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  1. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    Conlinoceras tarrantense+pet wood

    I have 3-4 spots (duck creek, Grayson, Fort Worth formations) I haven’t yet revisited since it rained that are really close to my house. I’ve been to the same conlinoceras spot 3x and this was my last visit until we get heavy rain/erosion again. It didn’t disappoint! Funny how I can walk by the same spot 3x and find things I missed. Haha! I’ve seen ammonites missing chambers before, but this little one seems to have indentations that might have been there originally, like from bite marks or something. What do you think? Just my child-like imagination? the nice looking white calcite specimen missing part of itself is from another larger creek that my primary spot feeds into more upstream. Tarrant County TX.
  2. I only had 1.5 hours, but it was worth it. I ran out of daylight a month ago when I was at my local creek, so I went back and walked the portion I couldn’t see due to darkness last time. 4 nice mortoniceras ammonites, looking good on both sides (one is a bit worn due to weather exposure). Another one was broken down the middle, but I glued it and I’ll make it a rehab project. How about the perfect scallop too? I rarely find them complete and unblemished.
  3. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    Oxytropidoceras ammonites

    I sold or donated most of my smaller oxytropidoceras but I kept a handful of 12-15 inch specimens that I found in Benbrook TX and far south along the Tarrant/Johnson county border. They’ve all been washed with soap and water but no other prep has yet occurred. Front/back pics included for most. I hear these take a lot of time to prep..looking forward to getting one cleaned up completely! One smaller one is very orange, it’s a tanning booth variant, and the other small one (not very obvious) is full of crystals..it’s the only one I’ve found full of crystals. It’s rough on the outside. Tempting to grind it down to reveal the inside. Not for now..big ones from kiamichi, smaller ones from tarrant(?) formation or whichever formation has all of the tiny echinoids and brachiopods all over. Pardon my ignorance. I’ll edit once confirmed.
  4. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    Unreal woodbine expedition today

    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
  5. I don’t have many turrilites that are complete, and even a couple of those are rough looking. I do have an incomplete monster sized turrilite that is missing at least 1-2 parts but I kept it because of the sheer size. All are from 2 locations in Tarrant county where I find mostly turrilites and nautiloids, and the occasional macraster echinoid.
  6. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    My woodbine ammonite collection

    Most of my personal collection of fossils is still not fully prepped (or prepped at all in many cases), but I’ll try to share pics by groupings as I pull them out over the next few days/weeks. The easiest will be my echinoids and my eopachydiscus ammonites. My mortoniceras ammonites need a lot of prep work but I have some interesting ones. Here are my woodbine ammonites. I won’t likely keep all of these, and I may slice those that are really worn down on the outside, but for now, they’re all mine. I bought the top right specimen from the recent fossilmania show from the guy who preps my fossils..I hope to find one that size one day! These are all eastern Tarrant county TX. I’m scoping out johnson county for possible spots near Alvarado. The biggest ones you see in my photo are 5-7 inches in diameter.
  7. A.Passero

    Ontario Ammonite Identification

    Hi Fossil Forum, Someone gave me these ammonite fossils that they claim were found in southern Ontario Canada in the early 1900’s. I looked around and the only ammonite fossils from Ontario I saw were small pyritized ones. They look real to me, as you can see structures (of aragonite?) that fakes don't normally have, but none of my other ammonites I own have this ridge down the middle that makes it look like it came out of a mold. Most seem to be of one species that's ridged but one is also smooth with no central ridge. Let me know what you guys think, genus wise, and if you think they are from Ontario. Thanks, Alicia
  8. Huge rare fossil in fallen block discovered on Island Liam Chorley, Isle of Wright County News, November 2023 Isle of Wight: Enormous fossil ammonite dug out from boulder BBC News, November 2023 Other Isle of Wright ammonites Huge Isle of Wight ammonite fossil discovered in Chale Liam Chorley, Isle of Wright County News, June 2023 It's all right with ammonite as student pair discover 96kg fossil Dominic Kureen, Isle of Wright County News, June 2020 Miscellaneous BBC article Jurassic Coast cliff falls tempt fossil hunters BBC News, September 2023 Yours, Paul H.
  9. Jeffrey P

    Western Adventure Part 6

    One week fossil collecting trip out west, my sixth time in the past six years. Flew into Denver. Rented a car and headed down to Castle Rock where I spent the night at a motel. Next day drove up to Florissant Fossil Quarry. It was Wednesday and they're normally closed during the week in September, but I made special arrangements for a few hours visit. Compared to my two previous visits there, didn't do as well. The other times, I was there for the whole day, this time was just for three hours, and they had had a considerable amount of rain recently and so the shale was more crumbly and more difficult to split. Here are some of my finds. Plants:
  10. I went to a spot in southern Tarrant County TX that I’ve visited 10x before, my biggest eopachydiscus ammonites come from this spot. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the rain we had a couple of weeks ago was enough to uncover so many new fossils that I barely made it away from the starting point of my journey. Oxytropidoceras ammonites almost on top of each other and every few feet from that point. Very exciting for me! This recent rain is the first rain I’ve ever had that was heavy enough to “revive” a previously hunted spot of mine, given that I only halfway knew what I was doing since about May, and it didn’t rain in Texas since then..I ran out of time and had to leave a bunch behind, but I’ll be back.
  11. Johnson county, TX creek finds from yesterday afternoon. Unexplored section of a creek that has been productive for me with every visit. The mortoniceras arringtoni and drakei are in great shape on both sides (most of them) and only 2 of the macrasters are compressed or missing a chunk.
  12. For whatever reason, I used to completely dismiss the Austin chalk as a formation of any interest. I viewed it almost through the same lens that I view the Edwards formation, as if it was some barren uninteresting hinderance that gets in the way of cooler formations. Accidentally finding a large Parapuzosia ammonite in it once changed that a bit, but for the most part I still ignored it... Turns out I was just looking in the wrong places, and had very little understanding of its members. @LSCHNELLE recently explained a lot of it better to me, and so equipped with new knowledge I decided to try and discover a member of the Austin Chalk I've been wondering about for a while now, which I always falsely assumed was its own formation. I found myself deep in a Travis county creek, following very specific instructions I had read on an old thesis from the 80's I found online. To avoid being too long winded - nothing stood out to me as different in the geology, so I think that the vertebrate rich member I was seeking still eludes me. Yet, I wouldn't say I was skunked, because I found some very interesting invertebrates that even a simpleton like myself can appreciate My first find had me cheering and jumping, partly because of how just picture perfect the insitu was, but mostly because it was just an aesthetic looking echinoid I haven't seen before. Here it sat below, as I originally saw it: Fortunately, what's left in the matrix I believe is still in great detail. It's just on a smaller-than-it-looks exposed portion where the wear took a toll, as you will see at the end when I show more photos. For another hour and half beyond this, I was just sloshing my way through the water, very slowly, admiring the highly fossiliferous limestone as I went. Usually when I scout a new spot, it ends up being more exploring than actual hunting, and yesterday was no different. Close to my turn around spot, I for whatever reason took strong notice of inconspicuous looking pebble lying loose on its own. Picking it upon a whim, I was surprised to see it was another echinoid of the same type I found earlier, albeit in worse condition. Pictures all at the end. Walking back was a serene vibe with few fossils - I was distracted by the new greenery that's been blooming lately. When I got back to where I found the first echinoid, I decided to poke around a bit more, and was surprised to find two ammonites - one large (Mortoniceras?) which I removed, and a much smaller ammonite as well. Results below! No vertebrates but these were well worth it! @JamieLynn put together a phenomenal guide of the inverts by formation that we can find in our central texas stratas, but I wasn't able to find these echinoids in it. I'm aware they need prep, but if you know what they are already please chip in! Results below: Echinoid #1: Echinoid #2 - While it's in worse shape than even the first, I think the substantial attached matrix has protected a lot of it. We'll find out when it preps! Larger ammonite I removed - glue will come to the rescue here. I'm rather sure that the inner coils are preserved under that! Smaller ammonite below: This was just one day sandwiched into what is so far a very busy weekend for me on the paleo front - lots of exploring, and also some good work brewing on two interesting, older vertebrate finds. I'll update this post when i eventually manage to get these echinoids cleaned - the hard limestone they're in will be tough for hand tools - perhaps this is my signal to finally buy a scribe
  13. At two different times this year (but at the same basic location), I found sense interesting ammonites that both contained other ammonites inside. This is near Johnson/Tarrant County borders in North Texas. The first shown is an eopachydiscus in fairly rough shape that has a hamite embedded. The second is a mortoniceras with two extremely tiny mortoniceras ammonites visible inside. I’m guessing the smaller ones settled on the ocean floor after the larger ones and actually ended up inside those larger ammonites? I am not an expert on these so I appreciate your input!
  14. Izan

    Cleoniceras ID

    A few years ago I bought this Ammonite in a fossil convention, but I don't know the specie. Somone can help me? Thank you.
  15. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    Great weekend in Glen Rose

    I went to my first show in Glen Rose over the weekend. I met some great people and had a good time! I managed to only buy 2 fossils….LOL! I sold everything I didn’t want to keep from my entry year to collecting halfway through the show, which amounted to a lot..I will miss some of the big eopachydiscus (19 incher was sold) but I have bigger ones I kept at home..also sold one of my nice oxytropidoceras but have 3 big ones at home. I’m ready to replenish my empty bedroom with new fossils! I was also really proud to see how well Mercer Brugler cleaned up the mortoniceras he got from me that I originally found this summer, if you saw them when I gave them to him you wouldn’t recognize the fossils..very motivating to learn how to clean them like he does.
  16. To pass some time I've been recently researching early Paleocene life and I keep coming back to researching (in my view) the two strangest and controversial Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene Formations I know of. These are the Hornerstown Formation dating 66.5-65.5 Million Years ago in what is now New Jersey, U.S. And the Takatika Grit Formation dating 66.5-60.0 Million Years ago in what is now the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=0b3baee9ab1afc7973337f5047495b723fcfa4f2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315461615_The_age_of_the_Takatika_Grit_Chatham_Islands_New_Zealand https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667109000184?via%3Dihub I've read many reports about these formations and the pretty controversial stuff that's been found in both these areas (Paleocene ammonites and reports of archaic marine reptiles like Paleocene Mosasaurs). I'm really not 100% sure what to make of this as I've heard conflicting hypotheses on whether these more archaic marine reptile fossils were reworked from older formations while others say it's not too too likely? https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/abs/maastrichtian-ammonites-from-the-hornerstown-formation-in-new-jersey/4F051D07668B7B893EEFECF0506E2F1B https://bioone.org/journals/acta-palaeontologica-polonica/volume-57/issue-4/app.2011.0068/Short-Term-Survival-of-Ammonites-in-New-Jersey-After-the/10.4202/app.2011.0068.full For most of these "controversial" specimens, I would say reworking is likely while some I'll admit I'm not sure? For the Mosasaurs, it's clear that the astroid impact 66 Million Years ago caused their total extinction, but I'm still not 100% convinced that none emerged from the event alive (at least barely) and swam the seas in the very first days of the Danian Paleocene but not too long after. Unlike the mostly terrestrial Non-Avian Dinosaurs, which could only hide in so many places and it's very unlike more than a tiny amount of individuals (not enough to support a population) made it into the Paleocene, the Oceans have slightly more areas to hide and more even for endothermic air breathing animals like Mosasaurs (though as an endotherm, food does become a major issue especially when the ocean food chain nearly collapsed completely). What I'm wondering is how valid are at least "some" of these supposed archaic marine reptile and ammonite fossils from the earliest Paleocene sections of the Hornerstown Formation and the Takatika Grit? Also, of all the Maastrichtian Mosasaurs known so far, which ones would have been the mostly likely to have (at least briefly) survived the Cretaceous-Paleocene Extinction Event of 66 Million Years ago (would it have been generalist feeders, ones that specialized in deep sea hunting, ones with cosmopolitan distributions, ones small by mosasaur standards but still around the same size of the few confirmed large reptiles that survived the event like the 8 meter (26 feet) in length Thoracosaurus, or ones with all these traits and advantages)?
  17. Shaun-DFW Fossils

    Mighty fine woodbine..

    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
  18. The Rio Puerco Valley was my introduction to fossils. For many years now, I have scoured its Late Cretaceous shales and sandstones in search of ammonites. Somewhere along the way, my fascination with the ornament grew into an investigation of its environment. Last week at the New Mexico Geologic Society's Spring meeting, I made my first venture into the world of paleontological science. With the help of Dr. Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, I presented a poster/abstract (Foley & Lucas 2017.pdf) exhibiting my ideas. I received some criticism for incorporating ammonite ornament and caught some grief for including a labeled map...otherwise, this was an amazing learning experience and I am ready to move forward. Back to the rocks!...I have a paper to write. Blue Hill Shale: Spathites puercoensis: Prionocyclys hyatti: Coilopoceras springeri:
  19. Here's a few more images from my Thursday-Friday Southeast Utah desert fossil hunting excursion. I had pinned a number of spots to check out and realized...again...the map scale vs reality are slightly different. I entered from the north and traveled southerly making quick pit stops during the late afternoon Thursday. Drive to a Google Map pin, jump out, scout the area, take a few pics, surface hunt for weathered out fossils, go to the next spot. Finally arriving for the night at the first place I hunted two weeks ago. And the aim was then to hunt from South to North as I spent the next day. Some scenery, some fossils found, some flora and fauna along the way. Several antelope wandered ahead of me and I whistled for them to stop, they did but were still too far for a decent pic. Local hunters call them speed goats. I think this was the first ammonite found...Prionocyclus hyatii, I believe. Many are poorly preserved like large brown sugar crystals in the shape of an ammonite. Moving on to another map pin. The edge of a cuesta, the front of the slope, about 60 feet down. And a local, a desert spiny lizard sunning on a weathered concretion. And some more lichen which I do find interesting. The orange lichen was about 4 inches in diameter. After exploring the cliff I hiked back up to the road to find a gentler slope to get further down where the concretions were. Right at the crest I saw this on the ground. Not a fossil but a calcite crystal cluster which came home with me. Pretty cool to me and the partial coating on the crystals glow orange under UV light. Moving along I find a safe passage down to the bench before the cliff lip. Concretions were everywhere...but there was a catch. They were all over a meter in diameter. 1,000 to 1500 KG in guesstimated weight. So big you can see them from the google maps satellite. The big one protruding from the cliff slope above me gives a whole new meaning to keeping an eye out for falling rock. This one is about 5 feet in diameter. My drink cup is 8 inches tall. It will weather out and roll...eventually. I kept an eye on it and out of its path. A seismic tremor big enough could dislodge it. There is a famous wall of this type of concretion known as the Buried Forest. Back in 1900 or so some scientists declared this to be petrified trees sheared off at the cliff face. Lots of press, became a tourist site and later study discerned them to not be growth rings but concretion layers with a fossil inside sometimes. The name stuck and you can google the Buried Forest in Utah for yourself. It does look kind of "tree-ish", right? This particular one isn't in the famous section. Had those early folks seen this one first, they would be seeing the other half of the sphere laying on the ground in front of the embedded half. Uuhh...yepper... these here would be your large stone balls stuck in a cliff with some of them split in half. Ain't no trees here, folks, move along. I did find a few fossils in the washes. Mostly bivalves which species are currently unknown to me. ...and the ubiquitous gastropods...this specimen was probably split then weathered many moons ago. Maybe centuries. Moving on...townsendia icana - the Easter Daisy Moving along ...much further south. This location is reputed to hold many fossil ammonites in particular Prionocylus hyatti. What surprised me was that another ammo would be revealed. That Placenticeras pseudoplacneta, which I was hoping to find. You can see my old Chevy cop car from where I'm standing at the base of what you see in the photo. The one I'm at was the smallest and therefore a shorter distance to circumnavigate. I started at the closest point to my vehicle with just a drink and a hammer. These formations were easy to find on google maps and in reality. When I drove up the layout was instantly recognizable. Yay! So counterclockwise I went from the bottom of the clock at 6 around towards 12 and back to 6 and to the car and the next locations. Several minutes later...nothing from 7, 6, 5 or 4 on the clock face. But 3 had something. A bug! Desert stink beetle,,,biggest one I've seen. Just had to pick it up. Yup...got me some perfume on my fingers. Gave the beetle a drink of water and took a few pics and sent it on its way. The next find was something familiar. Previous fossil hunters' remains. Oops! No, not those remains. Nothing to see here. Next pic, please. These remains! Yeah, where previous hammer work was performed. The tell that most likely the easy surface concretions have been found and opened. Again and again...but it gave me hope that since they were finding, then so should I. Moving along towards 2, 1 and 12 I started to see some differences in the debris field. More rocks weathered out, more concretions split open. And this another sign of Placenticeras pseudoplacneta. An imprint of a big one. But only this section. I turn past 12 heading back towards 6 o'clock and my car when I found more broken and intact concretions. These are all the cantelope sized ones. The boulders are just bigger concretions but Paul Bunyan or Thor would need to do the breaking open on the 500 pounders. I found one with a little ammonite protruding from the center but snapped it during a retrieval effort. The rest was locked in tight. And then the magic happened. I scored three times in a row as I mentioned in the first thread. Had to leave gear and finds behind while I returned to my vehicle to get it closer, refill the drink cup and get the Bigger hammer. One hit with the 6# sledge does the trick. Before...after. One whack, it cracks. Next! Okay, I'm not Thor and this ain't Mjolnir. I left it on this rock while ferrying finds back to the car about 150 yards distant from me. That about wraps it up folks. Last shot...a bucket of gifts from Mother Earth. And back to the highway with a slightly heavier car and a big smile both from the rewarding hunt and staying hydrated for the most part. Stopped at the first store and got one for the road. That would be a Diet Dew. The adrenaline of two days and lack of sleep from a full moon night left me with too much blood in my caffeine stream. Normally, just two sodas a day are my limit but weekends I might have a third each day if I burn the candle late. Just got to figure out how to free that Placenticeras psudoplacneta ammonite from its matrix prison. I posed a question about trying the freeze thaw method because hitting it isn't an option for me. And a jumbo air scribe is yet to be in my kit. Oh, and a fellow forumite is getting a box of rocks if he's still interested. You know who you are. There's a few extra not in this bucket. Steve
  20. Recently, a box of rocks arrived in the mail from Hull, England. The rocks are specifically Ammonites in matrix. The species all seem to be Dactylioceras based on what is exposed but that ID could also change once they are prepped. I’ve just barely started fossil prepping with an electric engraver and in previous years of casual collecting the rock hammer was the only tool used. CRACK! Oh, look at that! A fossil trilobite! Prepping done. Yeah, that was it. The Dremel 290 engraver is a “gateway” tool and only with proper tungsten carbide tips replacing the original stylus does the engraver become a lot more capable at removing matrix. Off to a good start, IMO, on the first Ammonite and I’ve already discovered some of what I’ve seen in videos ...i.e. - sticky matrix, pyritic matrix, hard veins of calcite and other fun stuff. The Dremel has its place but I can see the need for an air pen/scribe already. Like I said, it’s a “gateway” tool. Surprisingly, a number of Brits in the preparation discipline/hobby have also tried out the engravers and most say it works, just slower than air tools. So when the Zoic crew get back from their vacay I’ll be placing an order with them. I did buy the 3 pack styli kit from them and like what they offer. There’s an air compressor in the garage ready and waiting. Here’s the contents of my ‘box of rocks’ and a second is en route from across the pond already. This one looked like the low hanging fruit so I’m starting with it. The Dremel with the Zoic stylus chewed right into it with chips flying. The dome reduced nicely until about halfway and I’ve run into pyritic hard stuff. Slow going. So I grabbed another tool and cut some shallow grooves to allow the stylus some chipping purchase. It really helped. Once again the chips are flying and the ribbed whorls are appearing. I’m keeping the sessions under an hour each to avoid overheating the engraver. Thus far it’s not even getting very warm. Fossil prepping technique is new to me and plowing through harder shale is not a bull in a china shop job. More like finesse work. Find the right angle, the right contact point and touch the matrix. At times it seems that the only pressure of the tool is next to nothing. Make contact, pull back to the lightest touch and Pop! Off goes the chip. Fingers crossed! So far I've only done some rough matrix removal. The higher magnification, dental tools and needle work plus air abrasion is to come. Any tips, critique, advice, comments, whatever are welcome. Steve
  21. Just like the title says, right now, as I type this, I'm out and about in southeast Utah under the rising moon and for real am hunting fossils. Gotta be so far out of the box that my sanity may be in question...again. Naahh...this is better than TV, which we turned off in '06 or '07. From April to October I'm out under the stars during the new Moon phase enjoying a little astrophotography and solitude in the desert. But the moon is huge and bright so no Astro tonight. I busted my rear all week at work and my wife hearing me whine offered some cheese to go with it. Actually, she said take Friday off and go have fun. You deserve it! You never take time off! Work will be there Monday! Do it! I checked with the department head today around noon to see if I could cut out early today and take off Friday . Being said Dept Head...I said to myself go boy you deserve it. I did. And I'm lichen it. Say... is that a fossil concretion on top of that boulder? You betcha! And there's more where that came from. Earlier today I drove past the road cut known for its " abundant gar fishes" fossils. I arrived around 4:30 and drove through the Mounds Reef for a dozen or so miles of groomed BLM gravel roads checking out some pinned spots along the way. A few were scenic cliffs with the concretions 60 feet below. Some of the concretions were over a meter in diameter. I kept driving to the next pin in Google maps to see where I wanted to stop and put boots on the ground. One promising spot already has boot prints on the ground ahead of me. Fresh, too. Sigh...another has prints and smashed concretions laying about. Okay, fair enough . This isn't some big secret honey hole. More like the wide open desert with plenty to go around. I found one not busted open and was rewarded with a small Ammonite. Yay! I found a couple more Ammos before sunset but was focusing on finding a productive concretion spot. On to the next and final spot. The exact same location as two weeks ago. I learned from a wise charter boat captain years ago...you don't leave fish to go look for fish. So here I am. Break is over moonlight is wasting. Crazy how bright the desert is right now. I hope I can sleep later. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode...when Steve stays hydrated all day despite the fossil fever in full swing.
  22. I’ll start off my collection with the most common ammonite you can find on the Yorkshire coastline in England. Dactylioceras Commune Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias. Roughly 180myo You can find these ammonites in abundance in Whitby. No exaggerations when I say iv seen thousands over the years. You can find them in plenty of other locations all over Europe, though they’re most known as the Whitby Dac. Now, while they maybe common, size comes into play with mine. You’re usual dac, will probably be between 2-3 inches. If you’re lucky, you can get a 4 inch one, though uncommon. map imagine my shock, when I found a monster with its keel poking out. It takes something special to get me excited about one these days, and this one did just that. After prep, I measure from mouth to keel, and it came in at 5inches to the dot. With the mouth hood preserved, and as good a middle as you’ll get, it’s safe to say you don’t get better. Iv asked around and have yet to see one bigger, though I can guarantee, I’d say this may be the largest Dactylioceras Commune to come from Whitby to date. I hope you enjoy my collection as I post them, as much as I do. Thanks for reading. Dan
  23. Oxytropidoceras

    The Biggest Ammonite Fossil Ever Found

    The Biggest Ammonite Fossil Ever Found Was A Whopping 1.8 Meters That means the largest ammonites were similar in size to giant sunfish when they were alive Rachael Funnell, IFL Science, June 9, 2023 Parapuzosia seppenradensis - Wikipedia A related article is: Tohoku University Exhibits Rare Giant Ammonite Fossil By Iednewsdesk On Aug 29, 2023 Yours, Paul H.
  24. Since we had a little rain for the first time in months in Tarrant and Johnson counties in Texas, I’ve been revisiting my usual spots to see what’s new. In this case, I went a bit deeper into unexplored areas of a local creek bed. I was not disappointed! I’m not an expert on identification, so some of you can help me learn, but mostly I found mortoniceras ammonites and a few nice sized macraster echinoids. I’m just now learning how to professionally clean them up thanks to a very kind friend named Mercer, so that’s the next step with this group of ammos. Probably my best *quality* haul since I started hunting late 2022. The single photo is the ammonite on the lower right of the zoomed out group photo, for size comparison. The top left specimen is a huge oyster.
  25. This trip was planned for last weekend but my wife was scheduled to fly home and the kiddos were working or busy so I get the pleasure of picking her up. The foul weather extended the flight plans from mid morning to 5 pm. I could have had my cake and eaten it too. Oh well, I picked the better choice . So this morning I got up at 5 AM, grabbed my gear and nutritive goodies and hit the road. South by South East to Price, UT- 129 miles/207 km from home. A beautiful day was forecast, but I was quite surprised at the temperature drop as I went over Solider Summit pass. 32F read the dash light. Enough about the weather...it did indeed bloom into a beautiful late summer day. Blue skies, 80F. I flubbed a few turns onto BLM land and had to U-turn it back 2 miles to get to one of my Google Maps pinned favorites. In reality, it wouldn't have made a difference. I checked the map with my destination pins and one fav was 22 miles from the first one and the last one was 50 miles from the first. It looks way smaller online than in reality. duhh! My favorite new Spanish word is "Cuesta" . pronounced coo-esta. Wiki says-A cuesta (from Spanish cuesta "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. To me it looks like a perfect surfing wave, nice face in the front and lot of water behind it to power it along. Here's one in the distance. Imagine 50 miles of these beautiful land waves spitting out lovely fossil filled concretions right down the the face of the wave. Kinda like the shores of England. You can see the two lines. It's the cuesta in the distance, not the gully wash below my car on the left foreground. I parked there and hiked down the gully across the wash keeping an eye on the banks and wash debris. Nothing. Then about 200 meters to the base of the closest cuesta for some scouting. That took about Five Minutes. First brown concretion I came upon at the cuesta base got a taste of hammer. Bam! Fossil Bomb! Bivalves, Gastropods and my target fossil Ammonites! Double bivalve is number one find of the day. Same concretion rewards me with my first ammo. The two species reputed to be in these concretions and stratigraphy are prionocyclus hyatti and prionocyclus wyomingensis. This one is the former in robust form. I actually kissed this one I was so stoked. lol. After that I started scouting for concretions and well...let's just say there is no shortage. I then surveyed the immediate landscape and decided to go south first to walk the base and ridge of this rather short cuesta and try to determine the best source. After too long of a hike I found the distribution to about the same. So instead of north I hiked up the face of the slope and checked out the layers. The top had no particular showing of concretions eroding out so that put them coming out a little lower down. The top had shale or sandstone looking material all over the edge. Nothing was showing so I flipped a few of the larger layered slabs. Sure enough the underside had something completely different. So please throw in your best ID names at will. There was a shaley patch on top of these things like smashed potato chips/crisps which brushed off easily revealing the forest of something unfamiliar to me. Crinoids? maybe, IDK. A marine coral? maybe, IDK. Something else? Well I should do my homework. The slab panel and a closeup of the left section. Any ideas? Or expert ID? Cretaceous is the period. Here's the result of one concretion revealing its innards. At least 5 species. And a little friend/distraction. Bottom of the card. Closeup of previous concretion contents. The concretions were sometimes extremely crumbly with most every fossil breaking with the exception mostly with the bivalves. Ammos broke about the same ratio as the gastropods. A small pile of concretions to break open. There were a few other side adventures while scouting the cuesta but I'll end with the very last concretion I struck open. It made my day! One hit on the widest circumference. CRACK! It split open just as you see it. To wind up the commentary, I had Pete and Repeat in the boat with me again. Just like my second trip to Kemmerer, WY, fossil quarry. If you're not familiar with Pete and Repeat, it's a simple annoying joke. I say: Pete and Repeat were in a boat, Pete fell overboard. Who was left? You say: Repeat. I say: Pete and Repeat were in a boat, Pete fell overboard. Who was left? You: either say Repeat again and I repeat the joke or you get it and roll your eyes. Connect the joke to my two fossil hunting trips. Higher altitude, warming sun, dehydration, too much fossil enthusiasm = I gas out by 1:30 PM and running on stubborn and will power, I make it back to the car. Same this trip as the 2nd Kemmerer trip. Except there was an audience at Kemmerer. Just me and lizards this trip. My intention was to fill a bucket or milk crate with fossils; reality-a partial fill. Left the mystery marine fossil above my base camp. Will need to go back with cooler weather and carrying more H2O with electrolytes and not one Diet Dew with Pineapple juice mixed to carry to the digging site...NOT in the vehicle which may as well had been on Mars. I had 3 gallons of ice water, two Capri Suns, a 16 oz water bottle and another Diet Dew or three for the ride home. Plus lunch. Barely made it to the vehicle with a couple stops to cover the 300 yards. Two pounds lighter than yesterday. More pics if interested. PS -Roger (Ludwigia) pack your bags, book a flight. This destination is at 6,000'ASL, flat ground for the most part, multiple trips to the vehicle with the finds, free transportation from the airport & fossil site plus room and board! I'll be going back a number of times this season and post winter snow melt which is usually minimal down south in Utah. The name of the area is Mounds Reef if anyone is curious about it. Not the specific hunting sites, just a big chunk of desert real estate. Approx. 100 sq miles of not much but cuestas, yeah!
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