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After yesterday’s (4/23/24) hunt I decided to go back today after work. Let me tell you all, it did not disappoint! In total I found ~36 fossil decapods. 23 crabs, 12 shrimp, and “1” lobster. This brings my total cont from today and yesterday to ~49 decapod fossils. Also to note is the scale of the cutting mat in the background, every square is 1/2 inch for scale In regards to the “one” lobster it is in two pieces that might or might not belong to each other, they were found in close proximity to one another and have similar mineralization color and the size of the tail section could fit a lobster of this size. This specimen looks most like Linuparus grimmeri, I have two other examples of this species form much higher in the Britton shale, one found by me and one by my father, another note on this specimen is the size of the mandibles on the under side. Next up on the list is the best preserved and looking shrimp fossil of the day, I don’t have an ID on these guys yet, if anyone has any ideas please let me know. In all the only thing missing is the tail fan, it still has its head, tail, and even some leges and its two claws/pincers intact, in order shown is the top, bottom, left, and right sides. Now for more crabs, a good number of crabs found on this hunt had bits and pieces of their underside, legs, and claws here are the nice ones. Crab with imprints of the claws and partial legs. Another crab in similar shape but with a little more of the legs on the underside. Another crab with a portion of the underside of the crab carapace showing. Here is the largest crab found in the past two days, and with a good portion of the underside still preserved and in ok shape! Now here is something I was not expecting at all today, a small sharks tooth, not something I’ve never found but it is now the oldest I have collected. To round everything out I also coveted a small Inoceramid clam half that was in good condition for the sight, as well as some larger Baculites for the strata that I know of, and a set of two Gastropoda and two clams. This will provost be the last hint for the week, we have some rain forecasted for the end of the week and the weekend so here’s to some good erosion.

I’ve decided to post this one separately. Very unusual composition. If you watch the video, you’ll see that light refracts off of tiny crystals in the center of each segment (which I’ve circled in red in another image). It’s hardly noticeable. The specimen is very smooth and rounded. Another member said in a different post of mine that it could possibly be an inoceramid hinge, though my own research resulted in nothing. I can’t find anything online that remotely resembles my specimen (inoceramid or otherwise). I found it at Post Oak Creek in Sherman, Texas. FullSizeRender.MOV

Never seen anything like this so far. I know it's an Inoceramid from the shell structure but I've never seen one in this shape before. I know there's a lot of variety with this species but I have a lot of experience collecting bivalves and I've never seen one like this.

Inoceramus shells could grow up to almost 2 meters long but this is by far the biggest one I ever found. From Boulder, Colorado in the Pierre Shale

Back to the windmill site 2 weekends ago and just now uploading the pics...It was a short trip, so didn't find much, but I did enjoy great fall weather, and some really cool calcite-infilled clams,,,