Waco Pit - Tx...... 8(

[trempie4]

Made my way out to Waco Pit this windy brisk cold morning, unsure of whether I had enough storage vessels for all of the fossils I was going to find. In a nutshell, a pocket would have sufficed.

I dreamed of beautiful pyratized ammonites knowing that my well trained miocene shark tooth eye was going to pick them up one after another like bon bons from a box. Well.........

GOOSE EGGS! Nada, nichts, nyet, etc...... Couldn't find one.

My goal was to quickly find a dozen or so ammonites, move onto some echinoderms, and finish off my stellar day with a 12" x 12" slab of the oyster mortality plate I've seen found at this site.

Thats how it was supposed to go, this is how it went.

Got there, feezing cold, its TX so I didnt bring much with regard to clothing. Started the day sliding down the steps into the pit which hurt little more than my pride, though I was glad I was alone. It had obviously rained hard there recently as the entire place was a muddy slip n slide and everything was covered by a heavy layer of gray mud.......

I quickly broke to the left to look for pyratized ammonites, was skunked though I did find a large partial ammonite....

After an hour there, I broke to to the right side of the pit hoping to find echinoderms in a spot referred to me..... Searched high, searched low, none to be found. I did find a few cool little things.....

Lots of cool shell impressions in a hard black/grey clay I originally thought was slate. Pity it wasn't....

This interesting piece with something on the back. Trace fossils? You guys tell me. Was about a 12" x 15" plate.....

Cat tracks.....? Bobcat? saw little ones, then bigger ones and started to check over my shoulder.....

Found a cool little iron nodule with some fossil traces in it, I love the knobby textures. I find these on the beach back east in large smooth sandstoneesque textures and swirls. Obviously things are different out here.

I did see a few small pyratized gastrapod frags but they were not worth keeping, I wanted some complete ones.....

And oysters everywhere!

Good luck to all of you locals when this swamp dries out.

Me and TX just diagree. I need a tour guide next time I'm in town!

Edited January 12, 2012 by trempie4

[Uncle Siphuncle]

ammonite-engonoceras

scallop-neithea

sometimes we all get skunked, and the worst drought in tx history didnt help you. familiarity through time spent at that site tends to increase the take home pay as well. even experienced eyes in a new venue need time to adjust particularly when hunting such diminutive fossils. your helpers did you right, but most folks have trouble playing guide in person during the work week.

[erose]

Argh! Little Pyritizied gastropods? Did any one mention that one of the most common ammonites is a spirally coiled type? And they are all tiny. If you kept any of them take a closer look. The majority of the best pyritized stuff is smaller than a dime and you won't see 'em from a standing position.

Next time you get out here let us know. One of us will show you around.

By the way, I thought you did just fine at Whiskey Bridge. The teeth there are mostly in pockets and you can empty a pocket quickly and then spend the day trying to find another. Of course there are some serious collectors who will find teeth all day long.

And they call this a Blue Norther. Wind comes whipping down off the great plains and just blows and blows from the north end of the state all the way down to Mexico.

[trempie4]

I was stooped over for most of the day, face in the mud 2x (too close to see anything from 1/2" away). I've moved so many times, lugged around an extra 2 tons of rocks. I'm mid 40's, downsizing to some extent. I'd rather leave the few I did find for a local who has a great collection going.....

I fully understand how beneficial it is to have a guide and I certainly get the fact that not everyone, or almost no one, can break away for fossils mid-week. My day just happened to open up.

It took me 20 visits to a local VA tooth site to find the first of probably 500 or more. Once you're dialed in you're in. It was just a wet n messy day today but...It was fun, I'd do it again!

And again, thanks to everyone for the insight and advice, especially, SilverPHoenix........

I will be in San Antonio with a Saturday to kill in March, who needs a driver and wants to find some echinoids?????!!!!!????? :Bananasaur:

[BobC]

I believe I could help you with that, Trempsie Dempsie. A certain Miss Linda McCall will be gliding in anyway that month so we might as well all go together.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

if all else fails and i'm out of pocket when you are here, pm me and i'll shoot you some area locality info

[vertman]

I am glad you enjoyed the day. Sorry it was not more productive. That is pretty much common for the well-known Texas sites. It can sometimes be spectacular and other times be a complete bust. My buddy Mark and I hit one a few weeks ago expecting nothing but finding some really good stuff. You just never know...

[silverphoenix]

Well it looks like you got a couple of pretty good finds from the site--I've never found one of those larger limestone ammonites at the site and that shell is very nice!

Sorry to hear you were skunked on the pyritized ammonites--I've been 4 times and cleaned up on ammonites each time, which you can see in my past postings from the site. Probably someone came the day before and cleaned up before you got there, which is the gamble with "surface hunting only" sites... Last time I got a good haul of about 3 dozen ammonites, I was searching While it was raining and directly afterwards. The soil erodes easily there it seems and the site is renewed with each rain.

When you make it down this way again, let me know. It takes a little adjusting to the site to spot many of the tinier ammonites, so I'm sure you'll have better luck the next time. I know the first time I started looking for shark's teeth at the beach, I didn't find any for a long time. Once I found the first one, I was finding 30-100 a day after that...until they all vanished since Ike that is...

The nicest/most ammonites at the site also seem to be 1/2" and smaller, with a majority being around 1/4".

[silverphoenix]

Oh and the tracks look to be bobcat, but would have to get out an ID chart to be sure. The trace fossils you found seem to be root casts.

Also, if no one else was at the site before you, it's also possible that the heavy rain event stopped suddenly, instead of tapering off and gently washing off the exposed fossils, and instead kicked up mud and coated the fossils with it. Just a theory, but could possibly explain why you didn't find any--they could have been camouflaged, which would make them much harder to find as their bronze color generally makes them stick out like sore thumbs.

[Wrangellian]

I'm not sure but I would bet on those traces being traces and not root casts - there are types that branch around like that, but would have to know more about the site and lithology to be sure.

[Lloyd]

Exploring new spots can be that way. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you just resign yourself to enjoy the day out.

[MikeD]

Sorry you didn't do so well. I would have thought the rains would have been to your advantage, but the mud certainly was not. Once you find your first one there, your eyes are trained, but sometimes it is still hit and miss and as previously said, the drought did not help. I was there at the end of October and did better than I thought I would considering the conditions.

I see you have two great offers for guides in the SA area. Most of the fossils will be easier to spot there.