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Well, this is my first post in the Hunting Trips section. The week of Thanksgiving, my wife, my daughters and I headed off to Waco, Texas for a three day getaway. It was not supposed to be a fossil trip, but I managed to squeeze in a few stops...

Our first stop, on a cold November 22nd afternoon, was the Waco Mammoth Site. It was absolutely spectacular! My kids loved it. It was so amazing to see these huge animals still laying in the spots where they fell, instead of mounted in a museum hall...

The next day, I managed to convince my wife to let me scope out the Waco Research Pit. I told her it would only take a few minutes to see what might be there...yeah right. We stopped off at the Corps of Engineers building to sign in and get a parking tag for the car. They were extremely helpful. We drove to the parking area and I left my wife and two year old in the van, while I led my 9 and 5 year olds down the trail to the pit. In the first few minutes, I stumbled across the first ammonite. My kids marveled at the beautiful spiraled shell. A few minutes later I found another. I believe they are Engonoceras serpentinum, but I'm not 100% sure.

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I also found some what I believe to be Mariella sp. These are the better specimens...

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"Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator." - C.S. Lewis

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We also found some beautiful gastropods...

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I managed to convince my wife to come down and bring the two year old. My whole family was wandering around the pit, bent over, scanning the ground. My wife found a cool little pyritized ammonite...

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"Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator." - C.S. Lewis

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We also found several pieces of echinoids...

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The most interesting thing that we found (at least in my mind) was a rhyncholite cephalopod beak. I've never found anything like it before, and I didn't even know what I had until I got home.

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It was a great stop. My quick excursion into the pit turned into 2.5 hours, with the whole family looking for fossils. Even the two year old was picking things up...

After the research pit we went back the hotel and cleaned up. We then went to the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor University, which had an incredible collection of Texas fossils, including a reproduction of the Mammoth Pit. Again, if you have never been, it is worth the trip. The kids will have lots to do there as well, since 2/3 of the museum is a children's museum...

All in all, the whole trip was a blast. On the way home, we stopped off by the Whiskey River Bridge, another stop I had never been to before. But I'll post those photos at a later date.

"Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator." - C.S. Lewis

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I love that place. :wub:

Looks like you had a wonderful trip and made some really nice finds. Congrats.

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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Good stuff! Those are some rather decent ammonite specimens. And you found more of that urchin than most. The rhyncholite is a keeper as well. But not teeth? My daughter, with her sharp and lower to the ground eyes, would always find teeth there.

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Thanks folks. Unfortunately, I didn't see any teeth. Next time I go, which may be around Christmas, I'll spend alot more time crawling...

"Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Legislator." - C.S. Lewis

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  • 1 month later...

Waco is definitely a hidden gem for fossil hunting. Wish I would have been on here so I could have met up with you at the Research Pit. I spent most of 2014 there fossil hunting. Sadly 2015 I only went a few times but this year I'm going to get back into the swing of things.

Must find more shark teeth!

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  • 1 year later...

I just hit this post.  I've been going back through some very old material from the Waco Pit that I had not identified.  Based on Emerson, et. al. and their size and formation data, I believe the small Engonoceras from that site are bravoense.

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