Hill County creek, August 26th

[BudB]

I made a trip to a new creek in Hill County last Thursday. This is another Eagle Ford creek, though it is very close to Austin Chalk coverage. It was another creek that's tough to hike in places. Even with my new, first time ever, prescription glasses on, I didn't find a whole lot, but I did bring home a few interesting pieces.

 

Here are opposite direction views of the same outcrop in the creek. It has the blue gray clay you find so often in Eagle Ford outcrops.
 

 

 

There were lots and lots of small ammonite imprints in rocks, like the one in the upper left part of this rock, but no surviving ammonite fossils that I found.
 

 

 

And there were lots and lots of shell fragments in rocks. These were bigger than most.
 

 

 

This rock looks like just another of those with lots of shell fragments.
 

 

 

But this side view of the same rock shows a hidden jewel I almost missed. That's a ptychodus tooth.
 

 

 

Shark teeth were few and far between in the creek, but here are a couple of pretty ones, though small, still in the matrix.
 

 

 

As I get more experience, I've gotten better about not just picking up everything neat looking that I find. But I couldn't resist this, one of the larger bison teeth I've run across.
 

 

 

There were lots of hard to identify fossils in the rocks. That looks like some kind of tooth on the left, but I have no idea what the others are. They all look too delicate to remove from the matrix, but I may do a bit of pick work to try and tell better what they are.
 

 

 

And finally, this bone. The first photo shows a view of each side of it. There is still a bit of rock attached. I didn't remove any matrix from it; this is just the way I found it. The last photo shows a side view. Does anyone have a clue what this is?
 

Edited September 1, 2021 by BudB

[BudB]

Oh, and I forgot to post this photo of my friend I met. I let this big guy swim on by before I waded across.

 

[NSRhunter]

Long shot but I believe that bone looks like the hinge/back half of a mosasaur jaw? If any other cretaceous experts could chime in? 

[Notidanodon]

nice finds and great scenery  

[JohnJ]

@BudB 

Additional individual photos would be useful.  

 

[BudB]

Here are the teeth out of the matrix. I found one additional ptychodus tooth. It was just a tiny black dot on the outside of the same piece of matrix as that biggest tooth. Some pick work showed what it was. Those are two tiny fish verts on the bottom.

 

 

[JohnJ]

On 9/1/2021 at 1:53 PM, BudB said:

And finally, this bone. The first photo shows a view of each side of it. There is still a bit of rock attached. I didn't remove any matrix from it; this is just the way I found it. The last photo shows a side view. Does anyone have a clue what this is?

 

20 hours ago, JohnJ said:

@BudB 

Additional individual photos would be useful.  

 

 

Do you have better, well lit images of this piece?

[BudB]

See if these help.

 

[JohnJ]

Thanks, @BudB.  The texture reminds me of fish bone.

 

 

[BudB]

1 hour ago, JohnJ said:

Thanks, @BudB.  The texture reminds me of fish bone.

 

 

I wondered if it might be something from a fish jaw or skull. I just can't make out enough to tell.