Is this a nautilus?

[SeanMMurphy]

Found this in a creek bed after we had 30 inches of rain. Is this a nautilus?

[Kane]

This looks to be an ammonite of some kind. To help some of our Texas ammo experts, you might want to say more about where it was found as I assume there is more than one creek in the big state of Texas!  

[SeanMMurphy]

Was found in Baylor Creek in Fayette County Texas.

[TqB]

I agree it's a nautiloid - simple chamber walls.

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice find! Hopefully a local can give an exact answer.

[SeanMMurphy]

Thanks, it was literally laying on the top of the ground as the picture shows. I don't find a lot of fossils, mostly Native American artifacts, do people usually attempt to clean the calcified sediments on these or do they typically leave it as it was found?

[Guguita2104]

Yes, nice nautiloid!

[Ludwigia]

Definitely a nautilus. Nice little gem!

[Douvilleiceras]

7 hours ago, SeanMMurphy said:

... do people usually attempt to clean the calcified sediments on these or do they typically leave it as it was found?

It's up to personal preference whether you clean it or not. Regardless, it's a great find!

 

Looking at local geology, it appears that your Nautiloid is Tertiary. 

[SeanMMurphy]

Thanks so much for the info, it is greatly appreciated, I think I will leave it's is. On a side note the creek that this was found in is a dry creek that has approximate 30 ft sidewalls with the lowest sections being bedrock and with it becoming looser sediments as the wall goes up. Almost all the rocks within this creek are petrified wood, and when I say almost all I mean almost 100%, tons pretrified wood covering every square foot of the creek bed. What would be the cause for so much petrified wood in this creek?

[ynot]

The petrified wood in the stream is harder and more dense than the other rocks there, or it is not petrified wood and just resembles it.

[BobWill]

If you find other marine material there then the wood, if that's what it is, suggests a near-shore environment where wood floated out and sunk when it became waterlogged. Present-day nautiloids like the nautilus are mostly deep-water creatures but in the Miocene that could have been very different.

[SeanMMurphy]

It's most definitely petrified wood, I have have collected petrified wood since I was a kid and can easily tell it apart from other rocks. Your hypothesis makes sense because I have found nunerous pieces of fossilized coral in this same creek. Maybe I will dig around a little deeper in there and see what turns up.

[DPS Ammonite]

Sean, please post pictures of the petrified wood that you mentioned. Thanks.

[Darko]

Cool find !

[SeanMMurphy]

The pieces of petrified wood are all like 4 to 8 inches long, so they are smaller pieces not large chunks of wood. Are you asking to take pictures of them in the creek or should I go pick a up a big bucket of them and take pictures of the different pieces? They are all different varieties and colors of petrified wood. I will try and go back down there today or tomorrow.