Collecting Fossils in Texas

[Shartay]

I have a secret place in Texas in which I've found many excellent fossils of sea creatures, such as clams or mollusks and other shellfish. I may also have found bones of some kind, and saw impressions that may have been dinosaur tracks. I am no paleontologist and would not know what made the impressions, but I know that dinosaur tracks were found in other nearby areas.

 

In particular, I found large, intact, fossilized shells there that match some of the photos of "bivalves" I've seen online. I found many smaller cone shaped shell fossils, and oddly shaped rocks that may have been bones. Plus other things, such as rocks that seemed to contain tiny plant or animal fossils.

 

The fossils were plentiful and easy to find, with little or no digging needed, so I may be the only one who knew of this place, which is in a washed out gulley in a remote part of a public city or county park (NOT a state park). My question -- can people legally gather fossils from such a place? Would paleontologists be interested in knowing about such a place? I no longer live near there and worry that one of Texas' new toll roads may have destroyed the site by now. Should I have said something, to prevent that?

 

Unless somebody else has discovered the place, there are probably still some fossils around the site, even if a toll road was put in, but they may no longer lay atop the ground like they once did. I accidentally forgot to pack my fossil collection when moved, so I have no samples or photos to show anybody. 

[Miocene_Mason]

The place may have already been known, you'd be suprised the amount of places us fossilers go. If it's a local park, it's probably alright unless there are rules against it. I'm sure paleontologist, as well as amateurs would love to know the site if they haven't heard of it. The sad truth is, many millions are destroyed every minute. This may be through erosion, or human folly. Some specimens are common and found throughout a large area, so small built up areas are okay. If there was footprints, that would probably scientificly significant, but i doubt that's what they actually were, try using a geologic map and see the age and formation. We must try to preserve what me can, but sometimes there is nothing to be done. Maybe try PMing someone local on the forum, there's plenty of Texans here. They may have more info. 

Hooe this helps, happy collecting!

[FossilDAWG]

Texas is pretty much loaded with great fossil sites.  If you post some photos of the fossils you found, I'm sure some of our Texas members can tell you if they are highly unusual.

 

Most parks do not allow collecting, but this can vary; some may allow surface collecting but not digging.  We can't tell you what the rules are without knowing what the park is, but you probably do not want to disclose that on a public forum.

 

Don

[Shartay]

Unfortunately, I no longer have the fossils or photos of them. I accidentally forgot to take them when I moved away because I had used them as part of a rock garden in my yard and just didn't remember to pack them.

 

I think it was somewhere on this site that there are photos of well preserved specimens of "deer-heart bivalves" ?? or something ??  Some of mine were the same as the ones in those photos, a little larger than the size of a person's fist. Others were spiraled, cone shaped shells that were about 2 inches long at most and probably no more than 1/2" diameter at the widest end. Some were smaller. I found a few shells that were other shapes, too, and all of those were pretty small.

 

I found a lot of the spirals, and several of the deer heart (??) bivalves, which I call fossilized clam shells. The bivalves were intact, having both the top and bottom shells. I found shell pieces, too, but collected only the most intact shells. At least a portion of each shell was laying in plain view in the bottom and along the sloping sides of an eroded gully. I also found a few rocks of abnormal shapes (such as triangular and elongated shapes) that made me wonder if they could be bones. They were interesting rocks, even if they weren't bones. 

 

Further along the gully it was lined with flat sandstone or something and that's where there were impressions that may have been tracks. It's actually pretty close to another place at which I've heard that dinosaur tracks can be seen, but I've never gone there so I don't know if it's true.

 

I now live many miles from that site but would like to go back and look for more fossils one of these days, or see if the toll road that was being built has destroyed the place.

[Wrangellian]

I don't know about the possible tracks, but by the sound of the shell fossils you described, they were probably pretty common Cretaceous fossils for that state, so no big worry if they were bulldozed. Preferably a Texan member should comment, though.

If on the other hand they were potentially significant, I would hope they'd get better treatment than in a rock garden, and being forgotten when moving house! My fossils would never be forgotten!

[Benjaminpb]

I live in the Austin area (Round Rock)

and have been collecting here since I was a child. The types of fossils you're talking about are extremely common around here. I found one under my sheets this morning because my three year old put it there, not joking.

That said, if you'd like to let me in on your secret spot, and it's close by, I'll go check it out and get back to you. Feel free to private message me.

 

[nivek1969]

I grew up in North Texas near Dallas and many years ago, my childhood friend and I would ride our bikes across a field to a drainage creek to look for arrowheads, which he had found, along with fossil shark teeth and segments of crinoid stems. I found a very nice shark tooth and a a couple of arrowheads, one was perfect, about 1.5" long, dark chert or flint in more of a spear type shape. I have since lost this material. In college at UNT, Denton, I was an anthropology minor and focused on new world archaeology. I remember showing that spearhead to a professor of one of my classes. He specialized in Ancient Southwestern cultures and I think he was puzzled by the piece and I let him take it to get info. I'm sure he gave it back because it was my prized find, but I have no recollection what happened to that or the other finds there though I did have a dresser stolen from a storage space. I do still have a questionable large chert piece that has a few chips only off the raw material. Anyway, my buddy, found a small fossilized segment of a human jaw bone, with a molar still in it! Our 5th grade teacher wanted us 10 yr olds to show her and SMU archaeologists friends the creek bed. We did and she found an arrowhead, the archaeologists found several, along with signs of encampment and it being a possible ancient Native American burial site! Long story short, the creek is still there and most likely undisturbed. Once it cools off (we used to happen upon water moccasins often in the Summer) I am going back for the first time in over 30 years. I will keep you posted.