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My first ever echinoids, and close to home!


Jared C

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Today was supposed to be a day of grinding away at my piles of homework that have been accumulating over the course of last week (hey, I was on vacation what can I say)...and I was almost successful, save until 3 pm rolled around. Getting a little stir crazy, and in desperate need of the fossil hunting fix that I missed out on over the course of my week long vacation + the week of snow we had prior, I set out to take a "small walk" to an area of a creek I hadn't scouted before.

 

My intention was just to do a little bit of reconnaissance - I saw on a geologic map that this particular portion of the creek may expose some of the productive Eagle Ford formation, implying that I *might* have a chance of finding an ever locally elusive Cretaceous shark tooth.

 

A 10 minute drive found me at the park which serves as an access point. It was clear that nobody frequents the area once down at the creek.

The creek was virgin, at least here. Furthermore, the ram horn oysters which made their appearance along the gravel banks suggested that I was in the correct exposure.

 

20-30 minutes in, I find my first Echinoid...ever! It was fairly weathered by the creek, and a little small, but I'm not a man to complain - this is celebration worthy by my terms. Here is that first find, rinsed off.

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The burst of energy moved me forward through the thicket. At this point, I was on an "island", where the creek had wrapped itself around a little piece of  land that had become quite overgrown. Within another 20 minutes, I made my next discovery - another (highly weathered) echinoid with a blobby, uneven pattern on it not too different from a sand dollar. It's difficult to make out details with a camera, but I tried nonetheless. The top arm is the only easily visible portion of the pattern.

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An hour or so passes, and evening is descending. My final find came in dim lighting, shining proudly out of it's bank where it was half buried. Oddly enough, the best preserved portion is the portion that was sticking out of the ground. Break dancing moves rapidly followed.20210228_185007.thumb.jpg.36b46528bb127ed0021561a7300ab9b9.jpg

 

And so, my evening came to a close. Another highlight was where my heart outright exploded out of my chest glancing at what I thought to be a marine reptile tooth. A second or so of looking, though, deemed that it's probably just a small, slightly weathered rudist - a cool find none the less! Finish that off with a uniquely red ram horn oyster (remnants of original color? Or just fossilized in an interesting mineral environment?) and my day came to a satisfying close.

Now to get back to my calculus homework that I've been so diligently procrastinating  :''D

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“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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Your Ilymatogyra arietina oysters and the echinoids are similar to forms in the Mainstreet and Grayson Formations and not the Eagle Ford Group.

 

Search for Grayson Formation and Mainstreet Formation.

 

http://northtexasfossils.com

 

 


 

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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2 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

similar to forms in the Mainstreet and Grayson Formations and not the Eagle Ford Group.

 

That's good to know! It's important that I should start figuring out which formations I find myself on by means of looking at the fossils found there + physical features, rather than always relying on the sometimes inaccurate geologic maps... I find it a lot harder though

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“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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6 minutes ago, Jared C said:

I should start figuring out which formations I find myself on by means of looking at the fossils found there + physical features, rather than always relying on the sometimes inaccurate geologic maps... I find it a lot harder though

Very wise advice. Maps get you close. Boots on the ground, studying the formation and fossil descriptions will get you closer to your target.

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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What I have come to understand is that Greyson and Mainstreet and some of the other formations found further north merge and become the Georgetown Formation in the Central Texas area.  

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13 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

Greyson and Mainstreet and some of the other formations found further north merge and become the Georgetown Formation

That would actually make a lot of sense - the Georgetown formation is the dominant formation in most of my area, according to my Texas geological map at least. This locale I discovered is not even a 15 minute drive from my house.

“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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