Looking at Lake Texoma for ammonites

[Collector9658]

I strolled around Lake Texoma today. I mainly was looking for a chunky ammonite to take home, and I knew I was in for some serious work if I wanted to find a nice one. While walking to the ammonite beach, I picked through some marl banks and found a couple cool keepers.

 

The pyritized small ammonites were plentiful, so I picked a few, while the shark teeth were not. Only found one. Looks like Cretalamna sp? I did manage to find a pretty nice echinoid that the water had cleaned perfectly. Hemiaster sp?

 

Unfortunately the ammonite beach wasn't what I had hoped for. I'm not sure if I picked a bad time to go, or if it's just too popular but all the rock I could find was pretty much smashed to pieces along with many big ammonites. It took a long time to find a potential keeper. I did manage to find one, and man it was a lot of work to pry this out. This ammonite is over a foot long and was very heavy to haul back to my car. Needless to say, I took frequent breaks on my way back! On the journey back to my car, I did find a nicer complete ammonite exposed. It was the only one that day I found that was nice that didn't require extensive excavation, so I decided to take it home too. All in all, I had a pretty nice time at the lake. It was a lot more work and walking than I expected.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Collector9658

[Mikrogeophagus]

I think it is a pretty popular spot these days. It gets a lot of publicity on places like fb and of course giant ammos are sure to catch peoples attention. Seems like you at least managed to get yourself a nice sized one as well as some of the smaller treats the site has to offer which I'd consider a solid haul. I am itching to get back there myself and collect some of the micromorphs and shark teeth that sometimes go overlooked.

 

That cretalamna is a neat find. The Duck Creek is Albian, so as far as cretalamna go, it's pretty old. The only species I'm aware of from the Albian is Cretalamna bryanti from Alabama I believe. Your specimen and the one I have from Texoma aren't good matches in my opinion. Perhaps it could be C. catoxodon which is present in Texas Cenomanian formations, but that is just speculation.

 

I'm jealous of that echinoid. All the ones I've got from there are mushed beyond recognition. I'm thinking Macraster elegans, but lets wait for someone else who might actually know what they're talking about  

[hadrosauridae]

Those are some very nice finds!  I have looked many times and so far have never found a shark tooth.  One of these days!  I think your echi is a macraster based on the scalloped nature of the of 5-point star.  Hemiasters generally are smooth, with the start just being a set of pores with little to no indentation.  I dont have my reference book with me to verify.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice! 

Thanks for sharing.