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KimTexan

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I was on call at work all week which meant I had to be within an hour of my work and have cell phone access. I wanted to go fossil hunting so I google mapped an area in Tarrant County, Texas. I found a few potential spots with some exposure and I headed that way. It was an hour drive from home.

I’ve been seeing lots of echinoids come out of the area. I had made 3 separate trips to the area not knowing exactly where the echinoids could be found.

Two previous trips resulted in abundant ammonite finds. Ammonite hunting often requires a lot of gear and tools. Ammonites are generally big and heavy. I wanted a break from the heavy duty hauling and labor intensive retrieval, but I had no clue what I might find at this new location so I came equipped.

On the way to the first stop I passed a large area of exposed rock and soil. I had passed it at least 3 times before, but yesterday I decided to take the detour and stop at this site. It was right off the freeway, but yo access it I looked around to what I thought would be the back side. It was a couple mile loop to get there. I ended up in a daycare parking lot across from the area.

I had looked at the weather in the morning and it said the high would be 74. I came hydrated for 74.

I got my little bag with a single gardening tool and crossed the road to the site. Initially I thought the place was a construction site dump for dirt and rocks that had been flattened out, but I eventually realized that wasn’t the case. I think it was initially a housing development that fell through and the land was still sitting there after being somewhat grated and leveled. Here is a view of the terrain. Lots of exposure.

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I walked around for about 2 minutes before I saw the first fossil. I was dubious this place had any potential, but that one little fossil gave me the motivation to continue investigating. I walked on for another 15 min without spotting anything. 

The side had two sections. I had explored maybe 20 acres of the first many 40 acres. I decided to mosey over to the back 40.

 

While in this area I realized it wasn’t a construction site dumb. I saw layering in the soil.A21FA20C-A0AE-41FF-B1BA-B39FE49B4D25.jpeg.75dae0bfae17798165cd59da1b9482fc.jpeg

I found a couple of ammonite fragments and while bending down to pick one up I found a shark tooth. Then a little while later I found another. They’re pretty small. About 1 cm I’d say. No idea what genus though.

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While in the back 40 I saw my first hint of echinoids. I found a fragment that was about 2.5 inches across. Bingo! This is what I have been looking for and what I had made 3 other unsuccessful trips to Tarrant County for. I knew I was in the right spot. I walked about 10 feet and saw my first large echinoid.

When I look at these pics some of them have this optical illusion quality. It looks like there are a bunch of holes in the ground. If that is what you see go to the pic above, focus on the small rocks and come back to this one and refocus. There aren’t any holes in the ground. They’re all rocks sitting on top of the ground. It’s the weirdest thing. They’re my own pics, but I keep seeing the inverse picture so they look like depressions in the ground rather than stones on top of the ground.

Anyway, there’s my first large echinoid in situ, upside down.

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Here is that sweet not so little find in my hand. It was the biggest I had ever found up to that point, but I found bigger than this yesterday.

 

 

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A couple more with top side view.

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Bottom side view.

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One in situ sitting on its side, just begging to be picked up and loved on. It’s like he’s saying “come scratch my tummy.”

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About this point I started not feeling that great. I was feeling a little over heated, but since the high was only supposed to be 74 that didn’t make sense to me. I drank some Gatorade I’d brought with me and went on.

I kept walking around hunting for another 20 min or so, but the feeling got worse. I hadn’t found any echinoids for a few min so I decided to head back to my car. It would take me a while to get back.

But then I stumbled across another patch of echinoids. 

Another one with an ammonite fragment. There were a lot of ammonite fragments everywhere.

6ADE4400-9A66-4AD4-B264-D24B8F1E6E42.jpeg.ad371bbf55744bf9ef349fd669f40b3c.jpeg

 

Here is a decent little ammonite I found.

9367DCFB-2F6A-4CED-B422-78087498CD80.jpeg.4f59f980785bcf81ab6f3602ae572ab4.jpeg

 

A couple more. I had just picked up the ammonite and another echi. I think I found 3 or 4 paired echies sitting right next to another.

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The feeling of being over heated and dehydrated got worse. I can take the heat reasonably well. So I wasn’t sure what was going on. Maybe my age was beginning to show (I’ll be 50 this week). I’d had oral surgery a couple weeks before and thought maybe I wasn’t back up to par yet, despite feeling fine even a day after the surgery. 

I had to sit down once, but didn’t really improve with sitting.

I had wondered if I was going to make it back before fainting. I had stated to have a few short blackouts when I stood up after bending over, but I finally made it back to my car. To my surprise the temperature was a whopping 93. 

If I had known it was going to be 93 I would have hydrated completely differently than I did for 74 degrees. I can handle 93 if I hydrate for it. I went hiking last Summer in Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah when it was 115 degrees and did fine.

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Anyway, I went to get gas and a drink and something salty. I found my favorite chips, Funyuns. I only eat them when traveling though. They’re too dangerous to keep around the house. I’d eat the whole bag. I’m a bit of a health nut, but not a fanatic. So I try to not keep junk food around the house that I’m tempted by.

With temperatures like that it is clear that Spring is here and summer is on its way.

Driving back home, blue skyes and yes, even a little smog in Dallas.

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The Bradford pears and red bud trees are in bloom here in Texas and things are turning green.

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I found 23 echinoids in all. 2 shark teeth and a few ammonites. It was a pretty productive day fossil hunting. That might have quenched my appetite for echinoids for a short while.

I’ll post a pic of them all tomorrow.

Edited by KimTexan
Oops found another tucked away in the corner of the bag.
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Yeow!  93oF???  I was here all day and I don't remember it getting THAT warm!  The temperature sensor must either be pretty close to the ground or (if it is in your car) you must have been parked on asphalt or something!  At any rate...it looks like you had a great hunt!

 

-Joe

Illigitimati non carborundum

Fruitbat's PDF Library

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Always a pleasure to fossick vicariously thru other members, but not when it includes close brushes with death! Hope it was only a bit of dehydration or heat stroke and not your age or something worse. I've been out when it's too hot to move and wondered if I had brought enough water - luckily have not fainted yet. 50 seems too young to be noticing things like that. My parents (69 and 75) complain about the hot summer days, but only started doing so in the last few 10 years at most.

Nice echs. Would like to see a whole shot of that ammo.

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As usual, a great detailed report. Thanks, Kim! Good thing you didn't get called into work. I really enjoy your chatting style and feel I am getting to know you better each time you post something. I'm happy for you in seeing that you followed your nose rightly. Perseverance pays off. I assume you recovered fully and quickly from your symptoms? Funyuns sound like the best medicine.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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Great report, photos and finds Kim . I don’t know what Funyuns are but it sound like you deserved a bag of them. Good work.

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Hi,

 

Good report ! Can't wait to see your cleaned sea urchins ! ;)

 

Coco

----------------------
OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici

Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici
Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici
Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

Badges-IPFOTH.jpg.f4a8635cda47a3cc506743a8aabce700.jpg Badges-MOTM.jpg.461001e1a9db5dc29ca1c07a041a1a86.jpg

 

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Apart from blackouts and dehydration, looked like a prosperous trip. If you can spare a few degrees, send them up north. :D 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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2 hours ago, Kane said:

Apart from blackouts and dehydration, looked like a prosperous trip. If you can spare a few degrees, send them up north. :D 

I can just see it now, Kane getting a package from Texas. He is all excited until he opens it up and it's just a jar filled with Texas hot air. :blink:

 

 

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I liked the shark teeth most, as they aren’t all that common in the Lower K of TX, and the colors are different than the normal Kef stuff.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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Great finds! Your writing style, as already noted, is always welcoming and personal. We get to know you and your fossils better with each report. Thanks for sharing.

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10 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Hope it was only a bit of dehydration or heat stroke and not your age or something worse. I've been out when it's too hot to move and wondered if I had brought enough water - luckily have not fainted yet. 50 seems too young to be noticing things like that. My parents (69 and 75) complain about the hot summer days, but only started doing so in the last few 10 years at most.

Nice echs. Would like to see a whole shot of that ammo.

I guess it wasn’t totally the heat. I found out I have an infection where the sutures were still in place from the surgery I had 16 days ago. The dentist put me on another round of antibiotics. 

The surgery didn’t slow me down at all. I even went fossil hunting the day after the surgery and didn’t have any problems at all. I’ve felt fine the whole time, until Saturday. 

I was dumb enough to go fossil hunting yesterday in the NSR after working on call half of Saturday night. I didn’t realize I had the infection still or at least didn’t think it was that bad until this morning I nearly passed out while getting ready for work.

I’ll get you the pic of the ammonite in a bit. It’s a little one, but decent. 

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2 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

I liked the shark teeth most, as they aren’t all that common in the Lower K of TX, and the colors are different than the normal Kef stuff.

Do you know what genus the shark teeth come from? I was thinking the one on the right looks a little like a Cretolamna I have, but not quite. To be honest I’ve only found one other shark tooth ever and I know next to nothing about them. For some reason I must not have the eye for vertebrate fossils.

 

When I saw the first one I thought it was a sliver of brown glass, but there wasn’t any trash to speak of out there.

If I’d been standing upright I don’t think I would have ever seen either of them.

As far as the formation, I’m going off of what my Rockd app told me. Within a mile or so of the place is Kiamichi, but I think Kiamichi is mostly a dark clay. Then the Goodlands isn’t too far away either. It looked like Duck Creek to me, but I’m still learning my formations.

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Really nice finds! Too bad for getting dehydrated. Every 20 mins whether you feel like it or not you have to drink...but you probably knew that. Fun area to go back to.

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Ok here is a shot of all the echinoids, but 2. One of the missing ones was still in my bag and the other was only about 1.5 cm and went through a processing step, via my jean’s pocket and the washing machine.:headscratch:

The ruler is in inches. There is also a partial Neithea and a couple oysters on the top left corner. I just picked them up as representatives of the fauna in the area. 

64A9DE04-9AE4-432C-A0D7-9CC787CEFC97.thumb.jpeg.9f179b4197b76d6f4cc3de0d640ae76a.jpeg

 

Here is the little ammonite that was in the in situ pic. The other side is covered in matrix. There is an oyster attached to the top right.

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This is another that is fairly worn down, but the other side is covered in matrix, but from what I can tell looks pretty good.

78069E04-8AA7-462E-86EE-C78760D01A18.thumb.jpeg.cbcf21a6de579023641202fa688499b2.jpeg

 

This is another one that it looks like the bulldozer must have gotten.

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The other side. A little worn, but may have some potential under the matrix. It will be good practice for processing.

E31D0890-639F-4290-B479-F8CBCC0B1187.thumb.jpeg.341fb910c5a438389091ee0ada7b851a.jpeg

 

This is the end of an ammonite fragment, but it has this curious little inclusion that looks like it could be a nice tiny ammonite. I want to try to chip it out.3F3D7EDE-2083-45D0-A263-E7A37C69B2A1.thumb.jpeg.610e2361b933a36324996e20a8326d81.jpeg

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8 hours ago, Coco said:

Hi,

 

Good report ! Can't wait to see your cleaned sea urchins ! ;)

 

Coco

I’m not sure how to prep them. The tests are not intact on any of them and they are all pretty fragile. It is strange to me. Most other areas I have collected in, with the exception of the Goodlands, the tests have been very stable. These just flake away. I can clean them a little, but it will be tedious trying to not damage the tests further.

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9 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Great report, photos and finds Kim . I don’t know what Funyuns are but it sound like you deserved a bag of them. Good work.

Thanks.

They are a totally unhealthy junk food. They  claim to be onion flavored, but it is so mild I’m not sure anyone could identify it as onion. The closest comparison I can think of is the sour cream and chives flavor. You can’t exactly identify the chives outright. These don’t have sour cream in the flavor mix, but they’re pretty tasty.

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I think the rings in the pic are false advertisement. When I opened the bag I didn’t see a single ring, only pieces. I’m sure the bag got crushed at some point. Later I realized I’d opened the bag upside down, but still there must have been 5 whole rings in the whole bag. That’s chips for you.

So if you call potato fries chips in the UK, what do you call potato chips? Chips?

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Do you know what formation u were in?  Weno is infamous for booby trapped, exploding tests, but any fm will give up abused echs if they were shallow under the surface, being leached by wet/dry shrink/swell ground water cycles for millenia, and the belly scraper didn’t cut deep during construction grading.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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"When I look at these pics some of them have this optical illusion quality. It looks like there are a bunch of holes in the ground. If that is what you see go to the pic above, focus on the small rocks and come back to this one and refocus. There aren’t any holes in the ground. They’re all rocks sitting on top of the ground. It’s the weirdest thing. They’re my own pics, but I keep seeing the inverse picture so they look like depressions in the ground rather than stones on top of the ground."

 

Just turn the picture around!

Franz Bernhard

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43 minutes ago, KimTexan said:

So if you call potato fries chips in the UK, what do you call potato chips? Chips?

 Oh now I know, we call them onion rings but the just onion flavour. Potato chips are called potato crisps . Monster munch is my favourite.

You have  found some lovely ammonites recently all big ones too.   :wub: 

DD4F9128-4FD5-44C7-A86E-7F1148DD73A4.jpeg

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39 minutes ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Do you know what formation u were in?  Weno is infamous for booby trapped, exploding tests, but any fm will give up abused echs if they were shallow under the surface, being leached by wet/dry shrink/swell ground water cycles for millenia, and the belly scraper didn’t cut deep during construction grading.

I’m pretty sure I was in the Duck Creek. Ft. Worth Limestone and Duck Creek,  Kfd Washita group by the USGS map. I’m not sure what the Weno looks like. To my knowledge I’ve never hunted in it, but I’m still learning my formations.

I did look at Lance Hall’s Page on the Duck Creek and the fauna fit, along with the brown shark teeth.

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