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Central Texas Creek


Jared C

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I went on this hunt about two weeks ago, but only am getting around to posting it now. It was a great day at a new spot close to my usual stomping grounds.

 

I was hunting under a bridge the week before when someone walking the path next to it asked if I had any luck - his name was Leo, and we actually recognized each other as both of us have posted about some of our Austin finds on reddit before.

 

(PS - pardon the picture quality, most of these are screenshots from video)

 

He invited me to hunt with him at a spot of his on the same creek close by sometime. I was of course quite curious about where that could be, as I thought I've already done some pretty boisterous trekking along this creek before in pursuit of fossils.

 

Since he immigrated a couple years ago, he passed time walking his dog along this creek, and discovered there were fossils around that way. After training his eye a bit more than a year and half (about twice as long as me!) he's practically mastered this stretch of creek, and he's yielded a few fantastic spots. We shared some spots in common, but those that I didn't know about far exceeded my expectations for this creek.

 

We chose a cool weekend, a week after a strong storm. I didn't film or take any pictures until about an hour in, but there were a couple small cretaceous teeth, and a nice quality bison tooth. All his finds.

 

After an hour or so, I was finally getting into the rhythm of things. It usually takes an hour or so for me to break into a new spot, and to start spotting things. My first real find set the tone for the rest of the day:

 

Here it is insitu:

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And once I pulled it out:

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This was my second Mosasaur tooth (likely Tylosaur) from the Ozan of Austin. My other one is larger, and better preserved, but this nonetheless had both of us blowing our tops off with excitement. About 5 seconds after picking this up, Leo picked up another tooth, this time Scapanorynchus, sitting 10 inches away. It's an epic memory

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On the same gravel bed, Leo then found our target for the day. He showed me some of the Ptychodus specimens he's found at this spot - all large, perfectly preserved, and from several different species. I was really crossing my fingers for one of equal stature this day. Leo, maybe about 10 minutes after our mosasaur meltdown, then pulls this beauty out of the gravel:

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It's a little more worn than his others, and this one is much darker, but still great quality and HUGE in my eyes. I know Ptychodus mortoni can sometimes get substantially larger, but this is by far still the best tooth I've ever laid eyes on. It's also in better condition than this screenshot implies.

 

The air was electric now - the energy for at least two hours afterwards was full throttle, as we both were expecting to turn our head any minute and make the next great find. Here are some highlights

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(chunkasaur piece from me, the great Mosy vert from Leo)

 

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(Piece of what would've been a great Ptychodus from me)

 

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(Great Bison tooth from Leo - I have NEVER managed to find a completely black bison tooth from this area. I've found maybe 10 or 11, all at various stages of preservation, but never a fully fossilized (black or orange) tooth. Quite jealous! These seem to be casual finds for Leo!)

 

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(Squalicorax hiding in the gravel from me)

 

 

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(Some chunks like this are strangely reminiscent of wood, rather than bone... could this be petrified driftwood?)

 

 

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(Enchodus palatine from me)

 

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(Scapanorynchus - ol' faithful)

 

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(Particularly wrinkly mammal enamel - not so sure of my initial ID of bison I had in mind )

 

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(Cretolamna (I think) sitting in the gravel, from me - I'll gladly be corrected if I'm wrong)

 

Then, Leo made the next great find. If we were fired up before, NOW we were in another dimension... two big mosasaur teeth in 40 minutes! From Austin?? This was nuts!

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We moved maybe 20 more meters up again - this was all still on the same bend of the creek. Leo was hoping for arrowheads this whole time - me not as much - before this day they didn't really interest me... but all it took was one good find. Here was my first point of the day, and my second point ever - first insitu and then in hand.

 

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It was ID'd as a "Darl", and would've tipped an Atlatl dart. The age is between 1,000-3,000 years. 

 

A few meters away, Leo found this rib with strong signs of preservation, but not fossilized yet -

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It was quite late in the afternoon, and Leo still wanted to get me to a big exposure he thought I'd like. On the way there, we chatted, with me learning a bit about points while he learned a bit about fossils. We finally made it to a grandiose exposure - the tallest one of it's nature I've ever seen. Dark clays and shales filled the bottom half, and I'm sure this was where many of the fossils we found were washing down from. Ironically enough, it was not Cretaceous stuff that stood out here .

 

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I found my third point- this one broken in half. It's a "Perdenales", and is between 2,000-3,000 years old

 

Close by, there was a large bone half buried in the gravel - I think it's the lower leg bone of a bison, that would be below the knee:

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And last but not least, some other finds we made heading back before the sun went down. One of the bison teeth I found, with phosphate starting to leech in the cracks of enamel to begin the fossilization process, the top of a point that Leo found, and a completely bizarre deep red piece of mammal enamel (I assume Bison). The picture doesn't do it justice - it's deeply blood red.

 

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It was a great day, and I'm grateful to Leo for showing me around his hunting grounds. Can't wait to see what last nights storm will do for this place!

 

 

Edited by Jared C
fixing my usual wealth of typos
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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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3 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice haul! :)

I think the photos are pretty good, actually. 

Thanks, you never know how these images manifest once posted onto other sites. It happens all too often that a photo looks clear on my phone but turns into a blurry mess when uploaded elsewhere. Glad that I don't seem to have this problem on Fossil Forum then

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

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Oh my gosh! You have yourself quite the spot for exploration! I always enjoy your posts. Your enthusiasm come through loud and clear. 

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Wow! What a great hunt again! Fantastic finds! :D

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'There's nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fibre and, in some cases, backbone' -- Terry Pratchett

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Well dang! You are on a bit of tear these days...

 

Just remember that mammal bones and teeth in our local streams can become discolored rather quickly so bison or cow, modern horse or ice age horse can be a little tricky.  

 

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33 minutes ago, erose said:

Well dang! You are on a bit of tear these days...

 

Just remember that mammal bones and teeth in our local streams can become discolored rather quickly so bison or cow, modern horse or ice age horse can be a little tricky.  

 

Noted! I think bison is likely simply due to the sheer amount of bison teeth in this area. Every molar I've found on this particular stretch before that was ID'able ended up being Bison, so I'm crossing my fingers! Of course, out of context and with my little knowledge, I couldn't know for sure

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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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Oh my goodness Im *so* envious of your mosasaur tooth! :Horrified: You found some phenomenal finds, that creek looks so promising! Holy smokes, an arrowhead! :default_clap2: This creek reminds me of the one I go to up here near Oklahoma with lots of Cretaceous shark teeth! *waves from Princeton*  Ive never found a mosasaur tooth there but plenty of ptychodus. Conrats on everything wow! This is the time of the year I start to come out of my cold dark refrigerator of house, slide into my high waders and venture into creeks hoping to find a mosasaur tooth lol. I wont transfer out of Texas yet without finding one of those teeth myself!  :look: 

 

Curious if you recommend looking on the dry gravel beds instead of using a sieve? In my experience the good Cretaceous stuff in Texas always seems to be right on top in the gravel. 

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On 10/21/2021 at 11:00 AM, AmmoniteDelight said:

Curious if you recommend looking on the dry gravel beds instead of using a sieve? In my experience the good Cretaceous stuff in Texas always seems to be right on top in the gravel

I've given sifting several honest efforts before but never to much avail, even in places like Post Oak creek, where I still managed to be far more successful just picking around in gravel while everyone else mostly sifted. These creeks in Austin don't have the same concentration of teeth as north texas, so I think sifting prospects are even flatter here :shakehead:

 

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

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5 hours ago, Plax said:

Any pics of that big exposure you mentioned?

yes! here are some screenshots from a video I took of it. Leo for scale, but the angle may make it seem a bit smaller.

 

I suspect the darker bottom-most layer may be Dessau formation, while the lighter grey layer above it may be ozan. That suspicion is not informed by any physical characteristics of the shale though, and more so just because I know the Dessau may be in the area and is older than Ozan. Furthermore, many of the Ptychodus teeth in this creek can't come strictly from the Campanian aged Ozan formation, as it's too young, and instead likely come from older Santonian age exposures instead. I believe the Dessau is Santonian, so that's where I draw my guess from. I'd like to be corrected by any who have a different thought 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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