My Final Hunt....of the North Sulphur River

[JamieLynn]

I decided on a whim to make the trek to the North Sulphur River ONE MORE TIME before they dam it up and the good hunting spots are under 60 feet of water. I wasn't planning on going back, as I have not had much luck on the NSR finding my most desired thing....a Texas Mosasaur Tooth (or Vertebra...I'd settle for that even!) but a friend from North Texas was going to go and he KNOWS that river so I figured I'd tag along and maybe, just maybe, this time, the NSR would give up the goods. So I drove the 5 hours up and met up with my friends and had a nice long 6 hour hunt. (and then a 5 hour drive home....a long day). Alas, my fossil treasures were not to be found.  We had a great time and I found some great stuff, but that dang Mosasaur eludes me still. 

 

The day was GORGEOUS.  Partly cloudy, 77 degrees F, there had been rains recently and we went in at a spot about 3 miles upriver which saved us the 3 mile hike through the mud to get to the "good spot".  The water was receding rapidly, so although not as clear as it is sometimes, it was only knee high at the deepest. We hit all the gravel bars on our trek up with some success, but not as much as we'd hoped. I found some bone material, including a large fish possible jaw fragment, and did find one vertebral process and a small rib bone that are nice. My friend had the find of the day, a nice little jaw section with some tooth sockets.  He decided to keep that one. But at least I got to take a picture! 

 

We found a nice exposure of the red beds and I managed to find a full Trachyscaphites which was my find of the day, plus a couple of partials of a few ammonites I've not found before.  I found an almost decent take home of a Glyptoxoceras. It's not the best, but more complete than I've ever found before. 

 

My REAL find was a very nice shark vertebra and a fish tooth, possibly Enchodus or Xiphactinus fish tooth. Leaning toward Enchodus. If anyone can confirm, I'd appreciate it! 

 

So I never found my Mosasaur Tooth or a vert, but I did have a lovely time wandering along the river, getting my feet wet and the odd patch of poison ivy. It was worth it, but I suspect it's my last trip to the NSR. 

 

 

Some you just leave them where they are:

 

THE find of the day: Mosasaur Jaw fragment.

Size 2 inches

 

Rib Bone:

2 inches

 

Large Fish bone, jaw maybe

Size 3 inches

 

 fish tooth

Size 1 inch

 

 

Shark Vert 

Size 1 inch

 

 

My lovely little Trachyscaphites spiniger

Size 2 inches

 

Glyptoxoceras

Size 3 inches

 

Pachydiscus paulsoni 

Size 5 inches

 

 

Mosasaur Vertebra process

Size 4 inches

 

Another Mosasaur chunka bone.

 

The Full Hoard

 

[JohnJ]

Nice finds, Jamie.  Any additional photos of the last two bone chunks?  

[JamieLynn]

@JohnJ Thanks! I was happy with my haul! As for more photos Ask and Ye Shall Receive: 

vertebra process:

 

other chunk:

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds.

That Trachyscaphites is yummy. 

[Mikrogeophagus]

Sad that the NSR is getting filled in. I've been seeing online that the place is super muddy from all the construction going on. I'm pretty new to the game, but even I have at least made a couple of memorable trips out there that yielded some of my most prized finds. Congratz though! Looks like you managed to make some nice scores before the river is finally dammed. I wonder if the future park will be as fossiliferous? 

[RuMert]

Great finds for the final visit. Gestalt closed

[JohnJ]

45 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

@JohnJ Thanks! I was happy with my haul! As for more photos Ask and Ye Shall Receive: 

vertebra process:

 

other chunk:

Hard to say much more about the last piece without in hand examination.  However, the other piece doesn't look like a process.  It reminds me more of a partial mosasaur quadrate in form and texture... which would be way cooler.  

[JamieLynn]

It has an interesting triangle-ish cross section. I didn't get a picture of that before, but can tomorrow

[Darktooth]

Your fish tooth is from a Sawfish. It is in great condition!

[Bobby Rico]

Nice finds and as always great photos. Cheers Bobby 

[Jeffrey P]

Congrats. Excellent finds! That mosasaur jaw piece and the Trachyscaphtes are especially impressive! Thanks for sharing. 

[JohnJ]

1 hour ago, JamieLynn said:

It has an interesting triangle-ish cross section. I didn't get a picture of that before, but can tomorrow

 

That aligns well with a quadrate.  Download this paper for some excellent photos.  Note the bone texture.

[DPS Ammonite]

4 hours ago, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

I wonder if the future park will be as fossiliferous? 

Generally not. You might erode into some new fossil areas along the shores. When underwater, the old channel will accumulate sediment and not have much erosion. The old channel uncovered lots of fossils because floods of 20+ feet could erode many inches into the bottom and bank uncovering lots of new fossils. RIP NSR!

[JamieLynn]

1 hour ago, JohnJ said:

 

That aligns well with a quadrate.  Download this paper for some excellent photos.  Note the bone texture.

oooohhh.. thank you John! Yes, that is indeed much cooler.... 

[JohnJ]

21 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

oooohhh.. thank you John! Yes, that is indeed much cooler.... 

 

A quadrate, or recognizable piece of one, is far rarer than any of your pictured finds.  

[Jared C]

I didn't notice at first but I agree that John is spot on, that particularly rough texture is unique to Tylosaurines, reminds me of a few of the Tylosaur quadrates I got to see in the SMU collection. The texture I'm referring to is evident in this picture. This helps rule out other potential Ozan mosasaurs like Platecarpus.

7 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

Size 4 inches

 

[JamieLynn]

thank you @JohnJ and @Jared C - that definitely makes me a happy fossil hunter! 

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Awesome finds! Especially the partial tylosaurine quadrate - which I initially missed as well, when glancing over your finds - is very cool! It's a very distinct and diagnostic feature of mosasaurs, so for me this would definitely rank even above that beautiful jaw fragment you found!

 

13 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

I decided on a whim to make the trek to the North Sulphur River ONE MORE TIME before they dam it up and the good hunting spots are under 60 feet of water.

 

But they're not seriously going to dam up the NSR? It's a world-famous and world-class Upper Cretaceous and extremely fossiliferous exposure! It'll be a real shame to loose it...! And while, with our young kids, it's not likely that I'd have been able to visit the US and NSR any time soon, I still liked to dream about going there sometime in the future. I also got some amazing fossils from there... Now all of this will come to an end? Why does it seem like all the great fossil hunting grounds the world over are just becoming inaccessible (especially here in Europe, of course, but also beyond)? It just seems like we're at the end of an era, the era of great and plentiful fossil discoveries. Makes me sad

[Jared C]

4 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Why does it seem like all the great fossil hunting grounds the world over are just becoming inaccessible (especially here in Europe, of course, but also beyond)? It just seems like we're at the end of an era, the era of great and plentiful fossil discoveries

Fortunately, many of the best fossil hunting sites there are haven't been discovered by the general public and are only known to a few collectors. It will be a huge shame to lose the NSR though... I haven't been yet but it's also on my bucket list. If you ever do make it to america to poke around for fossils, some of us would be glad to take you to a spot or two  

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

41 minutes ago, Jared C said:

Fortunately, many of the best fossil hunting sites there are haven't been discovered by the general public and are only known to a few collectors. It will be a huge shame to lose the NSR though... I haven't been yet but it's also on my bucket list. If you ever do make it to america to poke around for fossils, some of us would be glad to take you to a spot or two  

 

Thanks! That's good to know  And if I ever do find myself in Texas I'll make sure to take you up on your offer

[FossilDAWG]

When is the final demise of NSR expected to occur?  Although most people think of the mosasaur and other vertebrate fossils, I'm actually more interested in the red beds and their ammonites.  Will anything be left of red bed exposures after the dam is in place?

 

Don

[JamieLynn]

51 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

When is the final demise of NSR expected to occur?  Although most people think of the mosasaur and other vertebrate fossils, I'm actually more interested in the red beds and their ammonites.  Will anything be left of red bed exposures after the dam is in place?

 

Don

From what I understand it is supposed to be completed by the end of 2024, so there is still some time. But yes, it will completely cover all the primary fossil hunting areas. It's really a sad thing. I had heard they will put the Ladonia Fossil Park below the dam but I don't know if that will be any thing like the original fossil areas.

[GPayton]

On 4/21/2022 at 11:19 AM, FossilDAWG said:

When is the final demise of NSR expected to occur?  Although most people think of the mosasaur and other vertebrate fossils, I'm actually more interested in the red beds and their ammonites.  Will anything be left of red bed exposures after the dam is in place?

 

Don

While almost all of the river east of Ladonia will still be open, everything west of it will be flooded by the new lake - unfortunately, this portion of the river is the location of the red beds. I remember hearing at a DPS meeting recently that the red beds are mostly undocumented and a full stratigraphy of that portion of the river was never undertaken, so it's a real shame that they're going to be gone so soon. 

[DPS Ammonite]

31 minutes ago, GPayton said:

While almost all of the river east of Ladonia will still be open, everything west of it will be flooded by the new lake - unfortunately, this portion of the river is the location of the red beds. I remember hearing at a DPS meeting recently that the red beds are mostly undocumented and a full stratigraphy of that portion of the river was never undertaken, so it's a real shame that they're going to be gone so soon. 

There are a lot of nice fossils found downstream of Ladonia to the east. I suppose that after the dam is put in, the large flows that uncover fossils inch by inch will mostly disappear. I would not be surprised if the river stops eroding it’s bed and starts filling full of sediment. 

[PaleoPastels]

Im so jealous of your jaw fragment! Ive been itching to go out here again, a mosie tooth still eludes me as well. Im visiting Iceland for the rest of spring- summer, cant go back until possibly August when the Texas sun is too hot for me.  I live an hour west of NSR so the fossil bug is biting me bad! Im sure you’ll find one someday!

 

I hope everyone keeps us updated with the NSR construction updates!  I cant even imagine the cool stuff being unearthed right now! 
 

thank you Jared for the info about tylosaurus bone texture- I learned something! Jealous you got to go to see stuff at SMU! Ive always wished I could have had the opportunity to go to college there and have access to seeing all the cool stuff! The Perot and Heard museum are my favorite places to see public locally found marine Cretaceous fossils!