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Found this item in Benbrook TX after some heave rain. The area is Cretaceous. Any idea on what it is?
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Memorial Day hunt. Benbrook, TX Duck Creek formation trip 2
KimTexan posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
I had the day off of work on Memorial Day and I didn’t have my kids, but I was on call. So once again I couldn’t go too far. I decided to head back over to the Benbrook site. It was going to be another scorcher. So I brought along about 40 ounces of fluids. I drove the hour over to west of Benbrook Lake to the new subdivision going in, turned into the development and parked near where I had found the 2 smaller ammonites the previous Tuesday. Before getting out of my car I covered my exposed areas with sunscreen. Sun damage will age you quicker than almost anything and also increase the likelihood of getting skin cancer. Now that I had my sunscreen on I got out and started hunting. I walked around a few undeveloped lots for a bit and was only finding partial ammonites. I found one small echinoid urchin and nothing else of note. I walked back to my car to get a drink and my bag. Then I searched on the opposite side of the street. I didn’t find anything there either. I guess the first trip I was just lucky to find 2 decent ammonites within 5-7 minutes. Since I wasn’t finding much in that particular area I walked down the street a bit and then crossed it heading towards a rock pile. The lots in this area had not been smoothed over yet. The back side of the lots sloped downward. More rocks had been pushed over the edge of the slope. I had stepped up on the curb and walked maybe 15 feet when I found what looked to be a small Mortoniceras about 5 inches across imbedded in a larger chunk of rock. You can just see the edge of it poking out of the rock below my hand. I didn’t have my hammer with me. I put my bag down by the rock and I walked back to my car to get my hammer. I couldn’t find it. It dawned on me that I had taken it into my house, shoot. I keep most of my hunting tools in my trunk with my rubber boots and a pack at all times. You never known when you might see some spot that needs investigating. So, no worries I had my little sledge hammer and some chisels along with a number of other tools. I was dripping wet from the heat and losing a lot of fluids. The humidity was at 70% and it was 94 degrees. I can take the heat, but I don't do well with high heat and high humidity. The humidity is what does me in. I got the tools and walked back to where the ammonite was. The limestone there was kind of chalky and reasonably soft. Within 2-3 minutes I had it popped out of the rock. One side free of matrix, but the other still had a little on it, but at least I wouldn’t have to carry the whole 40+ pound rock back to my car. The side that was free of matrix looked like it had a touch of pyrite disease. You can see how it is kind of flat on the bottom edge and reddish from oxidation. This is just another chunk of rock with 2 Morts in it. They look like fragments so I didn't bother with trying to get them out. It looks like there is a third fossil between them and possibly another small one below them that is hardly noticeable. I am not sure what this is. It looks a bit like some burrows, but the other burrows I was seeing were 3 to 5 inches in diameter. It may be a little burrow of some other creature, but there is something else going on there too, but not sure what. it almost looks like large leaves fanning out to the top and bottom. the burrow overlays whatever is fanning out. The burrow to the bottom left looks kind of like it is a corkscrew patterns. Then there is a burrow looking thing above those that has a ribbed pattern on it. Hum, now that I think about it, this did not look like the other rocks. There were building a stone wall nearby with sandstone blocks. This may not even be from the formation. This is just another fragment with the septa showing. It is about 8 inches across. This is one of the little Morts that was just laying around. I thought the thing below it was an urchin. Turned out to be a pebble with concrete on it. I just gave the ammonite away to the guy who came and fixed my AC unit today. He is the grandfather of a couple kids my kids were friends with. We actually kind of hunted a little together back in March when I took a group of scout kids, my daughter and his granddaughter out on a little hunt. He had never found fossils before or been hunting for them. He walked over as I was finding echinoids, gastropods and ammonite fragments. He was immediately sucked into the hunt and fascinated with them. This ammonite was kind of cool, because the matrix on the edge had the impression of another little ammonite. It is about 6 inches across. I'll be back in a few with more of the story.- 27 replies
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