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Hill County creek, September 18th


BudB

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I made a drive to explore a new creek in Hill County Friday morning.  It ended up being some of the toughest hiking in a creek bottom I've done. This is another Eagle Ford outcrop, and in satellite photos, the blue-gray shale went from the sides of the creek walls all the way to the bottom of the creek bed, just like the Ellis County creek I visited last week. In real life on Friday, the creek bed was full of mud, and it covered much of the lower walls of the creek too. I've never seen such a difference in a reasonably recent satellite photo and actual appearance.

 

To make matters worse, it rained Thursday. I didn't think the showers had reached that far west, but I was mistaken. It didn't raise the water too much, but it made the creek bottom a muddy mess. I've never before gotten this muddy hiking a creek, and it really wore me down, sloggin through that. 

 

With the mud that high, there was no finding any fossiliferous layers of matrix anywhere in the creek walls, but there were plenty of broken pieces of it, along with shale pieces, in the bottom of the creek. So, I spent my time looking for individual fossils on the gravel bars (more like mud bars). But the rain had turned the shale really dark, and that along with the dark brown mud, made spotting fossils really tough. I picked up lots of likely looking pieces of matrix too, and I did find a few things.

 

Here are the only teeth I found that weren't seriously encased in matrix. I really should stop picking up modern bison teeth, but can never seem to resist them.

 

hill02002.jpg

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Here are all but one of the other teeth I found. They are buried in matrix, and it's not matrix that softened at all after two days in water. I'm trying vinegar now. It may come down to just using a dental pick to retrieve what I can see on the surface of these matrix pieces.
 

 

hill02003.jpg

hill02004.jpg

hill02005.jpg

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There were lots of small ammonite imprints in matrix, but I never found any intact ammonites. The one in the matrix on the right looks like there's still shell left.
 

 

hill02001.jpg

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Does anyone know what this is? It just looked like a bone when I saw that left view in the upper photo. But turning it over, it looks like the right view. That hollowed out spot almost looks like threads on the inside of a nut. The lower photo shows it better.
 

 

hill02006.jpg

hill02007.jpg

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1 hour ago, BudB said:

Does anyone know what this is? It just looked like a bone when I saw that left view in the upper photo. But turning it over, it looks like the right view. That hollowed out spot almost looks like threads on the inside of a nut. The lower photo shows it better.
 

 

hill02006.jpg

hill02007.jpg

 

Most likely an Inoceramid hinge fragment.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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At least you were able to get a few rewards for your efforts. Although, by the sound of it, they were hard won! 

 

Shark teeth are not really in my scope of knowledge, but that looks like a great way to end a long muddy day! :) 

 

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)

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1 hour ago, JohnJ said:

 

Most likely an Inoceramid hinge fragment.

Thanks. Googling Inoceramid hinge, it appears you are right. I had no idea that there were ever clam hinges that looked like that.

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4 hours ago, BudB said:

There were lots of small ammonite imprints in matrix, but I never found any intact ammonites. The one in the matrix on the right looks like there's still shell left.
 

 

hill02001.jpg

 

I think those are Prionocyclus.  I found similar ones in the Dallas Trinity river banks last year. 

 

 

tiny ammonite.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, BudB said:

There were lots of small ammonite imprints in matrix, but I never found any intact ammonites. The one in the matrix on the right looks like there's still shell left.
 

 

hill02001.jpg

It looks similar to my avatar, Prionocyclus bosquensis:

 

 

Edited by DPS Ammonite
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My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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