Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Texas'.
-
I was thinking I could keep a running update on my bison prep, discoveries in learning, general happenings. . . Maybe a bit like Ralph’s aka Nimravis’ “Sometimes You Have to Whack It”, only my bison prep style if it isn’t too dull and boring. A recap. I found an almost complete, articulated bison with the skull in January 2019. I have collected the majority of it. I’m working on processing stuff still and prepping it. I’m totally new to vertebrate paleontology type stuff. So there is a big learning curve. I still have bits sitting in bags or small plastic boxes that I haven’t processed and removed the dirt from. That stuff is still moist for the most part. This post will be embarrassingly honest at times about how I messed up something out of sheer ignorance or how something didn’t work as planned. I’m not beating myself up over anything. Lesson learned and I move on all the wiser. I’ll be sharing my trials and errors for 2 or 3 reasons. 1. So someone else will know what worked or didn’t. 2. Hopefully give others the courage or motivation to just try and not be afraid to make mistakes. 3. Show how blond I really am. Noooo! Not really. 4. So others with more experience can chip in and give me guidance and insight. One thing I found out the wrong way is when you rinse the bones off with water and then let them dry, you’re not supposed to get them wet with water again. Never ever. I had no clue, but it makes sense. These specific type of bones are still like very old bone with little to no mineralization. So they’re fragile. When I rinsed the dirt and mud off I did a general, not a thorough cleaning where I got all the dirt out of the nooks and crannies. So I took one of the femurs that had thoroughly dried and went to rinse it again and clean the nitty gritty parts. After I was done I had it sitting next to me on the couch when I heard a very loud crack noise come from the bone! That was not good! I couldn’t find a crack, but clearly somewhere inside a crack had occurred. It was because the bone was dry. When wet it adsorbed the water, swelled and cracked. So no water. If I had known that I would have been more thorough on the initial cleaning.
-
I had a pretty uneventful - but beautiful - day on the North Sulphur River last weekend, but came home with a fossil that has me puzzled. It's 2 1/2" long, slightly curved, with smooth surface texture. I'm assuming it's a tooth of some sort? Thanks for your help!
- 3 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- north sulphur river
- nsr
- (and 2 more)
-
Hi everyone! I don't know how active I'll be on here besides just lurking, but I thought I would introduce myself I'd rather make it short and sweet, so I'm just an assistant store leader in retail who has had a diehard love for paleontology since I was 5 (now 22!). I also really like games and D&D but those are besides the point While not a dinosaur, my favorite are Tylosaurs- my interest for paleontology really spiked when I was invited to volunteer in the preparation of one's (T. proriger) skull. Coincidentally, they had already been my favorite because of the Sea Monsters National Geographic documentary (and game based off of said documentary, lol) but a Tylosaurus had just happened to be what that prep lab was working on at the time of my invite I'm now noticing how not short and sweet this was haha, I just love Tylosaurs a ton. It may be an extremely long shot, but if anyone has any insight on how one would get into a preparator career, it would be much appreciated! Thank you for reading!
- 18 replies
-
- 2
-
-
- fossil preparation
- new member
- (and 1 more)
-
Hey everyone. Found this today while near Ladonia State Park. I originally thought it might be the piece of a jawbone with a broken tooth. Clean up and not so sure now. Any help would be appreciated. Any chance on a species if it is a piece of jawbone?
-
Was digging around looking for snakes is west texas (Odessa) and found many of these large gastropods will only let me load one photo this site on mobile is hard to figure out
-
FOSSIL Roadshow Webinar 2- Pennsylvanian Fossils of North Texas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXRzTzW-aVM myFossil https://www.myfossil.org https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt18MbS9hR6BjGK6yV_aI_A Yours, Paul H.
-
- 3
-
-
- carboniferous
- finis shale
- (and 5 more)
-
Out for my normal weekend hunt. A lot of baculite and ammonite pieces around. Have two that I need help with. Both were found in the river just north of Ladonia Fossil Park. First one was found in 6 inches of water on a material pile. I found three of the following. All three different colors. This is the darkest of them. Others were beige-grey and lighter grey. All had pieces of baculite and other material mixed in. All were around the same size.
-
I went out to the North Sulfur River today and found these two bones. First one is a mosasaur vert, second one which I also think belongs to mosasaur.
- 3 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- cretaceous
- north sulfur river
- (and 1 more)
-
Hi! I am brand new to fossil hunting, inspired by my 7 year old daughter’s fascination with them and rocks. I am trying to find some decent spots to support her interest in the natural sciences. We found these, along with some awesome geodes, at a crumbling limestone cliff off the side of the road that looked fossily to me. I would love a tutorial to on how to find sites in the area to keep this hobby alive for her. Any suggestions in the Austin area?
-
??? Awesomeness wanted to share and please suggestions !!! Wash your hands —N
-
Hi all! First of all I can’t believe I’m posting an is it an egg question LOL! But I was going through some Texas Permian matrix I just received and danged if this doesn’t seem like a piece of egg shell... but there’s no way I’d be lucky enough to find a piece of Permian egg so I’m betting it’s bone but still.... sorry for another egg topic but I gotta know! Thanks guys and gals!
-
Hello, I am new to all this. I have found what seems to be something like a mussel shell fossil out here in southern Nolan County, Texas where white rock caliche is predominant. I've seen a few similar to this and am completely ignorant in this field. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
-
Went out Sunday afternoon for about an hour to the Clay Pit in Coleman Co here in central Texas. Found the one tooth about 5 minutes after I got there so was a good five minute hunt about 30 yards from where I parked. The most complete one of these I have found.
- 12 replies
-
- 12
-
-
I made my second trip to the North Sulfur River today. I had planned on going yesterday, but it was pretty chilly early, and today was forecast to be much warmer, plus the water was still coming down, so I settled for a 50 mile bike ride yesterday, and headed for the NSR this morning. I seem to be making the most of this time of social distancing / off work. A bike ride yesterday, NSR today, and I'll be crappie fishing tomorrow. If this is a preview of retirement, sign me up. Once again, I just went to the Ladonia Fossil Park. I hiked downstream, the opposite of the direction I headed last time. I'm still finding out what my physical capabilities are for this kind of trip. With all my bike riding, my legs are strong, and I'm in great aerobic shape, but at 69 years old, and after almost 50 years of heavy machine shop work, my back and shoulders are pretty cratered. I'm not sure how I'll hold up for long hikes down treacherous river bottoms, or climbing in and out. I probably pack my backpack lighter than most here. But after hiking a couple of miles down the river and back today, I feel fine. So, maybe I can hold up to these trips better than I thought. I'm ready to try getting in and out of the river at some other spots. I drove over to the FM2990 bridge and looked at that access. I'll tackle it, but I'm definitely going to do it on a dry day. That rope climb back up looks tough. I'd also like to try out the river downstream at 24. A question for those who know the area: Google satellite photos show a lot more water in that area, with hardly any sand bars showing. Is the water that much higher there, or is it just when Google took the photos? Do I need to wait for lower water to try that out? Water level today was 2.08. I didn't bring that much back today. There was nothing of real significance, but as always, some interesting stuff.
-
From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
-
From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
-
From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
-
From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
-
From the album: North Sulphur River Texas
-
So I have been sorting, cleaning, high-grading and cataloging while stuck at home. I have been concentrating on material from the Walnut Formation of central Texas. The Walnut is the lowest formation of the Fredericksburg Group (Albian). Lower Cretaceous or if you're old school Comanchean. I have fossils from the west side of Austin all the way north to near Gatesville, TX. There are numerous members but the main ones I have collected from are the Bee Cave and Keys Valley Members. The Bee Cave mostly near Austin and the Keys Valley further north. This little crab was found in between near Georgetown, TX in the Keys Valley Marl Member almost seven years ago while collecting with JohnJ. This site produced another really cool new crab: Cenomanocarcinus cookseyi (Osso, et al., 2015) named for Bob Cooksey, one of our fellow FF members. Bob and JohnJ made sure that awesome specimen got into the right hands and was described. Kudos to both Bob and John! But I digress... I had found this specimen and it was mostly buried under matrix (oops no pre-prep pic) but enough was showing to tell me there was something worth while to be exposed. And at the time I thought it would prove to be another C. cookseyi. Well as I slowly picked away at it I realized it was something different. The specimen isn't perfect. The rostrum and orbits are gone as far as I can tell and there is some compression on the left side. But otherwise it is in pretty good shape. Please take a look and let me know if you might know what genera or species it is. The closest thing I have found is Aetocarcinus muricatus Schweitzzer et al., 2016, which is known from the Upper Glen Rose Formation (a tad older...) But there are a bunch of species shared between both formations.
- 5 replies
-
- 5
-
-
- crab
- cretaceous
- (and 1 more)
-
Hello first time poster. Found as is (not encrusted or buried) along the Whiskey Bridge outcrop in Bryan, TX, along the Brazos river. 4cm in length, about 1.5-1.0cm in diameter. Thought it was petrified wood but a hole at the cross section makes it look like a bone or antler? Surface pattern looks like antler. Has some weight to it and makes a rock like sound when put on a table or something.
-
With the virus shutdown I've been going through my collection. I don't know what to make of this little piece just over an inch long. It appears to have spines at least on one side. I found it over a year ago in the Brownwood area of Texas from a site in the Upper Pennsylvanian Colony Creek Member of the Caddo Creek Formation. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks. If it isn't a fossil that's okay. I just would like to know what it is.
-
I found this partial vertebra at the north Sulphur River in Texas last week while hunting with my son. I am pretty certain it is turtle but is there any way to identify it further? Thank you for any help.
-
Hi Everyone, I’ve been living down in Texas with my family instead of my usual location in Missouri, and had a free day to go to the North Sulfur River (NSR). I had no idea my family lived so close to such a fun location to fossil hunt. I had a great time and have been trying to find the identity of a few of the fossils I found. I know identification posts are generally individually done, but since they were all found at the same location I decided to group them into one post. Hope that's not too against forum rules. Anyway, I’d love y'alls thoughts on what they might be! All the following were found in the North Sulfur River – Ozan formation. Number 1: This seems to me to be a jaw bone, but beyond that I'm unsure. Two possible growth teeth. What do you think? Number two: Are these bacculites end pieces? Number 3: I saw in another post these were identified as mammoth enamel. Think that is what they are or just something geological? I have a few more I'll include in a following post...
-
I found these in a creek bed in southern Ellis County, Texas. But there are also lots of them in the North Sulfur River. What are they? They have ridges on one side and are smooth on the other, just like a shell, but they are flat. They vary in size and thickness. The top images show the ridged side on the left and the smooth side on the right. I see plenty of them by themselves, but they are also found in other rocks, right alongside what are obviously fossils, like in the bottom image.
.thumb.jpg.da0f0e66ca4df77098ee9310097de9ed.jpg)
.thumb.JPG.d64a00de120fb553baacff5149461632.JPG)
