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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.

Hello all Apologies in advance for the newbie questions… As mentioned, I’m new to Fossil hunting (today was my first trip) and I found a few things I’d like some help identifying (species and possible age). I would love to get your thoughts on these finds as well as any helpful tips/tricks for hunting and cleaning fossils.. Cheers!

Hi there everybody! I'm new here, but I've had some level of interest in fossils for basically my whole life. I grew up and live here in Austin, TX -- a very fossiliferous place! My earliest memories of fossils are collecting tiny devil's toenails a few mm long by the hundreds in the pea gravel on the playground in preschool -- I was only 4 or 5. At first, I called them "seashells", but when I found out they were oysters from the Cretaceous when I was 5 or 6, I thought it was the coolest thing. I could find fossils from the time of the dinosaurs on the playground! I collected fossils sporadically in places like Shoal Creek as I got older, but by the time I was a teenager, the "coolness" had worn off. I did think it was neat that fossils were so easy to find here, but I also though it was kind of childish. Recently, when I was talking about it to some friends from college, I caught myself saying that "they're just oyster shells from 100 million years ago" and I realized once again that it's pretty awesome! My house isn't in the most fossil-rich area around here, and I can still find a good number of cool fossils with just a little bit of careful searching. It's pretty incredible! I really would like to learn more about the fossils in this area. I know marine invertebrates are the name of the game -- even as a child, I recognized them as such. But beyond that, I don't really know anything about them. I'd love to learn more. Here's a few of the fossils I still have from my childhood -- mostly devil's toenails, but I've got other stuff, too. I'm not sure where these are from: probably a mix of places. Some spots I collected at were Shoal Creek, Barton Creek, the San Gabriel River, roadcuts by 360, and my house, among others. If I'm placing my house properly on the geological map I found of the area, my house is just east of the Mt. Bonnell Fault and the property is mostly on the second member of the Edwards Limestone, but the creek cuts down into the first member of the Edwards Limestone. If I'm reading it right, this creek does not cross the fault, so everything I find in it should come from the Edwards formation. Here's a few fossils I've found on my property in the past week or so. I'd love to find out exactly what I can find around here and what these fossils actually are -- at least more specifically than "devil's toenail" or "some sort of bivalve". I'd also love to learn how to clean them up nicer so they look good. Lots of what I find still has a fair amount of hard limestone embedded in some of the details. I'm super interested to rekindle this fun hobby from my childhood! It is already bringing back great memories.

As well as lots of the usual belemnites and ammonites, my daughter found this today on a beach in the Whitby area. It’s unlike anything we’ve found before; am I right in thinking it’s a ‘devil’s toenail’ (gryphaea?)

Hello! Here is an odd gastropod - Is it a "devil's toenail"? I've never seen one like this! Many thanks! DR