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Recently I've been researching a late cretaceous texas shark that I've never even heard of until two nights ago. I'm already a bit of a night owl (as you might see by the timestamp, I'm writing this well past midnight already ), but these last two nights spent researching and investigating potential spots have been LATE ones, around 3 AM - I guess I've really been bitten by the bug here. The shark in question is Pseudomegachasma, specifically Pseudomegachasma comanchensis (for my area). It's thought to be a roughly 15-20 foot filter feeder, related to sand tiger sharks of all things (family Odontaspididae), and its small teeth bear an extreme (yet superficial) resemblance to those of the modern Megamouth shark, Megachasma. Pseudomegachasma was only described in 2015. Its teeth are very rare, but specimens existed already for years - it was simply assumed that they were beaten up specimens of a related shark, Johnlongia (which I also never heard of until lately). What really excited me was finding that a tooth used in the paper came from Eagle Ford strata (Bouldin Flags member, specifically) in Williamson county, of all places. I actually obtained coordinates eventually, but those coordinates were only specific to two decimal places, and so not as useful as I hoped. There used to be a massive Eagle Ford bonanza in Round Rock (just north of austin), but it was covered up by construction... so was hope lost? No! I actually knew of one permanent, super isolated exposure of what I'm 95% sure is Eagle Ford, in Williamson county. Furthermore, those vague , blanket coordinates made reasonable sense with this exposure. So now, my mission was to investigate this exposure in a new light, looking for both the tiny (8 mm ) teeth of Pseudomegachasma and also for ammonites for their use as index fossils, to determine if I'm really in the late Cenomanian/early Turonian Bouldin Flags member like I'd need to be. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today was absolutely frigid (for texas standards at least), and way too cold for creek stomping. Nonetheless, I donned many layers and threw on my sandals. Walking through the water was quite painful - probably not a big deal up north, but here that's an uncommon experience. After a stretch of sharp inhales and curses, I finally waded out onto my first gravel bank. It produced a small Ptychodus tooth - I still need to look closely at it to try and pry a more specific ID. Soon after, on the next bank, I noticed a bovid tooth. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be bison, much to my surprise. All of the many bison teeth I've seen from central texas came from one specific creek - this was my first time seeing one elsewhere in the area. I also saw two more shark teeth soon after - a small Cretoxyrhina mantelli and what *may* be Ptychodus anonymous, I'll take a closer look at it as well soon. The cold was starting to weigh down on me, and I had work coming up soon, but then I thankfully a caught a break with at least one of my goals - finding an ammonite, washed out from the stumpy exposure, to make use of as an index fossil. My ammonite ID skills are among the worst on the forum I'm sure, so I'll be putting it up on fossil ID shortly. My hope is that this partial and impression will be enough. This was the last of my finds of note today. If this exposure is indeed bouldin flags, I will be back with a microfossil vengeance. Oh - and just to put into perspective how absurdly inappropriate my outfit was for wading in this weather today: The three layers and beanie couldn't compensate... well worth it though.

My faithful assistant and I have been sidelined with covid. But we felt good yesterday so we decided to explore a creek in Austin, Texas that has some Eagle Ford Shale exposed. It was a sunny, warm afternoon, and a cold front would be moving in at night. At this location we've found quite a few teeth in the loose rocks strewn about. We're hoping to find mosasaur material but we've had no luck yet. Our goal was to get a bucket of gravel to search for micro-fossils. I suspect most of the teeth are eroding from the underside of a large rock slab in the creek. We think this because my assistant stood on the rock causing the edge to break. He fell in the creek, flat on his back, and as he was getting up he noticed some exposed teeth. We collected a bucket of gravel by the rock slab and searched through a small bowl and found several small teeth. The teeth range in size from 1/4 to 1 mm. We also took a few rocks with some small teeth sticking out. It was a fun hunt after being stuck inside for the past week.

I've been sorting micro-matrix I collected during my recent trip to Post Oak Creek (Eagle Ford, Turonian stage). Overall I've had great success identifying everything (even what I believe to be a Coniasaurus tooth) but I have run into some difficulties with some small shark teeth. I've tried taking some pictures through my scope although I don't have a mounted camera for it yet. #1. This one is kinda smoothed over so it may be hopeless but the weird roots throw me a bit so I wanted to post it. 3 mm in length. The nutrient groove on this one throws me as it resembles species that wouldn't have it. Also 3 mm in length. Not 100% sure if those are enamel folds or wear. Then these little teeth. I suspect Scyliorhinids based on the lingual shelves and lack of other fits but the sources I've read also suggest that nutrient grooves are generally absent on Scyliorhinids. The one on the left is 2 mm. I suspect these are the same as the first one but are more worn. The one on the right is 1.5 mm. Here's a bad picture trying to show the huge lingual shelf. It's much more massive than it appears in the pictures. This one is standing up on it. These are the best I can do at the moment but I have a mounted scope camera at my workplace so I can try and get better pictures there at some point.

Recently I've been researching a late cretaceous texas shark that I've never even heard of until two nights ago. I'm already a bit of a night owl (as you might see by the timestamp, I'm writing this well past midnight already ), but these last two nights spent researching and investigating potential spots have been LATE ones, around 3 AM - I guess I've really been bitten by the bug here. The shark in question is Pseudomegachasma, specifically Pseudomegachasma comanchensis (for my area). It's thought to be a roughly 15-20 foot filter feeder, related to sand tiger sharks of all things (family Odontaspididae), and its small teeth bear an extreme (yet superficial) resemblance to those of the modern Megamouth shark, Megachasma. Pseudomegachasma was only described in 2015. Its teeth are very rare, but specimens existed already for years - it was simply assumed that they were beaten up specimens of a related shark, Johnlongia (which I also never heard of until lately). What really excited me was finding that a tooth used in the paper came from Eagle Ford strata (Bouldin Flags member, specifically) in Williamson county, of all places. I actually obtained coordinates eventually, but those coordinates were only specific to two decimal places, and so not as useful as I hoped. There used to be a massive Eagle Ford bonanza in Round Rock (just north of austin), but it was covered up by construction... so was hope lost? No! I actually knew of one permanent, super isolated exposure of what I'm 95% sure is Eagle Ford, in Williamson county. Furthermore, those vague , blanket coordinates made reasonable sense with this exposure. So now, my mission was to investigate this exposure in a new light, looking for both the tiny (8 mm ) teeth of Pseudomegachasma and also for ammonites for their use as index fossils, to determine if I'm really in the late Cenomanian/early Turonian Bouldin Flags member like I'd need to be. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today was absolutely frigid (for texas standards at least), and way too cold for creek stomping. Nonetheless, I donned many layers and threw on my sandals. Walking through the water was quite painful - probably not a big deal up north, but here that's an uncommon experience. After a stretch of sharp inhales and curses, I finally waded out onto my first gravel bank. It produced a small Ptychodus tooth - I still need to look closely at it to try and pry a more specific ID. Soon after, on the next bank, I noticed a bovid tooth. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be bison, much to my surprise. All of the many bison teeth I've seen from central texas came from one specific creek - this was my first time seeing one elsewhere in the area. I also saw two more shark teeth soon after - a small Cretoxyrhina mantelli and what *may* be Ptychodus anonymous, I'll take a closer look at it as well soon. The cold was starting to weigh down on me, and I had work coming up soon, but then I thankfully a caught a break with at least one of my goals - finding an ammonite, washed out from the stumpy exposure, to make use of as an index fossil. My ammonite ID skills are among the worst on the forum I'm sure, so I'll be putting it up on fossil ID shortly. My hope is that this partial and impression will be enough. This was the last of my finds of note today. If this exposure is indeed bouldin flags, I will be back with a microfossil vengeance. Oh - and just to put into perspective how absurdly inappropriate my outfit was for wading in this weather today: The three layers and beanie couldn't compensate... well worth it though.

Hey y'all, here's an ammonite I found in what I'm fairly sure is a small, unmapped Eagle Ford outcrop. I'm hoping to use it as an index fossil, as the target species that I'm hoping this outcrop will produce occurs in the late cenomanian/early turonian Bouldin Flags member of the Eagle Ford formation. I find that the written descriptions that I've read about the bouldin flags geology are inadequate for my understanding, as it seems colors, shades, and degree of textures are up to the interpretation of the reader. Maybe I'm just overthinking that though. Hopefully this ammo helps. @LSCHNELLE, I know you're familiar with the Bouldin Flags - seem familiar? (Diameter=1 inch)

Some things from Post Oak creek not sure if they're something or not, with exception of #3, pretty sure the one with ridges is echinoid spine and other one is fossil just don't know what. Really intrigued by whatever the yellow is, don't think it's man-made, it doesn't melt anyway.

I usually don't post the trip to POC anymore but this time there were some oddities i wanted to confirm and or see if anyone knows what they are. I found the usual few ptychodus teeth as well as tons of broken shark teeth but also some more rare items. There is one small shark vertebrae, a piece of a fish vert, two broken ends of sawfish rostral teeth, a weird piece that looks like coral to me but also looks like it has teeth poking out of it, a large piece of mammoth enamel, and what I believe is a small mosasaur tooth. Pictures 2, 3, and 4 are the mosasaur tooth. I have it in my hand for scale and it is small but it looks exactly like ones i have seen posted from the North Sulphur River just smaller than most. Pictures 5 and 6 are of the coral looking thing. I could have sworn i saw something like this on the forum before but i have looked and can't find the post. Any ideas of what this is? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Here's a tooth that I found in a nice slab that had plenty of other easy to ID species - I'm having a hard time with this one though. I'm afraid to prep it further for now - the matrix is very hard, making my hand picks barely usable, while the tooth itself is very delicate. I see no carinae, but the tooth seems a bit long for a mosasaur. I also see no strong striations in the enamel that would indicate pliosaur. My best guess at the moment is Xiphactinus? What do ya'll think? Found in the Eagle Ford formation in central texas. I suspect on the Bouldin Flags member (at least I hope so! I've been trying to find the Bouldin Flags forever!) Scale is inches (the ruler is covered in marks so I shifted it to a clearer portion)

I recently collected about 300 pounds of matrix from the Post Oak creek in Sherman Texas, and I’ve since been searching through it when I get the opportunity to. I’ve found quite a few vertebrae, all from fish, but I found one last night that has me scratching my head. It has some matrix that has solidified and will need to be removed, but I thought I could post it beforehand in case anyone had any thoughts regarding the identification!

My faithful assistant and I did some exploring in the wilds of Austin, most likely in a patch of Eagle Ford Shale. Maybe 80m years old? We found quite a few rocks with a nice layer of shell hash. We found a lot of teeth within those rocks; some ptychodus and various sharks. But a couple really stand out. The first is a long tooth that appears to have a piece of bone above it. Not sure it they're related. The tooth is a bit more than an inch long. The next looks like an enchodus fang? I was thinking it could be a stem of some sort but it has a tapered shape and appears to have a tooth/root transition at the top. Any ideas? Thank you in advance for your info. My first post on here was only a few months ago, and was a rock I thought was a tooth. We're actually finding things, learning about them, and we can even say some of the names!

Last Monday, I had a dentist appointment in the morning in Dallas. I left afterward and drove a few miles west to check out a new creek. This part of the creek is mapped as Eagle Ford, but the few fossils I found all appear to have come from a red zone in the outcrop that I've never seen in an Eagle Ford area before, only Ozan. But in this part of DFW, Austin Chalk is between Eagle Ford and Ozan, and they are miles apart. I'll leave it to the experts here to tell me if this is really Eagle Ford. Here are the ammonite pieces I found.

Had a blast last week busting up marl in the creek with Rockwood's help . I was amazed to find a chunky plate filled with beautiful shells in addition to gobs of gastropods in the area and Gryphea. Got thrown off trying to ID by color duh, finally shape of striped ones clicked, flat sides, Inoceramus sp.? The tiny brown one Inoceramus cuvieri? And the little round ones pinnaeformis? The tip is broke off one but they are all the same. Limestone Inoceramus maybe labiatus or sp.? So not sure about Gryphea, 2 are in piece with the big shells and one of them is round, the other right underneath it, last is the big black/silver with both valves. It's hard for me to distinguish some things without finding a good match for comparison. Really enjoyed prepping these and wondering how uncommon it is to find this good preservation? Appreciate any input! Hope pics come out in order.

This might be as interesting as it gets as far as worm tubes, so my question is if they are just tube casts why don't they all look the same? I have only found ones that are usually all greyish and look the same, these almost look like actual worms. Would different species have different tubes?

Tuesday morning, I made a trip back to the Ellis County creek where I've found so many teeth. I had been making a short hike across the pastures of two land owners to get to this creek, but the last time I asked permission, one of the land owners refused me, saying he had made a deal to give exclusive rights to another fossil hunting family. I can still get to the creek, but now it's a very long hike for me. So, I waited until the hottest part of summer was gone to try that long hike. When I reached the small section of the creek where I'd been finding most of the teeth, this is what I saw.

My assistant and I checked out a place in Round Rock, Texas where the Del Rio, Buda, and Eagle Ford are close by. I read about the area in some online papers and I used Google maps to make a plan. I'm new and learning, and we try to explore a couple areas a week. (I'd be happy to share the address if any local folks want to check out the area.) We followed a drainage creek to a bigger creek, and then found some interesting creek walls. I was happy to see something besides Austin Chalk. We trekked through waist deep water and saw some interesting cliffs. We always find frogs, snakes, and lizards too. I didn't find any interesting fossils within the creek walls or floor. But I did find a rock on a gravel bar with some teeth in it. The big one is about 1/2 inch, and the small one is 1cm. I have no idea what they are from. I tried to take pictures using a ruler for scale. Using a little microscope camera I can see the little tooth has a cool serrated edge. Any ideas what the teeth could be from?

I hunted for the second day in a row yesterday. This was a creek in the middle of Dallas-Fort Worth. I'd wanted to make a trip to this creek for a while, plus had some errands in the city, so made the drive for both yesterday. After the long and arduous hike the day before, this was supposed to be short and easy. I was seriously mistaken about that. The creek banks were just too steep to get into the creek. I ended up walking quite a ways, and even then, went down a bank so steep that I tied a rope and left it to get myself back up the bank. I was thinking that if rain got anywhere near me, I'd better clear out quick, or I'd never make it back up that bank. This is an Eagle Ford creek. It was a really great looking outcrop in this creek, but I couldn't get it to yield much. And the shower the night before had the gravel bars wet enough that they were tough hunting too. But I did bring home a few pieces. This ammonite was trying to crumble.

I think I finally have a precise ID on these, Notopocorystes dichrous, Britton Notopocorystes Assemblage, from far west Dallas county, all from same location, including the little naked carapace. Same species? How did it end up with such a different form of preservation? Then there is one 'crabcretion' that appears to have something, another crab maybe on backside?

I visited a new creek in Hill County Tuesday. This is an Eagle Ford area. As often happens with a new site, I didn't find any of the fossils I was hoping for, and won't likely go back to this creek. I did find this strange looking piece, though. I'm thinking it has to be a septarian nodule, though it looks completely unlike any septarian nodules I've found or seen online. Am I identifying this correctly? Here are three views of it. The morning shadows are a bit harsh, and I probably should have found a more contrasting background than my driveway in the last two photos, but here it is, in all its strangeness, complete with a loose rock still captured in one of the holes.

I finally broke through today, and made some of my proudest finds ever... multiple times. I have some questions on a few ID's. When I compared these Ptychodus to the Ptychodus ID guide, they kind of reminded me of anonymus and mammilaris. I'm excited because everywhere else I've only ever found mortoni before. I did not find any mortoni here. In the same slab as a ptychodus, there's also a small tooth that's perhaps suggestive of Mosasaur - however, fish teeth from those like pachyrhizodus look deceptively mosasaurian to my inexperienced eye. Furthermore, it's small size could also indicate fish, but a mosasaur pterygoid tooth could be in the running this way still as well. One half is covered in matrix still, so I understand this complicates getting an ID Eagle Ford fm. Travis county, Texas Scale bar = 1 inch 1.) 2.) Ptychodus on the same slab 3.) Another Ptychodus (different slab) 4.) Fish tooth? Or chance of reptile? (scale bar= 1 inch)