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My First Bryozoan - Near Harker Heights Tx


JohnnyMorales

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It's not very big, about the size of a quarter, but it is preserved well enough that it looks almost exactly like the picture of a living specimen/modern relative, which I included as an inset of the picture of the one I found.

post-2324-0-53910400-1326006904_thumb.jpg

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congratulations jonathanseer, nice bryos are "trip makers" for me :)

"Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus

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Excellent definition!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Jonathanseer,

I see the similarity to the living specimen, but what was the identification reference for the fossil? Cretaceous bryozoans here in TX are not all that common and I would love to know a good ID source.

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Hey thanks for the comments.

In regards to what formation, I think it is the borderline between the Eagle and Walnut as I found it literally on the Balcones Fault that runs through Central Texas in Bell County on a road cut. I had stopped to check out a small collapse of layered limestone figuring it might be a promising site, but the collapse was worthless. Instead all the stuff that had fallen prior to that collapse was where the neat fossils were, apparently mostly untouched.

Lots of cross section type fossils of rudists I think..

I'm trying to get photos of that stuff up.

As for the bryo, I didn't even know I had it. I found it while photographing the obvious fossil it was resting upon, As I positioned it in various angles trying to understand what I was looking it, I noticed the little bryo fossil serendipitously, and quickly forgot about the possible rudist as I had found lots of those. LOL

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Jonathanseer,

I see the similarity to the living specimen, but what was the identification reference for the fossil? Cretaceous bryozoans here in TX are not all that common and I would love to know a good ID source.

What do you mean "identification reference"? The living Bryo photo was one I had found and kept in an effort to identify another fossil I had which is much larger and also has the lattice like structure, but I'm assuming is a sponge. I haven't posted any pictures of it yet, because I do not know what it is.

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I was wondering if you had a reference to a known fossil bryozoan like the one you found.

I only found this a couple of days ago, and I haven't had a chance to look.

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Oh by the way the photo of the living bryozoan is a lacy bryozoan or Membranipora membranacea. I'm not suggesting I have a fossil of that species, only that I am using the living photo as a reference to define the fossil as some sort of bryozoan.

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Jonathanseer,

I see the similarity to the living specimen, but what was the identification reference for the fossil? Cretaceous bryozoans here in TX are not all that common and I would love to know a good ID source.

As far as a good ID source the Book "A field guide to Texas fossils" has photos of fossil lacy bryozoans something quite similar, though the photo of the lacy bryozoan I provided is the best match of all.

They are uncommon perhaps I don't know, but they aren't unusual I'd guess, the book has photos of almost the same thing from the same area I found this one. Considering the size of the one I found, it'd be hard to purposely find any of them. What's interesting is they supposedly like to cling to seaweed, which begs the question what were they clinging to on the rock I found LOL (when it was alive that is)

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