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Showing results for tags 'Texas'.
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Both of these astragali were found on the Brazos River southwest of Houston. The larger of the two clearly belongs to Equus, but the smaller one continues to stump me. I know by the shape that it definitely some sort of perissodactyl, and although it resembles the shape of the Equus astragalus it is much, much smaller. The taller of the two ridges (I'm not sure what their name actually is) on the proximal end of the bone has been worn down by water or time so that it seems almost level with the other. If it were still present, these two astragalus would probably be identical. It occurred to me last week while looking at it again that it might be from a three-toed horse since they were a lot smaller than the more modern species of horses that prevailed in the late Pleistocene. Is there any way to tell? Or is it just from a younger Equus individual? Thanks for the help!
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I’m in the twilight zone apparently...I know how ridiculous this seems, but the only thing I can find that remotely seems to match this thing for size and shape is titanaboa. I’m open to other suggestions. This was in my back yard in Fort Worth, Texas...relatively shallow - about a foot to the top of it. We are in a rocky area and are within 30 ft of the highest elevation in the county, about 150 ft above the average for the city. I can’t find a tape measure to put next to it, but measured with my iPhone and it’s 29” long, 13” wide, and about 9” at the highest point. Seems to weigh in the 80-100 lb range. It looks like were other At least 2 other snakes on top of it that you can make out on the top left of it, but pieces of them have broken off as well as some of the main specimen. The underbelly is in excellent condition...it seems clearly show “snakeskin”. It wouldn’t let me attach more pictures, but on the back you can clearly see vertebrae at almost the center position and what seems to be some other type of nerve endings above that. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces in the immediate area from ground level down ranging from quarter sized up to basketball sized with most between golf ball and baseball. I’ve been digging slowly for 3 days with no end in sight. Many of them are hard to specifically identify but seem to almost all meet criteria for fossil and not rock. Please help...
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I hunted a remote stretch in Northeast Texas and found a nice variety of items. The vert is from a good size mosasaur. The sawfish teeth always seem to be broken. I found some small shark teeth and a piece of cretaceous turtle shell. The bottles are from the 1930's and 1940's. I really like the Groves Tasteless Chill Tonic bottle. I posted a little info on the old bottles. We saw at least twenty wild hogs in one pack crossing the creek and one giant solo wild boar.
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A few weeks back the Paleontological Society of Austin went out on one of our monthly field trips. The weather was still quite warm and we decided to keep it closer to home so no one would be to wrung out when we were done. We are hopefully at the tail end of a rather brutal drought with constant triple digit temps that started back in June. We picked three sites within 90 minutes of Austin that took us up thru the Glen Rose Formation, bottom to top. We started at a site in the Lower Member known as the micro zone. Fossils big enough to see from a standing position are few but if you get down and crawl around you can be rewarded with a crazy variety of tiny echinoids, starfish and crinoids and other odd bits in amongst the usual molluscs. The second site was at the very top of the Lower Member in the Salenia texana zone and folks found their share. But it was the last stop way up in Unit 7 of the Upper Member that I found my keeper* for the day. I had collected this site over the years and knew it as good for small echinoids and on occasion ammonites. But I was going back with some fresh information provided by the local researcher William Rader. Bill Rader had informed me that the site produced vertebrate material including many years before a crocodile scute. When we got there I spent time in the ammonite zone and helping others find fossils but it was at the tail end of the afternoon as I was thinking about the drive home that I moved to some lower layers that generally just produce common molluscs. AND BAM! Bones... Now I just assumed they were turtle which isn't uncommon in the Glen Rose but always a good find. I found two of the pieces within inches and they fit together. Jamie Shelton was there and I called her over to help me scan the spot with an extra set of eyes. I found a third piece before we quit. The next day was Identification Day at Texas Memorial Museum and PSA was manning the invertebrate table. But I knew there would be a few vertebrate specialists as well. As the day wound down I found a moment to show them to Chris Sagebiel of UT. He wasn't quite sure at first but when I mentioned that croc material was known from the site he immediately thought that it was a match. * Chris asked what I was planning on doing with the specimen (nudge nudge) and I agreed it should go to the Vertebrate lab here at UT. Here are some pics of the bones and a few from the day.
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- albian
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So, this title might be a bit of clickbait because unfortunately I have yet to find any actual shark teeth, so bear with me. I've visited the Whiskey Bridge site just west of Bryan, Texas several times now. The clay-like matrix that makes up the north bank of the Brazos River under the bridge has several layers of fossiliferous Eocene deposits, and although I've found lots of coral, shells, and even some cuttlefish prongs by surface hunting, I've had no luck when it comes to shark teeth. Assuming that the only way to find small dark-colored teeth amongst a bunch of dark-colored dirt was to take a lot of that dirt back home and go over it out of the hot Texas sun, I picked up a couple gallons worth of matrix on the last trip and I've been treating it with mineral spirits and boiling water over the last three days so that I can sift through it. I'm about halfway through it all now, and I still have not found any. Anyone that has been to the Whiskey Bridge site before, can you help me out? Am I not looking in the right places? I heard somewhere that the teeth collect lower down the cliffside because they're heavier, but when I checked there weren't any fossiliferous layers in that area. This whole ordeal is starting to irritate me because I know that what I'm looking for is there - one of my buddies even found a nice handful of decent-sized teeth the last time he made the drive up to the site several years ago. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to listen to me, and if anyone has any help or words of advice they'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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Hello! New member here in San Antonio, TX. I manage and teach an outdoor education program for mostly grade school students. I have gathered a decent fossil collection to show students. I studied geology and was introduced to the basic fossil groups but am by no means a paleontologist. I am looking for more specific identification of the fossils we use and any help would be great. In particular, I recently ran across this specimen. It was found in Cretaceous age, shallow marine limestone. I am familiar with a number of different types of corals, but I have never seen something with this texture and can't find anything similar. Any ideas? I have included some closeup images of the texture.
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It has been a while since I did an Echies of Texas post...too long!! But it's been an echinoid dry spell here for me.....I've found some lovely stuff, but just not anything NEW to me! I was given a couple of Echies that were new to me but I didn't TECHNICALLY find them, so they don't really count (for me...i'm particular that way!) . I will post pics of them because I am happy to have them in my collection regardless!! BUT, back to my personal urchin drought. . It's getting hot in Texas (Summertime...duh). But I still like to get out occasionally. I went a little further afield last week (only taking short day trips during this Covid Time) than my usual hunting grounds and found a new spot of Glen Rose Formation and found....AN URCHIN NEST! I've heard about these...a clump of multiple echies in one spot. I was too excited about my find and forgot to take pictures but there were five phymosomas in one spot...big ones too! And then a little further along....my first Tetragramma from the Glen Rose Formation! YAY! Drought broken! And, when it rains it pours. A few days later at another Glen Rose spot...i found more Tetras. And....I am pretty sure....a Polydiadema! So, needless to say, my Echie Game is back on. There are quite a few specific urchins that are still eluding me and not for lack of trying! I have been to the only spots I know of that I know they have been found, but alas. So the search continues! Another recent find, not new to me, but a really nicely preserved Phymosoma : (from a site just up the road from the Echie "nest") My first Tetragramma from the Glen Rose: Tetragramma tenerum .....i think. The Echinoid "nest" (plus the nice phymo from the other site up the road) My biggest Phymosoma to date....2 1/4 inches Another Tetragramma from the Glen Rose: And I THNK....a Polydiadema! Plus a nice little Heteraster with good detail Plus - My "acquisitions" to my collection thanks to my Fossil Friend John (who so kindly gave them to me!) An amazing Paracidarid (Glen Rose Formation) And a Globator parryi bottom of Globator:
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Ran across this rock on the Brazos River near College Station, Texas. Covered with round nodules. Dimensions are about three feet by two feet by 18 inches. Any ideas what it is?
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- brazos river
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I've been finding Pleistocene fossils along the gravel bars in the southernmost section of the Brazos River lately, but they've almost always been unidentifiable chunks or fragments of bone. Obviously I'd like to find something well-preserved enough for me to be able to do the research and find out what it actually is, but I don't know where to look. The Beaumont and Lissie Formations that run underneath Houston and the surrounding areas are both Pleistocene-age, but the actual river basin itself is just made up of alluvial deposits. Of course, this must mean that the fossils are being washed down with the current from some location further north, right? The Waco Mammoth site is several hours from my location, but I know that the fossils there were found only a mile or two north of the river itself. Originally I thought that this is where the fossils I'm finding must be coming from too, but I know that Holmesina, Bison, and Camelops skeletons used to be found in the bayous within downtown Houston before the city grew to the size its at today. As far as I know, there aren't any exposures of sediments like this that are also the age I'm looking for anywhere close to where I live. I'd really appreciate it if anyone with experience hunting southern or central Texas could point me in the right direction. I'm not asking for any specific sites since I know people won't want to give those up, just general areas where Pleistocene outcrops or exposures would be present. Thanks for the help!
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I was recently sent pictures of something that I am having a hard time identifying online. It was found in a creek bed of Cretaceous age, shallow marine limestone and marl on the west side of San Antonio, TX. It has a section that looks like it was attached to something. It does react to HCL and my initial thought was some sort of coral, but it has a very strange texture. I have seen a number of different types of coral, but never something like this and can't find anything similar. Any ideas? The closeup images of the texture were taken with a USB microscope.
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Hi Everyone, As I am going through my bat with poison ivy I am taking the time to go through some findings. I have to pieces I have no idea about. Both found NSR. Any help is appreciated.
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Found on the Brazos River southwest of Houston, Texas. I originally thought that this was an alligator osteoderm, but it lacks the distinctive boss in the middle of the bone. Looking around on the forum, it seems to match tortoise osteoderms rather well. Can someone confirm? I've found carapace fragments from both hard and softshell turtles before, but never one of these. I didn't even realize tortoises had osteoderms until now. What part of the body do they come from? As you can tell from the pictures, the bone is a decent size, so would this have to be a giant land tortoise or something else. Honestly, I'm pretty out of my depth with this one. Also, if someone could recommend any sort of books I can use to help identify the Pleistocene fossils I find in Texas, that would be appreciated as well - it's starting to seem like the Florida guidebooks on the subject are going to be the closest I can get!
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- brazos river
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Hey Everyone, Has anyone found a Eutrephoceras dekayi from NSR? If so, was it only 2mm or smaller in size? I really want one but man my eyes will have a hard time finding it. Planko
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My 5-year-old son and I found this giant fossil in a shallow creekbed near central Austin, TX, yesterday. It's about 10 inches in diameter and we think it's an ammonite, though it's very worn and we're not totally sure. Would love any thoughts! Thank you so much!
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Hello all. Going through my pickings from a couple weeks ago. Might be tough but wondering if anyone knows what species this might of come from. Roughly 1.5 in by 2 inch.
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Hello, complete newbie here posting though I have been lurking for some time. I found the pictured today in the San Jacinto riverbed north of Houston. This river is known to have a great deal of petrified wood everywhere, and I've found a lot of it in many odd forms. Other than a baby mammoth tooth I was fortunate enough to find while camping years ago, I have not yet found any fossilized bone. I was wondering if this is bone(feels as weighty as a mineral would) or petrified wood. If bone, I assume it is too deteriorated to tell possible species, I would more be interesrted in knowing that it is, since I am completely knew to this. Since it was so deteriorated, I fractured one tip to see inside. The dark circular area seems to run inside of it and is also visible along one side in a kind of channel. Sorry the pictures aren't great, I will get better!:) Thanks in advance for any opinion you could give on it. regards, Brian
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I kayaked for five miles on a day with a heat index of 108 degs and found some killer stuff. The Paleo Dalton point made my day. Rare to find mosasaur in this creek but I still managed to find a few verts. The big nautilus was beat up but looks good in my rock garden. The old bottle is a duraglas bottle from 1953.
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Hello guys! Nathan here. I have a few fossils I would like to get y'all opinions about what they are or if there even fossils! Here is one rock I found outside my house in Houston Texas.
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Hi everyone. Decided to hunt somewhere other than NSR this time. Not a bad 2 hours. Man that Texas sun is crazy right now. Any-who, 6 ammonites , several clams, a few oysters and the below. Is it a Neithia Texana, Pectan or ?? Beat up a bit but I am happy with it.
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Found on the Brazos River just southwest of Houston. The title says it all, as that's about all I know about this one! Any help on narrowing it down beyond that to something like a basic genus or even a species would be welcome.
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- brazos river
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Ok, I stink at teeth identification. Here are a couple that I think are mosasaur. I found two of the below...any idea?
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Found this partial bone. It is heavy. I am wondering if it is Bos or something else. Any help is very appreciated!
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Hi All. I found this recently at NSR. I do believe it is a Plesiosaurus vertebrae. Looking around to make sure before I label and I have confused myself. Looked at too many websites. So, is it a Plesiosaurus Vert? Thanks in advance for your help?
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- nsr
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Went out for a hunt with friends today on a local creek in Denton County, Texas and came across this great tooth. Better beat up that not to find at all. Was totally stoked when I saw the tip and thought I had found a large mosy in this creek. Was even more excited when I made out what I had really found.
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- eagle ford
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Plesiosaur/Elasmosaurid tooth? Found in North Sulphur River, TX
bluefish1766 posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hi all My son and I were looking through some teeth from the NSR and want to get your opinions on this one. We first thought that this was a mosasaur tooth; however, someone suggested that it may be a plesiosaur/elasmosaurid tooth. We wanted to gather some more opinions since we have no idea what it is. The tooth measures 16 x 6 x 6 mm. Thanks and Happy New Year!
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