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First: Happy Fossil Day! I've been waiting to post my most recent report so someone has something new to enjoy reading on National Fossil Day. This past weekend Cole unexpectedly didn’t have to work on a morning that I also had off! He asked me what I wanted to do while I was grocery shopping at 6am for fruit snacks, jerky, chocolate rice cakes. I told him to take me to Fort Worth area! He asked me how serious and I got him the big bag of jerky and offered to pay for the toll road fee. xD I messaged my insta friend who lives out there and regularly hunts heart urchins! He gave me the location of one of his favorite spots in the woods, he couldn’t be there because of work obligations but he gave me the okay to park and hunt there, I’m forever grateful. Ya’ll on the forum have REALLY made me envious as I’ve always wanted to find my own urchins & echs! Living almost two hours away north east (that’s with morning traffic) makes it a little hard to go to Fort Worth where the echinoid goodies are plentiful. Anyways, we went out and about to Fort Worth! On the way out there I spotted a creek- we were still a while from our destination but wanted to check it out. *Adding pictures with captions* I pulled out my trusty TX geomap on my phone (which I strangely had a slow signal being in a big city!) and saw we were actually in the PawPaw formation. All I could find were stinkin’ oysters with an occasional different looking bivalve- and I combed the gravel good and walked down to many other sandbars. If there were echinoids here Im sure they are a little more uncommon in this spot, this area was well picked over, or isn’t very productive of the good stuff. I’m not in my usual hunting grounds anymore and all of these places are new to me! This isn’t my usual playground. We decided to leave for now and focus on the area my friend invited me to visit. No disrespect to the oysters, but I have plenty of those variety at home! I could come back later and see if any have pearls I guess! ***Im kicking myself because after returning to an area with better internet connection I found out PawPaw formation has asteroid/sea star fossils! I have no idea if these are found here at this site. I’ve been itching to find a sea star like CRAZY. It never crossed my mind they could be here! We finally arrived in the Goodland Formation and I was so excited! The woods were so interesting and a little different than the woods I have back home! Crazy how Texas can look so different depending on how many hours you drive in a given direction!? I was told there are deer so apples for deer: These don’t grow very often wild in my part of Texas. I love the juice of the purple “tuna” fruits they make! I started seeing the rocky, chalky looking exposure and followed it down and dove right in! I found a little ammonite piece (eek!) and knew I was in the right spot! I didn’t expect to find ammonites, even though I knew we were in ammonite territory. Again- not my usual playground! (I actually got stuck by a heartleaf nettle later!) Oh my stars! My first heart urchin EVER. I named it Mary. I haven’t seen coral fossils like this since I lived in Indiana! It was neat to see. So I have a video/reel of me actually finding this ADORABLE little Salenia mexicana urchin! I didn’t know you could find these types of regular urchins here! I came here with heart urchin goggles but the universe gave me this little button! I messaged my friend and he was like, “HOLD UP- you found one of those!?” with some happy emojis. Finding this was so cool, it was just chilling on the ground like, “Pick me Up!” It’s perfect. Im OBSESSED. Regular Urchins/Echs are now my new love. (I might have to request to change my username! J/P btw ) I want to come back and find another! OB-SESSED. ^ Poor Cole, who hasn’t found anything yet, was feeling sad so I told him he was right next to one! I had him look in a spot next to a stick. I told him where it was and he couldn’t find it! I showed him Mary and he scanned the ground with no luck. I gestured my hand over it and he said “how can you tell thats a fossil and not a regular rock?” I made him pop it out and he said “Oh.” LOL I found a mini honey hole! A ton clustered in this one spot! Yay! This should be enough- I came here not expecting to find anything TBH. There was more in there but I left them alone for next time to look through. Cole found me four more! He was so proud and happy and I told him I will keep all four for my personal collection. I was proud of him! Recognizing cars and insects are his knowledgeable thing… rocks not so much. He likes fossils a lot but isn’t good at finding them. He found lots! Yay! My fanny pack is FULL of cool stuff! 85% what is in here are heart urchins, I’m guessing are Hemiaster whitei AKA Pliotoxaster whitei (EDIT: This genus had a name change!) from the looks of it. We kept finding more, but we left them in the open for my friend to find like easter eggs! I’m responsible and never over-collect at a site. Cole gasps and points to the woods- personally, I’m hoping its a snake or other reptile species I haven’t met yet because I love the darn critters…but he finds me an ammonite fragment! There was more of it buried in the dirt. It looks like an oxytropidoceras! Also the negative of one in the dirt! I told him amazing job today, and we celebrated by me taking him out for Cane Rosso pizza! We each ate a whole pizza. xD We also visited that cute little rock gift shop in downtown. ***I wanted to visit other sites but he was so hungry and then we unexpectedly had to go pickup his new contacts at the Opt before they closed for the weekend. He promised another time! He actually REALLY loved finding fossils and asked me if it feels that cool ALL the time like that. He liked the idea when I told him how it’s special to find “lost sea friends” in the ground and show them to the world after millions of years! Back at home, noticing during their first wash one of these isn’t like the other! The “petals” design is different! *Gasp* I immediately message my friend the “ECHpert“ and asked if this was maybe a Heteraster and he thought it was so cool I found a Heteraster and Salenia in the same trip, first trip ever! Yay! Learning new stuff, finding new stuff! (phone camera zoom lens attachment) Hmm not sure what to name this one! *I name certain rocks and fossils. While I was cleaning I also found this little tiny one that got into my bag! It reminds me of the “spiny jewelry box” shells I used to find in Florida when I lived there- but TINY and Cretaceous! Adorable! I named it Julian. (I’m not sure of the species!) Spread: ^ Lots of Hemiaster whitei urchins, I spy lots of Pelecypods and a Tylostoma snail, other snails. I also found a tiny piece of coral and petrified wood. Lots of ammo Oxytropidocedas pieces. Some were glued back together! The rest I will have to simulate into the shape until I find a whole one. If anyone spots other kinds of urchins in the photo I’m mistaking for Pliotoxaster whitei please point them out so I can label them and study the details on how to ID them. I already know I have one Heteraster! I cant wait to clean the chalky limestone plaque off them later! I found that super hot water, a firm tooth brush, and dull pushpin work the best. No acid, Im too chicken to try any drops of vinegar. Im still super obsessed with Salenia. I might gloss it later! Wow! I need to find more regular urchins ASAP. I WILL RETURN! Next time more prepared and ready for the ammonites and other places my friend recommended when he has time off work. I even want to help him find a Salenia too since he is missing one! I will say this short impromptu mini trip really got me bit by the echinoid-bug so much I even ordered a book about the Cretaceous echinoid fossils of Texas online! Maybe I will eventually try Austin and San Antonio too, San Ant apparently has a good spot! I know this was a long post- thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed an insider to this awesome day! Also if anyone else recommends me back to PawPaw since I’m in search of sea stars please inform me if that’s a decent formation to find them in. If so- I’m sure I can find my own spot.

Took a trip today to one of my new Ozan spots that is rapidly becoming a favorite, despite the headache it is to reach. Although the finds are few and far between, I've always come out with something I haven't seen before. It's definitely been testing my ID skills. I didn't come out with too many things, but I've got a couple I would like to get some informed opinions on. First up is a regular urchin. I've found a few fragments of regular echinoids washed out within a small stretch of creek. Though this is the third I've seen, its the first of this appearance and first to safely make it undamaged (it's a bumpy ride to get in and out). I'm pretty bad with echinoid IDs, but from comparison with the ones I'm familiar with, I think it's a kind of salenia. It also looks like it could be a goniophorus. I don't know the terminology, but the lines of mini tubercles in between the primary tubercles look closer to salenia. They seem to form paired lines. This guy is about 7.5 mm across. If it is salenia, I'm guessing it isn't the typical texana, mexicana, etc. that are found in older cretaceous fms of TX, so I wonder what species it could be if not a new one ! The second specimen I want to share looks like a fish jaw to me. Initially, I was very confused on what it could be. I thought it was tooth shaped, but had enamel unlike any I was familiar with. After some prepping, I think I've found a single tooth socket. Unfortunately, most of the "jaw" had been eroded away. Do you guys think it's a fish jaw? If so, any guesses on genus/species? Thanks for reading and feel free to ask for additional pics!

Well, I have to say, not having a full time job due to this pandemic has been extra good for my fossil hunting! I may not be making much of a living, but I'm living it up finding fossils! Fortunately, as someone pointed out to me recently "it seems like Texas is paved in fossils". While this may not be 100% accurate....it's pretty close! Within a gas tanks drive I am lucky to have MANY MANY fossil hunting spots available to me. And when November rolls around (honestly, the nicest month in Texas- mild temps and no Cedar Fever Allergies to contend with) I try to get out as much as possible. And I was rewarded for my efforts this month...BIG TIME. Some Epic Echies for the month of November! Added two new to my collection plus a few nicer examples of others. Heterosalenia (rykyrae) (Currently undescribed echinoid from the Glen Rose Formation. It is joining 3 other specimens in an upcoming research paper) (Honking my own horn here...you may have seen this first one in the Fossil of the Month contest) As found and in process of being cleaned up all pretty like! 13.5 mm As if that weren't enough for the highlight of my month, I finally got to go back to the Waco Pit Research Area (it had been closed since March and finally reopened last moth). I was lucky enough to find the TWO exact things I was looking for - a shark tooth and a Goniophorus Echinoid! Granted, it's a little crushed and wonky looking, but it's MINE. Goniophorus scotti Size: 12mm Del Rio Formation Those were my two new additions to my list of Texas Echies. The rest of these are good specimens of already found genus, Leptosalenia mexicana Size 15 mm Walnut Formation I have been trying to find a Coenholectypus ovatus (vs. planatus) but every one I have found the peristome is so covered in matrix that I cannot tell what they are. But I really loved how you can see the individual plates on this one. Size: 25mm Glen Rose Formation And just a nice little Pliotoxaster Size: 20mm Comanche Peak Formation And finally, a nice Tetragramma texanum Size: 32 mm Walnut Formation

Hello again. About 2 years ago I found the following Echinoid (I think) in the northern province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. I was actually looking for interesting rocks and at first I thought that's what I had picked up, a piece of rounded/worn flint or chert. On closer inspection it looked like something that was once alive. Actually thought it was a long dead starfish, but after some googling I 'm fairly certain it's a type of Echinoid like a Conulus or maybe Salenia. Some background info: the area this was found was once covered with glacial ice that originated in Scandinavia, the Saale Glaciation (347,000 to 128,000 years ago). The glacial ice has deposited numerous large erratic boulders from which the famous 'Hunebedden' were constructed some 5,000 years ago. Along with those, heaps of smaller rocks and boulders were also laid down in the northern provinces. I suppose the same glaciers also transported fossils from the Scandinavian countries to this and the surrounding area. This was found on the surface of an area quite unique in the country. A glacial deposit covered in patches of heather and super fine white sand. The top 5 to 10 cm of sand contain loads and loads of smaller rocks of different kinds, so I suspect this Echinoid was deposited along with them and wasn't a species native to this area. Based on some photos from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/data/echinoid-directory/index.html I'm thinking this is a type of Conulus that lived in the cretaceous but that's as far as I dare to guess. Hoping somebody can further ID or correct my own ID. The specimen is 25mm in width and feels as if it's been worn by sand and wind (which certainly happened to some rocks I found in the same area) Thanks

Need an ID on the long spiral beneath the salenia urchin (i think Leptosalenia Mexicana).....Is this a gastropod or a cephalopod or something else? Found in the Comanche Peak formation of Comanche Peak in Hood Co. TX.....Many tylosoma and other gastropods as well as oxytripodoceras, clams and oysters of all sorts and the usual heart urchins........Thanks in advance for your help.....

Not much of a story-teller, so here are my better finds from my first trip to the glen rose formation (said to be the salenia zone) Whole gastropods and crushed heart urchins littered the ground all around the exposure, but i was particularly interested in a very ornate regular echinoid i'd never seen in person before, Leptosalenia Texana! My better finds: gastropods, neithea, tube worms, heart urchins, leptosalenia, porocystis algae balls, bivalve casts, and some oyster bits. My Leptosalenia: An unkown gastropod (?) covered in tube worms: And my bonus, two small coenholectypus approx. 10mm across

January 2, 2010 The Lower Cretaceous Glen Rose Formation (Kgr) of Central Texas is roughly 110 million years old. Its classic exposures look like man-made steps or solid blocks that are occasionally interrupted with softer rock or marl. The formation is typically divided into upper and lower units by a layer of Corbula fossil clams. Just below this layer was the destination I wanted to find for my first fossil hunt of the year. It takes its name from the isolated occurrence of an ornate fossil sea urchin - the Salenia texana zone! A bright dawn had not yet thawed the frost when I headed to meet my friend, Bob. He was excited to show me a new quarry where he had found echinoids the previous month. When we arrived at the site, he oriented me to the most productive layers in the formation, and we started hunting the youngest strata. I immediately began to find fossils. Erosion of the shelf, we were searching, left fragments of 'heart' urchins, gastropods, and bivalves everywhere. I was trying to be selective, looking for the better preserved specimens, but it was hard to pass up an unusual oyster or clam. Oyster (Ceratostreon weatherfordensis ?) with the partial mold of the shell where it was attached Juvenile Arctica sp. clam Soon, Bob was calling out, "Spiny urchin!" with periodic repetition. He wryly commented, "I just seem to be a magnet for those things." Meanwhile, I gouged my elbow on rock as I crawled along the ground. Glancing to check the damage, I spied one of the small, prickly echinoids. It was just one of those small moments...that capture your love of the outdoors. The late morning light was perfect, and when I reached for the camera, a little heart urchin caught my attention. Even better. So, I digitally captured the two 'echies' before putting them in my box. We finished the morning and the rest of the layer with several more echinoids and a partial crab claw. Loriolia texana echinoid with Orbitolina texana foram Heteraster obliquatus echinoid among Orbitolina texana forams Loriolia texana echinoid Some finds after a little cleaning From this area, we moved down into the "zone". A hard limestone bench capped a six foot thick layer of softer rock. It weathered into chunky clay before a transition back to solid stone. Even within this bracketed strata, I noted some subtle differences in the coloration and hardness. But meanwhile, Bob had started finding echinoids while I was "getting the lay of the land". The marble-sized Leptosalenia texana were eroding with regularity from the top half of the zone. A small, disk-like foram, known as Orbitolina texana, littered the ground. Scattered among them were a variety of different gastropods and a non-fossil caterpillar. Leptosalenia texana with forams and gastropods Caterpillar Leptosalenia texana echinoids Bob previously mentioned that he had found a couple of plates (a part of an urchin's shell) from a very uncommon echinoid on his last visit. So, as we leaned against the wall of the formation, I asked him what else he remembered. He described them as being more whitish in their preservation than some of the other finds we were making; and when he said it, I thought of the variation in the rock I had seen earlier. We had already found fragments of the spines which the 'Salenia' urchins used to protect their shells; but I was not tracking them - we were tracking a cidarid echinoid! In the Glen Rose Formation, two species have been described: Phyllacanthus texanus and P. tysoni. So, I grinned when I saw part of a larger, bumpy spine sticking out of the rock. About that time, Bob suggested that we move over a short distance to a fresh spot. Hunting anything, with success, requires identifying and following certain clues. In the new spot, I put my suspicions to the test. A few feet below the caprock, I found a lighter layer that was somewhat hidden by runoff from layers above. I flaked away the debris to get a better look and immediately started to find several spine fragments! I announced my excitement, "Cidarid spines!" Echinoid spines 5 cm echinoid spine in matrix A slightly elevated heart rate accompanied the anticipation of following signs in the rock. Then, I had an adrenalin spike when Bob called out, "You need to look at this." He walked toward me, and in his hand were 3 connected plates of our cidarid urchin quarry. I showed him some of the spines and explained the "hidden" layer we could focus on. I thought we were close to our treasure, and he asked if I had "covered" the area just to my right. I told him, "No, go ahead" as I knelt down for a look at some of the spines eroding from the ground. "JOHN!" I turned to see him stand up beside me with a golf ball-sized, knobby echinoid in his palm! "You did it!" I yelled. "You really...did it! Way to go!" We stood a moment, looking at the rare urchin with a range of emotions. Then, he handed me his prize while he went back to get his camera. I put it back in the spot he picked it from and took a few photos. When he came back, more photos ensued...it was an amazing Texas find! Although I know quite a few cidarid urchins have been found through the years, I am personally aware of just five...including Bob's - certainly not a common discovery. Checking a few references later indicated he had found a Phyllacanthus texanus! Bob's discovery Phyllacanthus texanus echinoid Well, as you can imagine, the adrenaline of discovery had us quickly back in search mode. More spines were found. I ravenously scanned the layer we isolated. Then, my "heart jumped in my throat" when I spotted the partial test (shell) of another Phyllacanthus! So close...but not this time. My Phyllacanthus texanus partial test Late into the fading light, we searched to no avail. The cool wind and darkness ended our efforts, and we congratulated each other with our goodbyes. Hopefully, with some weathering and heavy rain, we will get another chance to track the rare fossil urchins of the Glen Rose.