Ash Grove Quarry, Midlothian Texas Sharks Teeth Trip

[ClearLake]

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to join in a Dallas Paleo Society sponsored trip to the Ash Grove quarry in Midlothian, Texas.   As with other quarries in this area, they are mining the carbonates of the Austin Group and often expose the Atco Fm. (Upper Cretaceous / Coniacian aged) near the base of the operations.  In this case, the fossiliferous rock was found in various piles that had been moved aside during their work and usually can be identified by its grey color, speckled with black bits (the black bits either being fossils or phosphatic "pebbles").  Thanks go out to DPS for organizing this and to the Ash Grove quarry for allowing us in.  Due to recent rains inundating an area of the quarry containing previously quarried material, we went to a very new part of the operations, where the sought after rock had just been dug up in the last week or so.  Unfortunately, fossil hunting in this case greatly benefits from the rock having had a chance to weather so fresh stuff was not necessarily ideal, but the weather was fantastic, so that was good.

 

The Atco is a marine deposit, part of the large inland waterway that cut north/south-ish across North America during much of the Cretaceous.  It is a lag deposit , although the exact details of its deposition are the source of much debate.  For most of the collectors on this trip, sharks teeth are the primary target, but there are other fossils to be found in the rock.

 

First off, a couple of pictures of the group (there were about 50 participants) getting organized, heading down into the quarry and out collecting.

  

 

  

 

A picture of the rock we were primarily searching for:

 

Here is what I found.  The last quarry trip in this area I was on, I came away with well over 100 small, but nice, teeth.  This time was quite different, I probably only have a half dozen complete teeth, but a couple of pretty nice ones, so I was OK with that.

 

This one looked really nice when I found it in the rock.  The color was fantastic, a nice brown (almost all the teeth here are black), a little over an inch long blade (most teeth here are quite small), and very sharp edges still present.

 

I cleaned it up a bit when I returned home and put a scale on it (increments are CM's).  Unfortunately the root on this Cretoxyrhina mantelli is a little punky I think due to pyrite or some other diagenetic change.  During cleaning a nice little tooth showed up just underneath (see third picture below) that looks like a little C. mantelli or a small Scapanorhynchus raphiodon posterior

 

 

  

 

The other nice find of the day for me was a Ptychodus atcoensis, my best and largest Ptychcodus by far (I don't see these a lot in my collecting) and a new species for me.  I neglected to take a picture that showed the whole rock it was in, about a grapefruit sized chunk of limestone but here is a close up of what was peaking out.

 

 

When I returned home, I put my air scribe to work to see if it was complete or not, luckily it was and is in great condition.  I have opted to leave it in the matrix for now and have trimmed down the rock to a more reasonable size.

  

 

Lastly here are a few of the other fossils I picked up.  A  couple of bivalves (probably Ostrea for the small one on the left and Lopha for the larger) and then a chunk of what would have been a large Inoceramus which are quite common in this material.  The fourth picture is wood I am told (I'm not a plant guy) which also was quite common in the the rock.

 

      

 

That is all for now, thanks for taking a look.

 

Mike

[JamieLynn]

Well dang it! Another online fossil friend that I didn't get to meet in person even though we were on the SAME FIELD TRIP!!!  But I guess with 50 people on said field trip, it's hard to make acquaintances!  Name tags are a must...but then, you'd have to put Clearlake on your nametag or otherwise I'd still not know! hahhha

Lovely finds BTW. It was a fun day.! I'll be posting MY report soon too! 

[ClearLake]

33 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

Well dang it! Another online fossil friend that I didn't get to meet in person even though we were on the SAME FIELD TRIP!!!

Darn, I knew I should have yelled out "Any Fossil Forum People Here?" when we were gathered at the top.  haha  You weren't the one with the flat tire were you?  I talked to a few people, but once we got scattered about the quarry, not so much.  Sorry I missed you.  I would say I was the one with grey hair, but that would have still left 1/3 of the group!

[JamieLynn]

hahhah!! That would have been the perfect shout out!  And fortunately, no, I did not have a flat tire. That's not a fun way to end a hunt!! 

[Mikrogeophagus]

I was on the same trip, but I missed both of you . It was a tough day of hunting for me as well. Came away with a nice Ptychodus mortoni from the Austin Chalk just above the Basal Atco, but that's about it. Your Ptychodus atcoensis is very pretty.

 

[ClearLake]

50 minutes ago, EPIKLULSXDDDDD said:

I was on the same trip, but I missed both of you 

[PaleoPastels]

I was on this same trip LOL! Missed saying hi!   I was so curious if any other TFF people besides me and EPIK went on this trip, sad I didn’t get to meet ya’ll! I can see myself in that group picture, but just barely. I was the gal in the Globidens shirt out there rockin’ it in heel sandals.   
 

With only a few hours for us to hunt I mostly found shark teeth that day, only one good Ptychodus and I walked by one that EPIK found in an Austin Chalk boulder. I saw a lot of pretty scales & fish skin preserved here. My best find IMO was this Squalicorax f anterior, nothing crazy.

In-situ^

EPIK with his Ptychodus mortoni find:

 

I love how at the end everyone got distracted and pulled over on the driving path for some large pyrite chunks.  As I was leaving Roger was at my car door window and gave me a very nice handful of perfect pyrite balls.

 

VERY gorgeous actoensis tooth! Congrats!  I considered bringing rocks home to work on with my scribe as well. I have a few small ones for a soak later. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by PaleoPastels

[narwhalberger]

On 5/10/2023 at 2:45 PM, JamieLynn said:

hahhah!! That would have been the perfect shout out!  And fortunately, no, I did not have a flat tire. That's not a fun way to end a hunt!! 

 
I’m FlatTireGirl!  Haha. But you probably don’t know me from this forum because Im more of a lurker (not a poster)- until now! That trip inspired many “firsts” for me, as you’ll discover if you read on.  And, to be fair, I BEGAN the hunt with the flat as  you can see in the photo featuring my orange Subaru. But I wasn’t about to miss the trip that we’ve been waiting so  long for!  

This was my maiden voyage into that quarry (despite living like 5 minutes away from it and occasionally fantasizing about just walking in to poke around I’m NOT trying to get my 1st criminal trespassing charge though lol)  and it was also my very first hunt for shark teeth. I normally look for ammonites and cool rocks and minerals.  So this was… different!
 

 I learned that I like to keep things moving when I’m “in the field” rather than sit around for too long.  But the stillness and  chipping away had its benefits- I made a fossil friend and learned a lot from the people around me!  

 

I found “the better part of a fish” (as Roger put it) and I loved the pyrite hunting (that’s my jam, big time)!  I ended up bringing home a few big chunks of phosphorus-rich rock to pore through (then soak) at home. It was more enjoyable and successful for me that way!  Plus I figured the stones would be the extra weight my car needed to really squeeze out the rest of that pesky air in my tire. 
On my way home,  I pulled over in a shady parking lot  on route 67, ordered me some sushi and froyo for delivery to said parking lot, rolled up my proverbial sleeves and proceeded to put a spare tire on a car for the first time ever.  
 

Overall, it was a pretty satisfying day despite not finding any teeth while I was actually in the quarry.  Here are some pics!  I can’t take credit for the biggest tooth in the lineup though- Dave H found that one and donated it to me

 

 

 

[automech]

Welcome to the Forum from Maryland! Nice finds. That tire took a beating. You drove to the quarry with that??

[grandpa]

Welcome to the forum.  I too enjoy the pyrite that comes out of that quarry, along with some nice calcite crystals I have found there.

[ClearLake]

3 hours ago, narwhalberger said:

I’m FlatTireGirl!  Haha. But you probably don’t know me from this forum because Im more of a lurker (not a poster)- until now! That trip inspired many “firsts” for me, as you’ll discover if you read on.  And, to be fair, I BEGAN the hunt with the flat as  you can see in the photo featuring my orange Subaru.

Ah yes, I can see the tire is a bit low in that first picture I posted.  I didn't notice it at the start of the trip (and I was in line just a car or two in front of you), but it was pretty flat by the time you went to leave!  Glad you got that all squared away.

 

Welcome to the forum, lurking is fun, but I think you will enjoy being an active poster even more.

 

3 hours ago, narwhalberger said:

I found “the better part of a fish” (as Roger put it) and I loved the pyrite hunting (that’s my jam, big time)!

That fish is pretty nice, I'm surprised there is anything that articulated in that deposit given what most of it looks like.  Very cool.  And the pyrite balls were nice, but I'll have to say that at the Martin Marietta quarry on the SW side of town, the pyrite can be easily collected that is is very nice, good sized cubes set in the matrix, even more cool in my opinion.  Maybe since you live near there, you have already been there.

[Oxytropidoceras]

On 5/10/2023 at 1:04 PM, ClearLake said:

Darn, I knew I should have yelled out "Any Fossil Forum People Here?" when we were gathered at the top.  haha  You weren't the one with the flat tire were you?  I talked to a few people, but once we got scattered about the quarry, not so much.  Sorry I missed you.  I would say I was the one with grey hair, but that would have still left 1/3 of the group!

 

Maybe we should have a "Fossil Forum" pin or bracelet with a simple "FF" design or logo on it. Something that Fossil Forum members can look for to identify fellow Fossil Forum members but will not be noticed by nonmembers.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Oxytropidoceras
fixed formatting

[Tidgy's Dad]

6 hours ago, Oxytropidoceras said:

 

Maybe we should have a "Fossil Forum" pin or bracelet with a simple "FF" design or logo on it. Something that Fossil Forum members can look for to identify fellow Fossil Forum members but will not be noticed by nonmembers.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

Or we could all get TFF tattooed on the three central knuckles on the back of our left hand. 

[automech]

@Oxytropidoceras I started thinking of this also. Maybe have stickers on our cars like this:

 

But, says TFF in the middle. And, The Fossil Forum along the bottom.

Or, if anyone knows of a silkscreener that could make up a bunch of t-shirts. Maybe, with the trilobite logo from this webpage. Or, a meg? Just some thoughts. 

 

[automech]

How's this:

 

Here's the web page that I made it on:

https://www.makestickers.com/customize.aspx?tid=7423

 

Maybe, someone in Admin could call and ask about bulk order pricing or something.

[Kane]

7 minutes ago, automech said:

How's this:

 

Here's the web page that I made it on:

https://www.makestickers.com/customize.aspx?tid=7423

 

Maybe, someone in Admin could call and ask about bulk order pricing or something.

That would be a decision for the TFF site owner, not staff.  

[narwhalberger]

We can make pins to wear, too!  

[narwhalberger]

11 minutes ago, Kane said:

That would be a decision for the TFF site owner, not staff.  

It would just be used for DPS members to identify themselves as FF users on field trips.  Would using the letters TFF be a copyright/trademark infringement?  
 

if so then I guess using this guy on stickers or pins would be out of the question as well?. ☹️  

We’d have to come up with something more generic/ cryptic! 

[Kane]

I am not sure, and cannot speak on behalf of the TFF site owner. You might reach out to him directly: @Cris

[JohnJ]

10 minutes ago, narwhalberger said:

Would using the letters TFF be a copyright/trademark infringement?  

Creating or using any logo to imply The Fossil Forum (without permission) would be unethical at best and illegal in most cases.  It's not worth losing your membership over.  

 

As Kane stated, Cris has the final authority on any permission.

[JohnJ]

Further, I suggest any additional discussion on this idea take place via PM so as not to continue hijacking @ClearLake's topic.