October hunting in Central Texas

[madness]

Just thought I'd log my rank beginner fossil hunting expeditions I'm taking with my kids this month! It'll help me be better at note taking, and taking pictures, too.

 

My 5 and 7 year old girls are becoming pretty good little fossil hunters. Sometime in the last few months, it become more of a dedicated hobby rather than an accidental one ("oh look, a fossil!" while on a hike). They've always been interested in them (7 year old wants to be a paleontologist) but hikes specifically to find them have just begun. We are now going out about once a week, sometimes more. The kids spent much of their pre-school years romping around a farm, so sitting inside for 7 hours is not their favorite activity. I try to get them outside for an hour or two each afternoon. Fossil hunting is an easy excuse to hit the great outdoors!

 

I printed out a geological map of our area. I've been working on map reading skills with them from the first day we set foot on a trail, so they are pretty good at it for their age. While I can read all about what fossils can be found in the Eagle Ford group or the Glen Rose formation, not only are my kids just learning to read, but even if they could read well, all the scientific language would be extremely daunting to them. So I'm going for more of an intuitive approach. We pick a trail, note where it is on the map, start a journal entry in our fossil book (trail name, formation, date, weather, etc), and head out. With only a few data points, my kids already have a good idea of where to go and I'm letting them pick the spots starting next week.

 

Our Treasure Map!

 

October 2: Edward's Limestone, 1.5 hours

 

A single find on this trip. Well, lots of algae, tadpoles, POISON IVY and other fun items, but a single fossil find. My 7 yr old spotted it...and LOVES it. Worth the trip.

 

There's a barely visible (in the shot - it's very clear in person) scallop-type imprint on the right face as well. She calls it her Candy Rock because it looks like a Reese's peanut butter cup! 

 

October 5: Glen Rose and Bee Cave Marl, 1.5 hours

 

This was a fun learning experience. We started looking right at the junction of two creeks. We searching along one branch for probably 15 minutes without finding anything of significance. We switched to the other branch and were surrounded by fossils. Just 10 feet away from a "dry" location. The kids pointed out the differences between the creeks. They are getting better at spotting good hunting grounds!

 

I think we found most of our specimens in the Bee Cave Marl, but I believe both are exposed very close to each other here. Perhaps not together in this exact location, but certainly along the creek within a close distance. Lots and lots of heavily weathered little stuff. We found a HUGE partial gastropod. I bet it would have been 20 cm long if it hadn't been broken. Didn't get a picture though! Lots of Ceratostrean texanum, Gryphea, gastropods and many "questionable" finds that the kids couldn't resist putting in the bucket. As I sort through them, I'll probably post a few to see if they really are something. Some of them were really neat...but could just be geological.  

 

Are we playing in the creek or fossil hunting? Either is fine!

 

The unsorted haul.

 

Willa's favorite find!

 

My favorite find!

 

More to come!

[Ludwigia]

Nice to see you having a well-organized, educational and just plain good time with the kids. Thanks for sharing!

[Monica]

It looks like you had an amazingly fun and productive couple of trips - I love Willa's gastropod and your echinoid!!! 

 

Thanks for sharing, and happy hunting!

 

Monica

[JarrodB]

Great report and family time that your kids will never forget. 

[Nimravis]

Great finds and fun with the kids st the same time- priceless. Reminds me of when my son would collect with me. Thanks for posting.

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for the great report.   

I enjoy seeing youngsters outside, enjoying nature and learning at the same time!

The streets/woods in my area are eerily quiet.    

 

[Peat Burns]

Cool finds. Thanks for sharing 

[gwestbrook]

Awesome! Glad they had a great time. Thanks for sharing! 

 

[Macrophyseter]

Lovely finds, madness! Your daughters sure did have the fun, and I enjoy reading about their hype! Having fun outside in the wilderness, splashing wet in the creek and finding rocky treasures at the bottom, a great escape for any child. Please keep sharing more adventures!

[madness]

Thanks everyone! We do love getting outside...which doesn't seem to be on most kids' agendas these days.

 

Here's my sorted finds from October 5. I'll do that before posting from now on.

 

1. Just Rocks

2. Gastropods

3.Echinoid

4. Chert (probably "arrowheads" to the kid that toss them in the collection bucket)

5. Shells

6. Conglomerates (lots of fossils stuck in a matrix)

7. Possible finds - corral?

8. Gryphea

9. Tiny bits of shell

10. Ceratostreon

 

And I thought the "shells" were really cool. 

 

October 6: Upper Glen Rose, 3.5 hours

 

We quickly recognized some of the signs of unproductive areas we've been to recently. So we picked around for a little bit and instead just decided to go on a hike and stop only if we saw a promising area. We found two nice gastropods (always a favorite with the kids) and some other items. Not much, but fun hunting.

1. Ceratostreon

2. Gryphea

3. Gastropods

4. Bits and bobs

 

My kids are also not discerning when it comes to what items they collect...and plenty of non-fossils wound up in the bucket!

 

At the very end of the trail, we discovered an odd spot. There were HUGE rectangular blocks of limestone in a big jumble with the creek flowing under them. Instead of turning around, we climbed this massive pile and found that some extensive drainage project had required the removal of a large section of this hill. It looked like what would have been done for a road cut, but was just an open space.

 

 

After wondering around for a few minutes, we began to notice that we were walking on basically a solid block of fossils. I'm not sure if it officially qualifies as a fossilized reef, or if it's just a fossilized bed of marine debris, but it was amazing. The majority of the area was small bits of fossils, and a wavy, striated, cylindrical fossil.

(small piece of that)

 

We tried to chip out some of the more impressive bits but quickly realized they were quite fragile and not easy to get out. So while not the best fossil collecting spot, it was an amazing fossil viewing area! Here are just a few of the more interesting things. (and a good reminder to take a scale with us on hunts...I have pretty average sized hands.  ) Just a note, this is at the boundary between Glen Rose and Bee Cave Marl. But it certainly wasn't marly (that was well above the cut area, so I think this was still Glen Rose...)

 

 

All in all, we hiked 3.5 miles and had a marvelous time, even if much of it wasn't fossil related.

[ynot]

Nice finds and trip report, but the best part is that You take the Kids out too.

[RyanNREMTP]

Sounds like some awesome trips.  Glad you go out with the kids and that they enjoy being outdoors as well.  My oldest son finally got hooked into the fossil hunting.  He has made a few trips with me to the Waco Pit and a couple of other places.  He loves to find the shark teeth that lay around. Keep it up.

[smt126]

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun. Texas has some great areas for fossil hunting.

[madness]

October 14: Austin Chalk, 3 hours

 

We headed into a new geological formation for this journey. The kids immediately saw the difference and were eager to see what kids of fossils we would find.

 

 

I hadn't done much research on what to look for, so we were all looking blind. We quickly discovered small "different" bits in the layers. Some of them I would have sworn were pieces of plastic trash if I hadn't dug them out of the wall myself. We only kept some of the larger pieces of what we had decided was shell. Other parts of the formation, with harder rock, revealed very large fossils which I believe are clams. One rock we found had a nice arrangement of three of them, but was broken!

 

 

I also *might* have found an ammonite imprint. I've never found an ammonite, so this was a fun discovery. It was part of a huge rock and I didn't feel like trying to break it out, so I left it for others to see.

 

 

I also found something else unlike anything I've seen. Not sure if it's an internal cast of a bivalve...i'll post it in the ID section.

 

 

Here's the total haul of little things. Mostly just fragments of shell. Three complete shells on the left and one ramshorn oyster in the middle.

 

 

And here are the larger pieces.

 

 

It was a fun place to explore and we only made it about 1/4 of the way of what we had intended on hiking. There were so many little side streams to explore, animal bones to pick through, water snakes to watch, and otherwise interesting tidbits that we are planning another trip to this area even if it doesn't appear to be the best fossil spot.

[ynot]

Nice finds for You and the kids!

[madness]

We are really cramming in the hunting trips right now! I swapped one of my kids for one of my brother's for the afternoon. So I had my 7 year old daughter and his 8 year old son. My girl was showing off all her collections. We've talked about fossils hunting at a few family dinners lately, so my nephew was already excited to see them. He sadly stated "I NEVER get to go fossil hunting." My daughter immediately announced that we would take him on his first fossil trip, and it would be to a great spot. She astutely decided to take him to Shoal Creek, a well known hunting ground, where, as she put it, you are walking through "puddles of fossils". We packed up and headed out. And had a great time!

 

October 14: Del Rio Clay and Georgetown Formation, 2 hours

 

We started in an area full of ramshorn oysters (Exogyra arietina) to show my nephew how to spot the fossils amongst all the other rocks in the area. He quickly caught on and before long, we had quite a pile of them. We started seeing who could find the biggest, and the smallest!, one. After awhile, we sloshed downstream to a shale exposure. Along the way, my nephew spotted a coral in a big slab of limestone. I think that's when he really got hooked. He had found a fossil - of a different type - all on his own.

 

 

We got to the shale, where you can chip out brachiopods (Kingena wacoensis) and scallops (Neithea texana). I use welding chipping hammers for kids that I'm not sure if they will smash their fingers holding a chisel. The chipping hammer is not as accurate, but it serves a good purpose for these kids to get practice. My nephew was more than happy to smash stuff out of the soft shale. And got good at not breaking the fossils themselves!

 

 

We came home with a pretty reasonable quantity of these guys:

 

 

And I managed to find, and chip out without damaging (these are sooo delicate!) a pyritized scallop! I keep thinking I've made my best discovery to date, only to be out done a few weeks later. I guess now that we are really focusing on this, we are finding better and better things.  This photo does not do it justice. It's hard to pick up all that sparkle. 

 

[sixgill pete]

Fantastic. You are my hero of the week for the amount of quality time you spend with your kids. Outdoors, in the sunshine, being active and learning something. Not stuck in the house watching tv or on a tablet. Kudos to you.