Whiskey Bridge - Texas Eocene - A Day on the Brazos

[JamieLynn]

A couple of hours drive from me is an amazing spot to collect Eocene material. It's on the banks of the Brazos River (more properly, the Brazos del Dio River-The Arms of God river! My parents wrote a book on it: Exploring the Brazos: From Beginning to End).  I've been to the site a few times, and always find an amazing amount of lovely little shells and such. I had the greatest luck this time though, finding a large shark tooth! I wasn't even aware that you could find shark teeth out there. I had found a cuttlefish prong there on a previous trip which is still one of my all time favorite finds, but i had no idea you could find shark teeth! So it was already a good day, but , I also took a one gallon bag of loose dirt home and had fun going through it under the microscope camera....and wow! So many tiny tiny things to be found! All the fishy stuff (vert, tooth, and spine) were microscope finds - the spine being the largest at 1/2 inch. Plus the two little shark teeth - 1/4 inches each. I would not have seen those in the field. So my fun with my microscope camera continues. Here are my finds- I hope i have the proper ID's for all that I could (with help from FF friends!) - a few I still don't have ID's for. There are over 200 species from this location!  So far, i've found about 50!  I forsee many more trips to Whiskey Bridge! ( Edited to correct spelling errors). 

 

Cuttle fish prongs are 1 inch   Ray tooth plate is 1/4 inch

 

 

 

 

If you are not familiar with this area - the ootoliths are.....Fish Ear Bones!

 

 

 

The Gastropods: (All of there are one inch or smaller - the smallest being  1/16 inch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIvalves:

 

 

 

 

[DPS Ammonite]

I am amazed at the preservation. Especially like the corals. The Eocene sediments must not have been ever buried very deep. 
 

I always thought that if we could time travel, the Eocene is about as far back as you could go and still see things that look sort of modern with a supply of shellfish, animals, plants and fruits to eat. Plus, no large dinosaurs to deal with. 

[grandpa]

@JamieLynn Quite a nice collection, wonderful photos, great job of identification.  I'd like to see this set aside in the gallery for future reference. 

[ClearLake]

Very nice!  Yes, that is always a fun spot to visit and I have spent many an hour cleaning and going through the matrix since some of the best stuff from there is quite small.  Your pictures are very nice, what kind of microscope/camera do you use if I may ask?

[JamieLynn]

15 minutes ago, ClearLake said:

Very nice!  Yes, that is always a fun spot to visit and I have spent many an hour cleaning and going through the matrix since some of the best stuff from there is quite small.  Your pictures are very nice, what kind of microscope/camera do you use if I may ask?

 

It's a Celestron Pro -there are more expensive ones, but for the price, this one works great for what I want. It does only have a 5 megapixel camera. Perhaps someday I'll level up, but it's pretty darn good! It does have a fairly narrow depth of field, but i found a free downloadable photostacking program that works great. It's called Picolay. 

[fossilnut]

I had never heard of cuttlefish prongs. Looked it up very interesting. Thanks for posting. Wonderful collection of shells as well.

[ClearLake]

6 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

It's a Celestron Pro -there are more expensive ones, but for the price, this one works great for what I want. It does only have a 5 megapixel camera. Perhaps someday I'll level up, but it's pretty darn good! It does have a fairly narrow depth of field, but i found a free downloadable photostacking program that works great. It's called Picolay.

Very interesting, thanks for the info.  That does look like a reasonable option, may have to add it to my birthday list! 

[ClearLake]

30 minutes ago, grandpa said:

I'd like to see this set aside in the gallery for future reference.

@JamieLynn I think that is a great idea, but I would have two suggestions to make it even better if you want to go to that trouble.  First is to add an additional photo of the gastropods which shows the other side, the aperture is usually very diagnostic for them.  Secondly, check your spellings.  I generally don't  like to be the spelling police, but I'd hate to send folks off in the wrong direction on names.  OK, maybe one more, some sort of scale.  Easy to ask when I'm not doing it!  Hahaha

[Tidgy's Dad]

Wow! 

What an amazing collection.

I love the scaphopods in particular. 

[JamieLynn]

4 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Wow! 

What an amazing collection.

I love the scaphopods in particular. 

 

i love how you tend to admire the "under appreciated" fossils! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, JamieLynn said:

 

i love how you tend to admire the "under appreciated" fossils! 

Ha!

But I think you are right, something in my psychology to think about. 

 

[JamieLynn]

29 minutes ago, ClearLake said:

@JamieLynn I think that is a great idea, but I would have two suggestions to make it even better if you want to go to that trouble.  First is to add an additional photo of the gastropods which shows the other side, the aperture is usually very diagnostic for them.  Secondly, check your spellings.  I generally don't  like to be the spelling police, but I'd hate to send folks off in the wrong direction on names.  OK, maybe one more, some sort of scale.  Easy to ask when I'm not doing it!  Hahaha

 

Yes, JKFoam recommended taking photos of the apperture opening, that that would help with ID.  Also, can you tell me which are misspelled? I would like to correct that. 

[RuMert]

Rich fauna indeed - nice preservation!

[ClearLake]

Turbinolia pharetra

Architectonica 

Buccitriton sagenum

Protosurcula gabbii

Mesalia claibornensis

Tiburnus

Venericardia

 

I'm uncertain if the Eucheilodon reticulata ID is correct, but at the moment I don't have a better suggestion for you.  I'm just not seeing the reticulated pattern that is supposed to be characteristic and since I don't see the aperture, I cant tell if there are beads on the inside.  It just doesn't seem quite right with the illustration in Harris (1937) but maybe....

 

Can I ask where the ID for Hesperiturris amichel came from, I'm not familiar with that species.  Thanks

 

[JamieLynn]

29 minutes ago, ClearLake said:

Turbinolia pharetra

Architectonica 

Buccitriton sagenum

Protosurcula gabbii

Mesalia claibornensis

Tiburnus

Venericardia

 

I'm uncertain if the Eucheilodon reticulata ID is correct, but at the moment I don't have a better suggestion for you.  I'm just not seeing the reticulated pattern that is supposed to be characteristic and since I don't see the aperture, I cant tell if there are beads on the inside.  It just doesn't seem quite right with the illustration in Harris (1937) but maybe....

 

Can I ask where the ID for Hesperiturris amichel came from, I'm not familiar with that species.  Thanks

 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to provide me the correct spellings. I had a feeling I could look at my sources a hundred times and still get them wrong! 

 

JKFoam gave the the id on hseperiturris amichel. He is very familiar with the Texas Eocene stuff! 

[jkfoam]

1 hour ago, ClearLake said:

Turbinolia pharetra

Architectonica 

Buccitriton sagenum

Protosurcula gabbii

Mesalia claibornensis

Tiburnus

Venericardia

 

I'm uncertain if the Eucheilodon reticulata ID is correct, but at the moment I don't have a better suggestion for you.  I'm just not seeing the reticulated pattern that is supposed to be characteristic and since I don't see the aperture, I cant tell if there are beads on the inside.  It just doesn't seem quite right with the illustration in Harris (1937) but maybe....

 

Can I ask where the ID for Hesperiturris amichel came from, I'm not familiar with that species.  Thanks

 

ClearLake,

 

E. reticulata is a strange snail.  It takes on three different appearances depending on its maturity.  When I get a chance I hope to photo the three appearances and post them on TFF.

 

I suggested the ID of H. amichel to JamieLynn.  I could easily be wrong as that specie has never been ID'ed as from Stone City or the Little Brazos River site.  My reference for my ID is Julia Gardner, "Mollusca of the Tertiary Formations of Northeastern Mexico", Plate 25, figures 1, 10 and 16.  This article is available on-line through Google Books.

 

JamieLynn,

For correct spellings  I recommend Bulletins of American Paleontology, Volume 48, part 1 and 2, K.V.W. Palmer and D.C. Brann, "Catalogue of the Paleocene and Eocene Mollusca of the Southern and Eastern United States, published 1966.  I Think it is also available on-line and it still may be available in print from the Paleontological  Research Institution.

 

Jim

 

 

[dinodigger]

WELL DONE!

[Nimravis]

Nice finds and great presentation.

[Monica]

Look at all of those gastropods - WOW!!! 

 

Congratulations on the great and varied haul of fossils! 

[Notidanodon]

Great finds; to me I know the species arent the same but the age and preservation is very similiar

 to barton on sea

[FossilNerd]

Amazing finds! I love the gastropods. Especially the high spired ones. 

[Emthegem]

Wow they are so pretty!!! they are so well preserved I thought you were showing some pictures of normal shells rather than fossils haha!!

[Max-fossils]

Jamie this is so cool! What an absolutely incredible diversity of finds! That looks like such a fun place to hunt, I really hope I get to go there one day. That Cadulus scaphopod is very weird, I've never seen something quite like it (at least not that I recall), and those cuttlefish prongs are very interesting too. And that Vokesula bivalve is also super cool! 

How does the hunting (on site) typically happen, do you just pick up the stuff you see on the ground, do you use some kind of sifter or something else?

Well done on this hunt, and good job IDing all those finds too!

[Ruger9a]

Loved your post, thanks for sharing.

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations on your finds. Looks like you're building an impressive collection from there. Great photographs too. I used them to ID a couple of gastropods I found there two years ago. Thanks. I wish I found cuttlefish prongs like yours.