Benbrook, TX Duck Creek Formation trip

[KimTexan]

I went hunting Tuesday before last to a new place over in Benbrook, TX about an hour away. A newer TFF member, Cory had blind messaged me telling me about a place over near Ft. Worth. He thought I might be interested in seeing them. He  invited me to come check it out.  I get messaged a lot on social medial by complete strangers. So that part was nothing new. I don’t respond to the majority of the messages. With all of the messages I have gotten I have never had a stranger invite me to meet him somewhere, but that was basically the scenario. Sounds like the perfect scenario for something bad to happen though. So I was a bit leery.
I didn’t intend to go, but I checked out his post to see what he was finding at the site. It was a lot of the typical Duck Creek ammonites and echinoids. The echinoids intrigued me. I had quite a few of that kind, but the quality was better than what I had.  Also, the Mortoniceras ammonites were of good size and quality. The ones I have are fairly small. I have more Eopachydiscus  than any other ammonite. So those did not hold much  appeal. In his post he had invited other people to come check the place out so that made me feel a bit better. I'm still not sure how he found me or why he messaged me. Maybe it was one of my posts from a fossil hunt over in Ft. Worth he had seen.

 

I had requested the day off work for that Tuesday weeks before to run some errands and go to an event, but the event got canceled so I had some extra time I didn’t expect to have. I was bummed that the event got canceled. Nature and the outdoors are my happy places. Fossil hunting cheers me even more. So I thought of places I could go. I had to be back by 5:00 though to pick up my daughter. So I couldn’t heard out to NSR.

I decided to take a chance and head over to the place in Benbrook. I PM'd Cory on TFF and he sent me the address and his telephone number. I messaged someone to let them know where I was going and what time I planned to leave. It was in an open construction area and other people would be around so that helped put my mind at ease. I don’t tend to be paranoid about harm from strangers, but I like to be safe. I am a person of faith and I tend to hold the philosophy that if it isn’t your time to go nothing will happen to you. If it is your time to go, there is nothing you can do to stop it. I know a lot of women who limit themselves in where they can go and what they can do out of fear of what may happen to them if they go somewhere alone. I don’t fit in that category of not going out of fear. It may put me at greater risk, but so far I haven't come to harm only by the grace of God I am sure.

Since the place was a new development it didn’t come up on my map apps. I had to wing it and used the satellite view to find the general area under development. I pulled into the development. It was quite large. Between the 2  sections it looked like it could easily be 150 acres if not more. Maybe only about 20% of the lots had homes on them. I had no idea where Cory was or how to find him. I was ok hunting without bothering him at work. I was still uneasy about it, but I thought I should meet him to thank him for letting me know about the site and inviting me. I am a pretty shy person. Breaking the ice is the hardest thing for me. I feel awkward and am afraid I won't know what to say, I'll say something stupid or I'll say something and there will be one of those awkward silences. But I let the rules of proper social decorum motivate me to break the ice and go meet him. He had also said he had a lot of questions about the fossils. I told him I wasn’t sure I could answers his questions, but I’d try to answer what I could. I wanted to keep my word.

I parked my car on a corner surrounded by vacant lots. I messaged him to let him know I was there providing him with the street names on the signs on the corner. I got out and walked around. Within the first 5-7 minutes of walking around I found 2 decent little ammonites, which I believe are both Mortoniceras. One has more prominent tubercles than the other.
Here’s the first I little ammonite I found on top of a fragment from a large Eopachydiscus. I am holding them my hand, but the fragment is so big you can barley see my hand is there.  The little ammonite is 9 cm across.
 

About that time he messaged me back and then tried to describe how to get to him. I told him I’d hunt where I was a bit longer and then come over to where he was.

While I hunted around I snapped pics of the flowers and plants. Here are a few.
This looks a little like phlox, but I’m not sure if it is since phlox was out in early April. Also, these are on a single stalk densely covered with small leaves. The phlox I know don’t look like that

 

Not sure what this, but it looks cool. The leaves are fuzzy. The shoots are 12-15 inches tall.

 

This is a Texas thistle. Believe it or not this is my favorite wildflower. The blooms can be up to 2 inches across and occasionally 2.5. They look a bit like pompoms, but aren’t quite so round. The color is just a bit off in the pic though. They are slightly more of a fuchsia color. They’re pretty cool looking. The plant is very prickly as you can see in the pic. They are difficult  to pick. I usually have to take thick rubber gloves and use garden clippers.  The look is not what made them my favorite flower though.  It is their behavior and movement that I find so intriguing and mysterious.

 

The first time I picked a bouquet of these I arranged them in a vase and made a nice rounded bouquet. When I got up in the morning they were completely rearranged. I asked my kids if they had played with them. They had not. I rearranged them into a nice rounded bouquet and went about my day. A couple hours later I noticed it was rearranged again. I don’t know what makes them move. It is not phototropism or the typical type of chemotaxis. They will move themselves at night and may move as much as 2 inches in 8 hours. It is astonishing and quite remarkable to me. I love it! They have an independent spirit, kind of like me.

 

I remember we had a form of these growing on the edge of the forest in the clearing where our house was when I was a girl living in the Boston Mountains of Arkansas. The bears use to come into the clearing to eat these. They look like they would be very painful to eat, but the bears seemed to love them for their sweetness. I’ve never eaten one, but they smell delightfully sweet almost like honey.
 

 

 

[KimTexan]

I will post the rest of the pics and story in a bit. I am having trouble with it not wanting to load the pics. Bear with me.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Of course.

[KimTexan]

I asked @cory76044 (I couldn't get the @ thing to work earlier) if he could drop a pin on his location and then share it with me. He did, but then the map took me 150 yards to a water tower and stopped.  Clearly he wasn’t at the water tower. I figured he had to be northwest of the water tower. A few minutes later I was there.
We visited a few minutes and then we went out walking around the development looking for fossils.

It seemed the construction workers knew he’d been collecting them. As we walked past a house where workers were putting the brick up a worked called out in Spanish saying he’d found a fossil. It was nice looking Mort about 8 inches across.  He held it up in the air and called out “Seis dolares” ($6). Cory chuckled said something to him in Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, but I understand maybe 1/3 of what is spoken and can read a bit more.  Cory seemed  a little embarrassed or chagrinned that the guy was trying to sell it to me like a street vender in South or Central America. Cory said something I didn’t understand again in Spanish, which seemed to only egg the would be seller on, because he smiled a big broad smile, laughed and continued with all the more enthusiasm. I told him it was a nice looking ammonite in English. The seller called out again “Veinte dolares” ($20). I almost laughed, but smiled instead, because he increased the price. He saw my smile and then called out again “Cein dolares!” ($100). I burst out laughing. Up until then I don’t think Cory realized I knew what the guy was saying. The worker seemed to be trying to get Cory’s goat and make me laugh. I think he succeeded in both.

Cory took me to a section where the ground had just been broken, preparing it for the initial phases of development.  We walked around finding mostly ammonite fragments and burrows and a few whole ones. Some of the fragments had crystal throughout them I have always liked the combination of fossils and crystal. I was too busy visiting and didn’t take any pics.

We came across one Eopachydiscus that was maybe about 18 inches across with very little matrix on it. That would be the biggest complete one I have ever found. I have one that is ¾ whole and 17 inches across. They were too big and heavy to carry around. So we piled them in a particular spot to come back and get them when I was ready to leave.
We hunted for a bit. He asked questions and I answered as best I could. Then he went back to work and I continued to hunt for maybe an hour more. It was very hot.

 

Here are a few more pics that I took while hunting the first area. The 2nd area didn’t have any vegetation since it was newly bulldozed.

Think this is called a white pricklepoppy. It is much like the thistle plant, but it is related to the poppy.

 

I believe this is called horsenettle. I could be wrong,  but it is in the nightshade family. This plant was one of the larger ones I had ever seen.

 

A partial imprint of an ammonite. I think imprints are cool for some reason.

 

 

I hadn’t realized we were actually off to hunt when we started walking. I thought he was just going to point me to the area and then I’d go back and get my hunting stuff and fluids, but that didn’t happen. After hunting for over 1.5 hours in the nearly 90 degree heat without fluids I was getting dehydrated.

Since I was getting dehydrated I headed back to my car, which I had parked near the construction office trailer. Cory was out at one of the houses being built. He saw me and offered to carry the fossils I was carrying. I must have looked hot and tired. I said I was OK. He told me he would meet me at the office. I got there and he invited me into his office to cool down. I asked if I could fill my water bottle up somewhere. He gave me a cold bottled water from the fridge behind his desk. That did wonders to revive me.

 

We visited for a few minutes and then I thanked him for inviting me and for the water and said I better let him get back to work. He said he was good to visit a bit more after he printed something. He couldn’t get it to print. He said it was a new computer and he hadn’t figured out the newer Microsoft operating system yet. I had the same OS on my computer and am a bit tech savvy. I offered to help him get it printed. He accepted.  The computer was having issues and just sat there processing after I tried to access the control panel and printers.  So we restarted and then it printed without issue.

We visited for a bit longer. The conversation flowed easily. We seemed to have a number of things in common. He grew up in a small town about 15 minutes from the small town where I was born. He still lived in the area on several acres out in the country. He was building a house out there. He seemed like a really nice guy. He had a great sense of enthusiasm about the fossils. He invited me to come visit him at his place some time and he would take me out hunting in his neck of the woods. I told him I would like that. I had heard of some good hunting out that way and would love to see what the rave was all about. I had never hunted out that way so I am always up for new types of fossils.

I need to leave so I gathered my stuff and headed over to where I had left one pile of fossils. I put them in my car, but where the other fossil pile was with the big Eopachydiscus there was heavy machinery working right near it. I didn’t think it was best to go near the heavy equipment to get them. I texted Cory to let him know I was leaving them. He replied saying he would get them for me and I could come back and get them. He said it was a good excuse to get me to come back to visit him.

 

I headed home. I have not gotten the fossils back yet so I still don’t have a pic of those. But here are pics of some of the ones that I did find.

 

This is the little Mortoniceras that I found.

These are the 3 ammonites that were whole that I brought home that day. The one was found broken. It is in matrix though. I am not sure how much it will take to remove it though. The medium ammonite has the sutures showing on the light portion on the very bottom of the pic.

 

I found this too. I am not sure what it is. There were a lot of larger burrows all over the place out there. This was amongst the burrows, but it does not look like a burrow.  You can’t tell from the pic, but the sides are flat and edges somewhat angular. Burrows are basically round. The left side is whitish where the rock has fallen away from the fossil. I can provide more pics if anyone wished to see it from different angles. If anyone knows what it may be I’d appreciate knowing.

 

 

This is another ammonite fragment I found out there. I do not know what kind it is, but it is not a Mortoniceras or an Eopacydiscus. I have never found a whole one of this variety. The other fragments I have found of this kind were from the Kiamichi. So I wonder if there is an exposure of the Kiamichi there somewhere.

 

Cory sent me a pic of the one I left behind with a couple others he had found that evening. The top one is the one I found. I would like to go back to get it. The largest whole Eopachydiscus I have is 14 inches. From the size of the stepping stones it looks like it may be about 22-24 inches. That would make it 8-10 inches bigger than the biggest one I have. So, I sure hope I can get it back sometime soon. I haven't gotten ahold of him to see when I may go back to get it.  I believe the walkway stepping stones to the right are 20 x 10 inches each for comparison of size.

 

I did find what I believe may be a little echinoid in a rock, but I can't tell if it an echinoid or a clam or something. Cory had found a number of decent echinoids, but while there I did not find any of the variety he had found. 

I visited the place again this past Monday along with another place. I will try to get a trip report out about that trip soon.

 

That is all for now.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Absorbing report as usual with some great nature pics and some super fossils. 

Loved the bit about the guy trying to sell you the fossil, sounded just like Morocco! 

Hope you do get the big ammo back.  

[KimTexan]

5 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Absorbing report as usual with some great nature pics and some super fossils. 

Loved the bit about the guy trying to sell you the fossil, sounded just like Morocco! 

Hope you do get the big ammo back.  

Except when they are trying to sell you something if you don't show interest they usually start dropping the price, not going up. That was what I found so funny. He was being funny.

[Fruitbat]

Great trip report, as always, Kim!  The purplish flowers in the second picture are verbenas.  The one with the fuzzy stems is one of the various forms of plantain.  You hit the target dead center with your I.D. of horsenettle (often called bull nettle).  Nasty plant...all parts of it are toxic if ingested and there have even been a couple of human deaths recorded in people who make the mistake of eating the fruits.

 

Nice ammonites, by the way.

 

-Joe

[Miocene_Mason]

¡Cien dolares! Es muy caro. El hombre está divertido. That took me about five minutes of intense brain picking to write, and Spanish Class was only half a semester or two ago! 

Nice report and some very handsome Ammonites! 

[KimTexan]

2 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

¡Cien dolares! Es muy caro. El hombre está divertido. That took me about five minutes of intense brain picking to write, and Spanish Class was only half a semester or two ago! 

Nice report and some very handsome Ammonites! 

Thank you.

 

Yes, he was having fun. I took a year of Spanish in college, but it didn’t help me a whole lot when traveling among the indigenous people of South and Central America. There were many Spanish words the people didn’t know. I had no idea there were so many versions that mixed with indigenous dialects. Quechua in its various forms left me dazed and confused. 

 

Once I was traveling in the high Andes of Peru with 3 companions when they all came down with Typhoid fever. We were staying in Puno on Lake Titicaca. Our rooms were on the third floor of a hostel at 13,000 feet. There was no elevator. (Not that that is relevant to the story, but I remember my lungs had not acclimated to the high altitude and running up and down 3 stories was an adventure to me.) I was there to visit the lake and the Uros Indians.  I didn’t come down sick with Typhoid. I must have been immune from drinking so much creek water as a kid.

I went to the pharmacy to get the antibiotics and lamotil my traveling companions needed. Typhoid fever, vomit and diarrhea all have very similar cognates in Spanish. The pharmacist spoke Quechua and didn’t know fiebre tyfoidea, vomito or diarrea! How is that? My Spanish couldn’t have been that bad. The pharmacist and her assistant stood there with smiles on their faces as I performed typhoid fever charades to try to communicate that way since Spanish didn’t work. It was like a bad pepto bismol commercial.

 

It was one of those moments I’ll never forget. I walked out of there laughing at what a good laugh they must be having at me after I left.

I love to travel. I love the adventures. That’s one reason I like fossil hunting, for the adventure.

[Monica]

Nice ammonites! 

[Darktooth]

Great report Kim! Thanks for sharing your finds.

[belemniten]

A wonderful trip report with great pictures  Thanks for sharing !

Those ammonites are lovely 

[FossilSniper]

22 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

¡Cien dolares! Es muy caro. El hombre está divertido. That took me about five minutes of intense brain picking to write, and Spanish Class was only half a semester or two ago! 

I can relate. 

[FossilSniper]

That sounds like a great trip, and I am jealous of the huge ammonite. The fossils here don't get nearly as big.
Nice finds and excellent report!

[Miocene_Mason]

@KimTexan Yeah, for a time my grandfather was ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The Spanish there was much different than Mexican Spanish my grandfather spoke as a child or the Castillian Spanish they teach in school. Apparently they like to put words together (ex ¡BuenDia! Instead of ¡Buenos Dias!) and utilize other slang terms, so there are now many funny stories of misunderstandings! As I am thus far planning for a career in Paleoanthropology, Castillian Spanish will probably be all I need but who knows when I’ll find myself in another one of the 20 some Spanish speaking countries.

[KimTexan]

That is an honor to have a grandfather of such standing. I hope you have had the opportunity to get to know him and spend time with him to learn from him.

I doubt you can do more than Castilian Spanish.

If I were a paleontologist I would want to visit the Patagonian region at least once in my life. Spanish would come in helpful there, but I’m sure you’d encounter indigenous dialects too. I’ve always wanted to go there. Maybe one day I will.

Its a shame we don’t see more fossils on here from that region. There are some amazing fossils found there.

[henpecked]

Thanks for sharing, I like all the pictures.

[ynot]

Wonderful report.

Congratulations on the nice finds.

Love the wild flowers.

[Miocene_Mason]

On 6/3/2018 at 11:39 PM, KimTexan said:

That is an honor to have a grandfather of such standing. I hope you have had the opportunity to get to know him and spend time with him to learn from him.

Don’t tell him that, it’ll go to his head

In all seriousness, I’m lucky to be able to spend time with him, though he is (and has for quite a few years now) been struggling with Parkinson’s. I am much more proud of other things he has done in his life, but that’s a story for a different time.

On 6/3/2018 at 11:39 PM, KimTexan said:

doubt you can do more than Castilian Spanish.

If I were a paleontologist I would want to visit the Patagonian region at least once in my life. Spanish would come in helpful there, but I’m sure you’d encounter indigenous dialects too. I’ve always wanted to go there. Maybe one day I will.

Its a shame we don’t see more fossils on here from that region. There are some amazing fossils found there

Yeah, there’s no “one size fits all” for any language. Patagonia is beautiful I’ve heard, someday indeed. Perhaps we will have more from there at some point, though fossil laws rarely ease over time, but do quite the opposite.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Nice report, as usual !

 

On 03/06/2018 at 2:55 AM, KimTexan said:

The first time I picked a bouquet of these I arranged them in a vase and made a nice rounded bouquet. When I got up in the morning they were completely rearranged. I asked my kids if they had played with them. They had not. I rearranged them into a nice rounded bouquet and went about my day. A couple hours later I noticed it was rearranged again. I don’t know what makes them move. It is not phototropism or the typical type of chemotaxis. They will move themselves at night and may move as much as 2 inches in 8 hours. It is astonishing and quite remarkable to me. I love it! They have an independent spirit, kind of like me.

 

 

I would like to see pictures before / after bouquet

 

Coco

 

[KimTexan]

I didn’t pick a bouquet this year. For some reason they were not as abundant like they usually are. It may be that two of the places near wher I lived where I use to pick them underwent development and they were bulldozed over.

 

I know I have pics of them on a hard drive, but I can’t access them currently since my computer died. 

 

I checked the sites for fossils though. There were only minuscule fragments of clams and oysters. The area is the Austin Chalk which is fossiliferous in my area.

[Twinlukers]

Great story and finds. I went to lake benbrook and found a couple of nice ammonites that’s kept in the metrics and cleaned up for my office display.