A Nice 100 "tinychodus" Weekend

[vertman]

Well my youngest daughter has been really active as my "fossil buddy" the last month or so. I think she may have started something. You could have knocked me over with a feather yesterday when my oldest daughter (now 18) asked if we could go hunting. So off we went! I took her to a local stop in the Upper Cretaceous aged, Eagle Ford Group, Arcadia Park Formation. I was a little worried the spot may be played out as the youngest and I hit it about a month ago. But, it had rained so we tried it. While we were putting on our knee pads my daughter started spouting that she would find more teeth than me and that I was too old and tired to be effective anymore. Game on!

We spent the better part of two hours crawling around sharing good companionship, some meaningful conversation, and just relaxing and enjoying one another. My day was absolutely made with just those things there. My daughter did quite well, finding a number of shark teeth including examples of Ptychodus whipplei and Squalicorax falcatus. She also scored a few fish teeth, several fish vertebrae, and a piece of shark coprolite. I was very pleased with her effort. I found about the same things and also found a gastropod and a piece of an ammonite, which I believe is part of a Prionocyclus.

Who found the most? Well, so much for being old and tired! The time we had was outstanding. I include an image of our findings below. The first image is hers, the second mine. The third image is my attempt to show a site photo. It has 3 teeth in the image. See if you can find the third one. I apologize for the quality of the images. I think my camera is broken. I can't get that smudge out of the center.

[vertman]

Then came Sunday...

We went about out normal routine, picking up the youngest from a birthday party, heading to church, having lunch together as a family, etc. Then all 3 girls decided they wanted to go to a movie. So, this time my wife asked me to take her fossil hunting. Wow! Is there some kind of an intervention going on where the ladies in my life feel I need to get out or go insane? If so, let's keep it going!

We stopped by and got my wife a bunch of newspapers so she could do her couponing while I was driving. She loves the "Coupon Mom" show on TV and is getting almost as good as those ladies at saving money. Last week she donated over 125 pounds of food to a charity. Using coupons she paid less than $50 for it. I am proud of her. Anyway, I digress badly...

I decided I was in the mood to hunt some of the old haunts in the Upper Cretaceous aged, Eagle Ford Group, Kamp Ranch Formation this time. So, we plugged site one into the GPS and headed out. I take a pause here to mention that we have a lot of really good, really talented fossil collectors in the DFW area. Sometimes it feels like the collecting is tough because there are so many of us. But, at site one today, I was reminded that we still miss a lot of great fossils. There were basically shark teeth laying about "everywhere". The problem is the site had been left uncollected for so long almost all the teeth had the enamel bleached off of them by the sun.

The first image attached below is of the teeth we found there. They are mostly Ptychodus whipplei, P. anonymous, and Squalicorax falcatus. I hate it when great teeth get weathered in this way.

We scouted around a bit and soon found a very small exposure of the same formation nearby. Once again there were teeth "everywhere". This time they were in much better condition that the earlier location. Species included those I mentioned above and we also collected a very nice Cretolamna appendiculata shark tooth (although with the very thick root I can hear a fellow forum member thinking this may be a C. woodwardi...he could be right). My wife also found a really nice fish tooth which I believe is an example of a Pachyrhizodus tooth. Images 2 through 4 show teeth from this site.

[vertman]

Stoked by a bit of success we scouted out one more locality in the same formation. It was a very small site and one of those you just kind of have to see to believe. There were teeth literally "everywhere" in this little area. The species were the same as previously mentioned. I show some site images next. Within about 10 inches square where I stuck my knife in the ground were 23 complete shark teeth. I would have thought it was an associated set, but there were 3 or 4 species present in this little area. Here are some images:

[vertman]

More site photos...

[vertman]

More site photos...

[vertman]

More site photos...and the teeth we found there.

This was another great weekend of fossil hunting, made very special by my family members being with me.

The title was a bit mis-leading. We finished with just under 100 small Ptychodus teeth and about 40 other teeth for our efforts.

You can't beat that!

Thanks for looking!

[Tarheel59]

Great report and finds you cannot beat a family outing for fossils.. thanks for sharing.. Now you will have to do something special for Mother's Day for her next w/e Wish we had some of those teeth over this way way cool. Jeff

Also not having to get wet or really having to dig for them would be nice change..

[Carl]

You notice that fog you have in the center of your photos? You may already know, but that'[s microscratces on your lens. I just bought a new camera because of that... I guess it's a hazard of a fossil collector's camera!

[Uncle Siphuncle]

better living through fossils...

[Foshunter]

Fantastic story of a great family hunt---Nice---Tom

[sixgill pete]

Great story, great times and great finds. Way to go!!!!

[Auspex]

What a weekend, on so many levels!

Did you mention to your oldest daughter that, in the olden days, you had to collect in 18" of snow?

[sixgill pete]

Did you mention to your oldest daughter that, in the olden days, you had to collect in 18" of snow?

and walk 20 miles and barefoot to the collecting site, uphill both ways!!!

[vertman]

Carl, thanks for your thoughts on my camera. I afraid it has made its last trip. I will get a new one soon.

Auspex and Sixgill, thanks for making me smile all over again as I remember my daughter desperately struggling to find a few more teeth...and the look of grudging admiration she tossed my way when she thought I wasn't looking.

[Tony Eaton]

That's awesome that your family went fossil hunting with you and you all had so much luck!

LOL maybe you had me in mind with woodwardi? The Cretalamna looks like a 3rd or 4th posterior tooth I guess, but for that tooth position at ~18mm wide it is huge! The crown has a pronounced bend in it and the root is rather robust. If C. woodwardi isn't a figment of our imagination that one would be a good candidate perhaps?

Sigh, my kids prefer video games these days and I've only hunted a few times in the last year's time or so. Sigh, maybe my wife can use mother's day as a excuse to drag the kids fossil hunting and we can see what is lurking in some of the old spots.

[barefootgirl]

It's always great when you can spend a day fossil hunting with your kids and they're enjoying themselves! You all did very good.

[CliffH]

Wonderful times with the family and great report! I too love the times I spend out collecting with my daughter. She is only three, but is always asking me when we can go pick up more "fossil sea shells" or sharks teeth. Last trip out she walk up with a smile and said "here daddy", and presented me with an almost perfect little phymosoma echinoid.

The wife is a no go most time, but like yours is looking after my sanity, and is lately telling me that I need to go collecting more often.

Hope you have many more weekends like this one!