Search the Community

Today was the best fossil hunt I've ever had. I feel like I say that every time lately, but it really is true. Today was attempt number three at investigating the Eagle Ford. Attempt number one, in Travis county, found me wandering into the Austin Chalk. I did get a great consolation prize though, in the form of gigantic segment of a Parapuzosia sp. ammonite. Attempt number two was in Williamson county - the Eagle Ford is rare here, only really exposed by housing development. For that reason, I was quite pleased to discover a permanent exposure with considerable physical effort. It yielded one nice keeper Mortoniceras ammonite. Today's attempt found me in Travis county again. The creek was a lot different to my usual Ozan stomping grounds in that here, everything was shale, from the pebbles to the banks. I felt a bit out of my league, as this was not an environment I had figured out how to hunt yet. I decided to walk up a ways, to scout first and then look more closely on my way back. To avoid bombarding ya'll with words...the scout was just unsuccessful. The only spot I made a mental note of was because it had shade. It all seemed so barren. About thirty minutes into my walk up, I hopped down a 6 inch ledge, and crumpled. I couldn't believe it - strong, blunt pain filled my right foot. I'm only 20, and make considerable effort at fitness. Furthermore, I'm a former gymnast, and this was my healthy, uninjured ankle. It should theoretically be strong as Iron. Oh well. I hobbled up, and decided to *delicately* limp my way up still. My foot wasn't hurting much yet, as I think I was still running on adrenaline. After 20 minutes of this though, I was getting fed up. My thoughts at this point were something like "Here I am, in an ugly creek in an ugly part of town, only to get injured and skunked. wow" I slowly made my way down until at last I made it to the shade spot I noted. Here I sat for a bit to take weight off my foot. There was a great piece of shale here, filled with tiny little shells. "That's a change" I thought, and picked it up to take a closer look...and boom...I was looking at a Ptychodus tooth. What a change of fate - suddenly, this place was worth my attention, and I quickly forgot about the stiffness in my foot. I quickly figured out that there was a very thin (maybe an inch or two), slightly discolored layer that held all the fossils. I began mining this layer in a similar fashion that one would mine Knightia at the Green River formation of Wyoming. My knife was a chisel, and I would uplift pieces of slab from the rest of the bank one at a time. I soon decided to spare the rest though - it irked me to scar the land like that, and after all, it would be an incentive for returning. The Ptychodus finds started racking up. Never have I ever found more than two Ptychodus in a day (except for once at post oak creek), but here I was able to find two simply within arms reach of each other. I even left some of the very small Ptychodus, only taking those of interest to me... I always felt weird about those who took every tiny or damaged tooth they could see when they already have an arm full of others. I decided that perhaps some of the neighborhood kids might stumble across one of these little Ptychodus teeth, hopefully igniting an interest. (keeper Ptychodus I found using this approach) Some of the slabs of this layer must have tumbled down to the creek below, so I took a closer look at the jumbles of slabs that made the bed, and made some great finds.I much preferred this approach. (Squalicorax next to a little Ptychodus sp. Believe it or not, despite having visited Austin's Ozan, Post Oak Creek, and the Waco Shale pit, this was my first Squalicorax ever) (Possible Scapanorynchus - ol' faithful) (Possible fish tooth - still up in the air at the moment of writing in the fossil ID section) My foot was aching again, and the day was 10x more successful than I expected. I decided if I had to head home, I'd be happy. But, my resolve caved, and 10 minutes into walking back I decided "screw it, there's plenty of sun left, what am I doing??" So again I limped back and made my way a little further up again, past the first shady spot. It was a good decision (a weird little Ptychodus) On this backwards walk, right after finding that odd little Ptychodus, I found a loose slab in the creek that blew my mind. On it, there were 5 teeth - 1.) A very pale Ptychodus sp. 2.) A tiny fish tooth right next to it 3.) A stout, curvey tooth about the size of my fingernail (crossing my fingers for Mosasaur) 4.) a small shark tooth root, with a little bit of the base of the blade 5.) A small, thin fish tooth on the backside (likely enchodus) (not pictured) What a turn the day took. Maybe the sprained ankle was a test of grit by the paleo gods, with these great specimens as a reward, lol. It's a trade off I gladly take, even as my now swollen, discolored ankle stares at me through bandages from it's position on my desk. This day was certainly a day for the books!

Yesterday was attempt number two at finding exposures of the Eagle Ford formation. My first attempt a month ago found me deep in the city of Austin, searching for the Bouldin Flags member of the Eagle Ford. I had to move upstream to avoid a large homeless camp, and found myself on the Austin chalk instead, where I found a large piece of a Parapuzosia sp. ammonite ( that trip is below) While definitely a memorable hunt, with a cool fossil to show for it, it was technically still a mission failed - the Eagle Ford still eluded me. So yesterday, i decided to try again, this time scoping out a spot where I believed the Eagle Ford might be permanently exposed, right here in my own town of Round Rock, which is just north of Austin in Williamson county. Getting there took me to a park I was already familiar with, to my surprise. The plan was to use the park as an access point to take a long walk to where a creek ran through a tiny section of Eagle Ford, as detailed by the USGS map.The park itself also sits on Eagle Ford, but google maps didn't show any bodies of water that could expose it, save for the creek a mile or two down that I was expecting to walk down to (using the park as a place to park) The thicket was atrocious. I was walking through a dense, horrible wall of greenbriar and poison ivy. Fortunately, my observation is that poison ivy hardly ever causes a reaction in me - perhaps I've plowed through so much that my body is used to it, lol. To my surprise, I rather quickly stumbled upon a tiny little stream - too small to have shown up on the maps I was using. Remembering that this area should also be Eagle Ford, I decided I might as well scope it out. The one, tiny gravel bank it had produced two cool finds immediately - one smooth ammonite section, followed 30 seconds later by a smaller complete ammonite. From glancing, I think my second one is a Mortoniceras sp. This was the the only gravel bank here, so I decided to beat my way back to my car and find a different way of accessing the creek shown on the map. I would park at a nearby neighborhood instead. Getting there, I was surprised to recognize the neighborhood of my friend who I fish with. I called him and asked if he wanted to hunt with me there. He had work coming up, but an hour to spare, so we set off into the creek. Under a bridge, I poked around and found a mammal bone protruding out. Pulling it out revealed some great colors on one side. "Did...did we just find an actual old bone under this nasty bridge of all places??" - and to that I answered maybe! We decided to set it by a pillar where I wouldn't forget it on the way back. Surprise surprise - I forgot it. Blockhead of the year. I'll be back to retrieve it and try and figure out if it's anything besides a modern livestock bone soon, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the summary of yesterday's fruitful scouting hunt

Yesterday was attempt number two at finding exposures of the Eagle Ford formation. My first attempt a month ago found me deep in the city of Austin, searching for the Bouldin Flags member of the Eagle Ford. I had to move upstream to avoid a large homeless camp, and found myself on the Austin chalk instead, where I found a large piece of a Parapuzosia sp. ammonite ( that trip is below) While definitely a memorable hunt, with a cool fossil to show for it, it was technically still a mission failed - the Eagle Ford still eluded me. So yesterday, i decided to try again, this time scoping out a spot where I believed the Eagle Ford might be permanently exposed, right here in my own town of Round Rock, which is just north of Austin in Williamson county. Getting there took me to a park I was already familiar with, to my surprise. The plan was to use the park as an access point to take a long walk to where a creek ran through a tiny section of Eagle Ford, as detailed by the USGS map.The park itself also sits on Eagle Ford, but google maps didn't show any bodies of water that could expose it, save for the creek a mile or two down that I was expecting to walk down to (using the park as a place to park) The thicket was atrocious. I was walking through a dense, horrible wall of greenbriar and poison ivy. Fortunately, my observation is that poison ivy hardly ever causes a reaction in me - perhaps I've plowed through so much that my body is used to it, lol. To my surprise, I rather quickly stumbled upon a tiny little stream - too small to have shown up on the maps I was using. Remembering that this area should also be Eagle Ford, I decided I might as well scope it out. The one, tiny gravel bank it had produced two cool finds immediately - one smooth ammonite section, followed 30 seconds later by a smaller complete ammonite. From glancing, I think my second one is a Mortoniceras sp. This was the the only gravel bank here, so I decided to beat my way back to my car and find a different way of accessing the creek shown on the map. I would park at a nearby neighborhood instead. Getting there, I was surprised to recognize the neighborhood of my friend who I fish with. I called him and asked if he wanted to hunt with me there. He had work coming up, but an hour to spare, so we set off into the creek. Under a bridge, I poked around and found a mammal bone protruding out. Pulling it out revealed some great colors on one side. "Did...did we just find an actual old bone under this nasty bridge of all places??" - and to that I answered maybe! We decided to set it by a pillar where I wouldn't forget it on the way back. Surprise surprise - I forgot it. Blockhead of the year. I'll be back to retrieve it and try and figure out if it's anything besides a modern livestock bone soon, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the summary of yesterday's fruitful scouting hunt

I made a trip to a new creek in Hill County last Thursday. This is another Eagle Ford creek, though it is very close to Austin Chalk coverage. It was another creek that's tough to hike in places. Even with my new, first time ever, prescription glasses on, I didn't find a whole lot, but I did bring home a few interesting pieces. Here are opposite direction views of the same outcrop in the creek. It has the blue gray clay you find so often in Eagle Ford outcrops. There were lots and lots of small ammonite imprints in rocks, like the one in the upper left part of this rock, but no surviving ammonite fossils that I found. And there were lots and lots of shell fragments in rocks. These were bigger than most. This rock looks like just another of those with lots of shell fragments. But this side view of the same rock shows a hidden jewel I almost missed. That's a ptychodus tooth. Shark teeth were few and far between in the creek, but here are a couple of pretty ones, though small, still in the matrix. As I get more experience, I've gotten better about not just picking up everything neat looking that I find. But I couldn't resist this, one of the larger bison teeth I've run across. There were lots of hard to identify fossils in the rocks. That looks like some kind of tooth on the left, but I have no idea what the others are. They all look too delicate to remove from the matrix, but I may do a bit of pick work to try and tell better what they are. And finally, this bone. The first photo shows a view of each side of it. There is still a bit of rock attached. I didn't remove any matrix from it; this is just the way I found it. The last photo shows a side view. Does anyone have a clue what this is?

Hey y'all, I'd like any ID's on genus or even species, if possible. Below - Ammonite partial, Comanche peak formation, from a creek in round rock (which is just north of austin) Below, a Coral, from the same creek in round rock, but on a different formation. According to the map, it could either be Buda formation or Eagle Ford

Went to creek I frequent but went down to a part I haven't been to for awhile, had several good floods since. Much to my surprise I rounded a corner and the bottom of the creek was pale yellow as far as I could see down. As you see in the picture there was shapes carved out by water, and it was very thick in places, but it was soft enough to break of pieces and it was grey underneath. So is this a layer of shale? If so why is it yellow? This may be natural in Eagle Ford and I've just never seen it in this form, just looking around I spotted this ammonite and just plucked it out. So now wondering if more fossils are deeper in this and how long it will take to erode down being so soft. One interesting calcite rock I picked up not far away, it's a jumble of pieces of fossils but the center has these fine layers of sheets with delicate veining I'm thinking is something that may be recognized.

Hey y'all Exciting find for me today. Decided It was about time to investigate the Eagle Ford formation for once, and it certainly paid off! This was not my target, but a thrill nonetheless. Is anyone able to lend an ID? It's quite weather worn, and I don't have exact measurements yet, but the pictures might have enough context

Hello, I found this tooth or rock in the bank of a lake where I was collecting and sifting in a concentrated gravel spot. 1 oyster, 1 coral piece, and 2 snails are the only fossils I found. After searching a little more, I found this rock which I'm assuming is a tooth. The gravel where I found this possible tooth is also in the Eagle Ford of the Cretaceous of Texas. I'm thinking either shark or fish tooth. It's slightly curved and there isn't any enamel or serrations (that I can see), so I might be wrong. Can anyone identify the species of animal the tooth may have belonged to? Or if it's just a rock? Any help is appreciated Thanks

Does anyone know the Genus/Species of these common oysters from Post Oak Creek, Sherman, Texas.

After nine months, I finally made it back to the Ellis County creek where I've found so many teeth. This is an Eagle Ford outcrop. The water level was much higher than I expected. It wasn't quite up to the matrix that holds most of the fossils, but high enough to make wading across the creek dicey, plus I didn't get to hunt most of the sand bars. This is the biggest fish vert I've ever found. Most of the fish verts I've found in this creek aren't in very good condition either, but this one is in really nice shape. As usual for this creek, most of the Ptychodus teeth I found were pretty small, but I did find these two nicer ones. These are still in the matrix. Are they verts? If so, from what? I've never found anything like this in the creek before, and today I found two of them. As usual for this creek, I brought home lots of interesting looking matrix to go through. Here are the other teeth I found. As usual, there were more Ptychodus teeth than anything else. I'm sure there will be more from the matrix. I'll add photos after I've gotten through the matrix.

All of these came from LENS sample, in first set I know the brown tooth is Echnodus, what are the other two? Oh, whatever that little dot with 2 white root looking things is maybe somewhat irrelevant, it disappeared. Next set of things I had put on tape so really couldn't move them, some of it just disregard, but other than Echnodus teeth what else is there? Esp. the odd little black ball. The largest tooth is 1/2 cm.

I've driven by this field for years with a big ravine in the distance and decided to check it out since it wasn't fenced or posted and glad I did. The ravine was a good 30-40 yards long, probably 10ft+ at deep end and around 5ft wide, as I got closer the dirt changed to grey clay mud with little vegetation, the surface was sandy and rocky. First thing I saw was the large Echinoid, then peices of what I thought were ammonites until I found a more intact one, then I thought Turritella but didn't quite fit. Had a heck of a time trying to ID them and finally ran across Turrilites, I think that's what they are. I went in shallow end of ravine to grab a few things and ended up with 10lbs of mud stuck to my feet so anything else was retrieved by reaching over edge of ravine. Couldn't tell what half of it was until I got home and washed them off. So here goes my ID efforts, Hemiaster echinoids, a Texigryphaea, the group with clam, and possibly a Trigonia, and what looks like deformed echinoid ? Not sure about the last 2 tiny ones, some kind of bivalves? This is the most fossils I've found in one spot and I'm unfamiliar with some so appreciate any help!

This is unlike the calcite I usually collect, it looks compressed, and like it was part of something, the shape looks too unusual to be natural. Hoping someone might recognize the shape. The part of the creek it came from was Eagle Ford but downstream from Alluvial deposits.

This is the largest gastropod I've found and with intact aperture to boot. Is it larger version of the smaller ones? Is that a turritella next to it?

I found this in north Irving, in a park drainage ditch that was eroding down to shale. Have found lots of goodies in it but this is coolest.

I am just stumped on these. All came from banks of canal at the bottom of a hill. These are all on the shallow level side of canal amongst sandstone, and they are everywhere. On other side of canal a little further down it's grey clay with big red concretions and fossils shown but these aren't present. These whatever they are aren't very heavy but hard like limestone. Only found one with inclusion, and broke one open and it's smooth. Included pictures of both. They kinda stick to tongue.

Got out to my favorite spot for an hour before dark last night. Started to walk down a small slope and saw it. I swear I looked back and away three times not believing what I was seeing. I have found a few monsters in this creek including a few over the two inch mark but could instantly see this one is crazy special. This is by far the largest Cretodus I have ever seen. Not only does it break 2.5 inches but if there were a record for weight, this may be the top. Thought my plesiosaur vert I found in January was my find of the year, think this may have just moved into first place.

Found all these in the same place, north Irving ( Dallas County) in eroding drainage canal, lots of shale and concretions and neat little rocks you crack open with surprise inside. Is the small one Metoicoceras? Hard for me to differentiate that and Calycoceras, which the bigger one looks like to me but they wouldn't be in the same place, correct? And the little guy a Heteromorph maybe? I seem to find a lot of those. My favorite part of these is the suture mark patterns.

... and it is only the beginning of January. A bucket list item I have been hunting for for a while. Plesiosaur vertebra from the Eagle Ford of North Texas.

I took advantage of the nice weather on my last couple days off and went to a couple sites around town, in no particular order here's the most interesting things I found. First a worn ptychodus anonymous tooth from the eagle ford shale. next what I think is a pachidiscus travisi from the basal pecan gap chalk and a half of a graptocarcinus texanus carapace from the buda formation in a location I had never found anything particulary interesting before. Quite worn but still recognizable And while normally one finds echinoids and ammonites in the georgetown this time I only found what I think is a partial pycnodont tooth

I have several Heteromorphs but none have such large protrusions. Are these called horns? I worked on this for an hour trying to expose as much as possible, it's buried in bacculites. Found in shale in north Irving TX, inc. pic of other ammonites found there.

Here are my finds from my latest POC visit. Made a decent haul with my best Ptychodus yet and my largest tooth so far here. The tooth was about 1.5 inches. I also found a small ptychodus with no root but it did have very defined grooves. Pictures 2 and 3 are the large Ptychodus and picture 4 is the 1.5 inch tooth. 5 and 6 are the small Ptychodus. Picture 7 is the creek wall matrix I was looking in for teeth and 8 and 9 are the actual teeth I found in the matrix. Does anyone know if this is original matrix? I was able to find several teeth sticking out but several of them were also just pieces of teeth, like you find on the gravel bars, and not complete intact teeth. I was hoping if they were from the original matrix the teeth would be complete. And Finally I have a game for you. See if you can find the tooth in picture 10. For some reason many of the teeth I found this trip were highly camouflaged haha. The rest of the pictures are just closeups. I initially thought I found some mosasaur material but the bone feels modern to me now that it is dry. I also found my first vertebrae this trip. Looking at the other posts it seems like verts and artifacts are pretty easy to find but I guess I just don't have the eye for them as I have only found this one vert and have never found an artifact. Enjoy. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Work has been interfering with both my cycling and fossil hunting time lately. I managed a day off today and started the day with a 30 mile bike ride. But there's a creek in Ellis County I've been wanting to hunt, and I really wanted to get my first look at it while the water is low. With Hurricane Laura bearing down on the coast, I decided to make that hunting trip today, not being at all sure how much longer the water will be this low. It's an Eagle Ford outcrop I went to in this creek. With my late start, it was 11:00 before my hike down the creek got me to the outcrop. I left at 2:00, so only had three hours for my first time exploring it. The temperature was in the 90's and the humidity was high, so it was definitely stifling hot. It did cloud up at times, and actually rained for a few minutes. But it was mostly just sunny and hot. The outcrop is the typical blue-gray clay you find with Eagle Ford.