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A week ago I made the trip out to one of the roadcuts on loop 360. I realized that I had been neglecting visiting the west side of town which, although very different, is just as rich in fossil history as the younger east. I want to also thank @erose as he has posted lots of useful information on the cuts and what sorts of things can be found. I arrived in the afternoon and slowly climbed up the gravel to get to the first bench. I made the rare good decision to hunt on the side of the road that would shield me from the sun, making the temperature nice and cool, perfect for fossiling. Despite the proximity of the road, the area felt surprisingly secluded. All atop the bench were a variety of giant boulders that had fallen from the many formations overhead. I wasn't sure which ones were best to look through, so I ended up going mostly for the softest ones. They were absolutely packed with everything from gastropods and bivalves to the occasional tiny regular echinoid or algal fruiting body. I took occasional trips up the gravelly incline to the top of the cut, but really it was just more of the same stuff so I decided to focus on the easier-to-traverse ground below. It really didn't take long before my pockets were heavy. The day was periodically graced with more unusual finds like irregular echies and a large fragment of an ammonite (whole ones are very rare here). Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set and it was time to head back to the car. Most of the stuff was pretty easy to clean at home. A lot of the limestone popped right off, though some was a bit harder to get. An interesting thing I noticed was that some of the fossils had distinct parallel engravings on them. It looked a bit similar to the damage I have caused using vinegar on limestone fossils in the past. I wonder if acid rain was the cause for these markings. Anyways, here are some pictures. Overview of the better finds: A). Irregular Echinoids Heteraster texanus B). Regular Echinoids. All Loriolia? C). Misc: Metengonoceras? ammonite on top. Below from left to right is a Porocystis globularis algal fruiting body, Neithea texana scallop, and Ceratostreon texanum oyster D). Gastropods. Back row: Anchura. Front row (L to R): Nerinea? (From Bull Creek Fm), Unknown, and Natica I will definitely be back in the future and might check out some of the other cuts nearby. Thanks for reading!
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