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With the end of the semester approaching, school has picked up and I have been too busy to embark on many adventures. When my schedule finally cleared up one afternoon following a brief rain in Austin, I jumped at the opportunity to do a bit of exploring. One of my goals right now is to check out new parts of the creek I hunt on. Scanning through my list of potential spots, I decided to try and be the first one out to a very promising location. Like my previous hunts, this place ran through the Ozan formation, so my expectations were set on some nice Cretaceous specimens as well as the usual native artifacts that Central Texas is so famous for. After I parked and carefully scaled my way down to the water's edge, I was immediately met with several pairs of shoes and jackets. Thinking I had been beaten to the punch, I decided I might as well head down the stream and meet whoever it was to discuss the location and fossils in general. Thankfully, the trip was saved when they turned out to be a kind group of fishermen. After a brief chat, I carried on to get the hunt started. The mud was an absolute nightmare. I had never been up to my knees in it until then. Somehow, I managed to trudge my way through without getting one of my water shoes sucked away into a different dimension. When I finally reached the first gravel bar, I was instantly rewarded with the nicest Ptychodus tooth (E) I have found yet. Scattered around the bar were tons of flakes and a couple of larger worked pieces (G, I) that were unfamiliar to me. Before moving on, I also stumbled upon what would've been the largest point I'd ever found (H). Unfortunately, it was pretty banged up. The previous rain wasn't that big in terms of flooding, so I spent the most time scouring the gravel still under water as I reasoned that the stuff on dry land was less likely to have been moved around in the storm. It was during this moment that I found my first mosasaur vertebra of the day (A). This one was exciting to me as I personally thought it very much resembled the verts that famously come out of the NSR's Ozan formation. Within a couple feet of it I found another half piece of mosasaur vertebra (B). With the close association of these two bones, I went into a bit of a frenzy. Nothing else came up, but I knew that there was a massive exposure just up ahead so I hurried on. Along the way I ran into a fragment of the smallest point I've come across (F). At its size, I wonder if the original piece would've been a true arrowhead. Once I reached the main exposure, I immediately got to probing around. I came across two more pieces of bone that I believe are both belonging to mosasaurs (C, D). They have bony structures, but they are also pretty beat up and may have come from a different formation in comparison to the other two verts I collected. With the day winding down I picked up a nice big Exogyra ponderosa for my dad's friend as well as a couple of preforms. I tried to look around in the exposure for any hints of mosasaur, but that shale is extremely difficult to get through. All in all, it was a great success. I think I've found my new go-to spot! With the addition of potentially 4 new mosasaur verts, that's a 400% increase in my total mosi collection! P.S. Does anyone else get "Tetris Syndrome" after scanning gravel bars for way too long? For hours after the trip, I literally could not stop seeing gravel and chert flakes every time I closed my eyes. An overview of the finds: Closeups for ID: A: First mosasaur vert of the day. To me, it strongly resembles those found in the NSR's Ozan formation. This one was covered in a clay-like matrix. B: The second vert of the day. Seems to be broken in half and from the same formation as A. Appears to have pyritization on some parts of it. C: Third vert which I believe is mosasaur. This one is beat up and seems to be of differing material from A and B. Could it be from the Austin Chalk which is present farther up the creek? D: The last "vert" of the day. This one I am least confident about. It appears to have a bony texture, but is very worn and has a confusing shape. It seems closer to C than A or B, but it also feels very distinct in it of itself. What do you guys think? I suppose it could be something else entirely! E: A nicely preserved Ptychodus tooth. I'm thinking anonymous or mammillaris, but my ID skills are pretty lackluster. F: "True" arrowhead fragment? G: Strange artifact. The angle seems too wide to be a point. I think it's too thin to be an adze. Obviously missing a huge chunk from that fresh curved break. What do you guys think? H: Fragment of a large point I: Another strange fragment. I think it may be an adze since it's a bit more robust. Fresh break on one edge. Let me know if you want any more close-ups. Thanks for reading!

I recently found a construction site in a productive layer of the Eagle Ford. I found several ptychodus and other shark teeth as well as some pachyrhizodus teeth, a possible mosasaur tooth, and a couple of items that i cant figure out. Here are a few pictures of my finds as well as the items im not sure about. 1. The haul 2. possible Mosasaur or other reptile tooth? It is skinnier than a mosasaur and it is oval like as well so i cant figure it out. 3. I have seen this before on TFF but cant find the post. Anyone know what this is? 4. Fish bone for sure. Maybe a jaw segment? 5. I have no idea about this one. Anyone? 6. This is just a rock i'm pretty sure but don't think it would have formed this way coincidentally. Geological?

Found this beauty recently in a middle turonian exposure of the Eagle Ford formation in Texas. Knowing the age, (91 million years) I'm able to rule out quite a few options, but I'm still stuck between P. anonymous, P. mammilaris, and the Ptychodus that Shawn Hamm will describe this year, which has also been found at this location. I don't think it's decurrens or marginalis, but I'm not great at Ptychodus ID yet so perhaps they're still options. It's much larger than the P. anonymous teeth I've found, and being (perhaps) a posterior or lateral file tooth, I'm unsure of how to ID mammilaris there. I know @LSCHNELLE knows the diagnostic features of Hamm's upcoming Ptychodus, thoughts? Scale bar= 1 cm

Hello everyone, Yesterday my eyes spotted a Ptychodus tooth. Cleaned it and i can't get a grip which species it is. First i thought P. mammilaris and later i thought P.lattisimus. But it's such a beauty that i bring her/she up in the forum. Have a beautiful day everyone. And for those who will go on a fossil trip. Mazal tov

Hi there everybody, it's been a while I was on the forum. But I stumbled on 65+ associated teeth of Ptychodus polygyrus. My question is, how can you tell the difference between an upper and a lower tooth of Ptychodus polygyrus?

I've had so much fun hunting teeth in Post Oak Creek that I decided to try some of the other creeks in Grayson County. Last week's visit to another creek didn't produce much, but today's new spot had lots of interesting finds. Like Post Oak Creek, this one is Austin Chalk on maps, near the Eagle Ford boundary. Here are a few finds as they lay. There are two teeth in photo 2. Photo 4 requires a close look.

I could use a little help identifying a few teeth from the Lake Waco Formation. That’s the geological info I was given at least. I’m not familiar with the formation so I’m not sure of the age. First up, 2 small Ptychodus teeth. Both around 7mm. Very low crown. I’m not great with Ptychodus ID’s so I could be way off but I think these could be P. rhombodus based on some pictures I’ve seen. I don’t have any other Ptychodus teeth that look quite like this.

I have taken almost six months off from my favorite fossil adventure - shark tooth hunting. I was a little hunted out after a torrid pace in 6 years that saw me and my wife finding over 1000 Ptychodus teeth and some rare pliosaur and mosasaur teeth during maybe 50 to 100 small outings each year. We even traveled to Wyoming and the Dakotas "to check off some unvisited United States". But, much to her chagrin, I/we got a lot of fossil hunting time in at the expense of other trip priorities. Yes - I was obsessed with Ptychodus. But, I think that I am now a little more even-keeled. During the six-month hiatus, I took the time to pass on some of my local knowledge to help @Jared C. in his Central Texas area fossil adventures. He and his brother found and excavated a partial basal mosasaur skull from somewhere locally. I asked him not to tell me where (I have no idea) because I enjoyed helping him and I didn't want to spoil his enjoyment of the chase. Note to experienced fossil hunters - new eyes often see things in an unconventional way. And, that is a good thing! I try to look for and learn new things every time I hunt the same area. So, in middle February 2022, there we were together for a couple of hours in the creek in one of my favorite outcrops. It wasn't the sunny day, I had hoped for, but most importantly it fit my wife's schedule. She gave me a Christmas gift of monthly fossil hunts with her! Such a gift, even after dragging her through the baby mosquito hatch in South Dakota to find a rainbow colored ammonite! Now, that's love! Not the ammonite! You can find 8 or 9 species of Ptychodus in 30 vertical feet of Eagle Ford and Austin Chalk - Atco outcrop - all at predictable stratigraphic levels along a 400 yard long stretch of creek. I learned that Ptychodus strata marker fossil trick from Shawn Hamm. Here are pictures of a few teeth from this hunting spot from one of my favorite Ptychodus species (occidentalis). One, I found in the February 2022 hunt and another in 2021. The third tooth in early 2019. The first one has a little snail-like curl at the middle of the crown. The second is a rare upper medial file - so, strange in shape and form. They are both 10 mm or less in size, but nearly flawless and unique. Still hoping for another 25 mm+ size P. occidentalis from there but without the smashed off crown top (third one in last two pics). Happy hunting! But, I encourage you to stay even keeled. Don't get too crazy! It's just a pretty rock! But, it still can be amazing!

I made another trip to Post Oak Creek yesterday morning. I explored a new spot on the creek for the first time. We had some rain and snow in the area last week, but I don't expect it was enough to raise the creek level too much, or wash out much new stuff, but it definitely had everything muddy yesterday. I was surprised that, on this 70 something degree day, there were still spots of snow in shady parts of the creek, over a week after our only snow of the year. It was obvious that there weren't as many teeth in this segment of the creek, and I didn't find any larger teeth. But like other parts of the creek, there were teeth, along with other interesting stuff, to be found.

Howdy! I recently went to Post Oak creek, and ended up with more matrix than I can immediately use. Rather than let it sit unsearched, I figured it was worth a shot to post some up for trade here. Each bag has a pound of material in it, and they have proved to be very productive. I’ve found numerous ptychodus teeth, a (poorly preserved) lobster carapace, shark and fish vertebra, various bones, coprolites, and of course, lots of other shark teeth. So there’s lots of different things that can be found. I’ve got around 25-30 lbs I’d be willing to trade. I am primarily interested in vertebrate material, but I’ll also look at ammonites, and really anything else since I’ve finally gotten back into collecting again.

I made another trip to Post Oak Creek yesterday. I visited a spot on the creek where I'd already been twice last year, in the first months of my fossil hunting. The conditions the second trip were much like yesterday, months of low water and very picked over. I didn't find much that second trip. But I suspected that I have become much better at spotting tiny teeth on a gravel bar, and went back yesterday anyway. Judging from what I found, I must have been right. There were lots of broken teeth again, and nothing spectacular or unusual enough to justify a post, but I do enjoy documenting my trips, and have a question about one of the bones, so here I am. First, some in situ photos. The tooth in photo 6 is pretty hard to see. Hint: it's a Ptychodus tooth.