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Part the Third of the Hunting from Home series! The Texas Aguja Late Cretaceous formation Matrix from PaleoTex LLC! While i have been to West Texas MANY times (Big Ben National Park is kind of my second home) I've never had a chance to go fossil hunting there. So when I found out the Aguja Formation matrix was available, I was excited to see what I could find. So here are my little tiny finds! So far my favorite find is these tiny tiny shark teeth - Onchopristis dunklei (thanks Trodon for the ID!) They are about 1/16th inch (2mm) Next is a surprise find - a mammal incisor! 1/4 inch And thanks to another forum post, I was able to ID this tooth as Paronychodon : 1/4 inch Some cool little crocodile teeth I sure wish I could have found more of this Hybodont Spine, but at least it has some of the barbs on it. I love the translucence of this gar tooth: And here is a little montage of various Gar Scales An unknown tooth: I think the above is different than this one, but it might be the same. This one is another Gar Lepisosteus 1/4 inch Some neat vertebra (all are 1/4 to 1/16 Another Tooth...possibly Hybodont? And lastly, some random spines:

Found a messload of these odd half rounds but with "edges" that seem to have partially folded in on themselves.....very odd. I first thought they were HUGE porocystic globularis, but they are more rough than any I have found, strictly halves and HUGE. When you look at the underside, it's almost like a rind of a fruit that has contracted in on itself, which still leads me to think it might be some kind of globularis. They were found in an area with thousands of the biggest orbitolina I've ever seen. Any one have any ideas what the heck these might be?? Thanks!!

I got a box of rocks in the mail! Thanks to my friends at PaleoTex LLC, and my mom, who pitched in and is enjoying picking through the matrix with me, I got a bag of Texas Permian Red Bed matrix (pre washed) by the pound and I am having a great time finding all kinds of tiny fossils! So I figured, in this "time of sequestering", if I can't get out to the fossils, I'll have some sent TO me! hahahha I have found numerous fresh water shark Orthocanthus teeth, Amphibian Eryops dermal plates, skull fragments and a few jaw pieces, many many bits of interesting bone and of course, some unidentified stuff! Here are a few pics of some of my favorite finds so far! All of these are an inch or smaller. Eryops jaw fragment - i love the tooth sockets! Amphibian Archeria Tooth Plate: (the teeth look like chocolate kisses!) Eryops skull fragment: Fresh Water Shark Orthocanthus Teeth: Pretty sure this is a Dimetradon Sail Spine fragment Some other cool bits of bone (unidentified) Some unidentified dermal plates My "Box of Rocs".

Hi all, have a few more interesting finds .... it’s been super helpful seeing these posts, they help me know what I’m looking for, as I am still finding a ton of things just laying around in the sand where we graded the yard a bit.

I'm a life-long fossil hunter and collector. I'm also a mudlarker and amateur archeologist. When I'm not teaching history to my awesome Jr. High students, you can find me outside somewhere digging in the dirt. =) Glad I found this site so I can learn more about fossils and share my finds.

I was responding to a post on TFF on FB about a vertebra someone had found at Post Oak Creek in Texas. I thought it was a snake vertebra since I have found several as I have hunted shark teeth there for several years. I went through my box of snake vertebra to take a picture to compare. As I pulled them out and lined them up, one vert did not line up at all and is clearly fossilized and is very similar to the one he posted that was identified as possibly being Coniasaur. Can anyone tell if that it truly what I have here or something else.

I found this in the creek next to my house a year or so ago and had no idea what it was. I recently saw pictures of “denture clams” and I thought it looked similar. Any input?

Any idea what the tooth on the left is? I know the other two are pycnodontids but I have never found anything like the one on the left. It is very cylindrical in cross section and has the odd "capped" end. Closest thing I could find in my reference library was a diplodicus tooth but this seems way to small. The site is in the Upper Glen Rose Formation (Albian) of Central Texas. This site has produced pycnodontids, turtle and crocodilian bones & teeth.

I justify my going out to fossil hunt right now as "exercise"! Everyone needs exercise! And I have had some really good "exercise" lately! I am to the point in my fossil collecting that it's about finding "better" specimens and the very occasional new thing (which is SO very exciting!) Two in particular have eluded me for a while : Oxytropidoceras Ammonite and Leptosalenia mexicana Echinoid. I have found partials and bits and pieces, but had been unable to find a good one...until now! All are from Texas Cretaceous . The Oxytropidoceras is not the prettiest one in the world, but it's mine and it's a whole one, so I am super happy. 4 inches diameter Fort Worth or Duck Creek Formation This little echinoid has been a real bugger to find. I'd found one, in beautiful condition, only to have it fall apart on me and I found another that is so water worn it's almost impossible to tell it's a L mexicana. So FINALLY I found a lovely one! It's not showing up as well in this photo, but it's a deep purpley grey color! 1/2 inch Walnut Formation And some other good finds - some nice crab claws! Two are unidentified (if anyone knows, please do tell!) and the other is just a nice big one, albeit a bit broken. Unknown crab claw from the Walnut formation: A small unknown crab claw from the Glen Rose Formation: And a honking big Pagurus banderiensis from the Glen Rose Formation: Plus it's always great to find some "better" fossils. Here are a few nice finds: A nice Heteraster from the Walnut Formtiaon; Plus a nice Gastropod Anchura And even a "lowly" bivalve - known as a Texas Heart: Cucullea blancoensis

I posted this while back, but no ID yet. I'm thinking this is a Xiphactinus vertebrae. Anybody agree?

From the DPS Facebook page: The Upper Trinity Regional Water District has received a permit from the US Army Corps of Engineers to construct Lake Ralph Hall on North Sulphur River. The Fannin County Leader February 6 at 1:41 PM · UTRWD Receives Federal Permit to Build Lake Ralph Hall Board of Directors Received USACE’s Section 404 Clean Water Act Permit LEWISVILLE, TX – Feb. 6, 2020: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued a Section 404 Clean Water Act Permit to the Upper Trinity Regional Water District (UTRWD) for Lake Ralph Hall, one of the first major reservoirs to be built in Texas in 30 years. This is the final federal permit required to construct the lake. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality granted UTRWD a water rights permit for the proposed reservoir in December 2013. Named after longtime U.S. Congressman Ralph Hall, the reservoir will be located in southeast Fannin County on the North Sulphur River and will provide essential water to North Texans. “After nearly 15 years of working with USACE, we are excited to receive this permit as it moves us one step closer to building this critically important new reservoir to meet the water needs of our growing communities,” said Larry N. Patterson, UTRWD Executive Director. “After many technical studies and extensive field investigations by both federal and state agencies, the Environmental Impact Statement was completed leading to USACE’s Record of Decision for Lake Ralph Hall. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by UTRWD staff, its consultants, USACE, collaborating agencies and our local partners in Ladonia and Fannin County,” Patterson said. UTRWD’s water demand within its growing service area is anticipated to increase nearly threefold over the next 50 years, additional water supplies are needed to meet this anticipated future demand. Once complete and fully operational, Lake Ralph Hall will provide residents and business of UTRWD’s service area and southeast Fannin County an additional 54 million gallons per day (MGD) of raw water. “Design of the Leon Hurse Dam is near completion and construction is expected to begin later this year in order to have the new lake in operation by 2025,” states Mr. Patterson. “Lake Ralph Hall will provide a reliable water supply for many generations.” “We appreciate our Members and Customers demonstrated support throughout the permitting process and the diligent effort by USACE to finalize the studies and issue the permit,” Mr. Patterson continued. Here are a few facts about Lake Ralph Hall: • USACE’s Environmental Impact Statement confirmed that the North Sulphur River near the City of Ladonia is a good reservoir site - - limited wetlands, no oil or gas wells or electric transmission lines. • Will inundate about 7,600 acres (similar in size to Grapevine Lake) but will yield about 30% more water because of greater rainfall in the Sulphur River Basin. • Helps address severe erosion on the North Sulphur River and will provide a significant aquatic and terrestrial habitat in Fannin County, one that doesn’t exist today. • Pipeline that now delivers UTRWD’s water from Chapman Lake was built with enough capacity to carry the water from Lake Ralph Hall to UTRWD’s service area. • Provides economic benefits to Fannin, Denton, Dallas and Collin Counties. • The Texas Water Development Board’s State Water Implementation Fund for Texas (SWIFT) program will be used to fund the project, estimated cost of $490 million. For more information and to stay up-to-date on the construction of Lake Ralph hall, visit our website at www.lakeralphhall.org. About Upper Trinity Upper Trinity is a regional water district created by the Texas Legislature in 1989 for the benefit of cities and utilities in the Denton County area. Its mandate is to develop regional plans for water services, and to provide both water and wastewater services on a wholesale basis to cities and utilities within its service area, including all of Denton County and portions of Dallas and Collin Counties. Upper Trinity is a leader in public education regarding water conservation and water quality protection, and regularly conducts programs concerning drought tolerant landscape techniques, landscape practices and more efficient water use. For more information, please contact Jason L. Pierce, Manager of Governmental Affairs & Communications at 972-219-1228. UTRWD Receives Federal Permit to Build Lake Ralph Hall Board of Directors Received USACE’s Section 404 Clean Water Act Permit Lake Ralph Hall

With extra time on my hands I'm trying to ID some of my miscellaneous finds. I found this small tooth many years ago. It's about 27 mm long, just over an inch. Generally I find terrestrial, pleistocene, occasionally pliocene or miocene. @Harry Pristis @PrehistoricFlorida

There is a location close to where I work in Central Texas that has produced some pretty nice fossils over time. It is a rather unassuming road cut that at first glance and a quick scan looks like the usual mix of clam and snail steinkerns and mostly busted up oysters. Typical Upper Glen Rose Formation. But early on I had found that it also included one of the upper echinoid marker beds. In Units 6 & 7 there are thin beds loaded with oysters and echinoids. Mostly the very typical Loriolia rosana but also the occasional Coenholectypus planatus or rare C. ovatus as well as Heteraster, Phymosoma and, again rare, Polydiadema. Within that thin layer I would also find bryozoans and crustaceans. As I climbed the cut one day to get to the echinoid layer I came across a fairly decent ammonite as well and that got me to pay more attention to the rest of the cut. Then last year I had a nice talk with a gentleman named William (Bill) Rader who has been doing research for years in our local rocks. You can find his name attached to all sorts of papers on everything from echinoids to crabs. Bill told me to look there for vertebrate fossils, including crocodiles. Well duh, the next time I go I find a crocodile bone (there's a post from me last year on that) Yesterday I decided to put some hours in at the shop and on the way home stopped to see what the recent rains had exposed. I found some Loriolias and then I found this. Any ideas? I have some swags in mind but I have never been a big collector of vertebrate material.

Couldn't resist the pun..sorry y'all!! So went out to a friends ranch to do some fossil hunting. Wasn't expecting much because it said the area was Segovia and Edwards Limestone, which is not very fossilierous. You will find the occasional thing, but not very often. My friend showed me a few things she found and I was ASTOUNDED. A GORGEOUS Neithia bivalve completely encrusted in crystals in a chert/flint matrix. Very unusual. So that got me to really hunting. I never found a nice shell like hers but I did stumble upon a Rudist Reef! Also covered in crystals! All I had to do was look for the sparkles and there was another rudist! I love rudists (crazy looking Cretaceous bivalves, for those who are not familiar - the joke is if you find something you can't identify, it's probably a rudist), so this rock just has me over the moon. It's big, about 16 iches by 12 inches (you'll see my foot for scale...women's size 9 hahhahah) Some detail shots of the various Rudists: Plus a couple of other nce examples: Oh yeah...Foot for Size: The Lovely Bivalve Which I DIdn't Get To Bring Home: Also got to take some photos of the "local" fauna and flora - Axis deer is not really local, they are imported. but very pretty: A bit blurry picture of a Tanenger Purple Lantana: Bloooming Prickly Pear Cactus::

Two days looking on the NSR and pickings were tough. A lot of folks out and about not paying attention to the stay at home order. Wait, that means me too.... Found this above Idonia. Have all others picked identified along with a nice quartz crystal and a Trigonia sp. duo. This one has me stumped. Looks like a very worn bone fragment but is the wrong color for that area from everything else I have grabbed. Decent sized thought. Might be why it was still there in a heavy traveled area. Maybe a palm tree? If by chance it is bone any idea of what species?

I was thinking I could keep a running update on my bison prep, discoveries in learning, general happenings. . . Maybe a bit like Ralph’s aka Nimravis’ “Sometimes You Have to Whack It”, only my bison prep style if it isn’t too dull and boring. A recap. I found an almost complete, articulated bison with the skull in January 2019. I have collected the majority of it. I’m working on processing stuff still and prepping it. I’m totally new to vertebrate paleontology type stuff. So there is a big learning curve. I still have bits sitting in bags or small plastic boxes that I haven’t processed and removed the dirt from. That stuff is still moist for the most part. This post will be embarrassingly honest at times about how I messed up something out of sheer ignorance or how something didn’t work as planned. I’m not beating myself up over anything. Lesson learned and I move on all the wiser. I’ll be sharing my trials and errors for 2 or 3 reasons. 1. So someone else will know what worked or didn’t. 2. Hopefully give others the courage or motivation to just try and not be afraid to make mistakes. 3. Show how blond I really am. Noooo! Not really. 4. So others with more experience can chip in and give me guidance and insight. One thing I found out the wrong way is when you rinse the bones off with water and then let them dry, you’re not supposed to get them wet with water again. Never ever. I had no clue, but it makes sense. These specific type of bones are still like very old bone with little to no mineralization. So they’re fragile. When I rinsed the dirt and mud off I did a general, not a thorough cleaning where I got all the dirt out of the nooks and crannies. So I took one of the femurs that had thoroughly dried and went to rinse it again and clean the nitty gritty parts. After I was done I had it sitting next to me on the couch when I heard a very loud crack noise come from the bone! That was not good! I couldn’t find a crack, but clearly somewhere inside a crack had occurred. It was because the bone was dry. When wet it adsorbed the water, swelled and cracked. So no water. If I had known that I would have been more thorough on the initial cleaning.

I had a pretty uneventful - but beautiful - day on the North Sulphur River last weekend, but came home with a fossil that has me puzzled. It's 2 1/2" long, slightly curved, with smooth surface texture. I'm assuming it's a tooth of some sort? Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone! I don't know how active I'll be on here besides just lurking, but I thought I would introduce myself I'd rather make it short and sweet, so I'm just an assistant store leader in retail who has had a diehard love for paleontology since I was 5 (now 22!). I also really like games and D&D but those are besides the point While not a dinosaur, my favorite are Tylosaurs- my interest for paleontology really spiked when I was invited to volunteer in the preparation of one's (T. proriger) skull. Coincidentally, they had already been my favorite because of the Sea Monsters National Geographic documentary (and game based off of said documentary, lol) but a Tylosaurus had just happened to be what that prep lab was working on at the time of my invite I'm now noticing how not short and sweet this was haha, I just love Tylosaurs a ton. It may be an extremely long shot, but if anyone has any insight on how one would get into a preparator career, it would be much appreciated! Thank you for reading!

Hey everyone. Found this today while near Ladonia State Park. I originally thought it might be the piece of a jawbone with a broken tooth. Clean up and not so sure now. Any help would be appreciated. Any chance on a species if it is a piece of jawbone?

Was digging around looking for snakes is west texas (Odessa) and found many of these large gastropods will only let me load one photo this site on mobile is hard to figure out

FOSSIL Roadshow Webinar 2- Pennsylvanian Fossils of North Texas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXRzTzW-aVM myFossil https://www.myfossil.org https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt18MbS9hR6BjGK6yV_aI_A Yours, Paul H.

Out for my normal weekend hunt. A lot of baculite and ammonite pieces around. Have two that I need help with. Both were found in the river just north of Ladonia Fossil Park. First one was found in 6 inches of water on a material pile. I found three of the following. All three different colors. This is the darkest of them. Others were beige-grey and lighter grey. All had pieces of baculite and other material mixed in. All were around the same size.

I went out to the North Sulfur River today and found these two bones. First one is a mosasaur vert, second one which I also think belongs to mosasaur.

Hi! I am brand new to fossil hunting, inspired by my 7 year old daughter’s fascination with them and rocks. I am trying to find some decent spots to support her interest in the natural sciences. We found these, along with some awesome geodes, at a crumbling limestone cliff off the side of the road that looked fossily to me. I would love a tutorial to on how to find sites in the area to keep this hobby alive for her. Any suggestions in the Austin area?

??? Awesomeness wanted to share and please suggestions !!! Wash your hands —N