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Hi all, before I post today's trip in fossil hunting trips, I'd like to know a little better about the ID's. This is a ll from a creek in Austin (central texas) that exposes the Ozan formation (aka the lower taylor marl here) Specimen 1) I'm fairly sure it's a mosasaur tooth, but It's oddly stout. It seems to have two cutting edges, but I'm still just not quite sure how to differentiate Mosasaur teeth from Pachyrhizodus teeth. Which one is it, and why? Specimen 2.) This jaw is likely very modern - i'm thinking Racoon, the only reason it made me curious is the sheer amount of holes in it for teeth. Confirm or deny? Specimen 3.) I think this may be a fish tooth in a piece of jaw, but there's just not a clear point where the tooth starts and the jaw ends. Any ideas? Specimen 4.) This was from a slightly earlier hunt, but I'm still curious. I'm thinking Xiphactinus tooth, but the groove down the side seems to be an important feature, and I didn't spot that in pictures of any cretaceous fish teeth. Specimen 5.) This is a preserved rib - I recognize that ID will be difficult, but since it's old enough to be well on the way to fossilizing I'm still interested in trying Specimen 6.) A very large bone found sticking halfway out the gravel. Seeming we found several bison teeth in this area, I'm crossing my fingers for bison

An assortment of interesting finds from our hunt today. This was in the late cretaceous Ozan formation (also called the Lower Taylor Marl, I believe) around the Austin area, in central Texas. I'd like confirmation or correction on some ID's 1) I'm thinking Mosasaur tooth for this one, but since it's small enough to maybe be fish, I'm checking anyway. If measurements end up being important for any of these, I can provide them. 2.) I'm thinking Cretolamna for this shark tooth, but it looks like the cusps have two peaks, which is throwing me off. Any thoughts? 3.) A very unusual ptychodus. It looks like there was a dome that was worn flat, but that would imply then that this is a Ptychodus whipplei, which is supposedly quite unlikely around Austin. @LSCHNELLE, any thoughts? 4.) I'm fairly positive on this one being some species of Cretolamna, but since I've never seen Cretolamna in this area before, I'm just making doubly sure. This one is about the size of a finger nail.

Hey ya'll Here's a small Ptychodus that my step brother found while we were hunting a gravel bed. Still in the matrix... you can say I'm a little jealous. I'm thinking, based off the ID guide that's pinned, that it could be mammillaris. Let me know if more or better photos are needed.

I got a few NSR shark teeth and this one has me stumped. It’s small at 6mm and not complete but I think an ID is possible given it’s unique features. It has distinct folds and the cusp has an odd bend. I was wondering if it could be a Cretodus tooth of some odd position. That’s my best guess at the moment. I don’t think it’s Goblin or Sand Tiger. Ozan Formation NSR Texas.

Hi Everyone, I recently found this tooth (in situ) and can't seem to place it. I haven't personally found another like it and after looking through various resources I am even more confused. It doesn't look like the other mosasaur teeth I've found except for perhaps a very thin platecarpus. Any feedback on an identification would be awesome. Thanks! 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6:

I'm a rookie. This is my second post. I've been out on two "expeditions" and made some interesting finds. When I picked up this fossil?, I noticed it was caulked on the back side, I found that perplexing. North East Texas, Fannin County, Eagle Ford Group, Ozan Formation, North Sulfur River Bed. It appears to be a vertebra. Please help identify. Thanks!

Thanks to all of you good fine folks for taking a look what I found on my two "expeditions" to the North Sulfur River. I look forward to the next expedition. I've got some others, but this will be my last request for ID . . . no doubt it will be a rock! Thanks for a great day.

I'm a rookie. This is my first post. I've been out on two "expeditions" and made some interesting finds. North East Texas, Fannin County, Eagle Ford Group, Ozan Formation, North Sulfur River Bed. It appears to be a fossil tooth. Please help identify. Thanks!

Okay, this may be just wishful thinking, but a girl can hope, right? For your viewing pleasure is an Upper Cretaceous coprolite from the North Sulphur River in Texas, Ozan Formation, Talyor Shale. This little beauty has some unusual fish remains. Any chance this is a caudal fin from a coelacanth? The bones are pretty substantial compared to other fish bones I've seen in coprolites from the area. It does contain scales that are good sized and pretty transparent, with kind of a fingerprint pattern. Obviously, they may not be from the same prey item. Can anyone tell me if these are indeed coelacant bones? If so, do they look like those from a caudal fin? Other thoughts? @Fossildude19 @sharkdoctor @Carl Image 1:

A friend of mine was hunting the N. Sulfur River in Texas and came across this piece of ? Late Cretaceous Ozan Formation Any ideas as what this is?

I went fossil hunting at the North Sulfur River (NSR) in mid December with @believerjoe and Cathleen, @cgmck a local fossil hunting buddy of mine who is a semi-retired environmental geologist.. I’d been trying to work out a time to go hunting with Joe for close to 6 weeks. He had extended the offered sometime after I had met him at the Ladonia Fossil Day event on October 20th. He offered to take me to teach me how to spot mosasaur and bone material in the NSR. We are both on the Dallas Paleontological Society Facebook group page and crossed paths on there quite frequently so we were acquitted on there and on TFF. We set 12/15/18 as the tentative date, but rain kept threatening to delay our hunt. Up until Friday evening, 12/14 I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to hunt. If the water was too deep it would be pretty murky, making it hard to spot fossils. Saturday dawned bright, clear and chilly. Water levels were huntable. It would be in the mid 30s when we were to meet at 8:00. We would be walking through a lot of water. I have rubber boots I usually wear in the wet and cold weather in creeks, but I knew the water would be high. I’ve hunted the river when the water was high like this and it prevented me from going up the river and creeks I wanted to go up. So I opted to buy myself a pair of hip waders before the trip. I found these for $25! They were 50%. The shoe size is a man’s size 7. They said they ran big for men. Men’s shoe size 10 is bigger than women’s 10 so I took the risk and they fit fine. They were comfortable and worked great. Anyway, I packed my hunting gear in my car and then a backpack with another pair of socks to keep my feet warmer when walking in the cold water, extra leggings, gloves and hat to put on once I got there. I didn’t do my hair. I was planning on wearing the hat. I threw my favorite ball cap in the pack too. When I got there I realized I’d left my backpack with the extra clothing for warmth at home! I was going to be a bit chilly. Especially my feet. My boots aren’t insulated. My hair was going to be all over the place with the wind. We met at the Ladonia Fossil Park and then transferred our stuff to Joe’s pickup truck. Joe drove us to a place he likes to hunt. We got out, put on our gear and walked down into the creek. Joe didn’t think the water was going to be too deep in the creek so I opted to wear just my boots rather than the waders. First step into the creek there was a rudist fragment that Joe pointed out. It was kind of big and we were going to be walking a long way. So, I opted to leave the rudist there. I walked maybe 30 feet and found a piece of turtle shell. Yay! My first piece of Texas turtle shell. I’ve found turtle shell elsewhere, but it was Miocene. The one on the right is the one I found. Joe found the other piece and let me have it. We walked on up the creek and Joe kept pointing out mosy verts here and there. I found one on my own the whole trip on the second leg of this creek hunt. He’d spot them from 30 feet away half covered. It was impressive how he could see them so far off mixed in with all the other rocks and gravel. Some were pretty little too. I think maybe 6 or 7 mosasaur vertebra were found total. Cathleen has always had higher fossil quality standards than I do so she turned all, but one of the vertebra down. She took the best one home. The water was pretty deep and cloudy so it limited finding fossils considerably. There were numerous places we came to where the water was fairly deep. Joe’s boots came almost to his knees, but mine were maybe 10 inches tall. So, we had to walk carefully as times to find where the water was more shallow so that I could cross or proceed up the creek. There were many places where there was no gravel in the creek and the bottom was the typical slick gray shale of the Ozan. We all had walking sticks, which helped considerably, especially with the mud. When you hit the mud sometimes you don’t know if it is safe or how far you will sink. Walking sticks served as a measuring stick for mud depth. Which reminds me that I need to put a mark on my walking stick for boot height and water depth. We came to a few places that we tried to walk through and sunk maybe 10 inches max, which isn’t too bad by NSR standards. Other places we avoided and went around. This is Joe and Cathleen in the creek. See the large blocks of stone in the creek. Well, I had been seeing stone like this in the river since I have been hunting it, but I had never known the source. Come to find out it was imported stone to help with erosion control. This is a piece of it up close. It is a sandstone type material. Now I know it isn't from the river. I have been wondering all this time where this formation was, because nothing in the description of the formations in the area say anything about this type of stone. So, it has been a complete mystery all this time to me. The mystery is now solved. We hiked on up the creek for a while without event or really finding much of anything. I was finding petrified wood left and right. The pieces in this feeder creek were, in general, larger than what I usually find in the river. Here is some of the pet wood I found. These are my favorite pieces. The first one actually looks like it has a stain on it. You can see the sharp peak pointing to the left. The second has lots of texture and contrast in color. The third is a nice deep, brick red that you can't tell from the pic. I could be mistaken about the last piece, but I think it may be a piece of palm root wood. As I walked along I came to a piece of what I initially thought was petrified wood, but as I looked at it I realized it was not petrified wood. I thought it looked like a fish tail, but I had never found fish fossils in the NSR area. Joe came over and he initially thought it was pet wood too, but then he turned it and said “Wait a minute, that is a piece of fish. “ Woohoo!!! I was quite excited and happy about that find. I think it was Anthony Maltese who told me he thought it was "probably a Pachyrhizodus or a Plethodid based on the segmentation of the fin rays (top left of the picture)". I think he may be @-AnThOnY- on here, but I could be wrong. We walked on and found a few more vertebra and then we came to a place where the water was too deep for Joe and I to cross. I do not mind getting wet, but when it is around 40 degrees I prefer to stay dry. At that point we had been walking for a little over 2 hours. We turned around and headed back. The walk back went a bit quicker. Maybe 1/3 of the way back we were walking in part of the creek we did not walk when going in. The shale was not flat on the creek bottom, but at an angle, slanting towards the center of the creek and deeper water. I stepped just wrong on it and down I went. As I was going down, I tried to ensure that I fell in more shallow water and that I didn’t flood my boots. Somehow I managed to be reasonably successful in my attempt. I landed in a sitting position in maybe an inch or so of water with my knees bent so very little water got in my boot. Still my back side and upper thighs got wet. I stood up and began to attempt to slide forward on the shale so as to not fall again. Cathleen was right in front of me. Before I made two steps she went down too. She was wearing full waders that came up to her torso, but she was not quite as lucky. Water got into her waders and when she stood up she could feel the icy water flow all the way down her back, then down into her boots. It was in the low 40s now so it had warmed a little, but it was not a pleasant feeling to be wet in 40 degree weather, but we toughed it out. It was when she stood that we realized that we had not walked this side of the creek on the way in. We immediately crossed the creek to get to less slippery ground. We made it back to our entry point. It was almost noon. Cathleen said she needed to drive back home for something planned with family. Joe drove us back to our cars. I emptied my pack, which was full of petrified wood mostly. Then Joe and I drove back out to the creek. I put on my waders at this point. We headed down stream to continue looking for mosasaur material. I found one little very beat up vert, but I also found several pieces of Pleistocene bone and a horse tooth. The horse tooth is likely modern, though there are not many horses in the NSR area so it could be Pleistocene. Weird thing about a lot of Pleistocene bones in Texas is that many of them are not fully mineralized and so they are fairly soft and light in color and appear modern. So it is hard to tell if something is modern or Pleistocene. Even the mammoth bones in Waco are not mineralized for the most part and so they are fairly fragile, white and look like modern bones in texture. Joe and I proceeded down the creek. I was walking on the bank on one side of the creek and he was walking in the water in the creek. I came to some deep mud and contemplated whether I should back track or attempt to make my way through it. Ahead of me the mud got much deeper. I decided I better make a 90 degree turn and cross over to the other side. I had my walking stick with me and tested the mud to make sure I would bottom out rather than keep sinking. The mud stopped and hit creek bottom at a little over 2 feet deep, up past my knees a ways. I figured I’d be OK. I went ahead and walked through it down into the water. It was tough pulling my legs out, but I managed OK until I was in the water. I was trying to balance on one foot and with my walking stick so I didn’t fall over into the water. I’d managed a few steps, but then I was having trouble pulling my foot out of one spot. Joe came over and took my hand to pull me out and hopefully keep me from falling down in the water as I pulled out of the mud. I made it out successfully with Joe’s help. If I had been alone I am not sure I would have taken the risk. Not with the water being so cold. It was icy cold. It wasn’t the worst mud I have encountered, but it was some serious mud. We moved along without event after that. I had told Joe I wanted at least one hour to hunt the red zone before I left the NSR. So after a bit we turned around and headed back. Joe is not a fan of the red zone. He says the preservation of mosasaur material there is not very good there. I have not found mosasaur material there, but it is true that a lot of red zone material has either pyrite or gypsum. Pyrite is the most common. If iron was present in the fossilization process, frequently the fossils develop pyrite disease when exposed to the air and they can disintegrate into dust. I am a fan of the red zone, because that is where some of the best ammonites come from. We made it out of the creek and Joe drove back to the fossil park. It was about 3:00. These are the finds from the creek. The long thin light one is a metapodial from something like a deer or the likes. I am not sure about the others. The horse incisor, from a young horse is at the bottom middle. These are the mosasaur verts and turtle bone that Joe pointed out. The horse tooth is there to prop the one vert up. I think I may have connected another piece to the NSR puzzle. See the white calcium layer on the vert on the far left? It is common to see this on fossils. I could be wrong, but I have come to believe that fossils with this white layer most likely come from the Roxton formation. My fish piece has the same stuff on it. I don't think I put my little worn vert in one of these. I will post is in my overall picture at the end. I will be back in a bit with the trip to the red zone. I want to thank Joe for being so kind as to take me hunting so I can learn from him. I hope we can go hunting again sometime so I can learn more. Joe is the mosy guy. I am the ammonite girl. So, it was helpful to hunt with him to broaden my knowledge.

I was out at the North Sulfur River on Saturday. I found a number of cool things. This one is a mystery to me, but it seems very rare and pretty neat. I’m not sure it’s even really identifiable as to a class or order, but I thought I’d ask. It needs more prep, but I’m not sure how much more there is to uncover. Above you can see what look like 2 legs hanging down and possibly One on op. Below is the same thing invented. Another pic from a different angle. I can’t get any closer on the small details. I can see the texture of what I believe may be legs on the bottom of pic 1, but they aren’t crustacean legs. I guess they could be antennas, but I’m not sure antennas are segmented like that. If you look at what appears to be an appendage on the top it does have bumps on it. Any thoughts?

Yesterday I went hunting in the North Sulfur River in North Texas. Could this be a fragment of a coprolite? Pic 1 and 2 are same pic different lighting. I was trying to bring out the button in the center of what I’m calling the bottom. Pic one brings it out, but it is grainy. Pic 2 you can zoom in better. The center kind of has a pinched button look. # 3 the top. It looks like clam shell fragments possibly. The next 3 are side views. The whole thing is dome shaped. @GeschWhat

I had the day off yesterday and headed out to the North Sulfur River. Found absolutely nothing of note except lots of wild hog wallows, lots of spiders, the usual petrified wood and a couple Cretaceous bone chips. Had another one of my stupidity inspirered adventures with the heat. It was 100 out there and to make it worse the water was also 100. Made it out in one red bug laden piece. Recovered, ate lunch and glutton for punishment that I am headed back out at a much easier access point. While I was there I found something, which I don’t know what it is. The only thing I can possibly imagine it could be would be a rudist. There are 2 varieties of rudist in the NSR. I believe this is a colony of Sauvagesia belti rudist, but I’ve never seen one. I believe I was in the Pecan Gap Chalk overlain by the Ozan. The concretion in question I believe to be from the Ozan since it was not in situ, but in a gravel bar. This is the concretion as I found it. Only 1/3 was exposed. It’s about 8 x 7 inches long and wide and 3.5 at its thickest. It has an Inoceramus clam on the righ. I have not learned my species, but I think this is the I. balticus. The other species noted there is an I. aff. Barbini. But that is not the key item for ID. There is a hollow chamber in the middle that has shell material inside. I’m working on trying to remove matrix from it so it is a mess right now. This is a top side view. This is a bottom side view. There are the ends of 4 individual organism in view in the pic below. All seem to have been basically tubular and average approximately 4- 5 inches long from what I can tell. In the top of the pic there are 2 perpendicular to each other. One overlaying the other. Bottom of pic are 2 running parallel to each other. I was cleaning the big one on the bottom and came upon the end of another laying on top of it. All 4 have the remnants of nacre on them. I think there are 5 individuals here. There is a 5th on the bottom of the 2 on the right. This is one with the full length in view of what is present at least. It is 5 inches long. This is what got me excited after I picked it up and rinsed it off. It is that beautiful dragon skin quality found in nacre. This is on the end of one of the individuals. I believe there are more than 12 in the conglomerate. I’m Still uncovering stuff though. Any thoughts as to what they may be would be be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kim

I went out to the North Sulfur River (NSR) yesterday and went down a particular feeder creek. Along the creek I kept finding clam shells that looked modern, but not like any fresh water clam that I’ve ever seen before. I have never seen this category of preservation of clams in the NSR or elsewhere in Texas for that matter. The formation out there is Ozan of the Cretaceous. If they are Cretaceous they are quite remarkably well preserved. There are 2 varieties of clams as best I can tell. There is the smaller one that is smooth and then the larger that have a wavy or ruffled shell. Both have fairly heavy, thick shells that are a beautiful soft pink/baige pearly color. Here are the smaller smooth ones. One up close. Here are the ones with wavy shells. I also found 2 modern fresh water clam shells that are common in Texas . Their shells are pretty thin and light. Anyway, can anyone tell me if the first 2 kinds are even fresh water? If so I have never seen a fresh water clam like them. I think they are Cretaceous, but I have never seen such preservation in Texas. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Well I almost don’t want to post after seeing some of the amazing finds posted from the NSR recently, but had what for me was one of my better trips. I don’t make it out there often but like many was lured by the recent rains and the hope of finding something great. I will say that I am always happy to get out on water and the weather could not be better than it was this week. I hiked a mile or so both ways and funny enough, as usual my best finds were found where everybody enters the river. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I play a game like a scavenger hunt every time I go. This trip I was after a vert, a mosasaur tooth, and an artifact. Nailed it. Funniest part is I was leaving and found the scraper less tha 25 yards from the stairs as I was leaving. I found a killer piece of P wood that has unreal colorations. Thanks for looking.

I found this a few weeks ago in the North Sulfur River and would like to know if it is a fossil of some sort or just hématite or some other iron rich material. There is a fare amount of iron rich material in the NSR, but most of it is smooth and not bumpy like this. I’m inclined to think it’s not a fossil, but would like to confirm before I discard it.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had a very nice one with a very full house. I had 5 guests staying for 4 nights and 5 days and then 16 people at my house for Christmas dinner. I’m a single mom with 2 kids who I only have custody 50% of the time. So most of the time my house is pretty empty and lonely. So I really enjoyed having it full and happy. I got board after everyone left and the kids were with their dad. So, despite the below freezing temps I headed out to a new location. I grew up for quite a few years in a very remote part of the Ozark Moutains in Arkansas. Harsh, cold weather was a part of life. So we adapted and were use to it. If you are ever headed to NSR you’ll most likely pass through the town of Ladonia. It’s a very small town that is past its glory days. It has quite a number of pretty Victorian era homes and some old churches with lovely stained glass windows though, both of which I think are cool. Here are a couple shots of the town. Here is a shot approaching the river. The tree line is where the river is. The wide expanses and fields are common in many parts of Texas with only small hills. Here is a pic of the NSR as I passed over it. It is deep and the banks are very steep in many places, which significantly limits access. On to my trip. Yesterday it was in the 20s here. That’s not too bad in my mind so I went fossil hunting. I bundled up and headed out to a creek near NSR. I think I was out there for about 3 hours total including my hike in and out. I had been in the creek for about an hour when I felt something in my hair. I’ve got long blond hair and I had to go through some under growth to enter the creek. So I thought it was a twig that hadgot caught in my hair. I tried to brush it away a few times, but it remained. I finally took my gloves off to try to get it out of my hair only to realize there was nothing in my hair. My hair had frozen. That doesn’t happen often in Texas folks. I had to laugh at myself for being out in such weather. I was bundled up pretty well and had been working up a sweat with hiking and carry my pack. Despite the below freezing temps my hair was all wet with perspiration that was dripping down my hair and had then froze in my hair like little dreadlock type clumps. I kept on fossil hunting for maybe 1.5 hours more despite the cold. I was enjoying myself. I think part of my love of fossil hunting is the adventure that I have with the hunt. The cold made it a bit more challenging as did being bundled up. It was harder to move with layers of clothes on. That’s part of the adventure. Frozen hair makes for part of a good story too. I chose to hunt in a little feeder creek. This is a pic down in the creek. There was a dusting of snow and thin layers of ice on the water in places that you can see here. I wore rubber boots expecting to have to walk in the water some and I certainly did have to walk through water. Much of the creek bed is hard, black shale. The banks were a softer, flaky gray shale for the most part. There are 3 clams in this pic. One on the top and bottom and then in the middle where all you can see is whiteish & tan, which is a clam shell exterior, but clams aren’t well preserved and crumble from this layer. Most any place I broke the shale there were clam impressions or the remains like these. There was a red layer along the creek bank in some places. I forgot to take a shot, but if there were preserved fossils they were in the red zone for the most part. It seems the iron may have helped stabilize fossils in this zone. This clam and baculite fragment came out of the red zone. Side note: My dad bought me camouflage gloves for Christmas. Men, don’t buy your daughters, wife’s or any female camouflage clothing items as a gift unless she specifically requests it. Not to say that I’m not thankful. I wore them over by other gloves for an extra layer of warmth and I was thankful to have them. Camouflage just isn’t me or most women for that matter. I found the red zone was down in the creek bed in some places. In this pic I had found some interesting concretions and baculites in this area. I wanted to take a pic. I often use my foot as a source of scale. I attempted to do that this time, but it didn’t work too well. My boot and knee pad were so muddy they blended into the background. Note the muddy black boot and knee pad. That’s me. I had been kneeling down to dig out the baculite I’d found and I got very muddy. I’m so glad I bought my knee pads along with me or I would have gotten wet and been absolutely miserable. Next time I’ll take my rubber gloves to keep my hands dry. In the layer just under the concretions, which you see in the top left corner was the layer where I found white baculites. This is part red zone and park shale. I was in the middle of digging up a 2nd baculite when the more exciting part of my adventure happened. I was kneeling down and only about 1/3 of the way through digging it up when I heard a horrible squealing around the bend in the creek from where I was. It sounded so close!!! Maybe 50-100 feet away. It was a pig fight. I have heard stories of wild pigs. I’ve also heard the wild boars live in the feeder creeks along the NSR and hearing the pig fight freaked me out a bit. I rattled me, it just sounded so scary! I wanted out of there and quick. The bend was only about 30-40 feet away and if they came around the corner, they could be on me in a matter of seconds. They can be very aggressive and ferocious from what I’ve heard. My dad came for Christmas. He knew I was hunting in such territory and he actually gave me a 40 mm pistol for Christmas to protect myself from the pigs. A little segway here. You have to understand the culture of the deep country I grew up in. If you remember the show Grizzly Adams, you’re not too far from the kind of environment I grew up in. Only the bears we had weren’t grizzly. We honestly didn’t have electricity or telephone because we were too far off the grid for 10 years. Out there everyone had a gun and most had a gun rack mounted in their pickup truck back window and drove around with the guns mounted there. We had mountain lions and bears and lots of poisonous snakes. The bears would come right up to our house and even put their paws on the widows. So everyone had a gun and knew how to use them. My daddy started teaching me to shoot when I was 6. When I was 8 I’d frequently go hiking in the dense woods of the Ozarks and I’d encounter wildlife on my hikes. The woods went for miles because we had National Forest land on 2 sides of our property. Our nearest neighbor was 4 miles away. My dad gave me a gun to carry with me at the age of 8 for protection when I went hiking alone all day after he heard me tell stories about my hikes. I think I only discharged it in defense 1 time while out hiking. I love nature and all creation and never have wanted to kill anything, but I have had to kill a few poisonous snakes and that is about it. Most other animals will run away when you discharge the gun and there’s no need to shoot them. I shot the gun numerous times to scare off bears. I believe there is a place for all creatures and unless they are about to harm meI would never shoot them. I think my parents must have been crazy to let me go hiking by myself in dense woods all day at 8 years old and give me a gun to carry. I’d never let my kids touch a gun at that age or go hiking alone, but it was a different day and age. Anyway, I had the gun with me out fossil hunting. I didn't have it loaded with the clip in, but both were in my pack. I had not practiced with it, so I don't know if I could hit the broad side of a barn with it. I can be a pretty good aim, but I have a feeling a 40 mm probably has enough of a kick to it that I can't aim very well, but my dad said I needed something more powerful than my preference of a 380. I got my gun out and loaded it and began looking for a way to get out of the creek once I got my stuff packed. The banks were pretty steep. 20 to 30 feet high and vertical in most places. I started to pack my stuff, but couldn't find my phone. I had informed 2 people where I would be and told them that if they didn't hear from me by a certain time that they should probably send help. So, I was thinking about how they might freak out when I didn't respond at the appointed time, letting them know I was OK. Anyway, I had been in the spot of about 10 square feet for maybe 30 min and had used my phone while there and had no clue what had happened to it. I had put it in one of my pockets, but it wasn't there. I said a prayer a couple of times that God would help me to find it. Finally I resolved that I needed to leave without it. It would be getting dark soon. So, I knelt down to get my tools and stuff packed only to find my phone inside my pant's leg sitting on the top of my boot. Evidently my phone had slipped out of my pocket, over my waistband and down into my pant leg, which was tucked into my boot. I have no clue how that happened. I didn't feel it, because I had two layers on under my jeans to keep me warm. MaybeI thought I was putting my phone in my pocket, but put it inside my pants instead. I had gloves on and couldn’t feel the material. In digging and then packing up my tools I had gotten my gloves wet. My fingers were freezing cold now. I wanted to get out of the creek. I didn't want the pigs to be at my back as I hiked back to my car. Plus the creek had a water in it and not much walking space on the sides. On the way in at one point I was trying to walk the edge and not slide in where a little shale slide had fallen down from the bank and the shale gave way under me and both feet went into the water. I had to scramble hard to not slide down all the way into the water. I think my angel must have been watching out for me and stopped me. I have no idea how I stopped sliding other than my angel. There was nothing to hang onto. The bank was steep and only more of the crumbling shale that I was sliding on. I was wearing rubber boots, because I expected to have to walk through some water. Getting soaking wet in below freezing conditions would have been dangerous and ruined my trip. So, I kind of wanted to hike back on land rather than the creek so as to not have any more slides into the fridged water. Although I would have loved to look for more fossils on my way back. I needed to get out quicker. I struggled to climb the bank with the 30 pound pack on. Being bundled up in 3 layers of clothes with a coat on restricted my agility. The only exit I could find was on the bank opposite from that I came in on. When I made it to the top of the bank all I could see were green briars as far as the eye could see. It was not pretty, but I chose to fight green briars over boars. I started working my way through the briars to an area that looked like it might be clear of briars. It took me quite a bit of time to make it through to the clearing. Along the way I came across pig scat and a bedding area. Thankfully they were not home. This is a cool tree I came across on my hike back. This was after the worst of the briars though. I’ve put it in the wrong place, but will leave it here. It had some serious armor on it and at least 2 types of lichen it would appear. I don’t know the name of the tree though, but think it is very interesting. I’ve seen them a few times before, but they’re not common. About 20 min into the fight with the briars I came to a barbwire fence encrusted with green briars. I suddenly had the need to pee and couldn't hold it any longer. I hoisted my pack over the fence first. Being a woman it isn’t so easy to pee in the woods. There wasn't a spot clear of briars to be seen, so I ended up scratching up my backside in the process. Then I found a place to cross the fence that had less briars, but struggled to cross the fence, because I kept getting my clothes caught in the briars and didn't have a free space to just swing my leg over the fence and kept getting my boot caught in briars too. So, I had to kind of be a bit of a contortionist to manage to get over. Once over I went to where my pack was and extracted it from the briars. Since I was on the other side of the fence I felt a bit more at ease with regards to the boars and took the clip out of my gun and put it away. I felt like the boars couldn't come charging at me though the barbwire too well. I couldn't follow the creek back to my car since the briars and underbrush were too heavy. So, I made my way to the clearing without briars and then tried to orient myself as best I could. The clearing was to the west or opposite direction of where I believed my car to be. The creek had meandered a bit, I didn't have phone service so my compass didn't work. So I set out in the direction I thought was north to get to the road and hoped to make my way back to my car along the road. There wasn’t any sun so it was a guess. I am left handed. They say that left handed people are either geniuses, artistic or navigationally gifted. I think I may have gotten the navigational blessing, but I don't call myself gifted by any means. My dad isn't left handed, but he can outdo me any day on navigation without any tools or sun. I am thankful to have a pretty good sense of direction though and always have. I ended up coming out of the woods about a tenth of a mile from my car. It wasn't feasible to have come out closer since the underbrush along the creek was too heavy and I wanted to stay clear of that to make good time and not get all scratched up and worn out. I could just see my car in the dusky light down the road from where I came out. I had to cross another fence, but there was a gate and no briars that made it a lot easier this time so I left my pack on. Thank God I was so close to my car. I was pretty tired by that point and it was just after 5:00 getting darker and getting colder. The day had been overcast so it was even darker. When I got to my car my Fitbit congratulated me on my workout. LOL I was pretty worn out and my hands were pretty cold by then. I was so thankful to be back at my car. Gotta love the bun warmers at times like that. I was so muddy. Normally when it is warmer I will try to rinse off my boots and tools in the creek, but it was too cold to be rinsing in the water. So, when I got to the car I took off my boots and dropped my jeans right there so I didn't get my car seat muddy. I had a pair of sweats and then leggings under them so no indecency was to be seen. There may have been a lack of fashion with the under layer color coordination though, but it was all in the name of keeping warm and no one saw me. So, I think it can be excused. Plus, there weren't any cars on the road and no humans to be seen. I think this trip may have taught me to not try out new places in such extreme conditions. I had no idea what that creek was like or what the conditions were there. I knew there was the potential of wild boars. Thankfully I never saw them, but heard a couple more fights ensue after I was out of the creek. I think I may use more caution next time. I still had fun though. I enjoyed my time outdoors and loved the adventure of it. I would have loved to have gone out again today, but my gear was so muddy and needs to be cleaned up before another outing. All that said, I don’t have much to show for my hunt. I found a number of fragments of baculites, a few clams and a couple other spiral shell fragments. Most of them are here. The baculite fragments are on the left. Some have matrix. There’s a piece I believe is petrified wood in the middle, possibly palm wood. I did find the biggest and nicest baculite I have ever found. It isn’t in great condition. It is broken in a few spots. I have to remove the matrix from two other pieces not pictured here. I think I may not have come home with the piece that connects the piece on the far left to the end. I am happy to have found it though. I now know where I can find more and hopefully the pigs won’t be home next time. This is the largest section and I have about 3 inch or so more to glue together. It looks like it got squashed on one side before fossilization. This is the bottom side. This is the top side. It is hard to see, if you look closely you can see ridges on the bottom side on the left above and also below along the side where my thumb is. Most every baculite I have ever seen has been worn down to the suture lines and you can’t see ridges or bumps. So despite not being whole and not squished, I happy it has that detail to it. Hopefully you enjoyed my trip pics and story and got a chuckle out of my quirkiness. Kim

People may think I’m crazy, especially people from Texas, but I went out to the NSR area today. It was 28 degrees, but I dressed appropriately and was fine. However, I was sweating quite a bit from being bundled up so well. So my hair got all wet from sweat and then promptly froze in something like dreadlock form, but I kept going for another 1.5 hours. Anyway, while out I found these. I would just like an opinion if you think they could be bones or concretions or something else. They look concretions that formed around bone to me. I know you can’t really say it is bone for sure because you can’t see the texture, but I’d just like to hear some thought on it. The NSR and Ozan Formation is known for mosasaur remains frequently found there. I have found a vert there before, but nothing else. This is the first one I found. I was trying to clear away some of the shale when I thought to take an in situ shot. This one was maybe a foot away from the other. I did find what looked a bit like a white baculite right next to and under one of them that was about 10 inches long or more, but it looked a big deformed to be a baculite. It was long and slender, but it looked pinched thin on one side of the length. I found another long while baculite looking thing, but heard a wild pig fight break out just around the bend in the creek and I didn’t want them to come around the bend and have an encounter with them. They can be very aggressive and nasty. The shape sure looked like bone concretions to me and there were quite a few clustered together in a small area in the shale. I saw numerous other concretions, but nothing like this and nothing clustered in this pattern. It was pretty cold and it was almost time for me to head back before it got dark. Also, I got my gloves wet while trying to dig them out and at that point I was done. Being wet in below freezing weather can be disasterous. If you think they could be bone I would want to go back and look for any others that may be there. I did dig these 2 out of the shale, but I haven’t gotten home to clean them up yet. I will post more pics after I wash them up. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I found this yesterday at North Sulfur River. It was pretty amorphous looking, but I thought it might be a bone fragment or vertebra stuck in the mud. I took a chisel to the outside edge of the mud clump to see if I could crack the mud and pull some of it off. This is what it looks like. It looks a lot like reptile skin. It looks like some of the skin texture came off on the other piece. What on earth is this? I’m still trying to get the rest of the mud off only more carefully though. I think there may be a small bone in some of the mud around it too.

I was out at North Sulfur River yesterday. It was terribly picked over. Do you start looking even at pieces of junk at that point. I found a couple interesting things, but not that noteworthy. The most easily found thing out there are Exogyra oysters. So when I saw this I first thought it was an oyster fragment and almost didn’t pic it up, but it looked different like a piece of turtle shell so I picked it up and threw it in my bag. I can see thin layering on top and a bit of what looks like the pearly surface of an oyster shell, but then I also see a tiny bit of what looks like porous bone structure on a couple edges. I think it could be a turtle shell fragment. I’d like to hear your thoughts and opinions. Top side of shell Underside. You can see some porous portions on top right. Porous structure. Definitely not oyster looking.

I found this out at North Sulfur River last Saturday. I'm not sure if it's a fossil or just a rock. If it's a fossil I am thinking it could be part of a jaw fragment. In the middle of the widest part is a little white nub that could be part of a tooth, but I really am just guessing. Anyone have a more educated idea on it? the last pic is from the bottom