Some Miscellaneous Fossil Trips

[Thomas.Dodson]

I have been too busy to get out fossil hunting when I want but there are a few recent times I've been able to get out. I wanted to try and post a small trip report about them.

 

On October 31 I had the opportunity to visit the W.M. Browning Cretaceous Fossil Park in Prentiss County, Mississippi. Most people from the area are probably familiar with this old site but I'm a new resident to this part of the South so I wanted to give it a try. It's Late Campanian Demopolis Formation. It was a little cold and rainy but warm enough for someone used to North Dakota.

 

Apparently these large concretions erode out of a higher formation.

First tooth I found wasn't even in the creek but on the bank where I set my sieves. A good sign.

A little tributary carving through the bedrock made for relaxing sounds.

A little mosasaur tooth.

Washing and drying the teeth back home.

"Junk" teeth I set aside to use for biology outreach programs.

S
Some more pics of the mosasaur tooth.

A nice Hybodus cephalic clasper.

A chunk of cartilage and some verts.

A blunted Ischyrizha rostral spine.

Keeper fossils. A couple Baculites asper pieces and some Cadulus sp. didn't get in close pictures.

I'm always a sucker for lightning and cool color variations in teeth.

Serratolamna serrata teeth were the second most common.

Squalicorax kaupi

Squalicorax pristodontus

Hybodus sp. and Pseudohypolophus.

Most were missing tips but the Enchodus were a good average size.

Xiphactinus teeth were just tips.

Some bigger Scapanorhynchys were also present.

Baculites asper and Cadulus sp.

Anomia argentia

The small Gryphaeostrea vomer. Exogyra ponderosa and Pycnodonte convexa (not pictured) were also a common find.

Aside from the common material there were some nice rarer specimens and stuff new to my collection. Overall it was a very good trip.

 

 

[Thomas.Dodson]

On New Years break I was able to take another trip into Texas. I stopped at Lake Texoma and collected some nice ammonites/echinoids/etc. and collected a lot of micro-material at Post Oak Creek. I want to post these sometime when I get a scope camera and prepare the ammonites.

 

On the way to Texas (and back) I made a stop at the Cane River Site in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It's a pretty interesting little site for those who are not familiar. It's Eocene (Lutetian) from the Cane River Formation and has an interesting little assemblage of fossils.

 

The site is the location of an abandoned rest stop project on the Interstate. Conveniently they built the off ramp for it and cleared the land but that's as far as they went. A wealth of invert fossils litters the surface. I wish I brought kneepads for this but it was worth crawling around.

The squares are 4 x 4 cm for a general size reference. Caestrocorbula (corbula) wailesiana are the most common find at the site. As with other corbulids one valve is more common than the other.

Some had both valves. Generally these were predated by gastropods.

Venericardia alticosta is also a common find at the site.

Cubitostrea lisbonensis was the next most common find.

Parts of Crassatella cf. negreetensis were also fairly common.

Some Anomia species (lisbonensis?)

2 Species of corals dominated the assemblage. I believe the top are Madrepora sp. and the bottom are Madracis sp.

A little Discotrochus orbignianus

These disc shaped fossils littered the exposure. I suspect they may be some kind of large foraminifera but I don't know yet.

Possibly a tip of a Buccitriton sp.

These appear to be Coronia margaritosa.

A lone Retusa galba.

Sinum bilix.

Chlamys clarkeana.

Belosaepia veatchi. Compared to Whiskey Bridge these are downright common.

It's been suggested by Al Dente that this might be a worn/digested Belemnosella.

Some shark teeth were present but were not in great condition. Most (if not all) appear to be Carcharias.

Most interesting are the wealth of otoliths at the site. There's a paper describing all the otoliths from this site but I haven't gotten my hands on it yet. That said, I've identified the 2 most common otolith types so far. These are Pterothrissus sp.

This is Myripristis sp.

I'm not sure on these two.

 

All in all a very cool site.

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Thomas.Dodson
Deleted a duplicate picture

[deutscheben]

Thanks for the reports, the teeth from that first site are gorgeous! I enjoy the diversity of material from both sites as well.

[Jeffrey P]

Great report! W.M. Browning F.P. fauna looks very similar to Upper Cretaceous Wenonah here in New Jersey, but more productive. That's an enormous number of Scapanorhynchus teeth you found! I loved seeing your finds from the Eocene Cane River site, different from Whiskey Bridge, a lot of cool bivalves. I would enjoy visiting there someday. Thanks for sharing.