North Sulfur River Hunt

[JamieLynn]

I completely forgot that this last weekend was a "holiday" weekend and went on a day tripper up to the North Sulfur River near Dallas (an almost 5 hour drive). I met a new fossil friend named John who was going to take me to some of the more 'out of the way" spots he usually hunts to try to find a few specific things - a mosasaur tooth and vert being the top of my list, plus he was going to take me to a spot where we could hopefully find a really awesome looking cephalopod (Scaphites).  The first spot was already picked over, sadly, the disadvantage of not getting there before 10am I guess!  I found a few nice baculites (which I love and was happy to find including a cool red one) and some other nice little things, gastropods and such. Then I thought I had found something awesome....a nice little bone stuck in the gravel. WHoo hoo!! Was it a mosasaur??? Something Pleistocene? A GLYPTODON???? I was so excited!! Until I got home and looked it up and .....it's a cow astralagus. Yay. Not even a bison. Meh. (I think, anyways...I did look it up and saw some previous FF posts about the difference between Bos and Bison and pretty sure mine is just a Bos). So a question....was Bos around in the Pleistocene? This isn't 'modern" bone, I think it is at least partially mineralized. But I really don't know. 

 

So, as relatively disappointing as that was, I still came home with some GREAT stuff- a couple of nice shark teeth (a new one I had not found before, even if it was John who picked it up...I WOULD have found it if he wasn't ahead of me....but he was nice and gave it to me. hahahha) AND even though we busted open a bunch of phosphate nodules with no luck at finding the Scaphites I was looking for.....he had an extra one to give me. SO I came home with lots of fossil gifts! 

 

My "consolation prize" - Trachyscaphyties . 3 inches diameter

. 

 

My first Goblin Shark Tooth :

Scapanorhynchus 2 inches

 

Baculites - love the suture pattern

 

Two chunks of a red one (not sure if they were from the same one, but they sort of fit together!)

 

A different Baculites - not sure of species, but it doesn't have the same suture patterns and has more surface detail. maybe just not as worn down?

 

The Atralagus bone:

 

 

 

And this i THINK is mosasur bone, but very worn down. 2 inches

 

A cute little Inoceramus clam 1 inch

 

and lastly, some Exogyra ponderosas. 

 

 

Hopefully I can make it out there  a few more times before they dam the river and maybe find that danged Mosasaur tooth and vert. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Andy B]

Neat Stuff. Quite a variety for a dry riverbed.

[JamieLynn]

4 minutes ago, Andy B said:

Neat Stuff. Quite a variety for a dry riverbed.

 

yes, it's one of the best places in Texas to go hunting...if you can catch it right after a rain and before the people get there!!  There is actually a public fossil park at one of the road crossings. We drove by it about noon and there must have been 20 people out hunting... and that was on Friday..I can only imagine what it was like Saturday. Overrun with footprints.

[Emthegem]

Man those baculite sutures look so pretty! Are baculites typically rare to find with the prominent suture or somewhat common? I would kill to get a nice one in my collection someday! 

[JamieLynn]

@Emthegem   in the NSR they are fairly common. I was thinking we could do a trade, i have a few not as well preserved ones, but looks like the shipping might be too high for me right now. $25 to ship to Canada is a bit much! 

[Emthegem]

33 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

@Emthegem   in the NSR they are fairly common. I was thinking we could do a trade, i have a few not as well preserved ones, but looks like the shipping might be too high for me right now. $25 to ship to Canada is a bit much! 

Oh yeah I'm feeling that, just shipped some out today for my first trade and the shipping came to 30$ . Still I figured I'd go through with it, but I might have to wait till the shipping rates drop a bit before I do another. Do you happen to know what the shipping rate usually sits around?

[JamieLynn]

it does depend on the weight and the size of box. One postal office worker told me it's not worth doing the US Flat Rate shipping unless it's over 7 pounds, so it might be less than the $25 it quoated. I"ll send you a pic of the pieces and see if you are even interested! 

[RuMert]

Nice variety:)

[JamieLynn]

16 hours ago, RuMert said:

Nice variety:)

 

thank you! 

[Monica]

I especially love those oysters - they're very pretty