Pennsylvanian Fossils Of North Texas

[wfrr]

My birthday was last week and my wife surprised me having found and purchased a copy of the book the Pennsylvanian Fossils of North Texas. It's a great book but I have not been out in the field with it yet.

I've dabbled in these fossils for about 20 years but I've never hit the better known areas such as Jacksboro, Lake Bridgeport or Mineral Wells. I plan on spending more time with these fossils moving forward.

It may sound silly but near the top of my hunting want list is to find a nice trilobite or two. I'm curious to know if any of you have had any luck finding them at any of the better known areas and with what frequency they are found. I still like to find crinoids too. I'd love to find one that is still articulated.

Most of the pennsylvanian fossils I find are small, well preserved and detailed. I'm sure that all varies with locality. Horn corals and molluscs certainly look nice in a shadowbox and they don't take up nearly the space that my ever growing mosasaur collection does.

I've been reading the posts on here and I want to go see what I can turn up. I recently discovered an area in Montague county. I don't know how large of an area is exposed at this site.

Any pointers or advice that will help me in search of my first trilobite would be appreciated. Any observations gained from your experience that will help me in my quest for pennsylvanian fossils esp around Lake Bridgeport, would very much be appreciated.

[Auspex]

...Any pointers or advice that will help me in search of my first trilobite would be appreciated. Any observations gained from your experience that will help me in my quest for pennsylvanian fossils esp around Lake Bridgeport, would very much be appreciated.

Two words: "knee pads".

Trilos are often smaller than you think, and acquiring the search image can take patient scrutiny.

[Ramo]

You might want to consider traveling up to Oklahoma. I went to White Mound a couple springs ago, and found 4-5 complete trilobites.

Ramo

[Ridgehiker]

Just a note. Auspex is on the mark. A lot of collectors think Carboniferous through Permian bugs are rare...they aren't. They tend to be small. Think the size of a rolled up blastoid. Up here I always hear people saying they can't find them...Whereas someone can find a couple of pygidiums in an outing. They are looking for a specimen quarter size or bigger when they are usually dime size or smaller.

Also, a lot of Upper Paleozoic trilobites are found in fossil mixes on limestone rocks and less often in split shale layers like older bugs. A rock might be covered in Brachs,, Bryozoa, crinoid bits,etc. and 'voila'...a little bug.

[BobWill]

Great book, a few errors, very informative overall, but there's no information on Mineral Wells. It lists trilobites as "moderately rare" and only at Bridgeport. Trilobites compared to other inverts can indeed be quite rare depending on where you are. Mineral Wells also has some but don't expect to find any at Jacksboro. I have found 72 different species at Jacksboro, all small, and never seen a bug so it's not because I left my kneepads at home. I've also looked at the finds made by a lot of people at Mineral Wells and I've seen hundreds of fossils for every broken piece of a trilo. Ramo is right about Oklahoma, it's much better for finding them. That said, I still highly recommend these sites. The diversity, preservation and abundance is unmatched anywhere, especially Jacksboro. Don't deny yourself this great pleasure a minute longer, get in the truck, leave now

edit: Articulated crinoids are rare too. Besides stems you will only see a few plates and spines except at Bridgeport where they can be found but as the book states, extremely rare for complete ones.

Edited August 23, 2013 by BobWill

[wfrr]

great info keep it coming. My folks live just over the Wise county line in Montague county. I have 3 sites to hunt near there plus I want to do Jacksboro and the Lake Bridgeport areas. It will be soon.

RR

[Missourian]

Some trilobite "rules" of my Pennsylvanian hunting grounds in Kansas City, which is probably fairly representative of the Midcontinent (Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa):

- Trilobites are found mostly in limestones, especially oolites and bioclastites. They seem to be associated with mollusks when most numerous.

- Trilobite fragments are fairly common. Typically a few are found during a serious fossil outing. Pygidiums are found most often probably because they are most easily spotted. Glabellas and genal spines are a little less so. Hypostomas less so still. I almost never spot thoracic segments unless they are part of an articulated specimen.

- Partial specimens are even rarer, as you might imagine. These could be cephalons, or pygidiums with segments attached.

- Whole specimens are very elusive in my area, at least. When they do occur, they tend to be localized.

Texas may be different due to various environmental and taphonomic factors. There seems to be more abundantly fossiliferous shales there than in the Midcontinent. Lake Bridgeport seems to be a trilobite factory compared to my area.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

My personal experience, for what it's worth...

I've found trilobites at all 3 areas mentioned, with highest productivity 5+ years ago, before all 3 sites became so wildly popular. I've taken only one trilobite from Jacksboro, a little enrolled one the size of a pea, and that was pushing 10 years ago. Some of the charter DPS members who worked the area before McKinzie's book came out have upwards of 30 Jacksboro trilobites in their collections.

The advice above is good. However, most of the whole bugs I've found in TX though have originated from broken down shales, or in/on the harder concretions that occur in these shales. Most of the Pennsylvanian limestones I've seen in TX that contain sign of trilobites are high energy, resulting in broken up trilobites. Shales were laid down in quieter seas, leading to undisturbed preservation, and shales also are more likely to result in cool pyritized preservation of various fossils.

Knee pads are de rigeur, and gloves and at times elbow pads are great assets. The last trilobites I found in Texas were spotted at a distance of 6 inches. And some had blobs of matrix on them, obscuring detail to the point that my shape recognition skills would not have registered them had my eyes been 6 feet off the ground rather than 6 inches. Working on hands and knees is a game of slow, thorough searching, but done properly, your catch ratio climbs as compared to walking, so get low and take your time.

With bugs of all ages, don't look only for whole specimens, sitting out fully prepped by Ma Nature. I look for partially exposed specimens, then give them a microblast of baking soda or dolomite at home. Sometimes this turns up adjacent trilobites I didn't even see initially. This is particularly true for finds made in shales.

I found some Cambrian trilobites in Utah this summer averaging about a half inch long. However, I took a few no longer than 1/8 inch in prone position...just a note to help you quantify scale.

At TX Pennsylvanian and all age sites, if I feel that both micro and macro fossils are present, yet I encounter footprints, but no knee pad prints, I'll still bust out the crawling gear, hoping that my worthy competition was focused on macros at the exclusion of tiny treasures.

As in fishing, just because someone fished a hole before you, that doesn't mean they employed all proper and effective techniques before moving on. Proceed with confidence.

Overall, it sounds to me that your best assets will be your own patient perseverance coupled with access to several lesser known sites. Exploring is a blast, not to be underrated, and when you find trilobites at sites you yourself identified for their potential, the success with be much sweeter than the same finds made at a well known site.

[Missourian]

Wow. 30 bugs from one spot. I thought I was doing well with 4....

One thing that Texas seems to have going for it is that the 'regressive limestone formations' tend to have more shale by percentage, which makes for easier collecting. Jacksboro is a good example. In the Midcontinent, the beds at this level of the cyclothems tend to be massive limestones. The bugs may be in there, but they're locked in pretty good.

Another thing to keep in mind is that bioturbation can devastate buried organisms. I suspect this happens more often than is apparent by the appearance of the rock. It may be worthwhile giving a closer look at beds that appear to be relatively undisturbed (fine laminar bedding; delicate, unbroken fossils; fossils in straight, thin bedding planes; etc.).

And yes, rarity and difficulty of fossils at a site can be an advantage for the patient collector. Most other collectors will just give up or move on to the next spot, if any. I need to remember this one myself....

Finally, if you go really small in your searching, you'll be surprised and delighted by what turns up. I didn't realize that there were so many ostracods to be found until I really looked.

Edited August 23, 2013 by Missourian

[bone2stone]

Well take a good long look at my avatar. (Length =1.75", width =1.25", thickness= .75")

One of several I have taken from areas around Wise Co. Tx.

My avatar actually has two specimens on/in it.

Talk to some property owners in the Bridgeport area.

Some have had oil and or gas well platforms opened up on their property and if you are lucky

you may gain access to some very productive areas that no one else has access to.

The best Trilobite I have seen, found in Texas, was found not far from downtown Mineral Wells.

Youngster was watching a crew installing a corrugated pipe for drive way and it was kicked out with

the rest of the material being windrowed on the side of the ditch.

A Palladin Marrowensis. It is shiny black and embedded in a grey stone.

Perfect condition and compound eyes intact.

I attempted to purchase it, NO!

He is a grown man now and is not a collector, go figure, he still will not part with it.

Museum quality can be found in some of the most obscure of areas.

Just a heads up........... The Fossil park in Mineral wells needs a LOT of rain before it will yield

anything worth picking up.

Hint: Check those ditches but be aware people do not slow down along the highway!

Jess B.

[wfrr]

Im liking where this thread has headed. I wish I could hit the road right now.....but I can't range very far today. Great info, I mean really. I'd love to hear what the rest of you pennsylvanian hunters think.

[Cantab91]

I gave it a try over the weekend. I'm always on my knees and a little OCD in my searching. The sites we discovered on our own must be the well known sites as several people stopped to ask if I too was DPS (yes, but new this year). I spent the entire day 7-7 crawling 5 sites I discovered reading old papers, a tip from this site and google earth. Found 1 nice bug & one interesting imprint. I knew they were going to be small because I found 2 earlier this year on a similar exhausting weekend in Brownwood. I found a plethora of other very interesting fossils including a whole smashed plated ech with big spines. If you saw me doing the happy dance beside the read please don't post any pictures. My advice - if you are patient and look on the overgrown fringes where others might just search the obvious easy spots, you can still find awesome treasure. Also put sunscreen on that spot above your waistband where your shirt can ride up when you are on your knees!

[RyanNREMTP]

Great thread. I've hunted at Mineral Wells twice now and have only found one trilo. I've hunted Lake Jacksboro once and came away with other great stuff. The one I did find at Mineral Wells was rolled up and about the size of a BB. I would have missed it completely if I hadn't been nose to the dirt. I guess not everything in Texas is huge.

[Herb]

Be that as it may, trilobite species were thinning out by the Mississippian, and even harder to find in the Pennsylvanian in most areas. An almost complete enrolled Phillibole sp. from KY.

Edited July 22, 2014 by Herb