Texas Nautiloid With A Surprise

[historianmichael]

A few weeks ago my brother and I took a weekend trip to do some sightseeing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I had been meaning to check out an area of interest in the Late Cretaceous Period, Early Cenomanian Grayson Marl, so early Sunday morning before the museums in Dallas opened I made a quick stop to the site to at least cross it off my list. The outcrop itself was small but I was able to find the usual suspects- Ilymatogyra oysters and Neithea scallops, partial Mariella bosquensis heteromorph ammonites, and a Stoliczkaia conlini ammonite that is sadly missing its juvenile whorls. The real highlight find for me though was a big Cymatoceras hilli nautiloid. Unfortunately it is missing a chunk out of it but it is the biggest Cymatoceras nautiloid that I have found. However, the fun of discovery did not end there. After I brought it home, and as I was taking some extra matrix off, I split the backside of the nautiloid to reveal that a small Mariella rhacioformis ammonite that been pushed inside the nautiloid during deposition. And, as I was further prepping the ammonite with air tools to reveal more detail, I discovered a broken shark tooth, possibly Cretolamna appendiculata, next to it. What I thought was a cool singular find turned out to be an awesome triple discovery. 

 

 

 

[erose]

Bonus!

[Jared C]

That is awesome- fossil of the month material I think