PaleoRon Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 A couple of weeks ago I got bored and decided to drive out to Texas and do some fossil collecting. I checked the weather for the Dallas to Sheridan area and saw that it was in the low to mid 90's. Didn't sound too bad, but it ended up not feeling too good. It was very hot and humid, so hot that I saw no rattle snakes and only five Water Moccasins . . . and they were begging me for ice water. The only other critter of note was a beautiful Velvet Ant that wanted to get acquainted, but alas I didn't have the energy or time to deal with a sting from that sneaky lady in red. I checked several creeks between Dallas and Sherman. Most were bone dry and devoid of fossils, although almost every place I stopped produced at least one broken flint arrowhead or blade. I was checking out a small dry creek and about to give up when I decided to do one last creek bed crawl. When I first saw the tooth it didn't register. I knew there was something there but I couldn't figure out what. The reason I couldn't pick it out was because of the size of the tooth. Not because it was too small, I was expecting small Cretaceous teeth, it was too big. It turned out to be a nice sized Ptychodus mortoni. It was partly hidden by sand and I wanted to snatch it up but I managed to hold off until I got a ground shot. It is right around 1 7/8 inches. I crawled around for another thirty minutes without finding anything else. My next finds were in Post Oak Creek. I spent an entire day there and found some pretty good material. I even found a nice complete flint blade. Most of my finds were from the surface but I also did a bit of screening. POC had seen a lot of action in the week before I got there as evidenced by the innumerable footprints. I couldn't help but wonder what the other treasure seekers had found as they did the shark-tooth-shuffle along the gravel bars. I ended up with over twenty P. whipplei and several "regular" shark teeth. On the way back to the east coast I stopped in Tennessee and picked up some flint and brachiopods, then to Kentucky to get geodes and invertebrate filled limestone slabs at one site and then to a second site for agates and invertebrate fossils replaced by red agate/chalcedony in a buff colored limestone. The red shelly material is barely exposed and will need to be prepped mechanically or by acid. I have no idea when I will have time to do that but the finished product should be outstanding.
Wrangellian Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Impressive. Are the agatized fossils and other inverts worth showing pics of?
PaleoRon Posted September 22, 2015 Author Posted September 22, 2015 Not yet, unfortunately. There are just small red edges peeking out of the matrix. I did find one nice slab of limestone covered in red shelly material about three feet by four feet across, but it was attached to a pesky two ton boulder and a mile away from the nearest road.
John S. Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 I'd say that was worth the trip. Love that big ole Mortoni. Still looking for one of those. Great blade there as well. Is the other artifact broken at the base? North Central Texas Eagle Ford Group / Ozan Formation
bone2stone Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Awesome Mortoni!!!!!! I have managed a few over the years. Good to see you managed to find a rare one on your trip here. Yes this is Texas and sometimes it's hot in Winter. If the weatherman says 90 you can bet they are not talking down in the creek beds! Post Oak is one of the most heavily hit areas in North Texas! Still lots to be found there. In the hey day it was not uncommon to pick 100+ teeth by lunch time. As many times as I have been there I have never found an arrowhead of any sort, period. I find them quite often but never there at Post Oak. Glad you got to experience Texas first hand. Jess B.
Ludwigia Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 That's a very nice way to overcome the boredom. Thanks for sharing your adventures and finds. Looking forward to seeing the agatized fossils Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/
njfossilhunter Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Love that tooth....My friend lives in Dallas and was just up to visit for a little over a week ....He had moved from Austin and I'm hoping to vistit him in Dallas next year and Hoping to find just a tooth like you found.....They are awesome.....Congrat's TonyThe Brooks Are Like A Box Of Chocolates,,,, You Never Know What You'll Find. I Told You I Don't Have Alzheimer's.....I Have Sometimers. Some Times I Remember And Some Times I Forget.... I Mostly Forget.
Nandomas Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 (edited) great fossils, I expecially like the big Ptychodus ... if you like to trade with nice echinoids I am always here I will love your tooth Edited September 22, 2015 by Nandomas Erosion... will be my epitaph! http://www.paleonature.org/ https://fossilnews.org/
fossilized6s Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Wonderful finds! I would definitely call that trip successful. ~Charlie~ "There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK ->Get your Mosasaur print ->How to spot a fake Trilobite ->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG
ZiggieCie Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Great finds and report. I love the arrowheads. I've only found two in my long life, but one is 12,500 yr's old.
TNCollector Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Nice fossils! Long drive to get them though.
Foshunter Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 You made a haul, great diversity, well worth the trip. The large Ptychodus Mortoni is on hunters wish list, difficult tooth to find. The point I believe is a Darl dart point, made before the Native Americans had the bow, pretty well made point Tom Grow Old Kicking And Screaming !!"Don't Tread On Me"
PaleoRon Posted September 23, 2015 Author Posted September 23, 2015 I'd say that was worth the trip. Love that big ole Mortoni. Still looking for one of those. Great blade there as well. Is the other artifact broken at the base? Yes it is unfortunately broken. The workmanship is some of the best I have ever seen. I wish it had been complete enough to identify to type.
garyc Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 I look forward to being able to drive cross country fossil hunting....simply to cure boredom! Nice haul.
John S. Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 Ah that's too bad. Still looks killer. You must have an eye for the artifact. North Central Texas Eagle Ford Group / Ozan Formation
zoocosmolina Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 Awesome mortoni! Congratulations! One of these has been one my wish list for a good while now...
Ptychodus04 Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 A couple of weeks ago I got bored and decided to drive out to Texas and do some fossil collecting. I checked the weather for the Dallas to Sheridan area and saw that it was in the low to mid 90's. Didn't sound too bad, but it ended up not feeling too good. It was very hot and humid, so hot that I saw no rattle snakes and only five Water Moccasins . . . and they were begging me for ice water. What are the odds that it would be hot here in early Sept? I swear I've seen the devil walking by looking for a snow cone stand!!! Regards, Kris Global Paleo Services, LLC https://globalpaleoservices.com http://instagram.com/globalpaleoservices http://instagram.com/kris.howe
caldigger Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 Man that IS a big tooth. I got a couple of really small Ptychodus on a Permian hash plate from Oklahoma via Jesuslover340. They are about 2.5-3mm barely visible with the naked eye. I have to use a loupe. This is taken with a 20x loupe. there is an even smaller one that popped off the back of the plate. I believe these are named Ptychodus anonymous according to Tony Eaton's guide in the ID section.
JohnJ Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 Man that IS a big tooth. I got a couple of really small Ptychodus on a Permian hash plate from Oklahoma via Jesuslover340. They are about 2.5-3mm barely visible with the naked eye. I have to use a loupe. 017.JPG014.JPG This is taken with a 20x loupe. there is an even smaller one that popped off the back of the plate. I believe these are named Ptychodus anonymous according to Tony Eaton's guide in the ID section. Ptychodus is a Cretaceous genus of shark; so whatever you have there, it isn't P. anonymous. You should start an ID topic on it to let some our Permian specialists weigh in...it might be a denticle of some kind. You got to love the small stuff. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ
caldigger Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 (edited) OK, I'll attempt to take better photos of them, although they are identical to what he has in the post. I did notice it didn't give average sizes, so this may be something that looks similar but quite different. The Squalicorax tooth ( also Cretaceous) that is on the plate is very small as well. Unless I have the Blue Shale formation age incorrect. I will recheck package. "You got to love the small stuff" with my poor eyes, not so much! I have to view these things through a 20x loupe just to see them. Edited September 23, 2015 by caldigger
JohnJ Posted September 23, 2015 Posted September 23, 2015 OK, I'll attempt to take better photos of them, although they are identical to what he has in the post. I did notice it didn't give average sizes, so this may be something that looks similar but quite different. The Squalicorax tooth that is on the plate is very small as well. Unless formation age is incorrect. Blue Shale Get firm geologic information. That is another Cretaceous genus. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ
caldigger Posted September 24, 2015 Posted September 24, 2015 (edited) Sorry for the confusion. I received a bag that read Ptychodus tooth OK Permian matrix. It is Cretaceous material, my bad. I did post better pictures in ID section. I apologize for kidnapping your post Ron, that was not my intent. Edited September 24, 2015 by caldigger 1
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