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Lower Cretaceous Outing - Pawpaw & Duck Creek Formations


vertman

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Last Saturday I took a break from the Austin Chalk experiment that I am conducting. I decided to go hit a Lower Cretaceous-aged, Washita Group, Pawpaw formation site I have not been to in a while. It was pretty successful. I was able to find many near complete and partial examples of crabs, mostly of the genus Xanthosia. I believe I found 2 species of that genus. I got one nice Cretacorina (may have butchered that name) and a few examples of an elongate crab as well. There were also a few partial examples of lobster, Linuparis. Add in a couple of Leptostyrax macrorhiza and Cretolamna appendiculata shark teeth, and a few fish vertebrae, and it was a pretty good trip. There were even a couple of dwarf ammonites present, which is fairly rare for this particular site, though not really that rare in the Pawpaw.

On the way home I passed right by a Duck Creek Formation site my father and I collected together probably 20 or 25 years ago. I did not believe there would be any fossils there, but remembering the times he and I had, I stopped anyway. There were a few Mortoniceras ammonites there, and at the bottom of the hill someone had apparently highgraded a large but partial example of an Eopachydiscus marcianus ammonite. I left it there for the next guy. I found one of the morts in a block of Duck Creek limestone. I took a picture of it as I found it. Then there is another picture of what it looked like when I removed the matrix block from around the ammonite. It was almost complete and not nearly perfect, but a reminder that sometimes these ammonites only show you a little and have a lot more hiding underneath the matrix.

I have included a lot of images, some of the fossils as they looked in the field and some group shots as well.

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Very nice. Many more Saturdays like that and you'll need to add on a room:)

One of the main things I love about the Pawpaw and the Eagle Ford is that most of the fossils are small. I am really not into collecting large specimens anymore, though I have a ton of them from the earlier days...

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Nice Kpp slapdown! I've found exactly one site that good, New Years Day 1996, and found about that many crabs plus some nice shark teeth and verts. Those Kpp sites tend not to stay exposed and productive too long...glad you hit the window on your site.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Nice Kpp slapdown! I've found exactly one site that good, New Years Day 1996, and found about that many crabs plus some nice shark teeth and verts. Those Kpp sites tend not to stay exposed and productive too long...glad you hit the window on your site.

Holler at me after a few heavy rains. It should replenish. I would be happy to run you out there.

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Sounds groovy. I won't come empty handed. Feel free to take your "finder's fee" first.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Congratulations on another successful trip Richard.

Beautiful finds.

SWard
Southeast Missouri

(formerly Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX)

USA

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The Pawpaw must be an interesting place to hunt, nice mix of fossils. Finding a Leptostyrax with both cusps seems to be almost impossible. Nice crab finds, you hit the jackpot there. Thanks for sharing your adventure----Tom

Grow Old Kicking And Screaming !!
"Don't Tread On Me"

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Remind me, and I will ID all those crabs for you. Unfortunately I dont see any undescribed crabs there...

Nice, nice, stuff, however!

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And the last couple images:

Thanks for looking.

I look forward to seeing the left ammonite prepped and exposed! Nice hunt.

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