CrankyMa Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrankyMa Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 (edited) Edited December 19, 2019 by CrankyMa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrankyMa Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 Sorry for the repeated pictures- I’m using my phone to post and I’m not very good at it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Fun fossils. what kind of snake is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Nice finds! Quite a variety. Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Nice fossils. The snake is probably a Central Texas Whip Snake or a Black Racer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Nice finds- me and the snake would have been buddies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrankyMa Posted December 20, 2019 Author Share Posted December 20, 2019 I'm pretty sure the snake was a Nonbanded Coppermoccarattler. (Sorry for the terrible anti-snake joke, Nimravis!) Poor guy- he was just out trying to catch some sun on a cool day so my daughter shooed him off the road. We didn't want it to get run over by a car. It was a really fun day at the Mineral Wells Fossil Park- clear and cool (50 F, 10 C) in the middle of December, and we had the whole place to ourselves. What a neat thing this town has done to make such a park for people to explore! The park has a large, level parking area, a covered area with two picnic tables, two port-a-potties on site, plus a large sign explaining the geology of the site that includes pictures of the fossils that can be found there. The entry to the pit is an easy slope with a handrail. The place is literally covered with fossils of the types we found (pictured above) and we found a good sample of everything except for a Trilobite and a shark tooth. This is a great place to get someone interested in fossils and fossil collecting because it has great informational signage, easy access, and guaranteed success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Dente Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 19 hours ago, jpc said: Fun fossils. what kind of snake is that? It looks like one of the ratsnakes to me. Either a Great Plains or Texas ratsnake. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 I agree with Al Dente -- Elaphe [Pantherophis] lindheimeri, the Texas ratsnake, perhaps. 1 http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatinformationist Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 On 12/19/2019 at 2:15 PM, erose said: Nice fossils. The snake is probably a Central Texas Whip Snake or a Black Racer. My vote for black racer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goatinformationist Posted December 20, 2019 Share Posted December 20, 2019 On 12/20/2019 at 7:01 AM, Al Dente said: It looks like one of the ratsnakes to me. Either a Great Plains or Texas ratsnake. Not so black in this picture; I'll go with coach whip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 On 12/20/2019 at 7:01 AM, Al Dente said: It looks like one of the ratsnakes to me. Either a Great Plains or Texas ratsnake. Now that I can properly zoom the image up I would say rat snake as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilNerd Posted December 21, 2019 Share Posted December 21, 2019 Sounds like a pleasant day out. Congrats on the finds! Is there a limit to what you can collect there? The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrankyMa Posted December 21, 2019 Author Share Posted December 21, 2019 No, FossilNerd, no limit, except collection is intended for personal use only and is not to be used for sales. There are a lot of fossils of the type we pictured and they aren't even difficult to collect. The fossils wash out of the walls of the pit with weather and erosion and roll down to the bottom, where they collect on the surfaces of the lower slope and the bottom of the pit. It's actually easier and better to poke around the bottom of the walls and on the floor of the pit than it is to dig into the walls. The fossils get washed of mud and dirt as they make their way down the slope, which makes them easy to spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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