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Hello, my name is Thomas and I am from the west Texas area, not far from the Red River. I have found what looks like a fossilized tooth, but considering my inexperience, it may be nothing more than agate, or something similar. Any time you afford me in rendering your opinion, I greatly appreciate. So, without further ado, please see the attached images.

https://news.utexas.edu/2023/06/27/newly-discovered-jurassic-fossils-are-a-texas-first/

Hey all! Looking for assistance Identifying this fossil. Found in west Texas, Brewster county. Appreciate any suggestions!

I found this on BLM Land near Guadalupe Mountains National Park. No idea what it is. At one point I was hopeful it was a mammoth tusk. Help?

Howdy folks! I haven’t posted a hunt in a long time, and I got a chance today to go to a very productive location I’ve discovered. This was the first time I’ve had any amount of time to look, so I ended up pleasantly surprised by what I found. Unfortunately, I don’t know the species of brachiopod, but I suspect they might be Pulchratia, though you’re welcome to correct me, I don’t know invertebrates very well yet. The site was created from being a man made pond, where the removed soil was then dumped a ways from the pond and after many years it has eroded down to expose some really nice stuff. While I’ve had a few occasions to look for things for only a couple minutes, this was the first time I found any complete brachiopods. I’m the first to have searched the site due to it being private land of a friends, and there’s a lovely variety of stuff on the site. It was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit with 45 mph wind gusts, so it was pretty bitterly cold, but a rewarding experience. My favorite discovery of the site was the inside of some of the brachiopods. Many of the inner section have become entirely quartz, and are quite striking. I apologize for the dimness of the specimen photos, my camera isn’t focusing so I had to resort to my phone. View of the embankment, where most of the fossils were found Edge of the man made pond Brachiopod on the ground Very old shell, still with the bullet, I left it well enough alone just in case. (While I know it would need the hammer of the gun to go off, I preferred to be safe since it had been in the elements a long time ) Though I will add, at this site, one needs to have some sort of personal protection due to the over abundance of feral hogs. There are hundreds on the property and they react aggressively to people. Complete Brachiopods Cross section of a broken Brachiopod with a quartz crystal Bryozoa Hash Crinoids and Bryozoa Loose Crinoids, Brachiopod pieces and Bryozoa Other/Unsure My favorite find of the day was this brachiopod in matrix, which had a lovely surprise when I looked at the broken end.

I found this a few years back near (but not in) Guadalupe Mts National Park. Is it a sponge, coral, algae, or something else? Piece is about 6 inches across. Thank you for your help.

I went camping over in West Texas in Kickapoo Caverns state park this past weekend. While I was hiking around I noticed dozens of these formation that were jutting out of the limestone boulders and bedrock. Not sure what they are but they seem to be shaped like small trees or medium thick branches. Anyone know what they are?

Took a little trip out to West Texas last weekend. My parents have friends who have ranches out near Balmorhea (great to have friends with ranches...everyone should have friends who have ranches!). I knew the general area was one I had wanted to go hunting for echinoids in the Boracho Formation (some very special echinoids not found in my area). I did my research on Google maps and the Texas Geology website, hoping I could pinpoint the right roadcuts! The first one we stopped at (I thought was the right formation) turned out to be a different formation, but I found some cool little brachiopods that are different than any i have encountered before and a couple of echinoids (phymosomas) and that was all for that little roadcut. Checked out a few more in the area but didn't find anything. Definitely didn't find what I was looking for! So on to our weekend at the ranch. The owner said he know of a "beach" on the ranch where "sea shells" were found. I was really surprised because on the Geology map it is all Igneous and Quaternary - nothing at all that looked Cretaceous fossiliferous. So we went driving around the ranch to the spot and to my GREAT surprise, we found an outcrop of Austin Chalk! I don't know how, but it was there! I found inoceramus clam parts and some of the most beautifully colored Exogyra erraticostata! So that was a really special spot! ( @grandpa -another "fossil that shouldn't be there!"- but it was!) The final day we were to head home, I convinced my parents to drive 30 miles further West before we headed back east for home. I knew there were supposed to be some more outcrops of the Boracho accessible so we took a little side trip and happily I found the formation I was looking for! And I was rewarded with a most LOVELY little Anorthopygus texanus echinoid! I initially thought it was a Coenholectypus transpecoensis (which was mainly what I was hoping to find -which I did not find!) but was happy to discover it was a more rare Anorthopygus! My mom found a nicely presereved Wahitaster wenoensis, so that was great too. I also found a phymosoma, but it's pretty beat up. A small section of a nautiloid and a nice bivalve which I think is a Lima wacoensis quadrangularis rounded out my day. So it was a good haul to West Texa! My best finds from Boracho /San Martine formation Anorthopygus texanus - 25 mm : Washitaster wenoensis 25 mm a not so great Phymosoma 1 1/2 inches Lima wacoensis quadragularis 1 inch From the Austin Chalk Formation on the ranch: Exogyra erraticostata 3 inches From the first roadcut which was Buda formation Kingena (Waconella) sp? what's odd about them is this "dip in the lip" so I am not sure what species it is (it is for sure Cretaceous Kingena/ Waconella and not a Pennsylvanian Composita which it very much looks like -we had a nice long post on that!) A few pics of some of the critters on the ranch: Auadad (not native, but gone native) Javelina mama and baby! A mule deer wild turkeys

Howdy! So I was out in West Texas this last weekend trying to hunt down some new echinoids (will post those later!) but i came across some odd looking brachiopods. I am 99 percent sure the formation was Buda (it's kind of hard to be certain as I am no geologist -but that is what I pinpointed on the Texas Geological map, but I might have been at the wrong roadcut, too). The other fossils I found there were Texigryphaea and Neithia texana. I am familiar with the Brachiopod Kingena wacoensis in the Georgetown formation of Central Texas Cretacous. I wasn't sure if Kingena is found in the Buda formtion for one thing. A second thing, these look very different than Kingena. These have a "dip" in them more like Pennsylvanian brachiopod Composita. All the other Kingena I have found are straight "lipped". Any help would be appreciated!

Hello, this is my very 1st time to be in this forum. We found this really large rock in West Texas with all kinds of markings on it I hope that you guys can zoom in to see details I'm assuming they're fossils. Any ideas?

I'm looking for some places to look for Triassic fossils in west texas. I've heard that there is some exposed along US-84 but I'm looking for a little more around there.

I found this in some matrix I brought back from the Aguja formation in Brewster county, Texas. I makes me think of a tooth, a little like an ankylosaurus tooth. Any thoughts? The hash marks are 1mm. Thanks for any help.

I drove my mom out to Ft Stockton in West Texas over the weekend to visit her sister and since that placed me in close proximity to some Borracho Formation exposures (Levinson and San Martine members) I headed west on I-10 early Saturday morning for a day of perusing the road cuts out to about 90 miles west of Ft Stockton. My first stop was a San Martine Member exposure which I’ll detail in a later post. The last two cuts were Levinson member exposures. I found these fossils in those two cuts. Not sure yet what they are but I’ll post their identity once I’m clear on that. They’re not all in great shape but I’m satisfied with my finds. I’ve posted before and after photos. Photo of the previous fossils after prep

Here are some photos of some of my dromaeosaurid fossils from the Aguja Formation of Brewster County, Texas.

In the continuing saga of finding all the echinoids of Texas.....I found a few new things plus re-assessing my collection I found I already had another example (albeit small bits only) of another! So here are my latest finds (and re-finds). In my collection from Marathon Tx was a couple of bits of (I think) an Archeocidarid!! Stopped by a little creek in Austin and found this lovely Coenholectypus: Went on a little road trip to Glen Rose TX and found what I thought was a Loriolia but on closer inspection, it's a Goniopygus! Not a great specimen, but slightly better than my previous ones, so still looking for a nice one: And the piece de resistance : A Balanocidarid Spine!! Practically in my own backyard (well, within 30 minutes drive anyways)

I found this in west Texas, in the Red Bed area. I was wondering if it could be an amphibian skull fossil of some kind. Maybe a trimerorhachis? I'm still learning about the extinct amphibians and reptiles in my state. Any suggestions are welcome!

Found Brewster Co. far west Texas. Lots of fossils in the area. I think this may be a shell? Want to make a sink out of it if I can figure out how. Need some good advice and knowledge. What is it? Top view first. 16" diameter. second bottom view. then the edge. 6" in total height of dome as bottom is flat.

On November 27 of this year my mother and I went hunting in a new housing development exposing the Austin Chalk in North Texas. The first and only site that we got to was covered in this rock that has been brought in from somewhere else. It was odd in that it looked like someone had just poured a bunch of it in an empty lot in no particular pattern. It was all next to a man made hole in the ground in the middle of the lot, but I don't see how that could be related. We have seen bags of this matrix in drainage ditches before and had also seen it variously thrown about at different Austin Chalk sites. I had found a few things in it that were intriguing, but for some reason I had largely (and very incorrectly) assumed that there was probably not much that one could find in it, so I never seriously hunted it. But my mother proved me very wrong! When we got to the site and I saw that much of it was covered in this stuff, I was somewhat annoyed since it was covering up some of the Austin Chalk. But we both got out anyways and began hunting. I went off towards the ditch where more of the Austin Chalk was exposed while she was looking around in the foreign matrix. I wasn't having much luck and she was commenting on how she was seeing some layered patterns in the matrix, pictured in F31. I didn't think much of it and kept hunting away from the pile of unknown matrix. Then less than a minute later my mother let out something along the lines of, "Hey! Hey! Hey! What is this?!" When she does that, I know she is not kidding around! So I went over there and saw her pick this up off of the ground. We both immediately knew that it was an echinoid. What made this specimen really special are the facts that this is the largest or at least second largest echinoid that we have ever found, the first echinoid from a formation other than the Austin Chalk, and our first regular echinoid all in one. Its a sad thing that it is so beat up, but then again its not surprising since it was probably hauled in a bag in the back of some guy's pickup for possibly hundreds of miles. Only two tubercles that have not been knocked off are visible, though perhaps there are one or two more buried under the chunk of matrix stuck to the side of the specimen. It is also missing most of its adoral side and most of its apical disc, with bits of the disc still in the depression that is left. Its test is pretty scuffed up in general, but at least most of it is still left and I don't think that it is too beat up to be identifiable. I took pictures of the site while I was there (pictures in F1-F4) and brought home a lot of matrix to experiment with and to photograph later to aide in identifying the formation from which it came. When I got home I consulted @Bill Thompson's book on Texas echinoids and I have been able to narrow this specimen down to the genus Temnocidaris for sure. I am hoping that you guys can help me find out what formation the matrix came from, which would greatly help to narrow down the species possibilities. Out of the four species of Temnocidaris listed in Thompson's book as being reported from Texas only two of them have there tests pictured, T. borachoensis and T. hudspethensis, with the other two species only described from their spines. Now I am not an echinoid expert by an stretch of the imagination, but I am personally leaning towards this being T. borachoensis from the Boracho Formation of Upton county or a nearby county in West Texas. My reasoning is twofold: First, to me its test much more resembles T. borachoensis than T. hudspethensis in two ways. They are that the interabulacrum tubercles are closer together than T. hudspethensis and that its test is a bit more squat than T. hudspethensis, even if it still had its base. Coincidently, just a little over a month ago @KimTexan posted for identification a Temnocidaris specimen from the Edwards Formation of Johnson county that very much resembles mine, though I can't say for sure it is the same species as mine since her specimen is missing much of its aboral side while mine is missing much of its adoral side, making a comparison between them a bit difficult. Second, from what I have seen the matrix most closely resembles the San Martine member of the Boracho Formation. If I want to learn a bit about Texas paleontology that I didn't know before I will usually look up one of @Uncle Siphuncle's Fossil hunting reports. Here is one which contains pictures of a lot of matrix and a few fossils from the Boracho formation, starting with Figure 91. The most striking resemblance I see is that the matrix has a lot of red/orange matrix streaks running through it like mine does. But because I have never hunted in the Boracho Formation other than possibly this brought in matrix, I don't know for sure. I also noticed what appears to be the same layered fossil shown in F31 in Figures 136-138. After seeing this post, I tend to think that it is oyster related material. This matrix is a lot more dense than the Austin Chalk that I am used to, making it noticeably heavier. It bubbles when I put vinegar on it indicating that it is limestone, though perhaps not as vigorously as vinegar on the Austin Chalk. I scraped some matrix with a dentist's pick in the places weakened by vinegar and places I didn't treat with vinegar, and while it did scratch the limestone matrix, the untreated matrix was harder than untreated Austin Chalk. I have tried to see if the sandy red/orange matrix bubbles, but my experiments were inconclusive because the limestone is always nearby, skewing the results. I would assume that it does not bubble on its own. After cleaning the echinoid, a few other fossils, and chunks of matrix, the toothbrush fibers had turned orange indicating that the sandstone it is not that hard, at least when wet. Also the limestone matrix is just packed full of calcite crystals, which is very noticeable in direct sunlight! The specimen its self, excluding any matrix, is 53mm in diameter by 36mm in height, though it would be taller if it still had its base. It appears to me that it is only infilled with the sandstone while there is an actual limestone chunk stuck to the side of it, shown specifically in F12. Notice the red patch on the matrix, a characteristic not unique to this chunk but seen on another chunk of matrix shown in F32. All of the pictures were taken in sunlight, so the color that you see is how it really looks. Thanks for any help in advance. F1-F4. On site photos. F2 F3

Decided to try cleaning a box of stuff picked up on an outing to Fluvana last years (I actually have enough to consider posting something in collections). I honestly don't remember picking his little piece up but found the puzzle like structure from the side view after cleaning it a little. Whatever it is is pretty neat looking. Any help would be appreciated.

This partial tooth I recently acquired was found in West Texas. It's from the Javelina Formation which is Late Cretaceous 70-66.5 MYA. It was labeled Tyrannosaurid. I was wondering if anyone could give me more information on which genus of Tyrannosaurid it's from? Troodon awaiting your reply.

Working on identifying and labeling my finds from a few months ago. My favorite roadcut north of Big Bend turned out lots of crynoid stems, a great fan coral which I would like to find out what species, and a few unidentified things. Could the little round one be a tiny echinoderm or is it a "button" limb? Not sure. Also, really not sure what the other specimen could be. What do ya'll think? Thanks!!