A Photographic Fossil Hunt At Lake Texoma - 9-19-15

[DinoMike]

The lure of ammonites was strong, but with the US Army Corps of Engineers regulations regarding fossil hunting on USACE-managed land, I figured I'd play it safe & only collect photographs of what I saw. It was a bit refreshing to walk out of a fossil site without what felt like 500 pounds of rock in my backpack!

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

Burrow time!

Edited September 21, 2015 by DinoMike

[DinoMike]

It was hard to pass this one up. Just look at those sutures!

Edited September 21, 2015 by DinoMike

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

[DinoMike]

It was REALLY difficult to leave this big one behind!

Edited September 21, 2015 by DinoMike

[Khyssa]

You have more will power than I do! I doubt I could have walked away without slipping at least some of those into my backpack.

[DinoMike]

You have more will power than I do! I doubt I could have walked away without slipping at least some of those into my backpack.

That's why I went out there without my backpack. Just me & my phone camera.

[ZiggieCie]

A great photo expedition, THX for sharing with us.

[JustPlainPetrified]

Lots of great ammonites...but THEY ARE STILL THERE!!... You have a lot of will power. Enjoyed all your photos. Thanks. You put a lot of work into finding them.

[JohnJ]

Looks like there are two additional large ammonites in this photo...

[DinoMike]

Looks like there are two additional large ammonites in this photo...

I only noticed the second after I got home & looked at the photo. I wouldn't have seen the 3rd if you hadn't mentioned it! Just shows you how the stuff can hide while you're in the field.

[Ptychodus04]

The lure of ammonites was strong, but with the US Army Corps of Engineers regulations regarding fossil hunting on USACE-managed land, I figured I'd play it safe & only collect photographs of what I saw. It was a bit refreshing to walk out of a fossil site without what felt like 500 pounds of rock in my backpack!

So, technically, you are supposed to get a collecting permit for collection of invertebrates on Army Corps of Engineers land (vertebrate fossils are required to be turned in at the Corps office unless they are collected by a museum). That being said, this regulation is not heavily (read "at all") enforced at the lakes here. Spillways are a different story but lake shores are a nonissue for them.

If you want to follow the letter of the law (as we all should), the collecting permit is an easy 5 minute process at the local Corps office where you want to collect.

When I was working with the USACE and the Perot during the collection of Flexomornis, we took the local corps manager out to the site to show him the bones and his response was... "You guys really want this stuff?"

[TNGray]

I was there in February and I never saw ant prohibition on collecting fossils. Can you elaborate on that?

[DinoMike]

I was there in February and I never saw ant prohibition on collecting fossils. Can you elaborate on that?

From the Title 36 brochure, Rules and Regulations Governing Public Use of Corps of Engineers Water Resources Development Projects, section 327.14 (a):

Destruction, injury, defacement, removal or any alteration of public property

including, but not limited to, developed facilities, natural formations, mineral deposits, historical and archaeological features, paleontological resources, boundary monumentation or markers and vegetative growth, is prohibited except when in accordance with written permission of the District Commander.

Link to a PDF copy of the brochure: http://www.swf-wc.usace.army.mil/somerville/Recreation/title36.pdf

Edited September 24, 2015 by DinoMike

[Ptychodus04]

Perfectly legal with a free permit from the local Corps office. And perfectly unenforced in general on Texas lakes.