MikeD Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Nice find Bob! You should be able to get the Akers book through HGMS at http://www.hgms.org/. Click on paleo publications. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 A friend sent me a link to that site--honestly, though, the art is that book is terrible. I am really going to have trouble ID'ing anything with those terrible drawings. Authors use hand drawing like that because printing grayscale images (photos) is more expensive and the ink tends to blob, making the photos illegible--unless you print the grayscale images on very slick, expensive paper. I have been paid to illustrate several black and white books for just this reason. The artist on this book should have taken a photo of the specimen, and traced it on a lightboard--that way you would get a much more accurate depiction of the fossil. I am going to buy this book but I don't have high hopes from what I've seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 the drawing are to rapidly get you in the "ballpark" on what you're looking at. the narrative description of the characteristics adds the specifics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 Cool--I was just going by the drawing on the cover. I could never tell which heart urchin that is on the cover. Het Tracer--do you know what the nipple shaped tubercles are called? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandpa Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I am going to track down that book at lunch. Maybe Barnes and Nobles carries it Bob, The book is a publication of the Houston Gem and Mineral Society. To buy a copy go to http://www.hgms.org/ and click on Paleo Publications in the left side margin. I have most of their books and find them very useful starting points. Good luck - and BTW, what a great couple of Tetra's. I've been hunting for 18 yrs. and haven't done as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 Thanks Gramps! If you live in Austin you should come out with me sometime. I have discovered a great new place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 "There's a tetragramma in the ditch, there's a heart urchin, and HOLY ****!!! There's a ******** RATTLESNAKE!!!!!" Great stuff, BobC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 Hee hee! I swear to GOD--I am out in this kind of terrain every single weekend, and I have only ever once come across a snake--and it was a water moccasin. AND of course I just happened to be with a woman, for the first time too, who was PETRIFIED of snakes. When she saw the snake she levitated outta the creek and never shut up about the damned snake for the remainder of the trip. Snakes don't bother me a bit, but this Becky woman was scared to death of them. She kept throwing rocks in the water in front of us and I was wondering why she kept doing that--and it turns out she was trying to scare of snakes. It was really, really annoying. So much for the tranquility of being out in the quiet wilderness. Between her yapping and throwing rocks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Hee hee! I swear to GOD--I am out in this kind of terrain every single weekend, and I have only ever once come across a snake--and it was a water moccasin. AND of course I just happened to be with a woman, for the first time too, who was PETRIFIED of snakes. When she saw the snake she levitated outta the creek and never shut up about the damned snake for the remainder of the trip. Snakes don't bother me a bit, but this Becky woman was scared to death of them. She kept throwing rocks in the water in front of us and I was wondering why she kept doing that--and it turns out she was trying to scare of snakes. It was really, really annoying. So much for the tranquility of being out in the quiet wilderness. Between her yapping and throwing rocks... My grandmother was born raised, and died in Mason. When i would come down from up north to visit, she would give me the same speech every summer about watching for rattlesnakes everywhere I went. Never saw a one. When I was out in AZ three years ago, I was thrilled to find a beautiful western diamondback. I shot it (with a camera) and hope it's still around. HUGE regret: never going fossil hunting in the hill country. I loved fossils even back then, but it just never occurred to me to look around in that great cretaceous terrain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 I see snakes--but it's always when I'm driving. They tend to cross the road a lot! But in the field--never. This whole area rocks. I love it. Except for the 40 plus days straight of 100 degree days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 I see snakes--but it's always when I'm driving. They tend to cross the road a lot! But in the field--never.This whole area rocks. I love it. Except for the 40 plus days straight of 100 degree days Well... Let's not forget grass burrs and chiggers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 By grass burrs do you mean those little spiky things that hurt like hell? I don't know what they are called but they are frikkin painful!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron E. Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 By grass burrs do you mean those little spiky things that hurt like hell? I don't know what they are called but they are frikkin painful!!! My mom (also born and raised in Mason, but died in NWArk) always called them grass burrs. I learned at a VERY early age that you ALWAYS wear shoes in Texas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandpa Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Funny but true story. We were in Galveston quite a few years ago. We went down by the water to eat at a seafood cafe. When we got out my wife noticed some grass burrs beside the car. Our daughters were young and in flip-flops. My wife warned our daughters "Look out for the cockle burrs!" My youngest daughter (about 4 at the time), smelling the fishy smelling pier area replied, "Momma, I smell those caca birds!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted July 28, 2009 Share Posted July 28, 2009 Star burrs and beggar lice...the bane of bare feet and leg hair...ouch! The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 I loaded up all four dogs and took them to Emma Long Park here in Austin in the middle of winter--and as all the dogs ran out of the car and into the grass, suddenly all four stopped dead still. I couldn't figure out what was going on--they wouldn't move! Then I realized that the whole field was completely covered in those spiky burr thingees--and the dogs' paws were covered with them! So I had to pick each dog up (two over 100 lbs), carry them back to the parking lot, take the burrs out, and then repeat the process with the next dog. Those burrs are really hard to pull out because they will spear themselves into the the hand trying to pull them free! Everything in Texas bites, stings, stabs, ect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 28, 2009 Author Share Posted July 28, 2009 Okay--I just examined the large urchin next to the Tetragramma--and its tubercles are not perforated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Okay--I just examined the large urchin next to the Tetragramma--and its tubercles are not perforated Too bad. As I'm sure you already know, that rules out the Tetra...I thought I saw an extra row of tubercles on the interamb when I magnified your pic. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oh-Man Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Too bad. As I'm sure you already know, that rules out the Tetra...I thought I saw an extra row of tubercles on the interamb when I magnified your pic. OK - so you know you two probably only live 30 minutes from each other! Can you guys get together and compare notes/fossils, then post any findings, or do I need to get eHarmony involved!?!?!?!? What is geology? "Rocks for Jocks!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 30, 2009 Author Share Posted July 30, 2009 Hi Owen! John and I had our "Lowered Expectations" moment last night--we met at Red lobster and compared notes! I emerged victorious on the Phymosoma/Tetragramma controversy, and then I stunned him with my huge, beautifully preserved Tetragramma!! I was all pleased with myself, kicking back, basking in my own fabulousness--for about five seconds. John just cackled maniacally, melodramatically hurling a plastic storage box onto the table! He flung the top open and reached in, stating "Bob--That Tetracrappa that you apparently pulled out of some radioactive landfill isn't even HALFWAY a decent specimen--check this out!!!" In a grand sweeping motion, John placed a Tetragramma on the table so perfect, so large, so very perforated (its perforations had perforations), that I could barely stand to look at it. I reached for a steak knife. "Now THAT is a Tetragramma!!" I had to agree. I was clinging to my "advanced beginner" status like a life preserver but I was sinking fast. "I fill holes in my driveway with the kind of snarge you've been collecting.." "But..but John...I am just trying to learn..." "SILENCE!!! Speak only when spoken to. Your dim and sausage-like mind cannot fathom the treasures I have unearthed!!!!!!' Then he hurled an intact Styracosaurus skull onto my plate of snow crab legs!!! I knew I was in trouble. Big trouble. "uhhh could I interest you in a poorly preserved Loriola?" I stammered John simply stood up, put a cigarette out in my forehead, picked up my plastic box of "fossils" and deposited it into the nearest trash container, and stormed out of the restaurant. "HE CAN"T EVEN GET THE NAMES RIGHT!!!!!!!!!" be bellowed at the hostess, as he shoved her out the way!!! That was the last I heard from John. Back to the drawing board, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 bobc - tubercles are called tubercles. the rounded top where the spine would be and articulate is called a "mamelon". the "ledge immediately underneath that is called a "platform". if there is a raised edge to the platform, that's called a "parapet". the truncated cone part below the mamelon is called a "boss". i've painstakingly researched all this by glancing in the Akers book. p.s. - i think you can call the stuff whatever you want. i suggest "echinoboobs", or "eebees" for short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Re: shamefest at Red Lobster; Have you posted the video yet? "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobC Posted July 30, 2009 Author Share Posted July 30, 2009 So the nippleythingeemabob isn't the technical term? Aus--yes John recorded the whole thing and is courting offers by the media right now. Exposing my idiocy is big business, apparently. I have the Akers book. After John informed me that Bubbles the Chimp had mastered echinoid identification by reading this book, I knew I had to get on the ball. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 Wow Bob, sounds like Ole Johnny was pretty hard on you. All he ever did to me was wait till I was balancing on a log, then he hit me across the face with a canoe paddle. Oh yeah last trip he threw something at me in the creek and smashed a lens out of my glasses too. But other than that, he's good people........hehehehe Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted July 30, 2009 Share Posted July 30, 2009 last trip he threw something at me in the creek and smashed a lens out of my glasses too. so who out-collected who when ya'll compete with one eye tied behind your back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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