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ALL THE ECHINOIDS (of Texas anyways)


JamieLynn

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So, I am formally stating my quest to find all of the echinoids (of Texas at least...let's not be silly)  :)  I live in Central Texas and we are blessed with an abundance of fossils. My first fossiking was in Cherry Creek, behind my house, in Austin.  Although I did not really do much since those early days, now it has become my main hobby. I have collected a pretty dang nice collection of all kinds of Cretaceous creatures but echinoids are my favorite with ammonites a close second. I have decided to make it my goal to find all the species of Texas Echies I can find in my lifetime. So far I have hundreds of heart urchins, (Hemiaster, Pliotaxaster, Macraster and Heteraster), a fair number of Loriolas and Salenias, a couple of Coenholectypus and Phymostomas and one very very worn Tetragramma. 

 

I have been making forays to Canyon Lake to find some of the more "unusual" urchins. These are my finds of the last couple of weeks. They are not great specimens but I am totally excited about them anyways. Hopefully I will eventually find some better quality ones, but hey, gotta start somewhere. For an avid amateur like myself (who is still trying to figure out how to recognize formations and zones and not having much luck at it) its exciting to stumble across something a bit different. 

 

Goniopygus and Pygopyrinas 

Echinoid Goniopygus (1).JPG

Echinoid Pygopyrina.JPG

echinoid pygopyrina (2).JPG

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Nice finds! Quite a goal, will be tagging along your echie journey. Prepare to be hunting for the rest of your life. :default_faint::P

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Here are pics of previous "typical" urchins found in and around Central Texas ( a few from Hillsboro area which I consider on the border of Central and North Texas)

Salenias

Echinoid  Salenia(5).JPG

Loriolas

Echinoids Loriola.JPG

Coenholectypus

echinoid colynholectepus (2).JPG

Phymosomas

Echinoid Phymosoma San Marcos (2).JPG

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Good start for a worthy project. Your Goniopygus reminds me of my first one. Not great but definitely recognizable. Better specimens will follow.   But I am not sure about that Pygopirina. It is a bit off from what I know. Look up Plagiochasma. That genus occurs with Goniopygus in the Upper Glen Rose.

 

Also, look closely at your Phymosomas. Some Tetragrammas can be almost identical with the difference being that the tubercles of Tetras are perforate and Phymosomas not. 

 

I'm attaching a few images of Pygos, Phymos and Tetras...

 

GR Pygopirina.jpg

Lwr GR Tetragramma 3.2015.jpg

RC Rd Phymosoma 2.jpg

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oooohhhh...definitely!! I did not have a very good picture for reference for the pygopyrina, so these close ups really do show the difference. I do believe it is a plagiochasma. 

 

And wow...yes, now I see the perforation.  Looked at mine with a magnifying glass and, they are indeed phymosomas. Thanks for the information! 

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3 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

oooohhhh...definitely!! I did not have a very good picture for reference for the pygopyrina, so these close ups really do show the difference. I do believe it is a plagiochasma. 

 

And wow...yes, now I see the perforation.  Looked at mine with a magnifying glass and, they are indeed phymosomas. Thanks for the information! 

Very cool. Did you find the Goniopygus and the Plagiochasma at the same location? They occur together in Unit 3 of the Upper Member of the Glen Rose Formation.

 

Just to be clear my photos were in a different order than my text: pics are of two Pygopyrina hancockensis from the "micro zone"; a fragment of an unidentified Tetragramma from the "Salenia texana" zone of GR; and lastly a small Phymosoma texanum, also from the micro zone.

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No, I found them in two different places about a mile apart,  but about the same "level" above Canyon Lake so I am starting to kind of figure that out at least!  And yes, I understood that the Tetragramma was the one with the perforations. :)   When you say Tetragramma from the Salenia zone, does that mean they often found together?  I know of one Salenia site but did not find anything other than Salenias and some partial cidarids. Would love to find a Tetragramma. Again, thank you for all the information. 

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Tetragramma is much more common in the Fredericksburg Group. In the Glen Rose there is one named species: T. tenerum and at least one other species. Bill Thompson has named four new species but they are based on single specimens and IMHO need further work and a bigger sampling. 

 

Personally I have found several T. tenerum and one larger unidentified species plus the fragment pictured above. Definitely not a common genus in the Glen Rose. 

 

I have found Tetragramma taffi and T. malbossi near Cooperas Cove in the Walnut and Comanche Peak formations. 

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Nice finds.

Good luck with your project, keep us in the loop. :)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

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Nice idea and some interesting finds . It would be fun to get them displayed in some way that would relate to Texas geography. Good luck Bobby 

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7 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Nice idea and some interesting finds . It would be fun to get them displayed in some way that would relate to Texas geography. Good luck Bobby 

 

29 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

oh, that's a great idea!! 

I use Google Earth to log all of my collecting locations. After marking the spot and labelling it with a name and field code I add notes and can then add photos.  

 

I have been using the apps Theodolite and Rockd. I add the photos from Theodolite to the Google Earth pins as well.

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Your pins are private and saved to your computer. There is a sharing function but you have to actively engage it.

 

 

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On 4/30/2019 at 12:18 PM, erose said:

 

I use Google Earth to log all of my collecting locations. After marking the spot and labelling it with a name and field code I add notes and can then add photos.  

 

I have been using the apps Theodolite and Rockd. I add the photos from Theodolite to the Google Earth pins as well.

 

oh great googly moogly, the Rockd app is so awesome!! 

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On May 3, 2019 at 1:58 PM, JamieLynn said:

 

oh great googly moogly, the Rockd app is so awesome!! 

Pretty cool. My friend Mike Smith turned me onto both of those apps. Just be careful and double check what Rockd suggests versus what you see.  So far it has been mostly correct. But a few times it has been either too generalized or a formation off up or down.  It also sometimes suggests names that are older than what might be currently in use. That can be the case if it is referencing older maps.  It will probably improve over time as they update their database.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Recent Additions to ALL THE URCHINS collection! I found a sweet spot that yielded 6 species of echinoids.....more than I ever imagined finding in one place! (the sixth one is not pictured, it was a very worn heart urchin, so I left it there...)  Also, I found some better quality  of Heteraster and Pliotaxeter Heart Urchins. So here are the newest acquisitions!

 5ce7e29a13f80_6echies.jpg.4cfdd7dc03f2caf1a26a1df145b9f202.jpg

DSCN1510.JPG

DSCN1512.JPG

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Quite an ambitious aspiration.  Time and fuel will be best spent as you focus on good examples of the common stuff around the state, and the acumen-expanding experience will put you in position to bump into the more rare stuff more efficiently as time goes on.

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Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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yep, that and lots of research and looking at what others have found (and where, if i can find out) have helped me pinpoint better places to search.

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