Permian Red Beds of Texas Fossil Hunt

[JamieLynn]

I had the pleasure of arranging a special fossil hunt to the Red Beds of Texas - a famous Permian site that was originally described by Copes in 1870's and later by Romer. It's an old quarry on private land that we were able to take a group of 10 to hunt on. And I was corrected by our guide that it was really not so much a "hunt" as a "collect" because the fossils were literally EVERYWHERE! You could sit in a 10 foot radius circle and be picking up vertebrate material all day long! We collected for about 5 hours and everyone came away with some fabulous fossils.  Lots of amphibian skull pieces, sometimes with jaws and teeth sockets, vertebrae, lots of little toe bones, shark teeth and spines and much more.  Most were small things, but occasionally you'd fine a nice big vert or piece of bone.  Full Dimetrodon skeletons have been recovered from this site as well as amphibian Eryops and others.  Here are some of my favorites from the "collection"!

 

Dimetrodon toe bone: 3/8 inch

 

Amphibian Eryops Toe bone: 1 inch

 

Eryops ungal (toe bone) 1/2 inch

 

Eryops jaw and tooth sockets - 1 inch

 

Amphibian skull fragment (the biggest bit I found - 1 1/2 inches)

 

Eryops Tooth: 1/4 inch

 

Another jaw fragment - 1/2 inch

 

An unknown tooth: 1/8 inch

 

Orthocanthus shark tooth (Fresh water shark - there were HUNDREDS if not thousands of these teeth, but rarely do you find  a complete one. Some were big, almost an inch, but this one was 1/4 inch) The blue color is amazing

 

Some awesome little amphibian tooth plates, all around 1 inch

This one has little teeth that look like hersheys kisses!

 

smaller one - 1/2 inch

 

my best vertebra (found about 4 but most were crunchy). 3/4 inch

 

A lungfish tooth  1/2 inch

 

Lots of other bits and pieces of bones and spines: 

This is a Dimetrodon sail spine fragment. Some of the others found even better bits. 1/2 inch

 

 

Edaphosaurus spine spur (a different type of Dimetrodon). Size 1 inch

 

I can't wait to go back out again - I hope to find a Dimetrodon claw (a couple of the group did). Next time!! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jared C]

jaw on the floor, what a crazy place! Thanks for sharing these

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report and finds!

Were you able to collect any matrix for at home hunting?

[Ludwigia]

Excellent!!

[JamieLynn]

2 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Excellent report and finds!

Were you able to collect any matrix for at home hunting?

Ahhh yes, I totally forgot about that part!! We got to take home a sand bag full of matrix! I am washing it down now and will strain it soon. It was QUITE muddy, so I am curious to see how much actual fossils I get.....

[Adam86cucv]

 

Wow...what an amazing collection of fossils, and what a great location to visit!  Definitely will keep and eye out for what micros you find in the matrix.

[deutscheben]

Wow, what a dream opportunity! Those are outstanding finds, the color on the shark teeth is quite lovely.