Search the Community

Any thoughts on if this is a coprolite. Tarrant County, Texas. Thanks

I was fossil hunting in a new location in north Tarrant County, Texas and found what I believe to be my first fossilized bone. It was at a gravely creek shore in the Grayson/Mainstreet Limestone formation (undivided) near the transition to Woodbine. I found plenty of fossil oysters and a couple of Turrilites ammonite fragments I expected to find in that formation. But I found this bone completely loose at the edge of the water. It's got a bit more weight and isn't as soft or fragile as modern bone. Though the internal bone structure appears to still be mostly hollow. I would like to know if it is in fact a fossil, what type of bone is it, and potentially what animal it came from. I'll be taking to the Dallas Paleo Society meeting next month to see what they think.

The below open access paper is interesting. Tykoski, R.S., Contreras, D.L. and Noto, C., 2023. The first small-bodied ornithopod dinosaur from the Lewisville Formation (middle Cenomanian) of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, p.e2257238. Yours, Paul H.

I found this ammonite, nothing I’ve ever found before. Notice the raised ribs every 3-4 ribs. What do you think? Tarrant county, near a Kiamichi/Fort Worth/Paw paw formation border but it could be Goodland. Lots of small Hemiaster echinoids and smaller Oxytropidoceras ammonites. This one looks Mortoniceras to me!

I give up..I knew this one at one point, but I can’t find it again and don’t yet have an ID guide. All I know is it’s the most complete specimen I’ve found of this size. Oyster? What species? Tarrant county TX, Goodland formation

My best woodbine hunt ever (since I started this year, lol), 11 woodbines and one of them is over 7 inches across! The overall condition is better than my 2 prior excursions as well. I’m super thrilled about these. I also found some great pet wood pieces with the appearance of having been underwater for awhile “back in the day.” Any insight into the smaller “critters” is appreciated. I am not positive if one piece is sandstone or pet wood, but I do have 3-4 pet wood pieces (some not shown). The small ammonite in front is a different species than the conlinoceras tarrantense. Woodbine/eagleford border, Tarrant county Texas. My toes went numb walking the creek. I know another hunter who found 7 woodbines at this spot 2 weeks ago (after our biggest rain since Spring) but I guess my eyes were more desperate to spot what he missed

I feel like I finally hit pay dirt today, my best woodbine ammonite day in my short time looking. I think the smallest one (2.5”) might be a different species? It has 4 little bumps across the top, I notice the rest have fewer. I was pumped to find these! I started out a bit too far in the woodbine, but I grabbed some small pet wood pieces, at least. Far eastern Tarrant county TX

A perfect scallop and large Goniophorus echinoid from the Grayson shale.

I found two partial (and of course cracked) ammonite casts last week off Boat Club Rd. They'll look good in the rock garden. I normally don't collect these much anymore since they are ubiquitous here in western Tarrant County. They are common in the upper 20 feet or so of the "Goodland Limestone Formation".

The last month has been a bit quiet for me in terms of fossils. Since school ended for the summer, I've been back in DFW and studying hard for an exam. Thankfully, when test day came, I managed to score well, granting me the time to finally research and take a trip out to a new spot! For most of my life, I've been on top of the Woodbine Formation. I've never perceived it to be particularly fossiliferous as I have rarely come across anything when scouting the ground. However, seeing some of the posts on this forum has since reignited my curiosity about this formation. The Woodbine is a unique place in that it contains material from a coastal environment where terrestrial organisms could be preserved. This contrasts with all of my previous Cretaceous fossil hunting, which were all on nearby marine strata. While I like finding oceanic material, I also value variety and the idea of stumbling upon something unusual like a dino tooth is really exciting. So today, I decided to briefly explore the nearest Woodbine outcrop I could find! I came into today's adventure with low hopes as I know the Woodbine can be unforgiving. Also, it was decently hot and I had forgotten to take my water bottle with me. Scattered here and there were little piles of red rock that I assume had just washed out from yesterday's rain. I spent most of my time getting fooled by little rusty scraps of metal (that reddish bronze color is too similar to the surrounding rock for my untrained eyes). Dehydration was close to pushing me to call it quits when I came across a strangely shaped piece of sandstone. Lots of the stones from this formation naturally exist in weird attention-catching shapes, but I noticed that this one had faint indentations resembling the veins of a leaf. I have never found a plant fossil before so I could easily be mistaking a strangely weathered piece of sandstone for something more than it is, but I am hopeful that this will be a couple personal firsts (my first plant and first terrestrial Mesozoic fossil). For any Woodbine experts... if this is a terrestrial plant, would it suggest that this site could produce dinosaur material? The "veins" are hard to capture on camera, but I think I've done as good a job as I can in the naturally lit photos below. It kinda looks like an oak leaf in my eyes. All insights are greatly appreciated! Let me know if you have any additional questions! Thanks for reading

I am still new to the Grayson formation and not familiar enough to know if some things are specific to it or not. There was a place with large areas of the curled up rubbery black mud with big spaces within of the flat rusty crust #1, and mounding crust like #2, last pic is back side #2. Best I can describe it and curious what it is.

Here are some pictures of my latest fossil hunting trip. I have been going to post oak creek a lot for shark teeth and wanted to try something new out. I found a steep embankment on a river in Tarrant county with several partial ammonites sticking out. After climbing down the embankment I found an assortment of fossils. I am not sure of the period or the formation in Tarrant county but there was quite a variety. Picture 2 is a conglomeration of marine fossils. Picture 3 is a nice ammonite I went back and chiseled away later. I will post that picture later but it was a very nice enact one. Pictures 4 and 5 are of a nice ammonite that unfortunately broke as I was removing it from the matrix but I was able to piece it back together. It was also interesting to see the internal structure of it as well. The rest are just closeups of common fossils except for the last 4 pictures 13-16 I have no idea what they are. Any ideas? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Went out to the creek this Saturday in SW Tarrant county. Didn't find much other than some small gastropod, echinoid and oyster shell, but did noticed something interesting next to the creek wall. There seems to been a shoreline that once existed near here since wave-formed ripple usually forms near the shoreline, but then later covered by sea again. Wave patterns seems to be very similar to modern shoreline when waves pushes sands into round piles that are shown on the last two pictures.

EDIT: Doh! Just a few more minutes of searching and I found it. Never mind. I have been trying to find this paper on a nodosaurid scuteling from the Paw Paw Formation of Texas with no luck. Does anyone have access to it? Jacobs LL, Winkler DW, Murry PA, Maurice JM. A nodosaurid scuteling from the Texas shore of the Western Interior Seaway. In: Carpenter K, Hirsch KF, Horner J editors. Dinosaur Eggs and Babies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1994. pp. 337–346. The only information I have about it now comes from a few references to it in related papers and this tweet.

I found this last weekend in the Grayson Formation in Tarrant county, Texas. I have never found a Cretaceous gastropod that was so squatty. Most that I find are elongated to some degree or another, but there is no elongation to this one. This was posterior end down in the creek bed embedded in the limestone. I popped it out, but I guess part of it remained in the limestone. I tried to prep the matrix off, but I can’t tell where the matrix ends and the shell begins since it appears to be a steinkern. There is no ornamentation on it at all. It is about 36 mm at the widest whole part, but looks like it was at least 50 mm wide at one time. I can’t tell how wide the aperture or last whorl was. The total height of the gastropod is 20 mm tall. The overall shape is lenticular. I don’t think there are many lenticular gastropods in the book I have. I couldn’t find one that matched it. Top view (which is actually the posterior end of the shell) Side view Bottom view (which I believe is the anterior end of it) Any help at all would be appreciated.

Hi, I found this in Tarrant County.... the size is aprox 4 to 5 inch in diameter... Found it around White Settlement in For Worth... I have narrowed it to either Goodland Formation or Fort Worth Limestone. I thought it is a crinoid but a good friend that knows thousand times more than I do, recommend to post it here.... Any suggestions??? Thanks!