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Fox Hills Formation in North Dakota 3/18/21 Pictorial Trip Report
Thomas.Dodson posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Went to attempt some new sites in Emmons County North Dakota yesterday. It was a pretty intensive day (out for 12-13 hours) for only a little bit of fossils but I thought some people might like to see the usual trip report photos and fossils I did find. Extensive clayey shale exposures are always worth photographing. Some horses were curious what I was up to but eventually lost interest. I'm not 100% sure this is Fox Hills (the clayey shale exposures of the Trail City and Timber Lake members look a lot like Pierre Shale when not accompanied by sandstone) but it didn't produce so it doesn't matter. A worn roadcut exposure with various bits of Ophiomorpha sp. Part of the Timber Lake Member most likely. For those not familiar, these trace burrows are incredibly abundant in the Timber Lake Member in North Dakota and become scarce in the Iron Lightning Member (also called the Bullhead and Colgate). Here's some of the burrows in-situ at a different site. Sometimes they form complex connecting tunnels. Speaking of Ophiomorpha, an isolated butte in a crop field produced some of the most detailed specimens of them I've seen. I thought I was long done collecting Ophiomorpha specimens but in this case I made an exception. Pictures don't do the details justice. Petrified wood also occurred in the outcrop. Larger pieces are less common in the Fox Hills than the successive Hell Creek Formation and Paleocene formations. The small butte. To check other exposures on the property I had to traverse the fields. Other exposures of the Fox Hills Formation on the property were numerous but didn't produce anything but more Ophiomorpha (with lower quality than the butte). Bank swallow nests in the softer sandstone outcrops.- 13 replies
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