Martin Marietta quarry, Midlothian, Texas - 4-9-16

[DinoMike]

April 9 was my birthday, and what a coincidence... it also happened to be a day when Dallas Paleo Society had a field trip scheduled into the Martin Marietta quarry down in Midlothian, TX... and I got on the list.

The first "find" of the day was when Polly, our trip leader, presented me with a birthday cupcake.

After signing our release forms, the DPS crew was led into the quarry. We were taken to an area where they had just dug up some fresh rock. Everyone scattered about the area, and soon the "clink.. clink..." of rock hammers on shale was heard everywhere. (Just for the record, the site is in the basal Atco formation of the Austin Chalk.)

I wasn't doing so well. Nothing seemed to be turning up in the older section that I had decided to check out, so I wandered back over into the new area with everyone else.

Nothing much happened in the first few minutes of surface collecting, then I saw THIS...

My first ever fossil fish tail! Probably no chance of ever getting a genus or species ID on this. Still, it's Cretaceous Fish, and that's good enough for me. I was lucky that the slab had split right there, so both the tail & counterslab were right next to each other. I sat down and started going through the other rock in that area, and found this, too:

Might be part of the same fish, but I think I'll have to do a bit of prep work on it to be able to tell if it's head, body chunk, or what. I have the fish material stored in a temporary jacket til I get time to lay some Butvar-76 on it.

(Continued... )

[DinoMike]

I overheard Polly mentioning to someone else that there were a lot of teeth lying about on the surface, so after satisfying myself that the fish parts had played out in the area surrounding the first find, I started another surface-collecting walk. It wasn't long before I came across a really banged-up Ptychodus tooth. That got me fired up, and I started seriously scanning the region for more. All I found was random chunks of phosphate. After I killed time doing this to no avail, I elected to start picking up chunks of shale to take home & break down for micros. As I was lifting a REALLY crumbly chunk of shale into my bucket, the top fell off to reveal ANOTHER Ptychodus tooth! Still incomplete, but a bit better shape than the first was in. Here are both shell-crusher teeth:

That got me fired up to surface-collect again, so I dumped my bucket of shale into my trunk, and quickly gathered up a second bucketful before resuming my surface walk. I didn't really look at the rock I was throwing into the second bucket. That led to an interesting event. More on that later.

Anyway, I started wandering up a nearby hill of shale, only seeing random phosphate bits... when a bright shiny black surface caught my eye.

If I recall correctly, this was IDed as a Cretodus tooth. Hard for me to tell, as it's so badly banged up, especially in the root area.

(Continued... )

[DinoMike]

The hill also yielded 2 nice chunks of pyrite.

That was pretty much it for the finds of the day. All in all, I wasn't displeased with my haul, plus the promise of whatever micros I might find in the rock I was taking home.

Ah, yes... the rock. Remember I said that I hadn't looked carefully at the 2nd bucketful of shale that I collected for micro screening? Well, that bucketful surprised me 3 days later.

Tuesday morning after the hunt. I got home from work, and picked up a large chunk of shale off the top of the second bucket. Up pops a little jumping spider that had evidently hitched a ride home with me from the quarry. I took the rock to the back door & shook the little guy off into the yard. I noted that the shale was starting to crack, so I turned the rock over to see how far the crack went. I DID NOT BELIEVE WHAT I SAW ON THE BACK SIDE OF THAT ROCK.

(Continued... )

[DinoMike]

(Blank reply added for suspense)

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(Yes, I'm evil... )

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(Continued... )

[DinoMike]

THIS is what I found on the back side of that shale chunk!

My FIRST EVER, long-desired find of a mosasaur tooth! Found ON MY BIRTHDAY, and I didn't even realize it!

Here it is out of the rock:

Here's a microscope shot, showing the twin carinae:

BEST. HUNT. YET.

[Vieira]

Very nice finds

Congratulations.

[Auspex]

Well, that worked out well

Congrats!

I now pause to consider how classy an organization is where the trip leader gives you a birthday cake; that's Texas Friendly right there!

[Darktooth]

Nice finds!

[Troodon]

Very nice, love that mosasaur tooth

[JohnJ]

Nice. Could be a pterygoid tooth.

[PaleoWilliam]

Amazing finds! That mosasaur tooth is awesome!

[John S.]

Awesome those look great! Congrats on the mosy tooth nice color!

[DinoMike]

Thanks, folks! It was a week of awesome finds, that's for sure.

[Ludwigia]

Congrats on your Mosasaur tooth. Great feeling, eh?

[DinoMike]

Oh yes... especially when you don't even realize that you had found one til 3 days later!

[jcbshark]

That Mos tooth is sweeeeeet! Congrats!

[DinoMike]

Thank you!

[David E.]

Nice finds DinoMike. Congrats.

[DinoMike]

Thank you!

[DinoMike]

UPDATE: I had mosasaur expert Mike Polcyn of SMU take a look at a few pieces at the Dallas Paleo meeting tonight. He identified the tooth as "plioplatecarpine sp. indet."