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Mineral Wells Fossil Park, June 2018


Peat Burns

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I recently went on a collecting trip ending in the Triassic of New Mexico.  I collected in four states and covered 6 geologic time periods.  I have a number of trip reports to do, and I usually like to have everything identified before I post.  However, I am waiting on some brachiopod identification resources (productids), and I want to get this out while I have time (more reports coming as I work on the specimens from each site).  This report is on the Mineral Wells Fossil Park.  It was four hours out of my way, but I was determined to get there on this trip (my first to the site) and managed to get in two hours of collecting.  This is a great site, and kudos (and THANKS) to the Dallas Palaeontological Society, Mineral Wells Parks and Recreation Department and all others who helped make this great park possible. 

 

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Apologies, my text editor on my phone does not have ITALICS for the scientific names.  Scale is in mm throughout.

 

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"Marginifera" (?)

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Exterior of a concretion.  The tiny slivers might be productid brachiopod spines

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Inside the concretion showing what may be productid brachiopod spines.

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Possibly crinoid arms or pinnules?

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"Archaeocidaris" echinoid test plate (I think the name has changed, but this will have to do for now :))

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The brachiopods at this site are extremely fragile, and to get really good ones, I had to do some gluing and consolidation on site.  Although I had never been to Mineral Wells before, and only for two hours, I am fairly confident I got rather lucky with this beautiful Neospirifer.

 

That's all folks.  Thanks for looking and HH.

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Very nice finds and presentation!

I wish I knew which strata that correlates with in my area!

 

Thank you for posting these!

Steve

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What beautiful (if fragile) preservation!!!  I love ALL of it!!!  Such an amazing variety of inverts at one place!!!  Congrats!!!

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magnificent,great report,even greater fossils.

So why am i gritting my teeth then?:ninja::D

Collecting the same amount in the Netherlands would probably take 1018 years

Could be wrong by an order of magnitude

edit: some brachs u got there.

 

 

 

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I wish there were more open sites like this in the West. Very nice report and photo journal.

 

 

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11 hours ago, Bullsnake said:

Very nice finds and presentation!

I wish I knew which strata that correlates with in my area!

 

According to these charts, it correlates with the Swope Formation:

 

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It's interesting how the fossils found at both locations are so similar in some ways, and quite different in others.

Context is critical.

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9 hours ago, Missourian said:

 

According to these charts, it correlates with the Swope Formation:

 

 

Thank you, Mitch!

I was way off:wacko:! I was thinking it seemed Plattsburg-y.

I searched, but my researching skills are sad.

Steve

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Thanks for taking us to this site. Very impressive fauna, congratulations to your finds!

Btw, is this an artificial outcroup, something like a former quarry? Thanks!
Franz Bernhard

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51 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Btw, is this an artificial outcroup, something like a former quarry? Thanks!
Franz Bernhard

It was a quarry.

 

For an excellent book on fossils from this site and several other North Texas sites (including Jacksboro) buy: "Color Guide to Pennsylvanian Fossils of North Texas" by McKinzie and McLeod. It is $60.

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

See my Arizona Paleontology Guide    link  The best single resource for Arizona paleontology anywhere.       

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Great finds and great photos. Mineral Wells is  great place to hunt.  Jacksboro to the north is good also.  I haven't hunted up there in a couple of years.  I really need to go back up there this fall. Glad you had a great time.

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@Bullsnake, @Nimravis, @Raggedy Man, @Monica, @doushantuo, @caldigger, @Fruitbat, @ynot, @Echinoid, @FranzBernhard, @RyanNREMTP,

 

Thanks all :)

7 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

Btw, is this an artificial outcroup, something like a former quarry?

Yes, this is a former "borrow pit" turned into a great place to collect Pennsylvanian marine fossils.  I think it may have been the first time I've collected marine fossils from the Pennsylvanian, so each find was a new treasure for me.

 

5 hours ago, RyanNREMTP said:

Jacksboro to the north is good also. 

If I had known about places there, I might have gone there instead. It would have been less out of my way a bit, but no regrets :)

 

7 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

buy: "Color Guide to Pennsylvanian Fossils of North Texas" by McKinzie and McLeod.

I've ordered this as well as this one :

 

Texas Pennsylvanian Brachiopods, 1990. Paleontology Section, Houston Gem and Mineral Society, Texas Paleontology Series, Publication Number 4: 242 pages with illustrations

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Very neat finds, and awesome presentation. Similar to what @Missourian said, it is fascinating to see how these resemble and differ from what I find in the Pennsylvanian marine deposits in Illinois.

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You did great. I have never found even a fragment of a trilobite there. 

If you like that site I think you’d really like the Lost Creek Dam site. It has a greater diversity of fossils although some very different ones. The site isn’t the dam. It is actually where they removed all the rock and dirt to make the dam. It gets traffic, but I think probably less than Mineral Wells. Mineral Wells you just drive up to and get out and walk out into the quarry. Lost Creek you have to drive pretty far off the beaten path. Then you have to walk a half mile it so then cross a fence to get to the site. It also seems a lot bigger to me.

 

@BobWill May be able to help with ID since he is very much into Pennsylvanian fossils.

 

I don’t know if any of these links will help with ID, but they may.

King%201938%20Texas%20Chonetidae%20and%2

 

The Dallas Paleontological Society has a number of links to Pennsylvanian fossils.

https://www.dallaspaleo.org/Jacksboro-Study-Group

 

I also like this digital atlas of Penn. fossils.

http://pennsylvanianatlas.org/species/

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Excellent diversity for MWFP. I tend to find lots of the same common fossils there :(

I will try to help with some of the questions but I have trouble with the brachiopods especially.

The one you labeled Cleiothyridina may be right but the apical angle (wrong term?) seems too acute and it may be Condrathyris perplexa even though it doesn't appear to be on the fauna list for the site.

You are correct about the productid spines but I don't know how to tell on the echinoid spine. Could that one be a scaphopod?

The first gastropod after the Strobeus may me Phymatopleura nodoasa and the next one probably one of the Pseudozygopleura species.

The next one is Shansiella carbonaria. Hope this helps and I will keep trying on some of the other brachiopods. I also now have some possible names for the crinoid stems but not the crowns they go with so I'll have a look and post what I find out.

 

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4 hours ago, BobWill said:

Excellent diversity for MWFP. I tend to find lots of the same common fossils there :(

I will try to help with some of the questions but I have trouble with the brachiopods especially.

The one you labeled Cleiothyridina may be right but the apical angle (wrong term?) seems too acute and it may be Condrathyris perplexa even though it doesn't appear to be on the fauna list for the site.

You are correct about the productid spines but I don't know how to tell on the echinoid spine. Could that one be a scaphopod?

The first gastropod after the Strobeus may me Phymatopleura nodoasa and the next one probably one of the Pseudozygopleura species.

The next one is Shansiella carbonaria. Hope this helps and I will keep trying on some of the other brachiopods. I also now have some possible names for the crinoid stems but not the crowns they go with so I'll have a look and post what I find out.

 

Thank you, Bob.  That's very helpful. I just got this in the mail. I hope it can steer me in the general direction and then I can confirm with the primary literature.

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