Navarro County Creek, November 18th

[BudB]

I made a trip to a Navarro County creek yesterday morning. This is the same creek I visited a few weeks ago, but I was a little bit further downstream yesterday. It was still a Wolfe City formation area. It ended up being one of those days where I spent more time hiking and exploring than I should have. I was looking for likely outcrops in this creek, and just didn't find any. I eventually started checking the unlikely looking ones closely, but never did find any fossils that way. I finally spent some time crawling gravel bars, and found a few things there. I'm still a relative newbie at this, but in my limited experience, I've had better luck finding fossils in good shape in outcrops than on gravel bars. This day was no exception; what I found on the gravel bars was in rough shape. 

The best gravel bar was less than a half mile downstream from the outcrop where I found everything last time I was in this creek, but it was obvious that yesterday's teeth didn't come from that outcrop. All of the teeth from that outcrop were black; yesterday's teeth were brown. I found myself wondering where the outcrop was where they came from, if it was covered with mud and would show up again next flood, or if I had just missed it in my searching. I didn't leave myself much time for crawling gravel bars yesterday. I want to hunt this area again. Yesterday's haul was pretty sparse, and in rough shape.
 

Edited November 20, 2021 by BudB

[BudB]

A couple of in situ photos. You'll have to look very closely to see the fossil in that first photo. Hint: it's really close to the glove.
 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by BudB

[BudB]

Here's the tooth from the second in situ photo. When I saw that in situ view, I thought I had found a beautiful tooth, half buried in gravel. It turned out the half of the tooth I was seeing was all there was. It had split in two.
 

[BudB]

This tooth from the first in situ photo is in better shape than anything else from the trip. A pretty little tooth.
 

[BudB]

This appears to be a piece of an Enchodus fang.
 

[BudB]

This Squalicorax tooth isn't just broken, it's also worn to the point that there aren't any serrations left.
 

[BudB]

This smaller Squalicorax tooth is also broken, but still has serrations.
 

[BudB]

Not enough left of this long and slender tooth to tell what it is.
 

[BudB]

This one has obviously done some serious tumbling on the rocks.
 

[BudB]

One root missing from this one.
 

[BudB]

I thought this was a broken part of a large tooth, but the view of the break in that second photo makes it look more like a bone.
 

[BudB]

This one is definitely a bone, though I have no idea what kind. Here are views of both sides.
 

[BudB]

This smaller fish vert shows the effects of tumbling on the gravel. The larger one is covered with so much matrix that I almost didn't recognize what it was.

 

[Sjfriend]

That split tooth had be a "YEAH....... darn it" moment 

[Jared C]

 

 

8 hours ago, BudB said:

This one is definitely a bone, though I have no idea what kind. Here are views of both sides.
 

 Just a thought- could this be mammal enamel?

[BudB]

11 hours ago, Jared C said:

 

 

 Just a thought- could this be mammal enamel?

I think you're right. Besides the pearl-ish finish on it, when you look at it from the end, it looks like a piece of a mammal tooth. Identifying things from broken pieces obviously isn't a strength of mine yet.

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by BudB