Texas Fossils! What Are They?

[Amber]

Hi guys!

I'm a new fossil hunter and have discovered a passion for it. On our last trip, my s/o and I found these - anyone have any ideas what they could be?

They were found in the Fort Worth area in a riverbed that was unusually low.

(More in next post)

Edited October 1, 2014 by Amber

[Amber]

Here's the others.. the biggest one we couldn't actually take home, it was embedded in a massive rock. The other two are now living in our cichlid tank.

[Amber]

And this is the one that started it all for me.. my dad actually found this on his property under a tree root after he removed it from his yard in East Texas! It's perfectly intact all the way around and is very heavy.

Edited October 1, 2014 by Amber

[tmaier]

All those items with the bumpy ridges on them are ammonites.

http://www.google.com/images?q=ammonite&btnG=Search&hl=en&gbv=1

And you got some nice ones...

That brown item in the top post is a piece of turtle shell. It is probably petrified to stone. If you tap it against a glass it should make a high pitched "ting" sound, like glass on glass.

And if you don't want to get that big one out of the field, I'm sure there would be 30 people here who would be eager to dig it out for themselves.

[Amber]

Thanks tmaier. A turtle shell! I knew it might be something like a bone, but I wasn't for sure. It was different than the others. What about the grey tubular one? Any clues? And the white one - is that just a rock or something more?

I actually keep a little tray right at the entrance to my apartment with small fossils, gemstones and rocks in it. It invites guests to get interested. That's where the small ones are now.

[tmaier]

The gray tube and the stark white thing... I got no clue. I don't see a fossil there, but maybe somebody else does.

Here's what I do with some of my fossil bits and pieces... it is an antique large size canning jar. It's fun to occasionally dump it out on a table and poke through the bits.

[BobWill]

I would say everything but the turtle shell and the ammonite parts are probably burrow in-fills. The ammonite from east Texas has a very nice ventral keel (thin flange around the edge). It's not often intact.

[caldigger]

The grey one on the left looks like a shrimp burrow and the far right, I'm not seeing anything in it, perhaps some pictures from different angles would help.

[Amber]

The grey one on the left looks like a shrimp burrow and the far right, I'm not seeing anything in it, perhaps some pictures from different angles would help.

The white one I'm guessing just isn't a fossil.

What about the large tree root looking thing in the tank? Is that in fact fossilized root?

[tmaier]

What about the large tree root looking thing in the tank? Is that in fact fossilized root?

It doesn't look like a fossil. It is hard to tell with only one view. Sometimes limestone will take on shapes like that.