teeth (probably around 6 or 7), many of which were the undescribed species I mentioned earlier. While likely a coincidence, I think it's still fun to imagine this Ptychodus crushing through bone as it scavenged a skeleton - a completely different look on what Ptychodus are supposed to do as shell crushers. (Some of the shark teeth revealed though the dig) (Smacking a hammer around doesn't always go as planned) At the end of day one, we had lifted one slab out. It was when we tried to reduce some excess rock at the side of said slab that we found the craziest part yet....a jaw piece! The shaky photos I took of this jaw in the field aren't a great angle, so here's that same jaw piece at home: Only a little bit of bone remained poking out of the bank after day 1. So, we thought day 2 would go by quickly... but once we started excavating those little pieces, more revealed itself. This slab was particularly unstable, and after four hours of careful digging, we decided to rip the band aid off and try to pry it out.Fortunately, instead of coming apart in 20 pieces, it came apart in just 2 (below: One of the two slab pieces) We were done- 9 hours of excavation for what felt like (after the fact) a small amount of bone. However, since so much bone is still deep in the matrix, we're crossing our fingers that we have more than just isolated jaw elements and vertebrae. Since both of us are new to prep, we decided to leave this intimidating (to us) job to the talents of Kris - @Ptychodus04, who graciously made room for us among his existing prep work. I'm excited to see what his hand reveals, and I'm crossing my fingers that our find has some diagnostic elements. I'll likely continue to post updates on this thread as they come, but this is basically it! I'd like to write a little more, but unfortunately I have chemistry homework that simply cannot be neglected any longer... It's been understandably hard to think about those trivial things after a weekend like this

Hey everyone, Just a quick ID post for help in pinning down what exactly these couple of teeth are. Up first is a broken crown to a tooth I found while processing South Bosque material from Central TX for a pet project of mine. It's Turonian in age and looks similar to some small Carchariniformes teeth I've found at the Whiskey Bridge. Note that when I found this tooth, I had not yet visited the Whiskey Bridge, so I am certain this is not a product of cross contamination. Anyways, it's unlike the other specimens I have from the South Bosque and I am struggling to find a genus that matches its shape other than Galeorhinus. Carchariniformes were present in the Mesozoic and Galeorhinus is known all the way back into the Cenomanian, but ones this old are very rare so I am hesitant. I am wondering if any knows another more likely genus for this Turonian tooth? The second tooth is definitely Cretodus, but I am trying to pin down a species. It came from the Atco (Coniacian) which is known to produce Cretodus crassidens, but I have recently learned of another species, Cretodus houghtonorum, that is also in the area and a candidate. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the paper describing C. houghtonorum so it is difficult for me to figure out how to differentiate the two, but just off of secondhand knowledge I believe this one may be C. houghtonorum because of its more gracile non-ovular cusp. The wrinkling on the labial face is very pronounced and travels farther up the cusp than on my C. semiplicatus specimen from the Cenomanian. On the lingual side, the wrinkling is very short whereas they travel much farther on the C. semiplicatus. The root on the suspected C. houghtonorum is extremely pronounced and almost hangs over the cusp and cusplets. Wish I had a C. crassidens to compare to, but the C. semiplicatus is all I've got for now. Luckily they are very similar in mouth position so it's easy to spot differences. Left is tooth in question; Right is C. semiplicatus specimen Tooth in question C. semiplicatus @ThePhysicist @Al Dente @MarcoSr If you know any other shark experts who could help, feel free to ping them in the replies Thanks!

Please help (if possible) to narrow down the ID of this bone. It doesn't look fishy to me, unless it's a really big fish fragment. I tried to dissolve and remove the very hard matrix from around the fossil. But, it only softened the fossil more. I have put on a coating of thick cyanocrylate try and stabilize it. These are some early photos from right after I found it.

Hi all, it's been a minute since I've written a report and I think I'm due To start: This last January I got to be a part of two special discoveries in the marine reptile realm. Though not made directly by me, I'm still glad I got to be there. I'll detail them below: Early January: Last summer, I spent two weeks in North Dakota on the Hell Creek formation, and made some lifelong friends. Two of them (Harry and Piper) arranged a trip down from North Dakota and Florida, respectively, upon the discovery of cheap flight tickets, with the intent of catching up and taking a tour of the Texas Cretaceous. Our weekend was spent well - many laughs, drinks, mishaps (like my catalytic converter getting stolen ), long drives admiring the city lights in my parent's car that they graciously lended me for the remainder of the weekend, and of course....plenty of fossils. The first day was spent gravel hunting - not much came to show from it save for a well preserved (for these creeks) mosasaur vertebra. I was of course very happy to see this, as verts in this watershed are a rarity. The next two days were devoted to the Eagle Ford - one site being a bust on stuff that's worth flying down for - but the next site which we attacked on Sunday produced the best find of the trip. This site is my "if we get skunked, it's our last resort" site - there's always something wonderful to be seen there, and when you have a site like that in your back pocket, it's not something to pillage - best kept for special occasions like this! My hope was that I could get Piper and Harry hooked on some beautifully preserved Cretoxyrhina and Ptychodus, and, if we were lucky.... a Pliosaur tooth. What Piper actually ended up finding was so rare it wasn't even one of my list of realistic goals for seeing that day... We arrived at the site, and while I tried to isolate the elusive fossiliferous layer, I put them on some sections that still had some promise. For both of them, all of their prior field experience is in the North Dakota badlands - so even the act of tapping actual rock and flipping slabs made for an enjoyable and novel approach. After 20 minutes or so, I eventually found the sweet spot - that thin, ephemeral, densely packed layer was underwater. Making a huge mess (mud and water everywhere ), I pulled out some great slabs and passed them out to be picked at, and then picking at some of my own. Here's a fun selection of finds prior to "the big one" Above: Cretoxyrhina mantelli tooth from Piper in the less rich layers. She found this nearly immediately! A gorgeous Ptychodus occidentalis that I was happy to see A Protosphyraena sp. I was happy to see as well. Largely complete teeth from this taxon are not too common for me. a PERFECT Squalicorax falcatus. It may be a common shark, but I love finding a beacon that can just define an entire species in my collection. I have some other smaller, perfect condition teeth for S. falcatus, but they take on a more posterior position in the mouth. For now, this tooth is my Squalicorax pride and joy. Some microteeth showed themselves as well, like this one above. With that size it's hard for me to make a judgment on genus here. Finally, one rock had a trip-maker. I handed a slab to Piper, turned my back to continue "mining", and immediately hear a casual "I think this is something cool". Laying loosly on the slab, ready to come flying off with the slightest disturbance, was THIS: A Coniasaur jaw! That's code for "stupid rare". Here is the specimen under better lighting. Those familiar with North American Coniasaurs may notice something unusual - that it's definitely not the North American Coniasaurus crassidens that most Coniasaur finds here get thrown into. With what's described, that leaves the more conventionally European C. gracilodens, and that doesn't look like a definitive match to me either. For Coniasaurs, it wouldn't be saying anything very extraordinary, as Coniasaur taxonomy has not been properly recorded, but this might belong to one of those coniasaur morphologies floating around without a description. This specimen needs to be looked at under a microscope before a definitive assessment is made though. Here's a graphic I composed for it (note none of the pictures are mine though). On the left (A, B, and C) is Coniasaurus gracilodens, on the right (E and F) is Coniasaurus crassidens. Notice that Coniasaur paleoart is even rarer than the actual animal, so I used art of some other Dolichosaur. It does a good job of representing what Coniasaurus would have looked like anyway. It was a wonderful find to wrap a wonderful weekend, and this fossil will probably make its way to SMU next. If the folks there don't find it useful for the Coniasaur research they have rolling, it'll make its way back to Florida with Piper. Fast forward a week: After one weekend spent fossil hunting a hard, another good one was on the way. This time, my weekend would be devoted to exploring the cenomanian Plesiosaur digsite from July, in search of more bone. My dig partner for the weekend was George, who I met briefly at SMU once by chance, where he was asking around on how to get involved. Unfortunately @Ptychodus04, who (with Joe) I found the specimen with in July, couldn't make it out this time. With his current prep project of a one of a kind green river bird, I can't blame him . It was suggested I show George the ropes the next time I go to my plesiosaur digsite. That might have been a little cruel and unusual, considering how difficult and dangerous that site is, but as you'll soon see, it was well worth it - but not for the reasons you'd expect. We spent two days on the site - one half day digging away overburden, followed by a night in a smoky motel-8, and then the next day more tediously removing small chunks of matrix from the cavity at the bone level. In short, we moved maybe 8 inches further into the cavity, with no bone spotted. As I was hunched over, chipping away, George moved further to the right by some feet to explore for a wayward flipper. This was his first field experience, and he crushed it, breezing through the first slabs as he moved in. It did not take long until he let out a triumphant yell. Thankful to stand up, I came over to take a peek at what he had found in his slab, and went completely silent. It seemed to me that we were looking at a mosasaur tooth... As a reminder, this is (middle?) cenomanian strata - several million years older than the oldest american mosasaurs. Before we call it though, Polcyn is going to evaluate and prep the tooth personally. But, from photos and my own pre-prep observations, we're both optimistic that it's mosasaur. Next up will be some sampling of bentonite layers for a more precise date. Here are some photos: With that find, the day was a success, even though we didn't find more of the Plesiosaur. George and I turned around and started heading home. We had time, so I wanted to make a pit stop to explore a different creek which seemed to have interesting geology after I cross referenced google and geological maps. Fortunately, it didn't take along to find a perfect access point, and from there it didn't take long to find a large shale exposure. This was in the upper eagle ford formation, close to the contact with the Austin chalk, so I was hoping to find the legendary Kamp Ranch shark tooth lenses. We got stopped short by mud and private property though, and we were anyway making slow progress because the geology up until that point was just too interesting. So, we settled down and begin moving into a hill. Much to my surprise, we began finding in abundance one of the last fossils I expect to see in the eagle ford - ammonites. The average ammonite we'd see looked like this - detailed but otherwise in poor condition: Some other good specimens began appearing, thought still flattened: After 30 minutes, we eventually came across a a partially 3D specimen: This was a welcome change from being hunched over for hours in hard rock searching for a humongous marine reptile. This day, we got the best of both worlds! For now, I'm stuck between Colignoniceras woolgari or Prionocyclus sp. as Prionocyclus hyatti also looks convincing. Suggestions are welcome Those were the January highlights, but I would like to take a moment on a February find as well- my first Saleniid ever. Other male fossil hunters might relate to me with this one. When you're this hopelessly obsessed with the hobby, your brain can come up with few date ideas more appropriate than dragging a pretty girl through some muddy creek to look for sea urchins with you. In retrospect, always a terrible idea, but if she sticks it out you found the one Fortunately we didn't get skunked, so she didn't think I was crazy - because we actually made a good find I wasn't expecting. This site is the legendary Comanche Peak shale micro site that I've praised on a few trip reports before. Between my step brother and I, two Tetragramma (one of them gargantuan) have been found, and dozens of Heteraster - but all in the tiny shale section. The shales are encased in limestone, which I noted to be decidedly more barren in previous visits. But, this time - I almost immediately noticed a wonderful geometric pattern in the limestone roof above me: BOOM! I was definitely ecstatic about this. Careful chiseling got it out safely, in a condition to be prepped at home: Pre-prep, I'm tentatively assigning it to Leptosalenia mexicana. For the prep, I think I'll have to use acid for the first time, painting the exposed urchin in paraloid and dunking the rest in vinegar for a day, water for a day, and then repeating. If anyone has a tip or trick that they like for acid prepping urchins, I'm all ears On a total side note, we made an even rarer discovery soon after - though not a fossil. After moving on from the sea urchin spot, we found a newly made walkway that ran by the most perfect, untouched climbing boulder I have ever seen. For anyone reading this who also boulders, you would agree that boulders that have flat landings, excellent top-outs, and solid holds, all while being aesthetically beautiful... are very rare. To find one that is easily accessible and undiscovered by other climbers? That's like finding a unicorn. Here's the unicorn in quesiton: The day after I threw myself at this boulder for a few hours, cleaning the holds and finding routes. I had a dream about it for two nights in a row And so, that was my month. I've been busy, but thankfully not nearly as busy as last semester, so many weekends still give me time to get back out in the field. I have a killer Coniacian spot in mind I want to explore soon, so hopefully I'll be back with a success story. Hope you all get a chance to kick it in the field soon!

Hey forum! No long story this time- it was New Years Day and I decided to hit up my special Eagle Ford spot off the beaten path to start the year off. That day was of my most productive creek crawling adventures in this specific spot yet! I’m already focused on pursuing my education goals this year as well. First: I want to show off my new exciting lucky shark tooth hunting shirt! I drew, on digital, “Prehistoric Sharks of Texas” and slapped it onto a tee. The tag is my autograph printed on the back of the neck which feels surreal! The teeth were hand-drawn by me over layers of photos from my own personal shark tooth collection except the Ptychodus occidentalis. I couldn’t NOT post it here! *It’s not yet available to the public- this shirt is the first test run. I thought my fellow Cretaceous & Texas shark hunters here might enjoy this! (Shhhh but there’s one Permian tooth on there! I plan on making an all-Cretaceous shark one too) First Ptychodus of the year! A gorgeous example of a Ptychodus whipplei I kept popping them out of the gravel bar, one after another: Some lovely Scapanorhynchus r. and Cretolamna a. anterior finds as well! This last one is a rather unusual one! Smooth looking piece. I have an idea but any thoughts from those more experienced is most appreciated as I’m still always learning. Haul of Ptychodus from a little under 2 hours- that’s including “walking time.” I wish I had more sunlight to burn! Some other finds: Very neat tumbled marine reptile bones! Baby shark doo-doo! I’m always a sucker for a good goblin! Third favorite shark of all time…literally. Possibly a Scapanorhynchus r. lateral tooth. Has two small accessory cusplets on each side! Interesting enough is that the tooth is very smooth like a Cretolamna. A lot of my other smaller ones however have striations you can see and feel. Super neat & near complete Cretodus crassidens next to a Scapanorhynchus raphiodon anterior! Cretodus is the big bad tooth in the center of my tee! I don’t collect points but this is my first find in this super specific area. I already gave it away to someone I knew wanted it! Unfortunately for them when I found it, it was broken diagonally near the bottom right but they were still ecstatic. BEST FIND: So as soon as I found this, I *immediately* messaged the first & smartest person to mind that I felt the most confident in asking/trusting for a second opinion. We both came to an agreement this looks a lot like a mosasaur tooth! DAYS ago I finally got a Tylosaurus tooth from Ozan (I forgot to add that hunt day to my other thread- opps!) and it looks just too similar for me to think this is a Pachyrhizodus or another predatory fish tooth. The root cavity too makes me think so as a lot of my other mosasaur teeth have that. It screams “marine reptile” at me. If anyone also wants to chime in with thoughts- please do so! Any info to ID species of stray mosasaur teeth, particularly found in the US, would also be very helpful! Im sure someone here could also find that information helpful in the future. I know there’s “facets” and striations to look for in particular species. Additional tooth pictures: Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed Until next time I head back to my prehistoric beach, ya’ll remember to take care & enjoy life. Happy 2023! -Larí R.

A couple of weeks ago, @Jackito, his son, and I took a trip out to one of his favorite Eagle Ford sites. For those of you who are familiar with Carter's posts, this was once the famed location of the so-called "giving rock", so the bar was set high for the day. I've come across some of Austin's eagle ford material in the past, but it was always only the leftovers of what had been washed through miles of rushing creek water. This was my first time getting to poke through the source material, so I was eager to see what could be found. The water was low and the temperature mild. I was thankful I wouldn't have to suffer trudging around in soggy shoes. As we walked beside the creek, Carter explained the various layers and where the best stuff could be found. He pointed out the notable spots where things like pseudomegachasma and pliosaur teeth had been dug up. I knew to not get my hopes THAT high up, but it was certainly a good motivator to stay attentive and expect the unexpectable. It took me a while to get the hang of pinpointing which slabs were best to open and how. Carter was nice enough to share some of his finds, and I must admit, not everything pictured below was necessarily first spotted by me . I was quickly surprised by the sheer number of shark teeth we started finding. Being the completionist that I am, I would immediately try to excavate every tooth I found. Carter advised me that simply bringing the matrix home and processing it there would be the most efficient use of time which I have come to agree with. Every tooth had fantastic preservation and would often pop right out of the shale (though not necessarily in one piece). The Ptychodus teeth were the most mesmerizing. They basically broke off without a speck of matrix still attached and had a beautiful shine. Thankfully, they were also robust and rarely fell apart. A decently sized Ptychodus still in matrix The amount of Cretoxyrhina to be found was also staggering. Unfortunately, they required a little bit more delicate prep than what I had to offer in the field, so my ratio of broken to unbroken teeth was higher than I'd like to admit. In my defense, I managed to lower that ratio as the day progressed. Squalicorax was also a common sight along with various fish teeth. Carter's son managed to find some turtle material... that was still alive and may or may not have come from out of the stream . For most of the hunt, Carter and I had some nice discussions on things to be found here in Austin along with various chats about life. The hours seemed to fly by so fast, it wasn't long until Carter and Jack had to head on out. They'd been wanting to find some mosasaur material for a while, so I sent info on one of my favorite sites (the place where I came out with 4 mosasaur verts in a day). Hopefully we'll get to hunt together over there some time in the near future. I stuck around as I had a couple hours to kill before needing to drive to a friend's birthday. The rest of the time was spent doing more of the same. I managed to come across a huge Cretodus tooth, but the root was unfortunately nowhere to be found. I also started gathering some of the leftover matrix for later processing for microfossils. The layer was just so rich, how could there not be something cool to find? I filled up a couple Ziploc bags with the stuff and made my way out, thinking of ways I could clean this while residing in a college dorm. The richness of fossils in the matrix. This piece was a little too stony to break down though. Might try vinegar. Suffice it to say, I figured out a way to clean it without clogging the communal sinks, but it's a slow process. Though, I must admit, it's nice to come home each day to a cup's worth of dried micro matrix ready for screening. In only my first batch, I found something I think is pretty amazing. What was at first just a shiny little speck, upon closer analyzing, may, in fact, be a tiny coniasaur tooth! It has that characteristic bulging crown that is instantly recognizable. Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun on this one. A couple rounds later, and many many puny Ptychodus teeth, I managed to spot what appeared to be the tooth plate to a Pycnodont fish or something similar. After some delicate cleaning and lots of paraloid, it's still a little bit scuffed, but there are definitely some little round bulbous teeth in close association. The tooth plate before and after cleaning. Can anyone confirm if it's Pycnodont? There was plenty bony fish and shark material. Interspersed within them were some that eluded my identification (including mayyybe Paraisurus?). I've got plenty of matrix to still go through, so I will post updates if anything cool is found. For now, here are some pictures summarizing the finds: Please excuse the hand pics. It's just that the details come out better on a slightly darker surface as opposed to white paper. Closeups of Coniasaur(?) Tooth L to R: Bony bits, "Coniasaur" tooth, and "Pycnodont" tooth plate The best of the Ptychodus and a close up of the smallest one. The bottom left is smoothed over. Is this maybe feeding damage? Also, any ID for species is much appreciated : Cretoxyrhina mantelli. My favorite is the fat one on the left Best of the Squalicorax falcatus. Right two are a little strange. Possibly symphyseal? Best of Scapanorhynchus and huge rootless Cretodus (hard to see in pic, but its got the wrinkling): Paraisurus? I saw that genus mentioned in a Shawn Hamm publication on the Atco and thought it could be a match. The roots are very skinny on both specimens and the teeth seem vertically stretched. The larger tooth on the left initially appears to be missing half the root, but it is actually nearly complete. The only break is a tiny portion of the root at the very top. The right specimen is very fragmented. No signs of cusps nor nutrient groove on either one. Cantioscyllium orals and Sawfish Rostral Teeth: L to R: Enchodus, Protosphyraena, and Pachyrhizodus Some oddballs. The left is a fragment of some sort of multi-cusped shark tooth. The middle is a a segment of some barbed material that seems similar in appearance to the fishy bits found in the matrix. The right specimen is a shiny crescent shaped thing that I have found in other micro matrixes from Moss Creek and POC. Never kept them, but now I'm curious after finding them again: Thanks for reading!

Last week I visited my little spot in the Britton formation for the first time since all the flooding rains, it's only a small strip about 20 yds long that's slowly eroding but I always find things. There were the usual baculites, ammonites and crabs, an Inoceramus and a few I'm not sure about. The crab that's circled doesn't look like the other Notopocorystes, it's too long, is it lobster? Then there's the little baculite packed rock that had 3 tiny ammonites, #3 I pried off, Mortoniceras? #2 scaphite or Placenticeras? #1 so small not sure it can be ID'd. #4 separate rock looks like squished Allocrioceras with smaller one beside it? Pics will probably end up out of order so numbered ones in question.

Hello again forum! Remember that bucket “goodie bag” I took home from the torn up Post Oak Creek a few months ago? I finally went through it and found some excellent stuff! (Im actually wow’d with some of this stuff because I’m just an amateur!) Surprisingly- I found tons of other stuff that ARENT shark teeth for once! I grabbed a 5 quart bucket and took a big shovel scoop of gravel/mud from various parts of the entrance of the creek where the construction was and some from the first sandbar. Im working on an educational frame display I might actually eventually donate (there IS a massive park being built there for tourism !) and wanted to label found bones correctly. You’d think because I come here SO often I’d be an expert at the finds here but I’m not a real paleontologist or biologist, just an outdoorsy lass who can find fossils and loves learning about ancient animals. I tried my best to ID some of these finds myself, however I just found myself stuck and not very confident with IDing these bones. Because there’s so many mammal remains found here as well I wanted to ask you guys for help- and give me pointers how to ID cretaceous reptile bone, fish bone, and mammal bones. (Teach this woman to fish metaphorically. ) Unfortunately my bone finds are worn and some are tumbled fragments which make it harder for a novice like me. Any help appreciated, and happy to learn! Post Oak Creek is in Sherman, Texas. Cretaceous, Eagle Ford and theres also “Ice Age” fossils and even more recent fossils found here too. Everything here I can confirm is fossilized and very much stone. I also added in 3 bones from last trip than need ID’d plus a few other cool things. ***I took a TON of pictures and have to load them on seperate posts-please be patient! I will add captions to them all as well so wait until I post “Done!” Sorry for super dry hands. The process! The Finds: all spread out! Ruler is in MM (milimeters). I labeled them by letters and there’s some bonus things in there to ID! These are the bones Im most curious about! (More photos below) These are more recent fossils, I feel confident at least that G, I, & J are turtle shells. No idea about H or K but might also be turtle? M & L look and feel lighter but are still very much stone- maybe mammals. Someone already helped me ID that N and O are fragments of mammoth teeth but what the heck is P!? Could it be a pig tooth or even…human!? * Bonus Round! * ?1 I think is the tiniest ptychodus tooth ever! I have no idea of the species however it’s probably one of the tony teeth in the outtermost bottom part of the jaw (the teenie long ones!) ?2 I think is some sort of spine? It almost reminds me of a belemnite or sea urchin spine. Its definitely organic and not man-made. ?3 I THINK I FOUND A NATIVE AMERICAN CLAY BEAD! I find a few of these every once in a while there, usually small. Are these little Cretaceous sponges?

It's been over a month now since @Jared C and I found the Eagle Ford Xiphactinus. In the weeks that followed our discovery I was able to get in touch with the right people at Baylor University where I go to school and start to organize a retrieval project. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make it back to the site since then as all involved will have to wait for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn enough for us to have the proper permission necessary to return. So I was left with a problem: my first visit to the Eagle Ford turned out so well that I wanted nothing more than to go back, but I couldn't! Of course, that was just because I only knew of one exposure. And so I turned to more old literature in the hopes that I could locate another productive site the same way I had the first one. After many hours of reading papers that were filled to the brim with so much scientific jargon that they often went completely over my head, it seemed like I had finally struck gold when I found directions to a specific locality. Several days later I found myself with enough free time to make a scouting trip. The woods that I traveled through to get to the creek that was my ultimate destination were not making my job easy for me. Anyone who's spent even a little time outdoors in the eastern half of Texas knows that any given stretch of woods is about 80% brambles and thorns. This particular area was absolutely covered in them. I made slow progress - every fifteen minutes that passed would find me moving roughly the same number of feet. Eventually I got lucky and stumbled onto a trail through the thorns made by the local hogs. It's probably the only time I've ever been grateful for an invasive species! Following the trail led me to a steep bank and the creek I had been looking for. Peering over the ledge, I could see that the sides were lined with shale almost from top to bottom. All that shale had to mean fossils and so I wasted no time in making my way down to the creekbed. The paper I was referencing told me that I was within the Lake Waco and South Bosque formations of the Eagle Ford group, but it didn't take long for me to realize that there were probably others present as well. Massive slabs of limestone had fallen from the ledges at the top of the bank and littered the creekbed. Here's a picture of probably the biggest one I saw: My best guess is that this was some of the nearby Austin Chalk making a surprise appearance. From there I made my way westward. Fragments and impressions of giant inoceramid bivalves were visible on almost every scrap of rock I passed. I was so focused on inspecting the broken pieces of shale and limestone I was picking my way through that I failed to notice the pack of wild hogs I had inadvertently cornered! The creek dead-ended just beyond a fallen log, behind which were the makers of the trail I had followed through the woods. A limestone ledge formed a now-dry waterfall and below it was a pool of stagnant water and mud that the local hogs were obviously using as a place to wallow and escape the Texas summer heat - I can't say I blame them! I made sure to give them enough space to escape up the side of the bank and once I was sure they were gone I moved to inspect the pit they had been so kind to leave me. The shale I had been walking alongside further up the creek was exposed in all its many-layered glory here. For a mudhole used by a bunch of pigs it was surprisingly beautiful, and I found my breath briefly taken away when I got my first good look at it. Interpreting what I was seeing using the paper that had led me here proved to be a challenge at this point. At first I believed that everything below the waterfall ledge was the Lake Waco formation and everything above it was the South Bosque, but after a LOT of research since my first visit I'm now fairly confident in saying that almost everything I saw was just one particular member of the Lake Waco formation: the Cloice. The first finds of the day were located on the right side of the picture above in a layer just above a bentonite seam and just below the thick layer represented by the waterfall ledge. See how fast you can figure out what they are: The tooth on the left turned out to be a species of Ptychodus that was super common here (maybe anonymous?) while the tooth on the right was a perfect anterior Cretoxyrhina mantelli, my first of that species! Unfortunately I still don't own a rock hammer and even if I did I would have forgotten to bring it. I'm so used to just walking around at a site and surface collecting that the most I ever pack on fossil hunting trips is a garden trowel. At first I told myself I'd leave the teeth for a return trip when I had proper tools, but my impatience got the better of me as the hours wore on and I ended up using my trowel as an impromptu chisel and a rock as a hammer. The root of the Cretoxyrhina tooth broke in one place but I saved it for reattachment later. My troubles weren't over when I finally got the tooth out of the rock, however. My attempts to pry it out with a screwdriver on my walk back to my car were far from successful and actually caused my thumb to slip at one point, forcing the the tip of the tooth up and underneath my nail. Ninety million years since it was alive and this particular Ginsu shark finally got to taste blood again (even if it was only because of my stupidity ). Rewinding back a little bit to when I first found the site, I was able to follow the layer that I first spotted the Ptychodus and Cretoxyrhina in to the left where it was better exposed. It turned out that although there were obviously teeth in the grey/tan, fine-grained layers roughly three to four inches above the bentonite seam (the two teeth I just mentioned being examples), the vast majority were to be found within the red-stained "contact layer" immediately above the bentonite. A super thin lense was sandwiched between the bentonite and the dense shale/siltstone above. Here's a picture of the lense as I first saw it: Over the course of the next couple of hours I had my hands full pulling out shark tooth after shark tooth. There were so many in such close proximity that just a single small four by five inch slab of the red contact lense contained three decent sized Squalicorax teeth, a small Ptychodus, a fish vertebra, and an uncountable amount of microscopic fish teeth and other vertebrate detritus. I personally love in-situ photos, so I took a couple to show off. First up, a nicely-preserved Ptychodus anonymous. With the stratigraphy of the site more or less ironed out now, I'm pretty sure that the majority of Ptychodus teeth I found were P. anonymous with a couple of the much less common P. decurrens mixed in for variety. An incredibly small palatine bone from an Enchodus with the trademark fang intact, surrounded by a jumble of fragmented bone and teeth detritus. The blade of a Squalicorax falcatus peeking out from the contact lense. This specific tooth turned out to be the largest example of the species I've ever found (just barely bigger than those from Post Oak Creek!). How it looked once it was cleaned up: My blurry attempt at using an iPhone camera to take a closeup of the incredible serrations of a different Squalicorax tooth sticking out of a piece of the contact lense: One of the bigger fish scales I saw at the site. Every piece of shale was absolutely covered in them. Yet another Ptychodus tooth (probably P. anonymous). A second large Cretoxyrhina mantelli anterior tooth. This one still required some time spent with a dental pick but it proved to be much easier to retrieve than the first one I found. A before and after: And just to show how abundant the teeth were at this site, here's a picture showing the result of only four minutes' worth of digging and picking around: The best find of the day turned out to not be one of the shark teeth, but a tiny little bone that I didn't find particularly interesting when I first pulled it out of the shale. Any guesses as to what it might be? (Hint: this is a view from the bottom side) If you guessed vertebra, you're right! And you're also a lot smarter than I me - my lack of interest was because I thought I was looking at part of a crab carapace. This particular vertebra is from a Coniasaurus (an ID provided by @Jared C) - and it wouldn't be the only one I'd find here. But I'll leave that for the next post since I'm running out of space for pictures and I've already rambled for too long. I'll leave you all with a group picture of the finds from that first day: - Graham