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Well, this is my first post in the Hunting Trips section. The week of Thanksgiving, my wife, my daughters and I headed off to Waco, Texas for a three day getaway. It was not supposed to be a fossil trip, but I managed to squeeze in a few stops... Our first stop, on a cold November 22nd afternoon, was the Waco Mammoth Site. It was absolutely spectacular! My kids loved it. It was so amazing to see these huge animals still laying in the spots where they fell, instead of mounted in a museum hall... The next day, I managed to convince my wife to let me scope out the Waco Research Pit. I told her it would only take a few minutes to see what might be there...yeah right. We stopped off at the Corps of Engineers building to sign in and get a parking tag for the car. They were extremely helpful. We drove to the parking area and I left my wife and two year old in the van, while I led my 9 and 5 year olds down the trail to the pit. In the first few minutes, I stumbled across the first ammonite. My kids marveled at the beautiful spiraled shell. A few minutes later I found another. I believe they are Engonoceras serpentinum, but I'm not 100% sure. I also found some what I believe to be Mariella sp. These are the better specimens...

I found these in the latest Maastrichtian, uppermost New Egypt fm. of NJ. Both pieces were basically found together which leads me to believe they are somehow related. I have never found anything else like it although I could have easily missed other similar objects since they are small and somewhat nondescript. The preservation reminds me of invert steinkerns found in the same layer. I thought these might possibly be pieces of some larger invert, but I have no idea what. And they really do look like 2 discrete structures instead of pieces of something larger. The local ammonite/invert expert of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Ralph Johnson, was stumped as well, but suggested that they might be rhyncholites. I can definitely see a little resemblance to rhyncholites, but I would like to hear any and all opinions. Eutrophoceras is fairly common in this formation so it would make sense that these might be from a nautiloid. But please share any ideas and opinions on these that you might have! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4JZWcsHflY