Woodbine ammonites & pet wood (tree)

[Shaun-DFW Fossils]

I have a few excursions I haven’t posted, but I’ll come back to those at a later date..I was thrilled to find the biggest conlinoceras tarrantense ammonite in good shape that I’ve found in the first 2 years of my fossil hunting hobby, over 7.5” diameter and nice on both sides. I’ll have some prep work to do to remove matrix and algae discoloration but it looks relatively easy compared to some! This specimen is from far western Dallas County in a creek that has proven to be a bonanza for me on repeat trips to the exact same stretch of the creek. If it sprinkles, I’m there. The Tarrant formation is exposed in a couple of places and I also find the occasional gift drop from prior years as the gravel bars get moved after heavy rains. You can imagine my excitement upon finding this one. It was like a movie scene where the guy starts yelling in the woods and the camera zooms out until you hear the yelling from a mile up in the atmosphere. 
I’ve also been slowly working on loosening up a petrified tree that I found earlier this year. I’ve recovered about 15 feet of branches (I look for the natural break and remove whatever piece extends from that), with the largest piece I have extending about 4 feet, forking at the end and weighing 128 pounds. The trunk is what you see in these photos. I have cut and polished (with the help of Mercer Brugler) one of the smaller branches and I’ve also attached one of those so you can see a section of what it looks like. Pholad clams bore into the wood while it was underwater, now replaced by calcite. The surface of the wood is chock full of borings where the clams attached themselves and dug in as what would become permanent residency. Maybe they thought they were renting..not this time. 

[Jaybot]

Nice!  The clam boring on that pet wood is pretty neat.

[automech]

Great finds Shaun! I see the box of teething cookies in picture. How are the youngin's doing?

[Shaun-DFW Fossils]

1 hour ago, automech said:

Great finds Shaun! I see the box of teething cookies in picture. How are the youngin's doing?

Haha! Sorry about my organized chaos in the background..I have a 4 year old girl and a 6-month old boy, they’re doing great! My son just wants to put everything in his mouth but my daughter can accompany me on the easy difficulty fossils hunts sometimes..

[Ludwigia]

That is one great Conlinoceras and the pet wood is really cool!