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Howdy all! A few more odd finds from the Bridgeport Pennsylvanian matrix. I could use your help! 1. Size 1/4 inch The first one looks maybe like one of the sponge Girtycoelia surrounded by ...something. A bryzoan perhaps? It does not look like any bryzoan i know, but i know very little about the Pennsylvanian (although I did get the Color Guide on CD! yay!) Close up 2. This thing: Size 1/16th inch. I thought it was a seedpod originally (which in my previous posts....yeah, those were indeed seed pods...finally crushed on of them). I tried to crush this one, but it didn't....sooo.... any thoughts? 3. And Lastly - this thing. - has a weird "dimpled" end? Found in both the Bridgeport and the Mineral Wells matrix. 1/4 inch Thanks for any help!

Hi there, I found a fossil trace that appears to be from an ammonite on our west Texas ranch and what appears to be dinosaur tracks a few miles away as well. Can anyone identify more if this an ammonite trace and what kind from this photo? Thank you in advance.

Well, it's hot in Texas in August. 107 is the forecast for Saturday. Soooo...I'm hunting at home! Still having fun with the micro matrix stuff! This time, it's from Mineral Wells, TX. While i have been there a variety of times and found lots of great stuff, I never looked quite THIS close to find fossils! So a pound of washed matrix and my microscope camera landed me a few neat things. I was hoping for a whole Trilobite (which I have found three small ones at Mineral Wells) no full trilos this time, but some trilo bits! But my favorite things are the Crinoid parts...the geometric architectural elements of crinoids simply amaze me. So here are my favorite Mineral Wells Minis. All of these are 1/8 inch and smaller. Echinoid Plates and Spines: (Big one is 1/8 inch) Trilobite Bits: Crinoid fragments (stems, calyx, bulb, and arm structures) I am simply amazed by the geometry of these! And a couple of tiny gastropods: I"m not completely sure what this is...I assume a bit of crinoid, but it has a different texture than the others.

Thought I would share some of my Acrocanthosaurus tracks in my collection from Texas. These are from the Glen Rose Formation. Anyone who has dino tracks, please feel free to post them here on this thread too...would love to see them! The associated pair are big...both over 20 inches long.

Good morning, please take a look at this artifact I discovered a few weeks ago and help me identify if this is something other than a rock with unique features and patterns. I have spent FAR too much time closely inspecting it and I'm convienced that it is something other than a naturally forming rock. Altough I'm not an expert in geology, I have collected thousands upon thousands of artifacts which is one of the reasons this one clearly stood out to me. The color, shape, pattern, and texture is very distinct. Please note that this artifact is not whole and has been broken in half. The photos are top down. What I see is a fossilized creature curled up in what could be an egg or borrow. It looks to be reptillian based off the patten of what could be the underbelly on one side of the fossil and the shape of the what I believe woud be the snout of the head (again it has been partially broken off). Also, there seems to be a long tail that wraps around the circumfrence of the unit and centered in the middle is the snout/head. When carefully observing the interior of where the break occurred, there apprears to be the spinal column (color differentation) originating from the head that may have lead to the torso as well as part of the torso. Lastly, there appears to be some digits to a claw (encircled). If anybody want to contact me for additional details, please don't hesitate.

I'm seeking feedback on what exactly is this bone-looking structure. It seems to closely resemble the tip of an alligator's toes. Do you think this is something that could happen to naturally forming rock? I cropped in closely to the image so it can be clearly seen. It measures 8mm from top to tip. I would sincerely appreicate any expert insight into what this could be.

Hi everyone, I am a very inexperienced fossil collector. I found this claw in my driveway among the gravel. I live near Austin, TX but I’m unsure where the gravel originated. Any ideas?

I know some of you find very complete nautiloids that are much larger but here in Texas they are often smaller and fragmentary, though the pieces can be well preserved and easy to extract from the loose shale of the Graham Formation at Jacksboro Texas. I had many fragments separated into boxes labeled "Pseudorthoceras" and "Mooreoceras" for smaller and larger segments respectively. Then I saw a paper that invalidated the latter genus, Revision of Some Common Carboniferous Genera of North American Orthocerid Nautiloids, Kröger & Mapes 2005, which made all of my specimens Pseudorthoceras knoxenses. This got me wondering what these creatures might have looked like whole so I started to gather a few fragments that might fit together in a continuous shell, including a piece with the protoconch and one with part of the body chamber. The result had one empty space which I filled with a clay reconstruction, then made a plaster mold from which I poured a plaster cast to fill the gap. I used super glue to hold everything together so I could take it apart with acetone if I wanted too. It may make a good display fossil for our table at local events though so I'll probably donate it to the Dallas Paleontological Society. The second section from the large end is the fake part. The rest are all genuine fossils from the same site but collected over several years, so not even considered to be associated. I'm pretty sure they are all the same species though. The whole thing is 38cm long and came out fairly straight considering what I had to work with..

Took a little trip out to West Texas last weekend. My parents have friends who have ranches out near Balmorhea (great to have friends with ranches...everyone should have friends who have ranches!). I knew the general area was one I had wanted to go hunting for echinoids in the Boracho Formation (some very special echinoids not found in my area). I did my research on Google maps and the Texas Geology website, hoping I could pinpoint the right roadcuts! The first one we stopped at (I thought was the right formation) turned out to be a different formation, but I found some cool little brachiopods that are different than any i have encountered before and a couple of echinoids (phymosomas) and that was all for that little roadcut. Checked out a few more in the area but didn't find anything. Definitely didn't find what I was looking for! So on to our weekend at the ranch. The owner said he know of a "beach" on the ranch where "sea shells" were found. I was really surprised because on the Geology map it is all Igneous and Quaternary - nothing at all that looked Cretaceous fossiliferous. So we went driving around the ranch to the spot and to my GREAT surprise, we found an outcrop of Austin Chalk! I don't know how, but it was there! I found inoceramus clam parts and some of the most beautifully colored Exogyra erraticostata! So that was a really special spot! ( @grandpa -another "fossil that shouldn't be there!"- but it was!) The final day we were to head home, I convinced my parents to drive 30 miles further West before we headed back east for home. I knew there were supposed to be some more outcrops of the Boracho accessible so we took a little side trip and happily I found the formation I was looking for! And I was rewarded with a most LOVELY little Anorthopygus texanus echinoid! I initially thought it was a Coenholectypus transpecoensis (which was mainly what I was hoping to find -which I did not find!) but was happy to discover it was a more rare Anorthopygus! My mom found a nicely presereved Wahitaster wenoensis, so that was great too. I also found a phymosoma, but it's pretty beat up. A small section of a nautiloid and a nice bivalve which I think is a Lima wacoensis quadrangularis rounded out my day. So it was a good haul to West Texa! My best finds from Boracho /San Martine formation Anorthopygus texanus - 25 mm : Washitaster wenoensis 25 mm a not so great Phymosoma 1 1/2 inches Lima wacoensis quadragularis 1 inch From the Austin Chalk Formation on the ranch: Exogyra erraticostata 3 inches From the first roadcut which was Buda formation Kingena (Waconella) sp? what's odd about them is this "dip in the lip" so I am not sure what species it is (it is for sure Cretaceous Kingena/ Waconella and not a Pennsylvanian Composita which it very much looks like -we had a nice long post on that!) A few pics of some of the critters on the ranch: Auadad (not native, but gone native) Javelina mama and baby! A mule deer wild turkeys

Hey Everyone, I was wondering if anyone knew whether or not it is allowed to remove fossils from the Spring Creek in Garland, Tx. I have not found anything definite. Might just be tired though. Thanks for any help, Planko

Found on the Brazos River just southwest of Houston. I know this is the distal end of a calcaneum, but I can't figure out whether it's horse, bison, or even bear - it seems to both match and not match pictures I'm finding online. Any help is appreciated.

Two hunts, two creeks, two legendary finds in one week. I don’t know what you know about Texas weather, but in July it’s hot. Downright miserable, unsafe heat at times. Just a week and a half ago we hit a heat index of 111 degrees. So when you have a day that tops out in the mid 90s for a high, you take advantage of that cool front. I checked the weather and saw that Tuesday had a high of only 94. I messaged my buddy @sharko69 and said, “Hey, its gonna be a nice day. Let’s do some hunting this afternoon after work.” So we meet up at our usual hunting spot and he shows me a new drop in that I had yet to explore. So we drop in and right away I spot a Ptychodus whipplei tooth coming out of the wall. Woohoo! I’m on the board! Not a bad start. So we head upstream walking through knee high water, boots sinking in the silt, and the occasional game of limbo as we climbed under fallen trees. All the while taking great caution. On his scouting trip to this spot my friend saw a slide mark on the muddy bank. Was it crocodile or beaver? A crocodile in a creek in north Texas would be highly unusual, so we hedged our bets on the laws of probability. After all, fortune favors the brave right? Still I did desire to return home to my family that night, so we were on high alert. Then we arrived at our destination; the place looked almost heavenly. An enormous gravel bar stood before us, we knew it had to contain something wonderful, but would we find it? Fast forward to an hour later, the only thing I’ve found since my Ptychodus are mosquitoes. Oh and the breeze stopped, so now it’s hot-ish, humid, and still. But I’m focused and press on despite feeling like I’m in an oven. After a while I found another shark tooth. Squalicorax, one of my favorites. Nice. My friend and I are chatting and he walks over to show me his find, a nice Cretalamna tooth. As he leaves I scoot over to continue my search and right behind his steps lay a sight unlike any other. A black, deeply striated, and large tooth. I jump up speechless and throw my hands on my head. I turned away and had to do a double take. Surely I can’t have seen what I just saw. Yup, I did. A beautiful Pliosaur tooth was waiting right there atop the gravel pile. My friend sees my silent commotion and bolts over. He starts yelling, jumping up and down, and freaking out, just like I am on the inside. I gently pull it out and it’s in wonderful shape and it even has some of the root still attached. To put this in perspective finding a Pliosaur fossil here is insanely rare. While I don’t know the exact number I can virtually guarantee that the number of Pliosaur teeth found here in north Texas in the last decade is in the single digits. My friend found one just two weeks prior in the same creek and back then I thought I had seen the only Pliosaur tooth I would ever see. Boy was I glad to be so wrong. The rest of the hunt after that is somewhat of a blur. I found a few more shark teeth, a tennis ball sized piece of coprolite, oh and a smile that I’ll have to have surgically removed from my face. Fast forward a few days to Friday night. My friends sends me a picture of a monster 2-1/4" shark tooth he found from a new creek earlier that day. Wanna join me early tomorrow morning to hit up the spot some more? Pssh, does a fat puppy hate fast cars? Of course I do! So the alarm goes off at 6 am and I successfully beat the sun out of bed for today's hunt. After a cup of joe I hop into the car and begin the trek. We meet up in an empty parking lot, it looks like we're spies out for a super secret rendezvous or up to some type of nefarious behavior. But the only nefarious behavior that was happening that day was.... well actually none at all. Just a nice fossil hunt, social distancing style. We drop into the site and get to work. Unlike last time where I found something immediately we were held to a big fat goose egg for quite a while. A solid hour or more. "Boy I'm not finding anything." "Yeah me neither." 30 seconds later i hear behind me, "Oh heck yeah!" I turn around to see my buddy holding a nice segment of Mosasaur jaw. Missing the tooth sadly, but a heck of a find nonetheless. Well, it's good to know that they're out here, but I just can't believe they're all scurrying away once I get close to them. So I continue to search. Fun fact about my buddy @sharko69. He is a master Ptychodus hunter. He's so gifted in fact, that I have accused him of selling his soul to the devil. And that in return he was given the power that whenever he walks by a Ptychodus tooth, it just hops up into his pocket. The verdict is still out on that accusation. So he tells me, "I have yet to find a Ptychodus yet here." So they must not be here, it's the only logical explanation given his power. So imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw a gorgeous Ptychodus latissimus tooth. I'm not getting shutout today! Whoop whoop! We press on and for another 30 minutes, nothing more is found except for a ton of broken and busted up septarian nodules. These dirty rotten tricksters are littered all over the creek. They constantly tempt us into thinking they're something cool, only to be let down yet again. I look down towards the water and see what looks like another septarian nodule. "Not fooling me this time" I say to myself. I look away, but as I do I instantly stop and look back. Something seemed odd about that one. I approach it and I freeze. I say out loud to my buddy who's standing next to me but facing the other way, "There's no way this is what I think it is." He turns around and shouts out, "YES IT IS!" I reach down and pull it out. What I hold in my shaking hands is a stack of associated Xiphactinus vertebrae. 2 complete vertebrae, half of a third, and a tiny piece of a fourth. They're resting nicely in a perfectly flat piece of matrix, almost as if mother nature herself carved it out for a perfect display base. The rest of the trip continued uneventfully for me for another couple hours. Yielding to me "only" an additional Squalicorax tooth. On the way back my friend pulls out yet another 2-1/4" tooth. His fifth tooth near or above the 2 inch mark in a week. (I meanwhile have yet to join the 2" club, but it's something I'm working on). At least with this find I can confirm that he is not bringing them from home and planting them and is indeed finding them. So that capped off a week in which I found two legendary once in a lifetime finds. It was a fun week filled with mild-ish weather, fun times spent with the Prince of Ptychodus, and brilliant one of a kind fossils. But I think the greatest treasure of all, was that of the deeply forged bond of friendship through the medium of fossicking. TLDR; Found two cool fossils.

Howdy folks, Having trouble ID’ing this fossil. Im fairly certain it’s a cephalopod but I haven’t had much luck finding an ID. It’s of unknown origin but was found in Texas. It’s a creek fossil basically. I believe this is the side but I’m not certain. No finishing work has been done other than rinse and nylon brush. Opposite side with view of back Bottom?

Texas cave sediment upends meteorite explanation for global cooling by Baylor University August 1, 2020 https://phys.org/news/2020-07-texas-cave-sediment-upends-meteorite.html The paper is: Sun, N, Brandon, A.D., Forman, S.L., Waters, M.R. and Befus, K.S., 2020. Volcanic origin for Younger Dryas geochemical anomalies ca. 12,900 cal B.P. Science Advances, 6(31), eaax8587 https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/31/eaax8587 Related papers: Holliday, V.T., Bartlein, P.J., Scott, A.C. and Marlon, J.R., 2020. Extraordinary biomass-burning episode and impact winter triggered by the Younger Dryas cosmic impact∼ 12,800 years ago, parts 1 and 2: a discussion. The Journal of Geology, 128(1), pp.69-94. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706264 Wolbach, W.S., Ballard, J.P., Mayewski, P.A., Kurbatov, A., Bunch, T.E., LeCompte, M.A., Adedeji, V., Israde-Alcántara, I., Firestone, R.B., Mahaney, W.C. and Melott, A.L., 2020. Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact∼ 12,800 Years Ago: A Reply. The Journal of Geology, 128(1), pp.95-107. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/706265 Yours, Paul H.

Hi everyone! Well, I am completely in love with hunting micro matrix I got some Mineral Wells matrix and am having a blast finding the littles. But a few things have me flumoxed. Any help would be appreciated on ID'ing these things. All of these are tiny - 1/8 to 1/16 inch (2mm-4mm) Thanks so much!! Many of these "claw" looking things. If they were from the Cretaceous, I'd say they were Crab Claws....but Pennsylvanian I don't know. Are they crinoid spines? I have a variety of "typical" crinoid spines which look nothing like these: 1. 2, 3. "Club" looking things. Again, I'm assuming some part of a Crinoid? 4, "Arrow shaped" things....crinoid? And if so, what part? 5. 6. Weird "seed pods". Found at least 4 of them. I haven't tried to crush one, perhaps they are actually modern seed pods? 7. The weirdest one of all - "the bat" 8. And this thingl 9. Lastly....are these Arixtotles Lantern? Echionid Mouthparts? 10 . 11. 11 THANKS FOR LOOKING!

Both of these astragali were found on the Brazos River southwest of Houston. The larger of the two clearly belongs to Equus, but the smaller one continues to stump me. I know by the shape that it definitely some sort of perissodactyl, and although it resembles the shape of the Equus astragalus it is much, much smaller. The taller of the two ridges (I'm not sure what their name actually is) on the proximal end of the bone has been worn down by water or time so that it seems almost level with the other. If it were still present, these two astragalus would probably be identical. It occurred to me last week while looking at it again that it might be from a three-toed horse since they were a lot smaller than the more modern species of horses that prevailed in the late Pleistocene. Is there any way to tell? Or is it just from a younger Equus individual? Thanks for the help!

I’m in the twilight zone apparently...I know how ridiculous this seems, but the only thing I can find that remotely seems to match this thing for size and shape is titanaboa. I’m open to other suggestions. This was in my back yard in Fort Worth, Texas...relatively shallow - about a foot to the top of it. We are in a rocky area and are within 30 ft of the highest elevation in the county, about 150 ft above the average for the city. I can’t find a tape measure to put next to it, but measured with my iPhone and it’s 29” long, 13” wide, and about 9” at the highest point. Seems to weigh in the 80-100 lb range. It looks like were other At least 2 other snakes on top of it that you can make out on the top left of it, but pieces of them have broken off as well as some of the main specimen. The underbelly is in excellent condition...it seems clearly show “snakeskin”. It wouldn’t let me attach more pictures, but on the back you can clearly see vertebrae at almost the center position and what seems to be some other type of nerve endings above that. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces in the immediate area from ground level down ranging from quarter sized up to basketball sized with most between golf ball and baseball. I’ve been digging slowly for 3 days with no end in sight. Many of them are hard to specifically identify but seem to almost all meet criteria for fossil and not rock. Please help...

I hunted a remote stretch in Northeast Texas and found a nice variety of items. The vert is from a good size mosasaur. The sawfish teeth always seem to be broken. I found some small shark teeth and a piece of cretaceous turtle shell. The bottles are from the 1930's and 1940's. I really like the Groves Tasteless Chill Tonic bottle. I posted a little info on the old bottles. We saw at least twenty wild hogs in one pack crossing the creek and one giant solo wild boar.

A few weeks back the Paleontological Society of Austin went out on one of our monthly field trips. The weather was still quite warm and we decided to keep it closer to home so no one would be to wrung out when we were done. We are hopefully at the tail end of a rather brutal drought with constant triple digit temps that started back in June. We picked three sites within 90 minutes of Austin that took us up thru the Glen Rose Formation, bottom to top. We started at a site in the Lower Member known as the micro zone. Fossils big enough to see from a standing position are few but if you get down and crawl around you can be rewarded with a crazy variety of tiny echinoids, starfish and crinoids and other odd bits in amongst the usual molluscs. The second site was at the very top of the Lower Member in the Salenia texana zone and folks found their share. But it was the last stop way up in Unit 7 of the Upper Member that I found my keeper* for the day. I had collected this site over the years and knew it as good for small echinoids and on occasion ammonites. But I was going back with some fresh information provided by the local researcher William Rader. Bill Rader had informed me that the site produced vertebrate material including many years before a crocodile scute. When we got there I spent time in the ammonite zone and helping others find fossils but it was at the tail end of the afternoon as I was thinking about the drive home that I moved to some lower layers that generally just produce common molluscs. AND BAM! Bones... Now I just assumed they were turtle which isn't uncommon in the Glen Rose but always a good find. I found two of the pieces within inches and they fit together. Jamie Shelton was there and I called her over to help me scan the spot with an extra set of eyes. I found a third piece before we quit. The next day was Identification Day at Texas Memorial Museum and PSA was manning the invertebrate table. But I knew there would be a few vertebrate specialists as well. As the day wound down I found a moment to show them to Chris Sagebiel of UT. He wasn't quite sure at first but when I mentioned that croc material was known from the site he immediately thought that it was a match. * Chris asked what I was planning on doing with the specimen (nudge nudge) and I agreed it should go to the Vertebrate lab here at UT. Here are some pics of the bones and a few from the day.

So, this title might be a bit of clickbait because unfortunately I have yet to find any actual shark teeth, so bear with me. I've visited the Whiskey Bridge site just west of Bryan, Texas several times now. The clay-like matrix that makes up the north bank of the Brazos River under the bridge has several layers of fossiliferous Eocene deposits, and although I've found lots of coral, shells, and even some cuttlefish prongs by surface hunting, I've had no luck when it comes to shark teeth. Assuming that the only way to find small dark-colored teeth amongst a bunch of dark-colored dirt was to take a lot of that dirt back home and go over it out of the hot Texas sun, I picked up a couple gallons worth of matrix on the last trip and I've been treating it with mineral spirits and boiling water over the last three days so that I can sift through it. I'm about halfway through it all now, and I still have not found any. Anyone that has been to the Whiskey Bridge site before, can you help me out? Am I not looking in the right places? I heard somewhere that the teeth collect lower down the cliffside because they're heavier, but when I checked there weren't any fossiliferous layers in that area. This whole ordeal is starting to irritate me because I know that what I'm looking for is there - one of my buddies even found a nice handful of decent-sized teeth the last time he made the drive up to the site several years ago. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to listen to me, and if anyone has any help or words of advice they'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello! New member here in San Antonio, TX. I manage and teach an outdoor education program for mostly grade school students. I have gathered a decent fossil collection to show students. I studied geology and was introduced to the basic fossil groups but am by no means a paleontologist. I am looking for more specific identification of the fossils we use and any help would be great. In particular, I recently ran across this specimen. It was found in Cretaceous age, shallow marine limestone. I am familiar with a number of different types of corals, but I have never seen something with this texture and can't find anything similar. Any ideas? I have included some closeup images of the texture.

It has been a while since I did an Echies of Texas post...too long!! But it's been an echinoid dry spell here for me.....I've found some lovely stuff, but just not anything NEW to me! I was given a couple of Echies that were new to me but I didn't TECHNICALLY find them, so they don't really count (for me...i'm particular that way!) . I will post pics of them because I am happy to have them in my collection regardless!! BUT, back to my personal urchin drought. . It's getting hot in Texas (Summertime...duh). But I still like to get out occasionally. I went a little further afield last week (only taking short day trips during this Covid Time) than my usual hunting grounds and found a new spot of Glen Rose Formation and found....AN URCHIN NEST! I've heard about these...a clump of multiple echies in one spot. I was too excited about my find and forgot to take pictures but there were five phymosomas in one spot...big ones too! And then a little further along....my first Tetragramma from the Glen Rose Formation! YAY! Drought broken! And, when it rains it pours. A few days later at another Glen Rose spot...i found more Tetras. And....I am pretty sure....a Polydiadema! So, needless to say, my Echie Game is back on. There are quite a few specific urchins that are still eluding me and not for lack of trying! I have been to the only spots I know of that I know they have been found, but alas. So the search continues! Another recent find, not new to me, but a really nicely preserved Phymosoma : (from a site just up the road from the Echie "nest") My first Tetragramma from the Glen Rose: Tetragramma tenerum .....i think. The Echinoid "nest" (plus the nice phymo from the other site up the road) My biggest Phymosoma to date....2 1/4 inches Another Tetragramma from the Glen Rose: And I THNK....a Polydiadema! Plus a nice little Heteraster with good detail Plus - My "acquisitions" to my collection thanks to my Fossil Friend John (who so kindly gave them to me!) An amazing Paracidarid (Glen Rose Formation) And a Globator parryi bottom of Globator:

Ran across this rock on the Brazos River near College Station, Texas. Covered with round nodules. Dimensions are about three feet by two feet by 18 inches. Any ideas what it is?

I've been finding Pleistocene fossils along the gravel bars in the southernmost section of the Brazos River lately, but they've almost always been unidentifiable chunks or fragments of bone. Obviously I'd like to find something well-preserved enough for me to be able to do the research and find out what it actually is, but I don't know where to look. The Beaumont and Lissie Formations that run underneath Houston and the surrounding areas are both Pleistocene-age, but the actual river basin itself is just made up of alluvial deposits. Of course, this must mean that the fossils are being washed down with the current from some location further north, right? The Waco Mammoth site is several hours from my location, but I know that the fossils there were found only a mile or two north of the river itself. Originally I thought that this is where the fossils I'm finding must be coming from too, but I know that Holmesina, Bison, and Camelops skeletons used to be found in the bayous within downtown Houston before the city grew to the size its at today. As far as I know, there aren't any exposures of sediments like this that are also the age I'm looking for anywhere close to where I live. I'd really appreciate it if anyone with experience hunting southern or central Texas could point me in the right direction. I'm not asking for any specific sites since I know people won't want to give those up, just general areas where Pleistocene outcrops or exposures would be present. Thanks for the help!

I was recently sent pictures of something that I am having a hard time identifying online. It was found in a creek bed of Cretaceous age, shallow marine limestone and marl on the west side of San Antonio, TX. It has a section that looks like it was attached to something. It does react to HCL and my initial thought was some sort of coral, but it has a very strange texture. I have seen a number of different types of coral, but never something like this and can't find anything similar. Any ideas? The closeup images of the texture were taken with a USB microscope.