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The North Sulfur River finally got some rain last week, and I headed out there yesterday morning to see what I could find. I was hoping there had been enough sun that it wasn't still a muddy mess, but that wasn't the case. It was a tough slog, hiking through all that mud. It made fossils tough to spot too, and I didn't find a lot. But I still enjoyed my day in the river. This photo shows what much of the riverbed looked like. Are those footprints from a large bird or small dinosaur?

With time running out before the start of the school year, I decided to spread my attention across three DFW formations to get a little taste of what each has to offer. Instead of shooting out a handful of smaller topics, I've decided to combine my trips into a single larger post. I wouldn't say any individual find is a jaw-dropper or museum-worthy, but they, all together, give a nice glimpse into what each formation can yield. In order from oldest to youngest: Goodland This adventure took place in Oliver Creek with the Dallas Paleo Society. It's a regular spot for the group on private property. The site is well known for its plethora of echinoids and highly sought after Oxytropidoceras (still working on the pronunciation) ammonites. A huge crowd of hunters arrived in Justin for the meet-up. I was worried it would be too crowded for the creek, but there was plenty of elbowroom and something for everyone. I'd say about half of the people spent the morning scouring the gravel beds whereas the others got to hammering away in the limestone ledges. Once my brother and I found the good layer, we were nonstop working out urchins and ammonites. The echinoids (A) were literally everywhere and preserved in great condition. We came out with a baggie full of them, but left many more behind. It was pretty easy to find ammonite fragments too. However, finding a complete ammonite with at least a little structural integrity was a tougher challenge. Luckily, fortune was on our side and we came away with four decent Oxytropidoceras's (B). The two pictured below are the largest and prettiest ones. Prepping them will be a challenge though. They are too fragile for the hammer and chisel, but a little too tough for my new dental pick (I bent it a bit already ). Along with these, we also got a neat selection of gastropods and bivalves (C). The Society continued on to a second location, but we decided to call it a day early since my brother was a bit tired of the heat and rock dust. A). Several Holaster whitei from the Goodland Limestone. The ones straight from the ground have amazing preservation. One urchin is covered in oysters (Plicatula?). A coating of b72 gave them a nice sheen. B.1). An Oxytropidoceras ammonite. B.2). The best Oxytropidoceras of the bunch. Its got an interesting feature that I am curious about. There seem to be some fragments of the original shell still attached in a couple of locations. These "shell fragments" have reddish orange splotches on a white base and have a distinct texture to them (I'm not sure if porous is the right word). I wonder if the red coloration is just staining or if they could be indicative of the shells original coloration. When I first noticed them I immediately thought of the red striped shells of modern nautiluses... but I am probably getting ahead of myself . C). An assortment of bivalves and Tylostoma snail. The two smallest clams appear to be Protocardia texana while the scallop is, I assume, Neithea. The largest clam is smooth and difficult for me to ID. Denton Clay Took a trip to a construction site. Didn't find anything and then got my leg cut on a rusty post. Got a tetanus booster and no lockjaw thankfully. 0/10 would not come back! Pawpaw I've been poking around a couple of construction sites located on the Pawpaw formation west of Ft. Worth. They've both been decently productive, though I wish I could've had more time to really look through them thoroughly. It's a really interesting layer with some notable dinosaur finds and shares some visual similarities with the Woodbine in my opinion. The sites I went to cut through I variety of levels in the Earth. I think they are all still within the Pawpaw, but I am honestly not sure. In a more elevated cut, I found the specimens shown in (A). I was super excited when I pulled my first Coenholectypus only to realize that it was very poorly preserved and covered in lots of matrix. I tried some vinegar on it which cleaned it a bit, but the way it's shattered and degraded on the other side makes me think this is as far as I'll go with it. In a lower layer, I found some really interesting fragments of purple ammonites and a bivalve (B). I tried hard to find something complete, but the best I could come away with was the tiny purple heteromorph I added additional pics of. I think the sites needs some rain as many of the fossils were covered in dust and hard to spot. Definitely places I will check out again when I'm back home. Lastly, I decided to include an updated pic of the micro Engonoceras that is seen in my pfp (C). I only just recently acquired paraloid b72 and have been enjoying it immensely. After applying some to my micro ammonite, it has obtained that beautiful "wet" look that really brings out its color and details. I've got some older pyrite ammonite encased in paraffin wax that I may try replacing with b72. I have a feeling they will look much better. A). Bivalve and damaged Coenholectypus urchin. B). Purple fragments of typical ammonites, heteromorphs, and a bivalve. A complete ammonite of this nature still eludes me despite my efforts. C). My Engonoceras with a fresh coat of b72. Eagle Ford Despite the fact that I've been actively fossil hunting for about a year, my experience with the Eagle Ford is focused mostly on only a couple of brief visits to Post Oak Creek. I decided that now was a good time to finally jump in and try to figure this famous formation out. I hit up a few spots at a local creek with huge exposures of bluish shale. Despite the urban sprawl immediately surrounding the area, the tranquility of the creek made me feel like I was out alone deep in the wilderness. There was plenty of foliage and animals to populate it. Something about the place made me wonder if I had somehow traveled back in time. I was quick to get to work, scanning the shale and splitting open some slabs. The matrix was loaded with tons of fragile fish parts. Every slab contained a smattering of scales (I think) and other miscellaneous fish parts. Most of the small things were so delicate they would poof away when exposed to the air. The bigger things were a bit stronger and I was thankfully able to stabilize them before they were mostly destroyed. Early on, I got lucky with a beautiful little Enchodus jaw (A). I believe it's a piece of the lower one. To go with it I always came across a couple of jaw sections with larger fangs (B). Unfortunately, the tips of them immediately popped off and disappeared into the ether before I could preserve them. One slab surprised me with a broken shark tooth that I assume is Cretoxyrhina mantelli (C). It was the only shark tooth I came across that day, but it gives me hope for future expeditions. Of the thousands of fish scales I found, I decided to try and preserve a larger one (D). These guys were very fragile so I'm happy he made it out mostly in one piece. Once again, a slab surprised me... this time with a tiny ammonite, something I don't usually associate with the Eagle Ford (E). And to round off the day, I noticed some protrusions jutting out of the shaly bank. When removing them, I noticed they were rounded orbs containing a concentration of fish parts. I assume that these are coprolites. I don't know much about these sorts of ichnofossils so please inform me if I'm wrong. If they are coprolites, are they from a fish or a reptile and how can you tell? A). Lower Enchodus jaw? B). Some Enchodus fangs and jaws. Tips broke off when revealed. These guys are both consolidated in b72 and were originally in multiple pieces. Reattaching the fangs was some tedious work. C). Cretoxyrhina mantelli? D). Fish scale preserved in b72. E). A tiny ammonite in the shale F). A crappy ending with some suspected coprolites. In Conclusion I had a nice summer break with plenty of time spent exploring the world of fossils surrounding where I grew up. It was a lot to take in, but I truly learned a great deal about the oceans that once swept over North Texas. The diversity of marine creatures is astonishing and it impresses me every time I split open that next slab of shale. With the school year starting up again, I am moving back to Austin. It's been a hot second since I've traveled to my usual Ozan spots and I am excited to get back into business. I'll take the sudden burst of rain today as a sign of good things to come. I can't help but think of all the freshly revealed marine fauna that have finally gotten the chance to take their first gulp of water in roughly 80 million years.

I was looking through the auction site for the 100th time this week, and saw what are supposed to be Mosasaur vertebrae. Apart from size, they don't look like any Mosasaur verts I've seen. These look more like very large Enchodus verts to me. The slab is 19"x7". I'm not buying them at the moment. I'm just curious as to how correct I am.

Hey all Is this little fossil a partial Ejchodus jaw? The piece on the left certainly looks like one of their famous fangs (although I'm not 100% I'm correct) but the bits to the right do not look like the little needle teeth, or teeth at all. The bone texture flows in to those bumps. Scale is in cm

I drove down to the North Sulfur River Friday morning. It was my first trip to the new temporary fossil park. This part of the river was my favorite even before the new park. But it looked very different in 2020 than it does now. It's a muddy mess right now. There were clean washed gravel bars everywhere in 2020, but now the gravel bars are all covered with dried mud and clay pieces. I wondered if the diggers and sifters had the better plan Friday, but I didn't bring my sifter, so I made a long hike away from the bridge, and spent my time searching gravel bars. With so many clay pieces covering everything, it was harder to spot fossils, but I still had what I thought was a great day. I'm going back and bringing my girlfriend tomorrow morning, for her first fossil hunting trip ever. She has always been fascinated by the stuff I bring home, and will finally get the chance to try it out herself. We almost certainly won't hike as far as I did Friday, and after a holiday weekend of fossil hunters picking over the gravel bars, it seems unlikely that we'll find nearly as much as I did Friday, but we'll see. Some in situ photos from the day.

Last weekend we have been to the coast of France to look for fossils in the chalk. We found the usual ammonites, but I also saw some fish remains sticking out of a boulder. At first I thought to leave it since it looked very brittle. Natalie convinced me to take my time to try to extract it. She put some paraloid on it in the field and I removed the fossil with a knife. At home she consolidated the matrix and prepped the piece. She sure was right to take the fossil home , it turned out to be a really nice Enchodus Jaw. (moral of the story, always listen to the missus ) In situ: after the prep:

I picked up some teeth labeled as Enchodus fangs but there are a couple that don't quite look like the rest. Are these Enchodus teeth and located in the jaw behind the fangs.... or not Enchodus at all.... or something else?! Scale is CM. I am unsure where these were found but based on a lot of other fossils sold there I'd guess Morocco. What gets my attention is Enchodus fangs have a distinctive shape and a carina. These teeth have 2 cutting edges and are obviously not the typical fang shape - the darker tooth more so. Sorry about the pics, it's an old Samsung and it can't figure out lighting and is not good at macro

I finally took a trip to the North Sulphur river last week. There have been a couple good rains so I was hoping that would uncover some stuff. The last couple of trips in 2021 were terrible. All muddy and picked over. This trip was still pretty muddy and little in terms of quality mosasaur material. However I went low and found a lot of smaller material. I wonder if the recent muddyness of the river is due to the lake construction or if the river just hasn't had enough rain lately? Is picture 2 an enchodus jaw? I believe the pictures of item 3 are of a really chipped piece of mosasaur tooth. Still never found a whole one this color. Are the pictures of item 4 pachyrhizodus? I have seen people say these are really small mosasaur but I have always doubted this. Any way to identify item 5? Maybe xiphactinus? Item 6 are the few decent mosasaur pieces i found. Is the second one a phalanges bone? Any idea about 7? It is heavily fossilized so i was thinking cretaceous but the shape makes me think of more recent like pleistocene. And my final question. Is item 8 coprolite? Im terrible at identifying the stuff. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

I bought this tooth together with two other teeth as ''Smilodon teeth'' last year. Thanks to this forum, I found out that the other two teeth are actually Enchodus teeth! I think this one might be something else. Someone on Reddit told me that it could be a crocodile tooth, but I have little to no knowledge about crocodile teeth. I understand if it's difficult to identify, because the tooth isn't complete. It's 2cm and the seller couldn't give me information about where this was found. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Hello guys i have the best one in my collection this is perfect enchodus tooth i ever have size 7.1 cm anyone have largest than me ?

I'm fairly new to collecting/hunting fossils. I bought these as Smilodon teeth last year, but I think they are Enchodus teeth. Can someone confirm? Thanks! From left to right: 5cm, 4cm, 2cm

Hi guys, I recently trade for these, and I was wondering if it was possible to assign them to a species thanks 1. 2. 3. looks like a bit of fish rostrum? 4. best preserved one, the enamel has regular flat edges, like a polygon I guess 4. enchodus libycus? thanks

I made a trip to a Navarro County creek yesterday morning. This is the same creek I visited a few weeks ago, but I was a little bit further downstream yesterday. It was still a Wolfe City formation area. It ended up being one of those days where I spent more time hiking and exploring than I should have. I was looking for likely outcrops in this creek, and just didn't find any. I eventually started checking the unlikely looking ones closely, but never did find any fossils that way. I finally spent some time crawling gravel bars, and found a few things there. I'm still a relative newbie at this, but in my limited experience, I've had better luck finding fossils in good shape in outcrops than on gravel bars. This day was no exception; what I found on the gravel bars was in rough shape. The best gravel bar was less than a half mile downstream from the outcrop where I found everything last time I was in this creek, but it was obvious that yesterday's teeth didn't come from that outcrop. All of the teeth from that outcrop were black; yesterday's teeth were brown. I found myself wondering where the outcrop was where they came from, if it was covered with mud and would show up again next flood, or if I had just missed it in my searching. I didn't leave myself much time for crawling gravel bars yesterday. I want to hunt this area again. Yesterday's haul was pretty sparse, and in rough shape.

There have been a couple of small rises lately so i went out hoping to stumble upon something nice. Unfortunately the water did not rise enough to really tumble the gravel but it was still nice weather at least. Here are some pictures of my hunt a couple of weeks ago. As for my hunt a couple of days ago I don't have any pictures because i was skunked for the first time ever. No fossil or artifacts at all. I tried some of the large creeks, the ones that are basically as large as the river itself, and all i could see was dried up mud. I'm not sure if the creeks just have less material in them or if everything is just covered in mud. 1. 2. Mosasaur tail vert im assuming? 3. Not sure if coprolite or not but cool fish bones. 4. Rib of something 5. Fish jaw? 6. Turtle 7. Some cool little bone but have no idea what part or even animal 8.

I live near the western edge of Henderson County in Texas. It's a fairly flat area with few outcrops of any kind exposed, and even when they are, they aren't very fossiliferous. The county just west of me is Navarro County, and it does actually have some formations that hold fossils. But I haven't had much luck finding anything in Navarro County. I keep looking, since it's so close. I did a long hike down a Navarro County creek yesterday. For most of the day, it looked like another of those trips where I just don't find anything. But one thing I've learned about fossil hunting is that even after hours of unproductive searching, it only takes one small spot to make you end up bringing home some cool stuff. Yesterday, I eventually found that small spot. The area I hunted is Wolfe City formation. I just didn't have any luck finding anything in the gravel bars in the creek, or in the outcrops themselves. But I did stumble on an outcrop that had some fossils in the mud just below it. For those who enjoy "Find the fossil", here are some in situ photos. That pick is small. The handle is about 55 mm long.

Hey all This has popped up on a local auction site, I have a couple of Enchodus fangs and a caudal fin in my collection and this jaw section would be a nice addition - if it passes the scrutiny of the experts! Is it Enchodus? Can you spot any repairs? I would assume based on the very fragile nature of the jawbone this is in the original matrix? The ad doesn't have much detail - I've added the only 2 pics supplied --------------------- Enchodus partial jaw fossil from Khourigba, Morocco, North Africa. Upper Cretaceous Period - 90 Million Years Old. Jaw itself is 5cm in length. --------------------

Found in NJ Cretaceous stream. Thick Enchodus jaw or ??? Thanks.

Hello guys, I should probably start this post by mentioning that I'm not a vertebrate guy. So if anything I say is wrong or laughable, this isn't my best subject. Today I bought two jaw pieces with no label for a ridiculously low price. I think they're Enchodus from Morocco, but I wanted to verify. Also, there are some various verts, shark teeth, etc. in the matrix, I think the visible shark tooth in piece #1 is Squalicorax, and I'm not sure about the one in #2. And the large vert on #1 might not be identifiable, but I thought I'd ask. Are there any major red lights? Any serious resto work? Thanks everybody! Jaw #1: