Jacksboro Hunt

[TyrannosaurusRex]

Howdy folks. Been a while since I’ve posted. I went through some significant personal losses and haven’t been on TFF in much longer than I’d have liked. 
 

After over a year, I’ve finally gotten out to hunt, this time in an area I’d never been to. 
 

(Also, if you’re in the Jacksboro area, my water bottle unfortunately fell out of my backpack, and I would really like to get it back since it’s been on a lot of trips with me. I’d pay someone to go get it if they’re nearby!)

 

The weather was pretty nasty, raining and thundering a good amount of the time I was out hunting. But with new erosion, there was a lot of good stuff to be found. I will be updating this post with new photographs as I get things clean, everything is pretty muddy. IDs and information is welcomed, I am not familiar with Pennsylvanian material. 
 

A nice little Gastropod was the first thing to greet me. 

It was quickly followed by a straight nautiloid, which I found being one of my favorite things to pick up. 

 

Lovely bit of Goniatite. Probably my favorite thing to find here. 

 

Fresh whitetail deer tracks, probably only a couple hours old from earlier in the morning, right through the exposure. 

Held my breath for a moment, hoping this might be more whole, while it was, the condition is pretty poor. Still a nice find.

 

The plains were standing in water about 3-5 inches deep across the entire area. In about a week, it will be an absolute nightmare! Tens of thousands of mosquito larvae. 

[TyrannosaurusRex]

There were lots of snails on the grass around the plain area. 

 

Lots of water flowing down the little ravines. 

 

Always exciting to see that distinctive pattern. 

 

As I said previously, the site will be a nightmare in about a week. The mosquito larvae were everywhere. Thousands of them!

 

The Goniatite from the photo prior, with some of the mud wiped off. 

 

Coyote tracks next to the exposure. 

 

Lots, and lots of mud! It was quite deep in some areas, enough so that I got stuck a couple times. 

[grandpa]

1 hour ago, TyrannosaurusRex said:

I went through some significant personal losses

I am so sorry to hear this.  I hope you are recovering and all is better for you.

[TyrannosaurusRex]

1 hour ago, grandpa said:

I am so sorry to hear this.  I hope you are recovering and all is better for you.

Thank you, sir! Getting out in the mud and muck to dig around is very healing. The fossils also certainly help as well, haha. 

 

Things are much better now. 

[Ludwigia]

Interesting report. Thanks for sharing. Might it not be possible to trace the stratigraphical horizon where the goniatites are lying in order to dig up some complete ones?

[PaleoPastels]

Lovely report, I was recently went there with some good friends in Jan and it’s such a great place, beautiful location! I know a fossil club was just recently out there, hopefully it wasn’t too picked over! We’re in the rainy spring season of DFW and if one can brave the mud there should be some nice new stuff on top. 

 

Sorry to hear about your losses, I’ve recently been dealing with loss as well and being outside definitely helps! Great to have you back. 
 

Hopefully someone here can pick that up for you soon! If I lost my $40 LE iron flask one that keeps water ice cold for days I would be sad and turn back around. 

[PaleoPastels]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Interesting report. Thanks for sharing. Might it not be possible to trace the stratigraphical horizon where the goniatites are lying in order to dig up some complete ones?

Based on the photos and my memory from being there it looks like they were actually right in front of it!  Close where I found my complete Eoasianites! 

[Advantage]

Thanks for posting I enjoyed the photographs and hope you keep well after loses. 

[TyrannosaurusRex]

10 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Interesting report. Thanks for sharing. Might it not be possible to trace the stratigraphical horizon where the goniatites are lying in order to dig up some complete ones?

I would suspect so. I found most of them in pockets, but something about the erosion here does a number on the fossils. I don’t know of many of any larger size that have been found whole. I did find 2 small Gonioloboceras, one of which was pretty severely eroded. The second was, surprisingly, in a concretion. Didn’t find any other nautiloids in concretions. 

 

6 hours ago, PaleoPastels said:

Lovely report, I was recently went there with some good friends in Jan and it’s such a great place, beautiful location! I know a fossil club was just recently out there, hopefully it wasn’t too picked over! We’re in the rainy spring season of DFW and if one can brave the mud there should be some nice new stuff on top. 

 

Sorry to hear about your losses, I’ve recently been dealing with loss as well and being outside definitely helps! Great to have you back. 
 

Hopefully someone here can pick that up for you soon! If I lost my $40 LE iron flask one that keeps water ice cold for days I would be sad and turn back around. 

It was my first time, so I am not sure what the normal is, but some areas definitely were more picked over than others. I had the whole pit to myself for almost the entire duration. Was very surprised to see another person come in the rain to look. 
 

Yes, it’s a shame the water bottle was left. I would guess it came out when I picked my backpack up. There’s a group going out to hunt the area tomorrow. They reached out to me over FB and said they’d look for it. :) 

 

6 hours ago, PaleoPastels said:

Based on the photos and my memory from being there it looks like they were actually right in front of it!  Close where I found my complete Eoasianites! 

I would love to see photos of it! I have been relying on txfossils to try to identify different ones, they seem to lack any whole ones that didn’t suffer some significant erosion. 
 

 

I’ve got everything drying after a vinegar bath now, so I’ll have better photos of actual specimens shortly. :)

[erose]

Great report!

 

PSA was there a few weeks ago. It wasn't raining but was still a mucky mess.  I found some great/better specimens of stuff I already have but very little goniatite material, which was surprising. 

 

The highlight and the agony of the day was finding a small rare shark tooth. I think it was a Caseodus. 15 minutes later I went to pull it out of the small film can i popped it into and to my horror and dismay the film can had opened up and it was gone. Time to retire those old worn film cans for sure...

 

 

[TyrannosaurusRex]

On 3/10/2023 at 3:43 PM, erose said:

Great report!

 

PSA was there a few weeks ago. It wasn't raining but was still a mucky mess.  I found some great/better specimens of stuff I already have but very little goniatite material, which was surprising. 

 

The highlight and the agony of the day was finding a small rare shark tooth. I think it was a Caseodus. 15 minutes later I went to pull it out of the small film can i popped it into and to my horror and dismay the film can had opened up and it was gone. Time to retire those old worn film cans for sure...

 

 

Oh dear! I cannot imagine. That would be unbelievably frustrating. I hope you find another next time you’re there. I’ve heard of people finding smaller teeth by dissolving some of the fossiliferous rock, so I brought back several pieces to try. 
 

Most of the fossils aren’t coming out as clean as I’d have liked, but the highlight was a Petalodus tooth. I assume it’s Petalodus, but if anyone has better identification, I’d love to hear it. 
 

I’ll see if I can get a proper photo of it, I just started a new job so I’m behind on taking photos of the specimens. 

 

A few larger straight nautiloid sections. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I brought this home and cleaned it up. It caught my eye initially just because of the perfect fracture through the concretion. Section of some straight nautiloid, perhaps? I found several pieces of the same critter elsewhere of fragments outside of concretions. I’ll definitely be trying to get proper photos this weekend.