Texas Day Trippin' - Piles of Pennsylvanian

[JamieLynn]

I finally found the Pennsylvanian era roadcut (thanks to a little help from the Paleonotogy Society of Austin) that eluded me a few weeks ago . I talked my mom into going with me on the 5 hour round trip to pick up some Pennsylvanian goodies, so very different from my Cretaceous backyard hunting. We had a lovely lunch at Dairy Queen (as you do in Texas) and then found the spot. It was exactly ONE MILE off the road I was originally searching on. Yeesh.  But it was so worth it!! Even thought the PSoA had been out there the month before,  there is SO much there it was astounding. We stayed for almost two hours and only hit a small part of it. My mom got completley intrigued by the hash plates so she just sat in a spot and looked close. I climbed up ravines and traipsed around, so we found a wide variety of stuff. Here are our best finds:  (I tried to ID everything, but if I got anything wrong, please let me know. And there are a few things I don't know what they are, so if you recognized something, let me know!)

 

Crinoid Cup pieces Graffhamicrinus

 

 

A spine from  Atocrunis murospinus 

 

Gastropod Euphimites

 

Gastropod Dondaldina:

 

Echinoid Spine: 

 

Very worn Echinoid Cidarid plate: 

 

Orthocone Mooroceras possibly

 

Gastropod Pharkodonotus

 

Brachiopod Enteletes 

 

Brachiopod Derbiya 

 

Coral Lophophylidium spinosum

 

A variety of Crinoids

 

 

Bryzoan Synocladia

 

 

Unknown Crinoid Cup segement: 

 

 

Mollusc Orhomyalina (We found HUNDREDS of these busted up, mostly the pointy end and this was the only one I found whole. It was tiny compared to the busted ones)

 

And of course, lots of bryzoan branches: 

[Ludwigia]

Very nice finds! That certainly was worth the trip. I guess you just can't wait to get back there again to check out the parts you haven't explored yet.

[JamieLynn]

Yes!! I am going to have to wait a few months for "Cedar Fever" to pass.....Texas Juniper trees pollinate in Jan and Feb and I feel like I have the flu for two months, so I try to go out as little as possible. which is REALLY frustrating because this is the nicest time of the year....temps in the 60s during the day instead of the 100s!! Ah well. 

[FlyingRPh]

Jealous of the B. Enteletes. Wish we could find a complete one in our Upper Pennsylvanian cut here...

[Ruger9a]

Productive trip.....  Nice finds.

[JamieLynn]

18 minutes ago, FlyingRPh said:

Jealous of the B. Enteletes. Wish we could find a complete one in our Upper Pennsylvanian cut here...

 

I don't know what their size range is usually, but it seemed like a monster compared to the other things from the Penn...most things seem small. This one was hiding in a crevase between two huge boulders....but the sun was hitting on that sawtooth edge so I saw it! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds! 

Love the bryozoans and the Lophophyllidium is superb. 

1 hour ago, FlyingRPh said:

Jealous of the B. Enteletes. Wish we could find a complete one in our Upper Pennsylvanian cut here...

This is the only one I have :

[Peat Burns]

[Monica]

Nice finds!  I think my favourite is the spiny horn coral - it looks awesome!

[FlyingRPh]

4 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice finds! 

Love the bryozoans and the Lophophyllidium is superb. 

This is the only one I have :

I guess I will have to make a screen and take a shovel next time I go to the cut. Maybe I can find some...

[Tidgy's Dad]

2 minutes ago, FlyingRPh said:

I guess I will have to make a screen and take a shovel next time I go to the cut. Maybe I can find some...