Whiskey Bridge tools?

[Fishkeeper]

What should I bring for optimal fossil-hunting? I'd love to find a pocket with some shark teeth, and I'm hoping for (though not expecting) a concretion with something fun inside. I'd like to do a little sifting as well, I think. I'm going to have 2 brothers with me who I suspect would just like to dig for interesting things.

I have some of those gold panning sifters, which I plan to bring. I'm also going to bring a couple of trowels, a bucket to put tempting chunks of matrix in for later, and a hammer and small chisel. Add in my tiny crowbar (it's about a foot long, but sturdy), and some fishhook cases and pill bottles for small items, and that sounds like a good setup. 

Is there any point in bringing a large-mesh fish net to kind of trawl in the water itself, see if I can dredge out some things that have been washed down into it, or am I better off just digging on land? 

 

[Oxytropidoceras]

First, it is all dry land digging.

 

There is information on what to bring in "Whiskey Bridge Field Trip"

https://www.hgs.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1492

 

and " Earth Science Week Field Trip to Whiskey Bridge near Bryan, Tx" at:

https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/stewart.sandberg/geol1403-8/fieldtrips/whiskey-bridge

 

Check the water level before leaving home: the water level should 

be below 15 feet or the site cannot be visited.

See http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?08108700

 

Also, there is "Middle Eocene, Clairborne Group, Stone City

Member at Whiskey Bridge at the Brazos River" at:

https://hgms.org/events/field-trips/

 

A couple of papers are:

 

Yancey, T., 1995, Depositional trends in siliciclastic deposits of 

the Stone City Transgressive Systems Tract, Middle Eocene, Texas: 

Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies Transactions, v. 45, p. 581–586.

https://hgms.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Yancy1995-2.pdf

 

and

 

Zuschin, M. and Stanton Jr, R.J., 2002. Paleocommunity reconstruction 

from shell beds: a case study from the Main Glauconite Bed, Eocene, 

Texas. Palaios, 17(6), pp.602-614.

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/martin.zuschin/PDF/18_Zuschin_&_Stanton_2002.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237423083_Paleocommunity_Reconstruction_from_Shell_Beds_A_Case_Study_from_the_Main_Glauconite_Bed_Eocene_Texas

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Zuschin/2#research-items

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[erose]

Great info from Oxy. Let me add that you mostly need small to medium containers for the fossils. And bring some tissue paper to wrap and pad the more fragile ones. As fat as tools goes you could collect all day with nothing more than a butter knife or a small straight screwdriver. All you need is something to gently poke and pry into the soft matrix. I use a tiny pointed trowel and an ice pick when I go. 
 

There is a layer or two of hard matrix that you may want a chunk of but, otherwise a hammer and chisel is not needed. 
 

No reason to get in the water. Current always looked dangerous to me and I’ve yet to hear of fossils being found that way. Now a casting rod and some worms might be fun.

 

Word(s) of caution: POISON IVY grows like crazy there.