Texas Echinoid Hunt

[Uncle Siphuncle]

No major finds this past weekend, but a nearby landowner asked me to survey their property for fossils so I took them up on their generous offer. Nailing down their ranch on a geo map I saw that they were in the Upper Glen Rose formation which has echinoid zones but they are discrete, thin, and widely spaced stratigraphically. In other words I didn't have high hopes for the place, especially when the landowner spoke only of clams and snails. In short I found one echinoid zone where we took 50 echinoids, mostly Heteraster obliquatus and one Loriolia rosana. Most were damaged but they still wanted them. I kept 3 and gave them the rest. They were happy to learn about the geology and paleontology of their property and I had the thrill of collecting a new area close to home without much fuel expense. I took the time to teach them how to find other echinoid bearing exposures on their property, i.e. find the areas of broken down tan marl sandwiched between massive limestone benches, kneel down and look for Orbitolina forams, and if they see the forams, with intense scrutiny echinoids would often but not always follow. I may go on a more dedicated exploratory echinoid gig next weekend in another part of the state.

[Guest Cris]

I was shipping off fossils the other day and I mentioned it to the postal worker... She said that she had property on the river and they pick up "large white sand dollars and spearheads" off of her land regularly and I was welcome to come check it out

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Dude, jump on it. Take my advice and always try to make yourself worth dealing with. This can come through gifts of surplus fossils, educating landowners in the field, etc. If they get something out of the deal in addition to a smile and a handshake you have a good chance of being invited back in my experience.