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As y'all know, I love photographing my fossils almost as much as I love finding them. So of course, I have to do a Year in Review of my best fossil finds! I seem to be averaging about 150 best finds a year....not too shabby methinks! Hope y'all all had a great fossiliferous 2022 and that 2023 is EVEN BETTER

We found these in the Willow Point formation of Wise County Texas. They are in Late Pennsylvanian, Canyon Group limestone found near Lake Bridgeport. My first thought was Girtycoelia sp., a sponge often found in the Jasper Creek formation from the same area but these were too large and not connected together either directly or by the tiny shafts as in Girtyocoelia sp. There are 4, or maybe 5 strings of 3 to 4 beads each and they didn't seem to align with each other. Fossils found nearby were mostly crinoids with a few fenestrate bryozoans. There were also slabs with oscillation ripples and a single Asterosoma impression. Finger for scale.

Hi! This was found near Meridian, Texas, US. The geographical area has a large quantity of limestone rocks and boulders filled with shell fossils. We were exploring a boulder and realized an area was slightly loose, and we pulled out this item that was wedged within the boulder. There is a smallish lake nearby. The boulders were manually placed to block cars from parking on the campsite, though they were likely sourced from the area as there are naturally occurring ones all throughout the park hiking trails. Appreciate any info on what this might or might not be!

This was found in Brazos County, Texas. Someone suggested it could be a gastropod. Any help would be appreciated.

A few months back, I made the decision to permanently deactivate my Facebook and Instagram. Too much drama. The only thing that I miss about social media are my groups. That’s why I’m here. I need to talk about my finds with people who share my love of fossil hunting. What better place than a forum? This one in particular always pops up when I research my finds. I just hope it’s active. It’s all about FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter nowadays. Nobody uses forums anymore, at least nobody my age... My name is Chelsie. I’m 30. When I was little, I was obsessed with dinosaurs and dreamt of being a paleontologist. Sadly, I ended up in retail management. My hobbies include fossil hunting and rockhounding. I’ve found some pretty interesting, although basic marine finds in my own backyard. For that, I do still count myself lucky. My husband and I have found ammonites, an assortment of shark teeth, a few different oyster species, corals, and beautiful septarian fragments. These are all common finds here in North Texas.

It is around 1.5 inches. Anyone know the species?

My geologist friend found this in a limestone layer of the Bridgeport Shale which some call the Jasper Creek Formation, in Run-Away Bay, Texas. Little else was seen along this stretch of shoreline other than trace fossils. It may be a track-way or possibly a feeding trace.

Sorry this is my first time using Fossil Forum... I have more that is in the surrounding area.. Ill put in a separate discussion...

Here is a small vertebra that I found. It's completely mineralized. It's pretty small. Don't believe it to be horse or cow. Deer is my go to. Just not sure about the triangular shape of the opening and the flatness of the body.

Does anyone know of a good resource for sharks in the Eagle Ford Group. In particular I am working on specimens that came out of the South Bosque Shale and the Condensed Zone below the Atco in Williamson County, Texas. I have a lot of reference material already but have no good faunal lists for vertebrates. PS I have good info on Ptychodus. It's the other sharks and fish I need. I'll try and posts some pics of the specimens as I can.

The brief visit to the second half of the Pawpaw exposure turned out to be a huge success. I didn't think it was possible, but the finds got even better! There wasn't much of a story to be had with accessing the site, so I'll keep things brief and jump straight into the finds. Once I relocated the productive greyish layer, I was already gathering various claw bits left and right. Their bright white coloration really makes them pop out from the ground. However, I didn't let this lead me into lowering the thoroughness of my search. I still took a close look at every pebble and under every rock. The fruit of my labors came when I locked onto the first shark tooth for the site, a small Leptostyrax macrorhiza. I've found one in the past in the Duck Creek, but never in the Pawpaw. Nine times out of ten I would have missed this guy. Just look at how hidden he is in this photo: Leptostyrax macrorhiza hidden beneath a couple pebbles The vertebrate finds continued with a tiny ~1 cm fish jaw fragment. Let me know if you recognize it: Close up with my new stereo microscope! Not too long after, the crustacean finds began to ramp up. Scattered about were fragments of carapaces. It was only a matter of time before the first complete carapace of the day was found. Steorrosia aspera I want to say I continued finding several more that weren't impressive in situ, but amazing after cleaning. One Steorrosia sp. was pretty banged up on the sides, so I couldn't confidently pin an ID. However, I noticed that it had little black dots where the eyes are usually missing in these crab fossils. Well, my Christmas gift came right on time! I placed it under the digital microscope and almost fell out of my chair. This little crab had preserved compound eyes. I'm not sure how rare such a feature is, but it impressed the hell out of me. I should warn that the pics aren't terribly clear since taking photos requires me to press a button on the microscope that shakes the whole thing. Plus, viewing something so small had the device at its absolute maximum magnification. Hopefully you all can spot the pattern on the compound eyes. Underside of the Steorrosia sp. The face of the Steorrosia sp. A close up of one compound eye. Those faint circles are what I interpret to be the individual eyes. Although not from the grey layer I was hunting in, pyritic cephalopods could be found washed out from the red sandstone above. Most are pretty beat up, but I make sure to collect a little bit of each species I can find. I have enough Engonoceras serpintinum as it stands, but I can't help taking a picture when I find a nice one. Engonoceras serpintinum Mantelliceras sp. The first unorthodox find of the day was very clearly a tiny brittle sea star leg. I've always wanted to find starfish parts, so I was super excited to pick this specimen up.... little did I know. Not sure if it possible to ID beyond genus from just a leg segment: Ophiura sp. in situ Close up of same leg From there, I found a couple more very nice carapaces including a MUCH more complete Texicancer renfroae?. Face of the Texicancer renfroae? I hate to say I may have already found a Feldmannia wintoni that surpasses the one I submitted to FotM I need to figure out how to turn off that pesky time stamp on the bottom right. Starting to feel like I'm taking crab mugshots When I got home, I was able to clean up and analyze a couple of enigmatic specimens that had initially given me starfish vibes. After a bit of research, I believe my hunch was right. These two specimens each have one side covered in "spikes". I found a paper (Blake and Reid 1998) on Pawpaw starfish that had similar structures on the oral sides of the arms. Betelgeusia reidi (cool genus name btw) seemed the closest match, but it's a tough call. And to round it off with one of the most legendary finds in my fossil hunting career, a mess of associated brittle sea star chunks including the central disc and several arms fragments. I tried to find more, but these were the only pieces I came up with. It was a massive pain paraloiding this thing together I must admit. There's not much surface area to work with, but it eventually came it alright. Actually looking at it again, I think I put the short arm on upside down, but that will be a headache for another day... The only local brittle star species I know from this period would be Ophiura graysonensis and O. texana. Hard for me to say which it resembles more closely, but I'm leaning towards graysonensis, assuming those exist beyond just the Grayson Marl. The central disc and a couple of arm bits in situ Oral side? Aboral side? It's safe to say this is my most productive hunt yet! Hopefully you all enjoyed reading through this little report. Here is an overview of the finds: Fish jaw section, Leptostyrax macrorhiza, and xiphactinus? tooth fragment (was hoping it was pterosaur ) Crabs of the day L to R: Various Steorrosia, Feldmannia wintoni, Texicancer renfroae?, and Steorrosia reidi? Top: Engonoceras serpintinum Bottom L to R: Mantelliceras sp., Mariella worthensis, Scaphites hilli, and Baculites comanchesnis? Ophiura sp. arm fragment, chunks of Betegeusia reidi?, and a couple of bivalves Thanks for reading!

Hey forum! No long story this time- it was New Years Day and I decided to hit up my special Eagle Ford spot off the beaten path to start the year off. That day was of my most productive creek crawling adventures in this specific spot yet! I’m already focused on pursuing my education goals this year as well. First: I want to show off my new exciting lucky shark tooth hunting shirt! I drew, on digital, “Prehistoric Sharks of Texas” and slapped it onto a tee. The tag is my autograph printed on the back of the neck which feels surreal! The teeth were hand-drawn by me over layers of photos from my own personal shark tooth collection except the Ptychodus occidentalis. I couldn’t NOT post it here! *It’s not yet available to the public- this shirt is the first test run. I thought my fellow Cretaceous & Texas shark hunters here might enjoy this! (Shhhh but there’s one Permian tooth on there! I plan on making an all-Cretaceous shark one too) First Ptychodus of the year! A gorgeous example of a Ptychodus whipplei I kept popping them out of the gravel bar, one after another: Some lovely Scapanorhynchus r. and Cretolamna a. anterior finds as well! This last one is a rather unusual one! Smooth looking piece. I have an idea but any thoughts from those more experienced is most appreciated as I’m still always learning. Haul of Ptychodus from a little under 2 hours- that’s including “walking time.” I wish I had more sunlight to burn! Some other finds: Very neat tumbled marine reptile bones! Baby shark doo-doo! I’m always a sucker for a good goblin! Third favorite shark of all time…literally. Possibly a Scapanorhynchus r. lateral tooth. Has two small accessory cusplets on each side! Interesting enough is that the tooth is very smooth like a Cretolamna. A lot of my other smaller ones however have striations you can see and feel. Super neat & near complete Cretodus crassidens next to a Scapanorhynchus raphiodon anterior! Cretodus is the big bad tooth in the center of my tee! I don’t collect points but this is my first find in this super specific area. I already gave it away to someone I knew wanted it! Unfortunately for them when I found it, it was broken diagonally near the bottom right but they were still ecstatic. BEST FIND: So as soon as I found this, I *immediately* messaged the first & smartest person to mind that I felt the most confident in asking/trusting for a second opinion. We both came to an agreement this looks a lot like a mosasaur tooth! DAYS ago I finally got a Tylosaurus tooth from Ozan (I forgot to add that hunt day to my other thread- opps!) and it looks just too similar for me to think this is a Pachyrhizodus or another predatory fish tooth. The root cavity too makes me think so as a lot of my other mosasaur teeth have that. It screams “marine reptile” at me. If anyone also wants to chime in with thoughts- please do so! Any info to ID species of stray mosasaur teeth, particularly found in the US, would also be very helpful! Im sure someone here could also find that information helpful in the future. I know there’s “facets” and striations to look for in particular species. Additional tooth pictures: Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed Until next time I head back to my prehistoric beach, ya’ll remember to take care & enjoy life. Happy 2023! -Larí R.

After over three years of lurking this forum almost daily, I've decided to join the group and say how much I've enjoyed the knowledge and helpfulness shown. I've been retired for a number of years now, but still am able to do outdoor activities, which I prefer. If I'm not riding my road bike, I'm either fishing or walking the many acres of rocky terrain behind my house searching out rocks and fossils. It was after moving to my current location in an Austin Chalk area that I started noticing the many fossils around me. Most are fairly commonplace and not well preserved, but I find some that are more interesting occasionally. I can identify most by searching through the Fossil I.D. sub forum, but some still have me puzzled. I hope to eventually figure out how post photos and ask for opinions. Thanks very much for a great forum Bob

This is an axis...dens and cranial articular surface showing. Can't figure out if it's horse, cow or bison. I don't think it's cow because an image I saw had a notch or groove on the dens but maybe it had damage to it. My example also has the notch or groove on that cranial articular surface.

These smaller ones like this are difficult for me because even the cows and horses had little ones...plus the earlier horses were smaller. This is missing a lot but the vertebral canal is round and the body is heart shaped. It's mineralized but pretty busted up. Wish I could find a complete unbroken anything.

Found this in an area where I find a bunch of other Pleistocene material. I can't figure out what it is. It is eroded at the ends but hopefully the pictures can help me get an ID for it and what it might be from.

This was found on the Brazos river in southeast Texas. It almost looks like a eroded shell material, but I cannot make out at all what it is. Could this be a coprolite? I have never found one before, so I have no idea what a coprolite would look like in this area.

I am hoping to get some opinions on a couple of pieces recently found in a dry lake bed. They were found about a foot apart among a group of smaller fragments in roughly a 20 foot circular area. Their unusual color and texture (for this area) is what drew my attention. I'll attempt to add a few photos. I have more if needed. Location: Austin Chalk - Rock unit Kau - Period Cretaceous - Epoch Gulfian

Took another trip out to explore the other half of the Pawpaw site about a week ago and came away with some great finds I will be posting soon. Most of the things I brought back weren't too hard to pin an ID on. This little guy has been giving me some trouble though. I know that pterosaur teeth are found in the Pawpaw a bit more often than other formations around here. This preconception may be clouding my judgement a bit, but I have a suspicion that this could be a pterosaur instead of a fish tooth (enchodus). I haven't found many teeth in the Pawpaw so far, so I'm not well acquainted with how enchodus or other fish are preserved in this formation. Some of the photos below come from my new stereomicroscope which seems to work pretty well, but I am still figuring it out (like how to get rid of the messed up timestamp). I've ruled out protospyraena as I believe they have two edges around their circumference whereas my specimen has only one. This specimen is 13mm and brown. It has one non-serrated edge and is smooth the rest of the circumference. There is some natural wear on the tip. The bottom of the tooth is fragmented which allows us to take a look a bit in the interior. It seems the tooth is hollowed out where I believe the pulp cavity once was. Not sure if this feature aligns with pterosaur or fish. The base of the tooth that is present seems to gradually flatten. If y'all know any pterosaur experts on here, feel free to ping them. Without further ado, here are some pics: Thanks!

I am thinking this is a horse vertebra..it also has the transverse foramen (foramina?) There are so many vertebrae to different large mammals it's difficult to ID them. I usually see images of one or two vertebrae from each animal...but i think sometimes what I need belongs to one of the other 9 or 10 I don't see.

I found this other very eroded phanlanx....which would this also be a proximal phalanx? The end has a cross shape I thought was unusual and not like the other one in the previous post. And could this be horse or cow?

Probably won't be able to ID the mammal on this fragment...but can anyone tell me what bone this one is? It's split at the end but it also has that intention in the 1st picture.

Hello all! A few finds in some Texas Cretaceous Woodbine Micro Matrix that I could use some help in ID'ing. Not sure if all are just fish teeth or maybe something else? All are around .25 inches or aprox 6 mm. Thanks!! 1. Has a very interesting texture and a distinct pattern on the base 2. Seems to have same pattern on bottom - sadly only half 3. The last one.