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I found my 2nd ever ammonite in what I’m calling the Grayson formation, based on Mancos app showing solid Grayson, though it’s fairly close to the paw paw. Tarrant County, TX. I’m not well educated on Main Street though, so maybe that fits in here somewhere? Either way, I’ve been to this spot numerous times, lots of cymatoceras nautiloids and I got my biggest turrilites from this spot too. I was thrilled to find a 2 pound, 5.5 inch ammonite. I am GUESSING it might be mortoniceras parinflatum? If anyone can confirm or correct, much appreciated! I used the Kennedy paper on Grayson/Mainstreet cephalopods. I can’t wait to clean it up with air abrasive/air scribe to see what the center looks like.

I finally went over to a slow-moving construction site that has been in process for weeks, if not longer. With little hope due to a lot of bigger rocks being hauled off, I walked along the elevated slopes of plowed dirt and smaller rocks that remained. To my surprise, I found some nice Fort Worth formation echinoids (holaster and macraster sp) and some small ammonites of the mortoniceras sp. I also found a very well fed nautiloid, I’m nicknaming Fat Boy Lloyd (you know, respectfully like he’s a rapper). It weighed in at 5 lb 10 ounces! I thinks it’s paracymatoceras species given the visible lines that are very close together. I also found what I think is a nicely ornate trigonia clam. Tarrant county, Texas.

I found this interesting mort last September, I’ve dubbed him Spikey. This came from my previously untapped Fort Worth formation spot that had ammonites laying around, just waiting for me to clean the spot out (until more erosion occurs). First pics are before preparation, last few are after. Mercer Brugler prepared these for me.

I had a fairly good last two Saturdays finding larger (relatively for me) mortoniceras ammonites in a creek off of I-35W south of Denton, TX. Here are some unprepped stacked ones waiting in line at the beauty shop. I also found a 14-inch mortoniceras that appeared risky to remove at first glance so I left it in the surrounding matrix and removed the entire area. Very heavy quarter mile hike back to my car. But I’m stronger for it. lol! I also wanted to highlight a 13-inch ammonite I skeptically chiseled out of a huge rock in the summer of 2023 from the Benbrook area (east of the lake). The creek side exposure was so worn down, there’s almost nothing left. But the other side, once I got it out, showed a beautiful orange color. It was broken in two pieces and the end of the ammonite had some very dense rock around it. Instead of chopping it off and trying to make a smaller ammonite, we decided to carve the rock into its own base. Glue lines were prepped out and it made for a very nice one-sided display after the usual yet detailed air scribe and air abrasive work. Some people like perfection on both sides (I do too), but sometimes creative solutions exist to make the imperfect look great.

I went to my favorite Fort Worth formation spot near my house (Johnson County) and came home with a nice Christmas present to myself, 6 macraster echinoids, 2 of which are nearly perfect and are now amongst the best I have. They’re also huge, I am naming one Absolute Unit and the other The Rock. Also a rough looking holaster and a bunch of smaller mortoniceras ammonites. Check out the curvy fold in one of them. Poor dude went flaccid right when he hit the bottom of the ocean. Lol..I decided to flip a huge rock I’ve walked by many times (natural for me as a snake chaser) and I’m glad I did, I found a robust 2 inch wide x 8 inch diameter mortoniceras attached within the rock. It’s beyond my ability to easily free it, but I will get it done with some help. Nice calcite on the outside where I broke away some matrix. one of the morts is a mess (the one with the green algae on one side), it’s beautiful but I’ll have to make a decision about leaving it as is or cutting it to the point where it’s complete on both sides.

I only had 1.5 hours, but it was worth it. I ran out of daylight a month ago when I was at my local creek, so I went back and walked the portion I couldn’t see due to darkness last time. 4 nice mortoniceras ammonites, looking good on both sides (one is a bit worn due to weather exposure). Another one was broken down the middle, but I glued it and I’ll make it a rehab project. How about the perfect scallop too? I rarely find them complete and unblemished.

Johnson county, TX creek finds from yesterday afternoon. Unexplored section of a creek that has been productive for me with every visit. The mortoniceras arringtoni and drakei are in great shape on both sides (most of them) and only 2 of the macrasters are compressed or missing a chunk.

At two different times this year (but at the same basic location), I found sense interesting ammonites that both contained other ammonites inside. This is near Johnson/Tarrant County borders in North Texas. The first shown is an eopachydiscus in fairly rough shape that has a hamite embedded. The second is a mortoniceras with two extremely tiny mortoniceras ammonites visible inside. I’m guessing the smaller ones settled on the ocean floor after the larger ones and actually ended up inside those larger ammonites? I am not an expert on these so I appreciate your input!

Today was my first chance to get a couple of hours outside since we had a heavy rain. I went to a favorite local creek and walked the exact same paths I took a few weeks ago, but with the algae getting washed away and more erosion, I had my hands full. My 3rd shoe clam since I started hunting less than a year ago, my biggest holaster, and some nice mortoniceras ammonites. I believe the formation is Fort Worth formation but it may be Grayson/duck creek, it’s all close by. Johnson county, TX

I went to my first show in Glen Rose over the weekend. I met some great people and had a good time! I managed to only buy 2 fossils….LOL! I sold everything I didn’t want to keep from my entry year to collecting halfway through the show, which amounted to a lot..I will miss some of the big eopachydiscus (19 incher was sold) but I have bigger ones I kept at home..also sold one of my nice oxytropidoceras but have 3 big ones at home. I’m ready to replenish my empty bedroom with new fossils! I was also really proud to see how well Mercer Brugler cleaned up the mortoniceras he got from me that I originally found this summer, if you saw them when I gave them to him you wouldn’t recognize the fossils..very motivating to learn how to clean them like he does.

My favorite “homeless creek” with all of its dangers (I’ve been pursued by a guy with a rifle, watched suspected drug dealers meeting, etc) yields the biggest and best macrasters and clean mortoniceras ammonites, rarely do I have to bust out the hammer and chisel. It doesn’t hurt to have a concealed carry permit..I’m looking for fossils, not to become a candidate for fossilization personally. Occasional nautiloids too. Here are a few lunch break finds from yesterday. This is near downtown Fort Worth TX. Still the Wild West! The denture clam/devils toenail brownie (lol) was interesting to me.

Since we had a little rain for the first time in months in Tarrant and Johnson counties in Texas, I’ve been revisiting my usual spots to see what’s new. In this case, I went a bit deeper into unexplored areas of a local creek bed. I was not disappointed! I’m not an expert on identification, so some of you can help me learn, but mostly I found mortoniceras ammonites and a few nice sized macraster echinoids. I’m just now learning how to professionally clean them up thanks to a very kind friend named Mercer, so that’s the next step with this group of ammos. Probably my best *quality* haul since I started hunting late 2022. The single photo is the ammonite on the lower right of the zoomed out group photo, for size comparison. The top left specimen is a huge oyster.

A short compilation of a quick jaunt into some lower Main Street Limestone (Upper Albian) exposures while doing botany work (my main focus) in the adjacent uplands yesterday, October 3rd. This creek bed exposes the lowermost ammonite zone of the Main Street, the Mortoniceras rostratum Zone (per Kennedy et al., 2005) Some of the abundant index fossil for this zone, the widespread Mortoniceras rostratum. Though most of these specimens are obscured by limestone matrix, all have at least the basal remnants of the characteristic rostrum of this species: Next, a nice small Peilina quadriplicata oyster with both valves preserved. This specimen is quite weathered in comparison to past material of P. quadriplicata I’ve collected but this species is always a pleasure to find: From a bit higher in the formation, a small but dense death assemblage block containing Neithea texana, Neithea wrighti, many Plicatula, abundant Cribratina texana forams, and various other things to be examined under magnification later: Lastly, a wonderful Symphyotrichum oblongifolium growing on the surrounding limestone slope barrens:

Back in January I decided to check out the Ammonite Beach at Lake Texoma for the first time. The site is well known for its giant Duck Creek ammonites that can be found scattered all over the shoreline. The weather was surprisingly not that bad despite it being the winter. The water level was quite low and there was plenty of good ground to search along. During my time there, I had some success in finding my own ammonites which gave me an excuse to finally put my rock hammer to use. I stumbled upon some echinoids, but none of them were in all that great of condition, so I might need to head back again in the future to solve that issue. Lastly, there were some interesting fossil finds of stuff I didn't expect to be there (more on this later). A lot of the ammonites that come out of Texoma are encased in a decent amount of rock/mud. I have very little experience in any sort of prep work, so cleaning them up was my chance to try something new. My tools were a bit primitive (hammer and kitchen ice pick which got destroyed), but I managed to clean up an ammonite without breaking it for the first time. I didn't think to take a before pic, but the whole face was covered in hard matrix much like on the reverse side. Unfortunately, I made a lot of white scratch marks on it, but I'm mostly just relieved that it came out in one piece. Apologies if this hurts the eyes of any more experienced ammonite preppers reading this . It was a long process and I decided against cleaning up both sides as that seemed too risky of a prospect. I'm fairly certain it is one of those Mortoniceras given the pointy tubercles covering it. Once I finished that, I watched a Lake Texoma video made by "The Fossil Fiend" on YouTube. Even though this was a few weeks after my trip, my exact ammonite showed up on his video! I couldn't believe my eyes when he was pointing right at it as shown in the screen grab above. It's a perfect match to my second pic. What a funny coincidence! My brother and I hauled up a much larger ammonite as well. I'm going to try harder to not scratch this one. I managed to get some work done before winter break ended, but there's still a long way to go. This is gonna be a fun summer project. Beyond ammonites, I came across a plethora of smaller finds that I view to be just as interesting. Below is an overview of the coolest ones: 'A' and 'B' appear to be Leptostyrax macrorhiza? and Cretolamna appendiculta? respectively. I heard that sharks teeth were rarely found at Texoma so coming out with two of them in a single hunt was really exciting. Additionally, I found a piece of what I think is some sort of Cretaceous fish tooth (C). It's black and fairly reflective. A cross section of the tooth is like a football in shape. In other words, there are two edges that run opposite of one another from top to bottom while the rest is rounded. I tried to capture a photo of this, but had some difficulty. Here are some closeups: Something very unexpected was the large amount of pyritized microfossils to be found all over the shoreline, interspersed with the ammonites and echinoids. I had never heard of pyritized microfossils being at Texoma, so I was a bit confused as to why they were there and in such great numbers. It really did feel like I was back in the Waco Pit. I found pyritized ammonites, bivalves, and gastropods. I'm curious if anyone knows what formation they're from. I am under the impression that the whole area is Duck Creek formation, so is that simply what happens to smaller shelled fauna in that layer? The pyritized ammonite 'E' I have below somewhat resembles Mortoniceras, but I'm not sure if they come from vastly different points in time. 'F' reminds of me of a miniature Oxytropidoceras. 'D' is a pyritized heteromorph ammonite. I don't think heteromorph ammonites are known to come out of the Duck Creek, at least in larger form, which makes me think these pyrite fossils are from a different period. Really curious to hear what you guys think of all this! I covered them in wax to prevent degradation. That made it a little harder to pick out details, especially through a camera unfortunately. Here's some closeups: The last handful of fossils are just a sample of the fish verts and tiny oysters I came across: All in all, it was a fun trip - very different from the other sites I have been to. After learning of the huge presence of pyritized microfossils there, I get the impression that it's like having two sites in one; the Waco Pit and the more traditional Texoma famous for its beautiful ammonites/echinoids. Paired with its proximity to Post Oak Creek, I will definitely being taking more drives up there in the future when I'm back in DFW. As usual, let me know if you would like any additional close ups. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday was attempt number two at finding exposures of the Eagle Ford formation. My first attempt a month ago found me deep in the city of Austin, searching for the Bouldin Flags member of the Eagle Ford. I had to move upstream to avoid a large homeless camp, and found myself on the Austin chalk instead, where I found a large piece of a Parapuzosia sp. ammonite ( that trip is below) While definitely a memorable hunt, with a cool fossil to show for it, it was technically still a mission failed - the Eagle Ford still eluded me. So yesterday, i decided to try again, this time scoping out a spot where I believed the Eagle Ford might be permanently exposed, right here in my own town of Round Rock, which is just north of Austin in Williamson county. Getting there took me to a park I was already familiar with, to my surprise. The plan was to use the park as an access point to take a long walk to where a creek ran through a tiny section of Eagle Ford, as detailed by the USGS map.The park itself also sits on Eagle Ford, but google maps didn't show any bodies of water that could expose it, save for the creek a mile or two down that I was expecting to walk down to (using the park as a place to park) The thicket was atrocious. I was walking through a dense, horrible wall of greenbriar and poison ivy. Fortunately, my observation is that poison ivy hardly ever causes a reaction in me - perhaps I've plowed through so much that my body is used to it, lol. To my surprise, I rather quickly stumbled upon a tiny little stream - too small to have shown up on the maps I was using. Remembering that this area should also be Eagle Ford, I decided I might as well scope it out. The one, tiny gravel bank it had produced two cool finds immediately - one smooth ammonite section, followed 30 seconds later by a smaller complete ammonite. From glancing, I think my second one is a Mortoniceras sp. This was the the only gravel bank here, so I decided to beat my way back to my car and find a different way of accessing the creek shown on the map. I would park at a nearby neighborhood instead. Getting there, I was surprised to recognize the neighborhood of my friend who I fish with. I called him and asked if he wanted to hunt with me there. He had work coming up, but an hour to spare, so we set off into the creek. Under a bridge, I poked around and found a mammal bone protruding out. Pulling it out revealed some great colors on one side. "Did...did we just find an actual old bone under this nasty bridge of all places??" - and to that I answered maybe! We decided to set it by a pillar where I wouldn't forget it on the way back. Surprise surprise - I forgot it. Blockhead of the year. I'll be back to retrieve it and try and figure out if it's anything besides a modern livestock bone soon, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the summary of yesterday's fruitful scouting hunt

So I picked this guy up on Labor Day weekend. Didn't think I would be able to prep much, as the matrix appeared to be very hard. However, last weekend I noticed a hairline fracture...so I pulled out my hammer and cold chisel and gave it a little whack...

I had the day off of work on Memorial Day and I didn’t have my kids, but I was on call. So once again I couldn’t go too far. I decided to head back over to the Benbrook site. It was going to be another scorcher. So I brought along about 40 ounces of fluids. I drove the hour over to west of Benbrook Lake to the new subdivision going in, turned into the development and parked near where I had found the 2 smaller ammonites the previous Tuesday. Before getting out of my car I covered my exposed areas with sunscreen. Sun damage will age you quicker than almost anything and also increase the likelihood of getting skin cancer. Now that I had my sunscreen on I got out and started hunting. I walked around a few undeveloped lots for a bit and was only finding partial ammonites. I found one small echinoid urchin and nothing else of note. I walked back to my car to get a drink and my bag. Then I searched on the opposite side of the street. I didn’t find anything there either. I guess the first trip I was just lucky to find 2 decent ammonites within 5-7 minutes. Since I wasn’t finding much in that particular area I walked down the street a bit and then crossed it heading towards a rock pile. The lots in this area had not been smoothed over yet. The back side of the lots sloped downward. More rocks had been pushed over the edge of the slope. I had stepped up on the curb and walked maybe 15 feet when I found what looked to be a small Mortoniceras about 5 inches across imbedded in a larger chunk of rock. You can just see the edge of it poking out of the rock below my hand. I didn’t have my hammer with me. I put my bag down by the rock and I walked back to my car to get my hammer. I couldn’t find it. It dawned on me that I had taken it into my house, shoot. I keep most of my hunting tools in my trunk with my rubber boots and a pack at all times. You never known when you might see some spot that needs investigating. So, no worries I had my little sledge hammer and some chisels along with a number of other tools. I was dripping wet from the heat and losing a lot of fluids. The humidity was at 70% and it was 94 degrees. I can take the heat, but I don't do well with high heat and high humidity. The humidity is what does me in. I got the tools and walked back to where the ammonite was. The limestone there was kind of chalky and reasonably soft. Within 2-3 minutes I had it popped out of the rock. One side free of matrix, but the other still had a little on it, but at least I wouldn’t have to carry the whole 40+ pound rock back to my car. The side that was free of matrix looked like it had a touch of pyrite disease. You can see how it is kind of flat on the bottom edge and reddish from oxidation. This is just another chunk of rock with 2 Morts in it. They look like fragments so I didn't bother with trying to get them out. It looks like there is a third fossil between them and possibly another small one below them that is hardly noticeable. I am not sure what this is. It looks a bit like some burrows, but the other burrows I was seeing were 3 to 5 inches in diameter. It may be a little burrow of some other creature, but there is something else going on there too, but not sure what. it almost looks like large leaves fanning out to the top and bottom. the burrow overlays whatever is fanning out. The burrow to the bottom left looks kind of like it is a corkscrew patterns. Then there is a burrow looking thing above those that has a ribbed pattern on it. Hum, now that I think about it, this did not look like the other rocks. There were building a stone wall nearby with sandstone blocks. This may not even be from the formation. This is just another fragment with the septa showing. It is about 8 inches across. This is one of the little Morts that was just laying around. I thought the thing below it was an urchin. Turned out to be a pebble with concrete on it. I just gave the ammonite away to the guy who came and fixed my AC unit today. He is the grandfather of a couple kids my kids were friends with. We actually kind of hunted a little together back in March when I took a group of scout kids, my daughter and his granddaughter out on a little hunt. He had never found fossils before or been hunting for them. He walked over as I was finding echinoids, gastropods and ammonite fragments. He was immediately sucked into the hunt and fascinated with them. This ammonite was kind of cool, because the matrix on the edge had the impression of another little ammonite. It is about 6 inches across. I'll be back in a few with more of the story.