Polka dotted ammonite in the North Sulfur River

[KimTexan]

Monday was Labor Day, a holiday. I was going to be off work and home alone. I woke up early for a day off really motivated to get up and get out to the North Sulfur River (NSR), but I was feeling a bit lazy. I didn’t want to wear myself out too much. I am on call all week and being worn out isn’t a good way to start being on call if you have to stay up all night working.

I had not been out to the NSR since June, because I nearly did myself in last trip with heat exhaustion. I had plenty of fluids, but the 100 degree heat with no shade was too much for me. Anyway, the weather on Monday was pretty decent. The heat was bearable. Rain was in the forecast. There was a tropical storm spinning off inland and we were having storms from that.

I got ready and drove the 1:20 minutes to my favorite bridge outside of Ladonia. I arrived about 9:00. Rain was predicted to start about 11:00. I didn’t know how bad it would be or how long it would last. So, I figured I had about 2 hours to get some hunting in.

 

Entering the NSR can be a challenge along most of the section of river which was channeled back in the early 1900s. The banks are about 30 feet high and mostly vertical. Normally I enter from the south side of the bridge, but it seems everyone I know who goes there enters from the north side. I thought I’d try that entrance for once. I parked my car along a narrow path next to the guardrail near the bridge. I got out and got my gear ready. Before putting on my pack I walked out to the edge of the precipice of the bank and looked down to the riverbed 30 feet below. To my left was the bridge. I saw a ridiculously steep (80 degrees) path, if you could call it that, plummeting down into the river. I thought “No way! You’ve got to be kidding me!!!” It looked more like a wash and going down it would be more like falling or repelling if I had a rope. There was no way I could come back up that with a 40-50 pound pack. Plus I didn’t have a rope with me. Hum, maybe I need to add rope to my NSR gear list. I am not a rock climbing type girl. I am around a soft 50% marshmallow consistency. There isn’t a whole lot of muscle on me. I am all adventure and no brawn.

 

This is a picture of the river from the top of the bank. IT is not the best pic, but you get the idea that it is a long way down. You can't really see the wash, but it starts behind the pillar on the left and runs behind that bush straight down to the bottom.

 

I turned to walk back to my car and drive over to my usual entrance, but as I turned I saw an opening in the dense undergrowth. I walked towards it. There was a rope tied to a tree at the top of the hill. It was strung downhill and attached to another sapling 20 feet below. It wasn’t much of a rope, less than 1 cm thick with infrequent, small knots of maybe 1 cm in size. They would not be much to grab onto. It would help getting down for sure and it looked strong enough, but man was it steep (60 degreeish)!! It was really steep for about 20 feet or so and then leveled off for a bit and then there was some concrete rubble in the wash that ran along the path. From the level area you had to drop down about 3 feet and then walk the rubble to the riverbed. There was only one sizeable (2 inches) sapling to grab at or break your fall with on the 20 foot part. There were numerous saplings and a poison ivy vine that were ¼- ½ inch thick. There was a rebar type stake sticking up about 8 inches from the ground maybe 5 feet down the hill, I assume for a foothold of sorts. It looked like someone had tried to notch some steps into the hill with a shovel every 3 feet or so, but they were eroded so barely of any use anymore. I think I must be crazy, or ridiculously overdue for an adventure. It has been 3 months since I’d been to the NSR after all. I decided to go ahead and try it. I hoped I would not live to regret my choice.

 

I went and got my pack, which was already about 15 pounds with my 4 pound sledge hammer, rock hammer, drinking fluids, my 40 caliber pistol (protection from wild hogs) and other gear. I put my pack on and walked to the edge of the hill. I took one step and slid. I was wearing tennis shoes with only a little tread. I turned around,  went back to my car and put on my hiking boots.  I tried going down the hill facing forward, but couldn’t do it. So I turned around and grabbed the rope and wrapped it around my hand and began to lower myself down backwards. In retrospect I can see I clearly did not think my exit strategy out. I will post another part in a couple minutes..

 

 

 

[Nimravis]

[Walt]

[KimTexan]

I got down into the riverbed. It was bone dry. There wasn’t a drop of water to be seen anywhere. The river was dustbowl or a mud pit waiting to happen. I crossed to the other side and walked to where I normally enter and looked up the wash. Yep, it looked a lot better than the hill I had just come down. I sat down on a ledge to get pebbles out of my boots. I saw something white right next to me. White is something you look for in the NSR. It is usually a clam, baculite or ammonite. It was maybe 4 inches of a baculite broken up. I had some cyanoacrylate with me. So I glued the pieces together, put it in a zip lock bag and stuck it in the top of my pack. It isn't that great of one, but it was my first fossil of the day. Here is a pic of it and my grubby hands from digging in the dirt. Fossil hunting is so not glamorous, but do I have a blast doing it.

I walked the bank looking for more stuff. Looking up, overhead,  I saw a tree half falling from the bank with more than 50% of the roots suspended in mid air. It was about 25 feet above me. I moved away from the bank and upstream. Avalanches are a common occurrence in the NSR. So I try to be alert and keep an eye on the banks.

I walked the riverbed looking for fossils. I came across this flowering plant. I had seen fields of them around where I live. I am not sure how this is the first year I have ever noticed them, but this is my first up close look at one along with a pic of a field of them from near where I live.

 

 

 

Here is another plant I came across. It is pretty large. Maybe 4.5 feet across. It has all these little balls or seed pods on it covered with little spikes.

 

I was about a tenth of a mile upstream when I came to a red layer in the riverbed. I saw an interesting looking brick red concretion. I reached down with my rock hammer to turn it over. When I did I saw a very weathered baculite over 10 inches long. I debated whether I wanted it or not. It was crumbling. I should have taken a pic of it, because it did not survive in one or 10 pieces for that matter.  I sat down on the ground and began to scrape the surface and just below it. As I did I turned up a cluster of Inoceramus clams with other stuff stuck in with them. I crumbled the dirt around it looking for other fossils. I came across a very small ammonite, maybe 3 cm in diameter. It think it is a Menabites danei. It was a bit crushed and roughed up, but generally whole. It was my first complete one I had ever found there. Yay!

The weather was actually pretty nice. It was in the high 80s, overcast and quite breezy. I looked south every now and then. The low, dark gray clouds looked a bit ominous at times. These types of storms are known to spin off tornados. If one came through I was out of luck unless I could get to one of the infrequent washes. 11:00 came and went without any rain. I thought I was free and clear and would have the whole day in the river, which made me happy.

More to come.

[Heteromorph]

Ammonites, adventure and the NSR. I’m interested! 

[Walt]

[KimTexan]

I was feeling a bit lazy. It was a vacation day and I wanted to take it easy. So often I absolutely wear myself out when I go to  the NSR. I can’t get enough of it and it is hard for me to make myself stop, because I am having so much fun. So, I decided to hang out there a while and turn over more concretions to see if I could find anything else. I came across a few phosphatized gastropods and small clams. I also came across 2 Glyptoxoceras heteromorphs, but they were so fragile I opted to not collect them. Small stuff, that was my aim today. I didn’t want to collect too many fossils or too big of ones. I wanted to keep my pack light so I didn’t wear myself out. I was on track for that, because I was not finding that much. Here are some of the gastropods and clams. If you look close you can see a couple of the clams have serpula worm burrows on them. I guess you call them burrows.

This is a fragment of a Turitella trilira I have a whole one I found there last year.

I could be wrong, but I believe these are both Inoceramus clams. The two species found out there are I. balticus and I. barabini If someone knows please educate me a bit. The clam on the left has a fragment of a baculite running right through it. These are casts of clams.

 

 

As I sat digging a man came down into the river. Initially he was just a moving speck maybe 0.15 miles down river. He slowly made his way upriver to where I was, picking through the gravel as he came. I usually try to say high to people in the river. I often learn stuff from them and share some of my experience if the opportunity arises. The man looked like he was going to pass by without saying anything so I called out “Hello”. He replied and walked over to me. His name was Norm.  “Are you a member of the Dallas Paleontological Society?” he asked me. This seems a commonly asked question despite Dallas proper is almost 2 hours away. We were both DPS members, but he didn’t come to the meetings, because he lives in Connecticut. He travels doing a lot of contract work in the Dallas area. We shared a few stories and he asked a few questions about DPS field trips. I asked what he wanted to find. I shared some locations that I thought he might like based on the fossils he expressed interest in. We finished up the conversation and he headed up river. I dug a little more, then decided to look around.

 

I started to pack my stuff up and it began sprinkling lightly. Immediately things became a muddy mess. Just trying to put my stuff away and gather the fossils I had found my hands were instantly covered in mud! The river was a powdery dry and there was no water to rinse my hands. I had Gatorade, but no water in my pack. As I was packing I saw 2 more people enter the river.

 

The river must be 80-100 feet wide in that area. After packing my stuff I crossed to the north bank searching the rocks in the riverbed as I went. The far bank had a red layer, which usually has some good fossils. The two men had caught up with me in the river and were walking the other bank.

I called out “Hello” across the river once they were parallel to me. The closer one responded and then asked. . .you guessed it: “Are you a member of the Dallas Paleontological Society?” All 3 of us were. I asked if they attended the DPS meetings. They did. I walked to the middle of the river to see if I could recognize their faces. I am pretty shy once I get past hello and the basics in social settings where I don’t know people. I have no idea what to say when I meet people at the meetings. So, I kind of keep to the few people I know and don’t socialize at the meetings, out of shyness,  beyond the few people I know. Out fossil hunting is a different story. I am reasonably confident and in my element. It is easy to talk about fossils and the hunting experience.

More to follow.

[KimTexan]

As I walked to the middle of the river the closest guy walked towards me. I recognized him! Oh no! I politely said some something along the lines of I recognized their faces, nice seeing you, see you at the meeting and quickly turned back to hunt the bank. I did not know his name, but he was the only person I tried to avoid at the meetings. At my 2^nd or 3^rd DPS meeting he sat a few tables to my left and every time I shifted in my chair and turned that direction I noticed he was watching me. I felt uncomfortable so at the close of the meeting I quickly left the room and headed out to the lobby where displays of fossils, rocks and minerals were with the intent of leaving. I got distracted by an ammonite on display. I can’t resist a good ammonite. While I was there he approached me and expressed an appreciation of a certain physical attribute. Of all people to meet in the river!  Thank goodness he was not by himself. That would be pretty uncomfortable. I had talked to the other guy before and he was pretty nice. I’ll call them Tom and Jerry, because Jerry was talking about cartoons at some point in the river. I had not talked to Jerry before. When I had talked with Tom at the meeting he was sitting at a table with an extremely cool ammonite, which Jerry and he had found in the South Sulfur River. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the coolest ammonite it was a 9.5.

 

I decided to stick to the north side of the river and let them have the rest of the river. We walked on for a bit searching for fossils remaining parallel in the river. I was walking along the North bank when I saw something kind of big with an unusual shape partly sticking out of the bank. I reached out and pushed some of the overburden aside. I pulled a piece out and looked at it. I wasn’t sure what it was. It looked funny. It had an unusual pattern in white on the surface. I pulled another piece out. I realized it was an ammonite fragment, but they looked strange. I pulled out the next piece. It was quite large. 10 -12 inches long, quite thick and wide weighing about 20 pounds. Since I knew the men were into ammonites I excitedly called out “I found a big ammonite!” I had never found one so big in the NSR.  They both walked over to where I was. It had polka dots! This was my second polka dotted ammonite I’d found in the river. They had never seen a polka dotted ammonite. They had a look then continued up the river.  As soon as they walked away up the river it started raining in earnest. I was still trying to collect the pieces of the ammonite and digging to see if I could find more pieces . I got completely drenched and pretty muddy. The river had been dry and the fine powdery clay bed had turned into a giant clay mud pit once the rain started. Here is the ammonite fragment I found. Sorry this one is a bit fuzzy. At this point I was drenched and there was nothing to dry off my phone with.

This is the polka dotted side. It isn't polka dots, but that is what I call it. I think it is some sort of pathology. This is maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of an ammonite. It is huge. T

This is the other side. I am not sure what kind it is. I surmise it may be a Placenticeras syrtale, but I need to look up a few types of ammonites and make comparisons. I think this thing could have been 20-22 inches in diameter when whole and weighed over 75 pounds. I could not have carried it out if it had been whole, but I sure would have tried to find a way to take it home. Rope would help in that scenario.

 

[KimTexan]

I have quite a bit more of a story to tell, but I am on call and I just got called into work. Ugh, I am already so tired. I'll be dragging all night.

Here is a side view of the ammonite fragment. You can kind of see the siphuncle on the middle left. At least that is what I think it is.

I will post more tomorrow after I have recovered from being up nearly 24 hours if I get to come home that soon.

I have 2 other fossil hunting trips I need to post still. One was with @Heteromorph.

[Walt]

Thanks, Kim!

[KimTexan]

I am up and awake after having worked my regular shift yesterday and then getting called in and working from 11:00 PM to 5:15 AM this morning. I was up for almost 26 hours before I crawled into bed this morning. I worked on a pediatric kidney transplant and a heart transplant from the same donor.

Back to the story,

 

I packed the ammonite pieces all up, but the large piece was so big I chose to carry it in my arms. Also, I didn't want it to get bunged up in my pack.  I had a cloth I wrapped it in. It was over 20 lbs. My pack was close to 25 pounds. I was done hunting for the day whether it was raining or not. I can’t carry much more than that. I have been having back problems for years, but this summer they have been a lot worse with carrying so many fossils. I found out in July that I have a genetic defect in my L5 vertebra. That has been the culprit of my back problems all these years.  The vertebra is under developed and not adapted to work well with all the fully developed vertebra, muscles and other tissues. So it has given me considerable grief if I try to carry too much. I have started wearing a back brace, which helps a lot to prevent me from injuring my back. Still I had reached my weight limit.

 

Just as I was getting ready to start walking back to the bridge the Tom and Jerry had changed their minds about continuing to hunt due to the persistent rain. I had been busy with the ammonite and hadn’t noticed they were headed back. They were about 40 feet away trying to remove something from a whitish layer of chalky stone in the riverbed. My ammonite was in a similar layer about 3 feet above the layer they were in.  I asked what they had found. Tom had found an ammonite and it also appeared to have the polka dot pattern. I believe his was a different species though, probably a Menabites or Texanites. Very curious.

 

I started walking back to the bridge. My boots kept gumming up with the clay mud caked all over them. I had to stop to clean the mud off my boots 3 times before I made it back to the bridge which may have been 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile. I finally arrived at the exit point by the bridge. There are large chunks of concrete by the bank. I sat down for a rest. I was pretty tired. It was still raining. I was contemplating how on earth I was going to make it back up the hill when Tom arrived. He was barefoot. One of the straps on his shoes had broken and he had taken his shoes off . I commented how painful the walk must have been. He said it wasn't bad at all, because the mud caked up on his feet and felt more like a Dr. Scholle's gel insert. Jerry followed a few minutes later.

I had described the hill at the beginning when it was dry. Now that it had rained and was very slick. With my pack as heavy as it was it was not going to be easy to get up the hill. I’d have to make 2 trips. I could not carry the ammonite and pull myself up the hill at the same time.  My clothes were soaked through. I was covered in mud. I had mud on my arms, legs, face, shirt and pants. At least the men looked almost as bad as I did, but they didn’t have as much mud on them. I honestly didn't give it a second thought. Getting dirty is all part of fossil hunting. I like to look decent going in, but I could care less about how I look going out. 

If you go to the NSR I highly recommend taking a change of clothes and shoes and a gallon of water to rinse off a bit with.

 

Tom and Jerry discussed how they were going to get up the hill and the challenges it presented. That made me feel better. I kind of thought I was being a woos thinking how hard it was going to be. Their packs had to be about half of what mine weighed. They had not been in the river very long at all when the rain started. Tom decided that he would climb the hill and go back to the truck and get a rope to pull their packs up with. Jerry’s pack was very light. Tom had the ammonite he found in the river. So his pack was a bit heavy. I kind of wonder if they didn’t come up with getting the other rope to help me out. I had no expectation of them helping me or asking them for help. I was recuperating and waiting for them to make it up and then I would start carrying my stuff up. I didn’t want to slow them down or be fodder for laughter either as they watched me try to climb, slip and fall. Tom started to climb the hill, but his feet were coated in a thick layer of slippery mud. The mud feet on mud hill meant no traction. He had to remove the thick layer of mud from his feet.

 

The rain had finally stopped. I was so tired and I really did not want to climb the hill twice, but the ammonite wasn’t going to carry itself up the hill. There was an overhang of concrete out over the riverbed about 4 feet high or chest height to me. It was the same level spot as that at the bottom of the 20 foot hill.  I hoisted my pack up on the overhang along with my ammonite and then walked around to climb up the 3 feet to the level spot. Jerry offered to help me get up onto the level spot. I grabbed a root and pulled myself up. I walked to the overhang and picked up my pack ready to take a try at making it up hill. Jerry told me that they would pull my pack up too when Tom came back with the rope. I didn’t try to fight that one. I thanked him for the help. Then I turned to try to climb the hill to go get a 2^nd pack for my ammonite. I slipped and slid back down. I had to figure out my strategy. The rope was not enough to help me get up. I grabbed at a little saplings and stabilized on the first couple steps up. My prescription sunglasses slipped off my shirt and fell down to the bottom of the hill. Jerry picked them up for me and put them in a safe place. I made it to the top. I went and got one of my other packs. I had 3 in the car. You never know how many fossils you’ll find or how many places you’ll stop so I have multiple packs in my at times.

About then Tom came walking back with the rope. He had changed his clothes. I was about to head back down the hill with the empty pack to get the ammonite. Jerry was still at the bottom of the hill with the packs. He said that my ammonite would fit in his pack. I didn’t fight that one either. Tom threw down the rope and Jerry tied each pack to it, Tom pulled it up and repeated the process till all were up.  Then Jerry came up. I thanked both of them profusely and got in my car.

 

I had to back out of the road about 50-60 feet. Norm’s SUV was there, but not blocking me and their truck was behind Norms. I backed out to the end of the guardrail.  I wasn’t far from Norm’s SUV so I chose to angle my car back a bit to be able to pull out onto the road. I back up a few feet and then put it in drive and when I did my wheels just spun. I stopped cut my wheel the other way and tried again,  I slid back further. No mud could even be seen on the path. It was covered with grass. I got out to assess the situation and how I could move to get out of it. Tom had heard me spinning out and came to see what was going on. He directed me to straighten out my wheel and he would try to push me out while I tried backing up. Instead of going backwards the car went forward. If I went any further I would go into the brush that was further downhill towards the wash.  Tom assured me they would get me out of there and not to worry. I wasn’t worried. Getting stuck was a part of life growing up as a kid. I can’t tell you how many times we got stuck. Sometimes it took us an hour or 2 to get our truck unstuck, but we did it. We lived so far out in the country. There was no tow service out there so you had to figure your way out of situations. I wasn’t worried. I was taking it in stride. I had the day off. It was just a delay and inconvenience, but I had time. I got out of my car. Tom went to get the rope. I knelt down on the ground to look under my car for a tow hook or something to tie the rope to. I didn’t see anything. I was a bit surprised. This was the first car I had without such a hook.

Jerry took the rope and crawled under my car to find something to tie it to. He had already changed clothes and was clean and dry!! Here he was laying down on the wet, muddy ground getting his clean dry clothes wet and dirty to help me. He could have handed me the rope, for me to tie to my car, but he did it for me. I felt humbled for being in the situation, but also for avoiding this man who was now being such a great help to me.

I do a lot of introspection and am pretty philosophical. Too much for most people's taste, but here is my 2 cents of philosophical insight upon introspection regarding this instance. Watching this man help me get my pack up the hill and then get dirty trying to help me get my car unstuck was a reminder to me that I need to stop letting my fear and anxiety control me so much and stop letting it prevent me from trying to deal with people in a healthier way than just avoiding them. Avoiding people or issues is a cop out. It is an easy escape or the denial of the need to deal with issues, attitudes, people or circumstances that sabotage our peace, character and joy. Avoidance is a good way to get yourself stuck in life and not live out our potential. It quashes passion and motivation. It robs us of living to the fullest. I am generally pretty intense and passionate. People often misunderstand the intensity and are put off by it. Others are inspired by it. I am in a bit of a lull with regards to living with my usual passion since I am going through divorce, but I think I will recover in time. Anyway, I can look back and see how avoidance has caused me a lot of problems in my life and resulted in loss of passion, motivation, peace and joy. It is definitely an area I need to work on. 

Back to the issue with Jerry. I do hold a philosophy that every person has great value and is deserving of respect and common decency. My mother taught me that. I generally do really well at living that belief out. She also taught me to accept people where they are, don't attempt to  change or control them and don't let their behavior towards me or their treatment of me dictate my behavior or attitude towards them. Evidently I am still learning that lesson. It is so much easier said than done. In large part that is what character is about and why it is not easily come by. Character to a great degree is living with the integrity of living up to the standards we believe in. When we don't live up to them we live in hypocrisy or duplicity. When we live with duplicity or without integrity we can't have a healthy relationship with ourselves or with others. It will always cause problems somewhere.  Character is not something innate. It must be tried, tested and developed through intentionality and diligence. We all live with some degree of duplicity. We believe on thing is right, but don't live up to the standard or live out that belief. Another standard I believe in is making apologies for where I have been wrong. I think I need to make an apology to Jerry, even though he is clueless that I have been avoiding him. I hope I have the courage. If I can muster the courage Wednesday evening will be the day. That is the next DPS meeting. He may say inappropriate things, but that should not change how I chose to treat others with respect and common decency. I do have to set boundaries. I am not saying I have to take inappropriate behavior. But I have to live by the standards I believe in and know to be right, even if it is difficult or uncomfortable at times.

 

Back to getting my car unstuck.

Again, I had not expected them to help me get unstuck. My solution was to call to see if Micky or Bubba were home and could come get me out. If not I would call AAA to come get me out.  If you remember my “North Sulfur River at night” trip report, Mickey lived maybe 1.5 miles away and Bubba lived maybe 10 minutes away. They both helped me out when I was prevented from getting back to my car before dark. I ended up at Micky's house out in the middle of nowhere after walking for maybe an hour or more in the dark near the NSR. 

I took the getting stuck in stride. No bit deal. I got this. But these men bailed me out again. The ropes was tied on we got in the vehicles and I was out in a few seconds. Jerry crawled under my car again and untied the rope. I thanked them both profusely and got in my car and drove off. It was late afternoon.

 

Here are a few more pics of things I found. Nothing big or special, but kind of cool.

 

This below is a fragment of a phosphatized baculite. It has beautiful suture lines and even has the ridges visible. The glints of light on the surface running slanted to the right are the ridges. I believe this is a Baculite mclearni, but now I am not sure after looking at the suture patterns on the piece below. Initially I thought they were the same species, but the sutures look very different to me. They are clearly different species.

 

In the book I have there are only 2 species noted, Baculite mclearni and B. asper for the NSR creataceous formations. I am no expert on ammonite ID. Can any of you who are more educated on cephalopod ID tell if this one and the one below are the same?

I think it is Baculite mclearni based on a suture description of Broad E lobe, narrow E/L and L/U. The description for B. asper. is simple sutures. This below does not look like simple sutures, but then I think the suture description above matches the example below better. I have a baculite that matches the B. asper description and the sutures do not look like either of these. I am new at this part of ID. Maybe I will post it on the ID section.  I suppose this could be B. asper. I will share a pic of some of the ones I have in a side by side comparison. 

This picture isn't very good and does not do it justice, but this baculite fragment has this beautiful iridescence blue, purple, green and bronze on it. I have never found a phosphatic piece that was iridescent. I wish I could clean it, but I am afraid I will wash off the iridescence. The phosphatic pieces clean nicely with vinegar by the way. Don't leave too long or it can pit them, but it does a great job softening the clay deposits.

 

I love suture patterns. This is another baculite fragment. It is 1.3 x 1.2 inches. I think this may be a Baculite mclearni .

The other side is pretty worn, but there are still a few sutures.

 

That is all for this trip report. I hope you enjoyed it and the fossils I collected. I did find some fossilized wood too, but it is the same old stuff. Since I opted to sit out much of the time there in one spot I did not come home with as many as I usually do. I plan on taking off a couple days in October to go hunting there. After September I will need a break and get away. It is going to be a busy and stressful month.

Thanks for reading.

 

[KimTexan]

Ok here are some pics for comparison.

The one on the right meets the description for Baculite asper it is oval and the sutures are simple. The saddles/lobes are the same width and keep the same distance from the next row of sutures. It’s a very simple and regular pattern. The phophatic one is not so regular. The distance between rows of shtures is irregular and the sutures themselves aren’t regular.

 

Here are the same 2 with 2 others. If counting left to right 1-3 and the bottom one being # 4. 

2 and 3 could be the same, but I’m unsure.

 

These is this one below which looks the same as #4 above. If you look close you can see suture lines on the left edge and ends. How many species do you think are represented here?

Maybe @BobWill or @Uncle Siphuncle could educate me a little.

[Walt]

Your finds are awesome!  

And great trip report!

[Heteromorph]

Great trip report! The sutures on the baculites are exquisite. The ridges on the one and the colorfulness of the other are nice details. 

[DPS Ammonite]

Thanks Kim for an entertaining read. I can almost taste the mud at NSR. When the steep slopes are dry at the bridges getting up and down is doable. I hate when your legs sink 1-2 feet into the mud while going up or down the slope. 

 

What kind of vehicle do you have that gets stuck? Sounds like you might need something with all wheel/ 4 wheel drive.

 

Also, what is the book the describes baculite species from the NSR?

[ynot]

Nice finds Kim!

Sounds like an eventful trip.

[BobWill]

Sorry I can't help with the Baculites question but the plants are Snow-on-the-Prarie and Cockle-bur.

[KimTexan]

15 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Thanks Kim for an entertaining read. I can almost taste the mud at NSR. When the steep slopes are dry at the bridges getting up and down is doable. I hate when your legs sink 1-2 feet into the mud while going up or down the slope. 

 

What kind of vehicle do you have that gets stuck? Sounds like you might need something with all wheel/ 4 wheel drive.

 

Also, what is the book the describes baculite species from the NSR?

Thank you. Entertaining huh? I’m sure the things that go through my mind and come out are entertaining to some. I’m think I’m in a catagory of my own. I am sure in part it comes from growing up off the grid and living outside of the box which most everyone else grew up in. When you don’t have electricity or TV the culture is unique compared to the rest of the modern world. Then there is my quirky personality. My daughter inherited that from me, but she’s a lot more funny and fun than I am.

She told me that ice cream was essential to sustain life on planets (her favorite dessert). I asked her how that was. She said well, Mars, Jupiter, Mercury don’t have ice cream and so life can’t be sustained there. She said it so serious and matter of factly that you’d think she was serious. She’s is very smart.

 

You have the book. It’s the DPS Occasional Papers vol. 4. It notes the 2 species. I got the suture info from Emerson and Ackers book I got from the HGMS. 

 

Yes, I know that mud. I started carrying a walking stick with me to test the mud, but I forgot it on Monday. Thankfully I have never sunk done in it above the top of my rubber boots that I wear when there is water in the river.

 

My car is a sedan. I drive too much and don’t have the money to pay for gas on a truck.

 

[DPS Ammonite]

Kim, ice cream is one of the major food groups: right? 

 

Quirky personalities are welcomed here. It would be so boring if we all thought alike. Plus, we would have a harder time getting a good ID if we all thought only in the box.

 

You might consider a pair of cables/ chains to put on your front wheels to get you out of mud. Plus you might get a little use in the snow every few years. I remember a few years ago when the Dallas freeways crawled to a halt because of not enough snow plows in the area.

 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Cool Baculites.  You got the whole color palette of ‘em in one grouping.  But you’ve flushed out the fact that I haven’t yet studied mine too closely, so I don’t have more to add to the ID process than you’ve mentioned already.

[KimTexan]

@BobWill & @Uncle Siphuncle

Maybe you can answer questions I have about sutures. 

In this example below, I’ll call them 1-3. The top being 1.

I assume the term “simple” suture I means the saddles and lobes are consistently the basically the same width and height without variation and without auxiliary or accessory lobes. The simple sutures can have denticulate though.

 

I’ll use Roman numerals for my question numbering to not confuse with specimens 1-4.

I. Is my understanding of a simple suture correct? 

II. Is #3 a simple suture? Or do the little splits in the lobes/saddles count as accesory lobes/saddles.

If it isn’t considered simple then I definitely would not have an example of a Baculite asper. 

III. Can a cephalopod have a simple suture that transitions to non-simple? I think it could do that moving out to later whorls or away from the umbilicus, but I’m not sure

IV.  Can a cephalopod have a suture line patterns that alternates simple with non-simple?

I think #1 may answer this question. Since the patterns in the 1st and 5th suture lines differ from the pattern seen in lines 2, 3 and 4.

V. Do you think 1-3 are the same species?

I know 2 & 3 don’t have the 5 suture lines, but if they did I’m inclined to think we would see the variation seen in #1.

 

[JarrodB]

Quite the adventure lol. Nice finds. I guess I stay pretty remote in my adventures because I never see anyone. 

[KimTexan]

I rarely see anyone either. I think it must have been because it was a holiday on a Monday and because I stayed in the main part of the river not far from the bridge.

 

I often go into feeder creeks and I’ve never met, seen or heard a soul in the feeder creeks. Or I’m far from the bridges and you just don’t see people that far out. 

Man if I got bit by a snake and collapsed, covered by an avalanche or attacked by wild pigs no one would find me till I was long dead. I never have cell service in those places. I do usually tell someone where I’m going, but the river is so enormous. I do usually give them my entry point so they know where to start looking though.

[KimTexan]

I have done a little searching on the baculite thing. I found this link.

http://www.cretaceousatlas.org/species/baculites-asperformis/

I think #1 looks like a B. asperformis. The range says it is unknown. The one on there is from Kansas. The site also had an asper with 5-6 segments and none of the sutures seem to vary. So I think 1 is a different species from 3.

[BobWill]

I'm not much help with the sutures but I'll pass along my vague notions of possible answers.

I. Definitions of the term "simple suture" do not seem to be consistent in the literature. What I get from the context is a lack of intricate folding or in some texts the lack of any folding at all beyond plain saddles and lobes.

II. #3 may be worn down past the sutures into the septa which would make it appear simpler (if not simple) regardless of how complex it was to start.

III. Ammonite sutures usually get more complexly folded after the initial ones but that does not happen continually as they grow, so

IV. any differences are more likely due to wearing (see II.)

V. Again, wearing into the septum makes it hard to say. I haven't heard about any different species besides B. aquilaensis found at NSR so it would be a possible new occurrence if it's different.