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Okay. I need some corroboration so I know I'm not losing my mind over here. I go to the Waco Pit pretty often because I live close by. When I was there yesterday, the office guy told me there's a collection limit of 2 specimens. I asked for a copy of the paperwork so I could have it and it did indeed state 2 pieces. When I was a kid, there was no limit. The last time I was there - last year some time with another person who agreed with my recollection - you were allowed 2 specimens from 5 different species, so a max total of 10 specimens. Then I saw a post here from only a few days ago saying that they were allowed 3 specimens last time they were there. Would someone PLEASE tell me I haven't lost my danged mind. Have the rules changed a lot, is it the Mandela Effect, or do they size you up when you walk in and decide how much they want to let you take? By the way, I ended up with a shark's tooth and a beautiful pyritized ammonite. It was a gorgeous day and so quiet and serene that I actually ended up sitting down and taking an almost-nap.

I've been doing a lot of exploration in the Grayson Formation (Lower Cretaceous) exposures south of Waco lately, and so last week I was doing some hunting on a nice marly slope in the South Bosque River. I picked up lots of pyritized heteromorph ammonites and some turritella, but what really caught my eye was this tiny piece of fossilized bone. I know that vertebrate material can be found in the Grayson - I've even found some nice Cretolamna and Ptychodus teeth myself - but this doesn't seem to be fish or shark. The walls of the inner cavity are extremely thin when you look at the cross section where it is broken which is what's leading me in the pterosaur direction. Maybe a metatarsal? Or a fragment of a larger bone from a much smaller species? Any help would be appreciated.

I’m new to collecting and not sure what these are. Found in field near construction where earth was dug up. In Waco, TX. Any help appreciated. jc

Found this very very strange bone on the banks of Lake Waco. Any ideas?

Took a little overnight trip to hit up a few fossil sites. It was a lovely balmy 80 degrees the day before, but a cold front blew through that night and dropped the temp to the upper 30s with drizzle! But my husband and I had already commited to a dinner with cousins and a B&B stay in Waco and a "guided" tour to the Waco Research PIt the next day, so snarge the weather, off we went. First site was to Brownwood in an attempt to find a supposed Pennsylvanian roadcut to look for crinoids and such. The drizzle finally stopped when I found what I thought "might" be the site, but it certainly was not what I was expecting....I knew it was supposed to be a large roadcut....and this one was not. So I poked around, found a few crinoids and some branching bryzoans and one nice big hashplate, but that was IT. Not at all what I was hoping for. So, dissapointed, we headed down the road since we had dinner plans and needed to get to Waco. I figured I had time to stop at one more stop if I saw a worthwile looking roadcut. So over the river and through the woods (okay, scrub oaks) we headed down the road and over top of a hill, the sun broke through the clouds and WAS ACTUALLY SHINING ON A LARGE ROAD CUT on the next hill. I told my husband, "I guess I should stop at THAT one." hahhaha!! And I am glad we did. It was getting colder but I decided i could tough it our for 20 minutes or so and I filled my bag easily in that 20 minute. I think I was in the Walnut Formation due to what I was finding.....heart urchins, tylostoma gastropods, a nice sized Pinna comancheana bivalve, some turritellas and what always makes it a good day for fossil hunting ; two medium size Phymosoma urchins and a small Coenholectypus. Not well preserved, but I was happy with them nonetheless. Turned a dissapointing day around, for sure. Had a nice dinner at George's in Waco and a lovely stay at the White Rock Creek Bed and Breakfast (AMAZING breakfast....stuffed french toast, eggs, bacon, yogurt and fruit...yum) and then off to the Lake Waco Research Pit! Got our permits and met my new friend Matthew who was kind enough to give us a guided tour of the stie and helped me identify my finds (even though i did not find what I was REALLY after...crabs and starfish)! Ah well. Next time. Found a lovely hetermorph Mariella (which was one of the things I really wanted to find) , a pycnodont tooth plate (another thing I have been hoping to find for a while),a nice ammonite (not sure the species, Matthew told me but I don't remember...will have to look it up), and a Cidarid plate (would have LOVED to have found a whole one...still on my bucket list). Now I know that is four fossils... I took my husbands two. He was happy to give them to me. (You are only allowed 2 fossils from the site which is absurd because there are SO MANY FOSSILS THERE). Anyways, it was a fun gloppy messy muddy morning of fossil hunting with Matthew and his two galumphing doggos - Bella and Poppy. I did not envy him the clean up he was going to have to do on those dogs. Lastly, on our way out of town, we stopped by the Mammoth Site which is really astounding. I got to see it about 25 years ago, before it had really even been turned into a park it was just a dig site. My step-grandfather knew the land owner so we got to see it...hopped a fence to see the site even! So it was great to see it so many years later as a National Monument. Good interpretive tour by the guides, a good view of the mammoths and the potential for more in the future (they are in phase one of three parts to bring the original excavated mammoths back to the site from their storage, so the future site will be even better!). So that concludes a little two day tour around Texas. Next time I'll find that roadcut. It's there somewhere. I just know it. Pennsylvanian stuff: Cretaceous Stuff: Aside from the urchins, which are always a favorite find, this one was my "best finds" of the day. I have not found one so well preserved with the detail of the shell striations. I think its a Homomya bivalve, but I am not one hundred percent on ID. Greyson / Del Rio finds at Lake Waco Research Site: Galumphing Dog: Mammoth Site:

Found this near Waco, Tx. I think it is fossilized, but I'm no expert. In the same creek we found a whole horse skeleton awhile back coming out of the side of the creek, but this tooth looks fossilized. Makes me wonder if we shouldn't have looked closer at that skeleton.

It was a long day, but a good one. I took my kids to 2 museums of sorts today. I drove the 2 hours down to the Waco mammoth site, which is now a National Monument as of 2015. It was cool to see and reasonably nice. It was very clean and neat, maybe just a bit too much so since it is supposed to be an active dig site. They have a very small visitors center combo gift shop, maybe 10 people could be in there at once. There are guided tours maybe every 30 min or so. Our guide was a National Park ranger in uniform. The was one other in uniform and a third not in uniform, who could have been a student. There is a nice paved path through lightly wooded Texas scrub as I call it. The path is good for the handicapped or stroller toting parent. They had little booklets for the junior ranger sorts with pics of plants and other life that may be found along the way, with coloring pages and facts about mammoths. Dogs were allowed on a leash. Just a few yards down the path is a 250 year old Texas live oak tree. I was actually a bit on the disappointed side with it. Part of that is because I’ve been to the South Dakota mammoth site, which is well developed. Those are wooly mammoths though, not the Columbian mammoths we have in Texas, which are considerably larger. The other part that probably had something to do with me being a bit disappointed was that I had expectations of seeing excavated mammoths on display. The dig site has been open and running for over 40 yrs. The initial discovery was made in 1978 by two teens out looking for arrowheads. 23 mammoths were excavated between 1978 to 1997. Per the website "Between 1978 and 1990, the fossil remains of 16 Columbian mammoths were discovered. Their efforts uncovered a nursery herd that appears to have died together in a single natural event. Between 1990 and 1997, six additional mammoths were excavated, including a large male (bull). Crews also uncovered the remains of a Western camel (Camelops hesternus), dwarf antelope, American alligator, giant tortoise, and the tooth of a juvenile saber-toothed cat (Smilodon sp.), which was found next to an unidentified animal." So I had the expectation that at least one of the mammoths would be mounted and on display. I believe many of the mammoths are complete. Our guide, a National Park ranger was very new and didn’t know much. Her answer to where are the bones of the 23+ was “They’re in plaster casts at Baylor.” You’d think after all that time and the big paleontology program they have at Baylor something would have been prepped and put on display by now. This is one of the females that is in the process of excavation, but I have a feeling she has been in the process of excavation since she is one of the 23 and the website says the other 6 were discovered by 1997. So, it seems it is not really an active dig site. You can see her teeth there. Sorry the pic isn't that sharp. The lighting inside was very low. This is mammoth Q a male. Supposedly he died 15,000 years later than the female, but there is all of maybe 2.5 between them vertically and maybe 5 feet horizontally. There is a creek maybe 40 feet way, the Brazos River is less than a mile away and the North Fork Bosque River is on the property. Water moves dirt. I seriously doubt there was 15,000 years between 2.5 feet of dirt in a flood plane, which it is in a flood zone. The mammoth bones are not fully mineralized. They are bone and kind of the consistency of chalk and therefore fairly fragile. I think they said this one would have been 14 feet maybe 7 inches tall. He was an average size male. The males are much bigger than the females. This is Q from the other end. Two females are to the right. Parts of 2 males are in front of him. Not all of them are in the pic. The column in the middle there is the reference column. The top of which is supposedly ground level. So it does not seem the male was that deep down in the dirt. The brakes in the ribs and the crushed skull are believed to have happened at the time of his death. There is a broken rib that healed while the mammoth was still living. That break is circled in red. They believe it was most likely due to a fight between bull mammoths where another male's tusks broke the rib which likely resulted in an infection, which healed. The skull is in the foreground. You can see it is crushed in. These are parts of the 2 other male mammoths. The two leg bones together are believed to be one of the individuals. That is all that has been excavated of him from what I gathered, but the guide said those two bones had been accounted for among the other 22 mammoths. This is another female. She is actually in a natural position and they say that she laid like this, because she knew she was not well or was going to die. Sorry for the quality of the pic. But this is a camel skeleton. The skull is in a plaster cast in the bottom kind of center. Signs say as much as I can. I'll post a bit more in the next post.

I went by the Corps of Engineers office and got signed up to visit the Waco Research Pit but I forgot to ask the hours the pit is open? Does anyone know? The office is closed now, and I'm thinking of going in the morning. Russ

I hope to take some of my grandchildren (ages 6-12) on a fossil hunting trip near Hewitt, TX during my week there between Christmas and New Years. I've been to the Waco Research Pit with them two other times, so this time I'd like to take them somewhere else. My preferred maximum range is about 45 minutes from Hewitt, although we could go further if needed. They enjoy the outdoors and have been fossil hunting with me numerous times. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I live in Waco, Texas. Some regionally well known collecting sites around here that I'm looking forward to checking out. Have already picked up some helpful tips from TFF. Looking forward to being a member.

I found this odd pattern on what Im guessing is a fossil...

Found this in a creek on my dad's land while arrow head hunting. Place is located east of Waco. Please help identify.

So yesterday I hit the Waco Pit since it had been a couple of months since I last got out. Previous two trips were great since all I found were shark teeth. On one trip I found nine teeth in about 1 1/2 hours. Yesterday was just a chance to get outside and away from people. My other option was to go cycling on the river walk in town. Yesterday was pretty cool, temp was 47 degrees when I arrived. There was a cold breeze coming from the south. Skies were very overcast as well. Typical Central Texas weather. I hit the trail head and decided to head east inside of my normal west route. I have searched the east side a little before in the past. It's not as abundant with fossils like the other direction is but I have had some good luck finding things unusual. For instance my first summer there I found a nice rock with a Hemiaster Calvini in it. Upon getting home and cleaning away the matrix I found not one echnoid but three. So this time I wasn't expecting much. Pretty soon I found what looks like a piece of crab claw. I put that away for later. Then I find two shark teeth a few feet part. Not squalicorax but I'll take it. Finally I reach the embankments that are fun to get to and usually have tons of shells there. I find a couple of hash plates that look nice. They would both look great on a desk if I had a desk. One had a cute little echnoid spine in it. Then... I see a grey thing in the soil with spikes. At first I thought it was leaf but no this was solid. I took a few pictures of it in situ before prying it out of the ground. It looked like a horseshoe crab but I have never heard of one being found here. I looked it over several times, broke away some matrix and yes that is what it looks like. I carefully put it away in a container so I get a better look at it at home. I continue on searching for a bit. I spent a couple of hours there before heading home. At least it was a fun trip and there wasn't anyone there. I can be really anti-social at times. I get home and place the fossils in a bowl with water. After awhile I start brushing them off. What I thought was a cool looking horseshoe crab ended up being a piece of a very large Mariella piece. I'm not an expert in determining how big something is from a smaller piece but I guesstimate it could be 24 inches circumference. I'll include more pictures if it will let me.

I went to the Waco Research Area a few days ago and found my first shark tooth and some nice ammonites. I know nothing about shark teeth, any ideas on this one?

Took a little trip out to the Lake Waco Research Area a few days ago (which, by the way, will be off limits for 6 weeks unless you go get a permit before the second week of December). This was my third or fourth time out there and I definitely came up with my best finds from there to date. Got the usual pryitized ammonites and bivalves, 2 beat up shark teeth, 1 tiny fish vertebra, and lots of pieces of echinoids, possibly coenholectypus. I did find one really nice shark tooth by almost sitting on it, a couple of mystery ammonites, and finally got a complete coenholectypus. Saw lots and lots of cool epibionts on the bivalve shells. If anyone has any ID's, I'd love to hear them, especially the red rocks. Thanks!

Hello, Found these while out at the Lake Waco Research Area toward the back end. The research area is Cretaceous Del Rio clay, but this seems to have rolled down the hill from a formation above, possibly Buda limestone or something on top of that. There are 2 specimens and I believe they represent the same type of animal. I haven't really found anything like this before, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Mammoth site veteran challenges study on drought as cause of death By J.B. Smith, Waco Tribune-Herald, April 8, 2017 http://www.wacotrib.com/news/higher_education/mammoth-site-veteran-challenges-study-on-drought-as-cause-of/article_4b7849ca-35e5-502f-b89d-25e88c08c5cb.html What killed the Waco mammoths? Drought, not flood, a new study suggests By J.B. Smith, Waco Tribune-Herald, Jan. 27, 2017 http://www.wacotrib.com/news/city_of_waco/what-killed-the-waco-mammoths-drought-not-flood-a-new/article_68aec48b-cbc4-5319-aaba-0e67e06314cc.html Other web pages: Waco Mammoth Site: Visitors can walk over the largest concentration of Columbian mammoths to have died from one event. Atlas Obscura http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/waco-mammoth-site Waco Mammoth National Monument, Waco, Texas http://www.waco-texas.com/cms-waco-mammoth/page.aspx?id=174 Waco Mammoth National Monument, Waco, Texas Meet a Mammoth that isn’t Woolly https://www.nps.gov/waco/index.htm https://www.nps.gov/waco/learn/furtherreading.htm Waco Mammoth National Monument Research papers https://www.researchgate.net/project/Waco-Mammoth-National-Monument Nordt, L., Bongino, J., Forman, S., Esker, D. and Benedict, A., 2015. Late Quaternary environments of the Waco Mammoth site, Texas USA. Quaternary Research, 84(3), pp.423-438. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284095029_Late_Quaternary_environments_of_the_Waco_Mammoth_Site_Texas_USA Yours, Paul H.

So since all the kids are in school now I have free time. I hit the Lake Waco Research Area this morning for a couple of hours. I managed to find nine shark teeth, seven of them in the first 30 minutes and 50 yards of the trail head. Never have I found so many in one trip. Guess this I won't find any the next couple of trips. Still a very good day.

Mammoth tooth reveals beast once walked around Austin, Texas Laura Geggel, Live Science, August 30, 2017 http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/08/30/mammoth-tooth-reveals-beast-once-walked-around-austin-texas.html Yours, Paul H.

Greetings. I am completely new to fossils and fossil collecting. My special needs son is, surprise, enraptured with dinosaurs and geological history. I have been taking him to museums, now we are fossil hunting. We frequently visit the Waco Pit (Research Pit) (Late Cretaceous, Del Rio Clay Formation), Dinosaur Valley State Park, and recently visited Benbrook Spillway (Ft. Worth) (Late Cretaceous, Goodland Formation). I am very glad for this site, it has been informative about fossils in central Texas.

Last week while visiting Waco, Texas, I took four of my grandchildren to the Waco Research Pit. After getting a permit, we spent about three hours there and among the more fascinating fossils we found were oysters (possibly of the genus Texigryphaea). Of special interest were the epibionts, some of which seem to be parasitic. There were at least two sizes of tube worms, and bryozoans. The second picture below is not of epibionts on an oyster, but rather a one-inch wide piece I found separately in the same area. If I understand correctly, the Waco Pit is in the Del Rio Clay Formation, Cenomanian Stage, Cretaceous. It was a nice trip and a great place to take children. Russ

My boyfriend and I went out to the research pit in Waco today and I found a large urchin. The problem is that it's been crushed, more or less. The mud under it is not fossilized, so it's pretty likely that it will fall apart into lots of little pieces if I handle it too much or try to take off excess mud. I guess I have several questions about this. - Is it worth even trying to save? I was pretty excited to find one this big - it's about 4" in diameter - and after many hours of hunting, never found another one in any condition of any size. I don't expect it to be worth anything monetarily-speaking, but want it just for my own enjoyment. - I've read about a few plastics (I copied the names from another post but now it's not letting me paste them) that others have used for preservation. Any clue as to whether or not it would work in this case? - Has anyone had a fossil in this condition and tried to rescue it? How did it turn out? Thanks in advance. I love how helpful and knowledgeable this community is. Y'all are really great! I've attached a photo to show condition.

Can anyone help with the identification of these Ammonites? They were found in the Waco research pit. They are both close to 1/2 inch in size.