McFadden Beach Texas oddities

[JamieLynn]

This summer I poked around on McFadden beach for about an hour...didn't have much time as I was on my way to Louisianna, and there was a hurricane coming. Wish I could have gone after the hurricane, but ah well. Found a few little things, didn't really think much of them, but finally took some photos and lo and behold....one of the pieces has bryzoans and coral on it! So is this indeed a fossil of something or is it just a rock with bryzoans and coral? I picked it up because it looked bone like, but don't really think it is bone.  The next piece is just intriguing, it looks like the rind of a cantaloupe! Again, not sure if it is anything biological or just weird geological. The Third piece I was wondering if it was coprolite of just weathered hash rock. Any thoughts and idea are appreciated! Thanks! 

First find: 

 

 

Second find: 

 

Third FInd:

 

 

[grandpa]

#1 looks like coral with an encrusting bryozoan.

 

Have you labeled picture #5 correctly as "2nd find" or is it another picture of "1st find"?

 

If so, and assuming there is only 1 pict of "2nd find", it is obviously a petrified cantaloupe.    Or, perhaps it is a void filled piece of L/S with calcite crystals filling the voids, the rock then shaped by the erosion of tumbling in the sands driven by wave action.

 

#3 does not look like coprolite to me, but rather a coquina of bivalves. The pitting in the matrix of the piece gives me some pause leading me to think that the matrix might also be organic; a "sponcorbryo" perhaps.

[JamieLynn]

oops...fixed. 

 

So you think the actual structure is coral with the bryzoans on it? Like a large piece of staghorn coral?  Was there staghorn coral in the fossil record? I know McFadden is mosty Miocene, but since there is Cretaceous all around....who knows where it's from....

[Oxytropidoceras]

McFadden Beach is Pleistocene and Holocene only.

 

Go see:

 

McFaddin Beach: This Site Is All Washed Up!

Texas Beyond History, Texas Archeological 

Research Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin

https://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/mcfaddin/index.html

 

Stright, Melanie J., Eileen M. Lear, and James F. Bennett

1999   Spatial Data Analysis of Artifacts Redeposited by 

Coastal Erosion: A Case Study of McFaddin Beach, Texas. 

US Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service

https://www.boem.gov/uploadedFiles/BOEM/BOEM_Newsroom/Library/Publications/1999/99-0068-Vol1.pdf

https://www.boem.gov/Gulf-of-Mexico-OCS-Region-Publications/#ARCHAEOLOGY

 

Unknown Fossil Tooth And Partial Jaw

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/70567-unknown-fossil-tooth-and-partial-jaw/

 

The third specimen is carbonate-cemented shell and sand.

 

Go see:

 

Weiss, C.P. and Wilkinson, B.H., 1988. Holocene cementation

along the central Texas coast. Journal of Sedimentary

Research, 58(3), pp.468-478.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[JamieLynn]

meh...I meant pleistocene...yeesh. Not too cognizent of that area. Thank you for the info!