tracer Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 oh - the subtitle would be "if you've never been rock or fossil hunting before and are lazy". ok, see, i know this special place, see. it's right by a road. relatively flat ground. the side of the road is littered with a plethora of jaspers and small cobbles of petrified wood and quartzites and monkeyzites (old joke, if not private joke), etc. great tumbling material, if you don't mind getting grass all over you. (did ya'll get that?) so anyway, the road is a blacktop road, and the crushed limestone base beneath the blacktop is fossiliferousitudinousacious. seems like all the marine inverts in it got their shells dissloved (amlost all of my tpyos are purlospussful), and the voids grew cute little calcite and/or aragonite crystals in them. so littorally, the surf & turf special is on the menu! you drive there, park, get out, arrange your photo subjects, take pictures, get in the car, and leave! it's great! wonder what somebody's gonna think when they find my little arrangement of fossils. prolly think some kid did it. prolly won't never guess that some middle-aged guy drove there from quite a ways away just to take some pictures to stick on a website. funny. had a good time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Murphy Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 oh - the subtitle would be "if you've never been rock or fossil hunting before and are lazy". ok, see, i know this special place, see. it's right by a road. relatively flat ground. the side of the road is littered with a plethora of jaspers and small cobbles of petrified wood and quartzites and monkeyzites (old joke, if not private joke), etc. great tumbling material, if you don't mind getting grass all over you. (did ya'll get that?) so anyway, the road is a blacktop road, and the crushed limestone base beneath the blacktop is fossiliferousitudinousacious. seems like all the marine inverts in it got their shells dissloved (amlost all of my tpyos are purlospussful), and the voids grew cute little calcite and/or aragonite crystals in them. so littorally, the surf & turf special is on the menu! you drive there, park, get out, arrange your photo subjects, take pictures, get in the car, and leave! it's great! wonder what somebody's gonna think when they find my little arrangement of fossils. prolly think some kid did it. prolly won't never guess that some middle-aged guy drove there from quite a ways away just to take some pictures to stick on a website. funny. had a good time. Tracer: It looks like you found the Midway Paleocene in Texas. There is a thin, discontinuous limestone within the Paleocene of east Texas and South Texas that is extensively quarried for road and location material in that region. Referred to as the Tehuacana Limetone,the matieral in places is quite fossiliferous. It actually is the uppermost member of the Kincaid Formation. It can be filled with the shells of Mesalia and other gastropods; in other areas, it may be extensively filled with the casts and molds of various pelecypods, especially specimens of Venericardia bulla(last and Ostrea crenulimarginata. in some other material may be found crab fragments, bryozoa, brachiopods, echinoids, shark teeth and other fossil debris. Most of the fossils are calcite replacments of the shells. The shark teeth retain the original shell unlike other Tehucana fossils. Some of my favorite collecting in the past few years have been piles of weathering state road material and on a number of oilwell localities. So, I guess I and one of those "who have never been fossil hunting before or am lazy". Regards, Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Well, those are different. Also, an interesting bit of information, Mr. Murphy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 wow, mike - now i'm really glad i posted the topic, if only because it brought you out to throw in some of your always-interesting knowledge. i have been amazed since i first came to the forum at your encyclopedic level of information regarding a lot of things fossiliferous. thanks for once again sharing some of it. i have found similar material before in another place i hunted, and wondered about its origin. i usually assume that road materials are not hauled from great distances due to cost, but this does seem a bit out of place where it was located. and no, i'll never consider you in the group subtitled. i was only referring to myself if someone thought my offering of the day was inconsequential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Keep an eye on TJ; once he reads about the shark's teeth, he'll be wanting start quarrying the road... "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...
JohnJ Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 Keep an eye on TJ; once he reads about the shark's teeth, he'll be wanting start quarrying the road... I can just hear that phone call..."Uhh, Dad...you're not gonna believe this, but...." The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Looks like you had Clams Casino for dinner! -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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