Central Texas Id

[BobC]

Hey Guys--this is my first post on these forums. Here is a link to a video I made of this weekends fossil hunt. I know what everything is except the reddish tubular guys--can anybody help me out?

[KevinG]

and that is a way to have a first post Jackpot!!!!

[BobC]

Thanks Kevin! I am like the Greek God of Central Texas sea urchins. I have hundreds! But these Salenias are hard to find and I really stumbled upon a fantastic site for them! I was a happy man! By the way if you do search on my videos on Youtube (my handle is Noodleydoo) you will see some cool videos of ammonites and rudist reefs--and an Ice age (maybe) camel!

[Traviscounty]

I was wondering when you were going to post! Good to have you on the forum. I'm here for 2 weeks, and doing some creekin'. Let me know if you want to go out one day.

Travis

[MikeD]

Cool. Another Texan. Welcome. I stumbled across that camel video once before. Looks like you hit the Salenia jackpot! I finally got my first one last month. I got 4 of various sizes, 1 was crushed. Also bagged my first complete Phymosoma. I had found some pieces in January.

The red tubes look like either some kind of tubular concretion or possibly some kind of trace fossil of a burrow. Can't see enough detail.

[BobC]

Hey Travis--You caught me! Hey listen to this--a lady in Florence has given me permission to go into her 90 acre quarry this weekend! I'll go the first time by myself, but maybe the next time you can come with me! The oldest Clovis settlement in North America, according to one guy I spoke to, was discovered right down the street. This could be exciting.

Hi Mike--if you want to come down to Austin I could take you to some sites where you can find lots of Phymosomas and Salenias! As long as you keep the site between you and me.

[jimmy1971]

WOW! Great job Bob! I love those salenias too. I have not been lucky enough to find any just yet. I'm still looking for a place to find those closer to north Texas.

[BobC]

Jimmy if you view that vid in HQ it looks a lot better by the way! I think Youtube compresses videos if they are too big--that video looks way better at home!

Anyway--I have never hunted fossils further North than Lewisville--how far North are you talking about? I will say that Central Texas is a goldmine for urchins if you know the clay they are usually found in. I have several sites where I find Phymosomas all the time, some in almost perfect shape--but the Salenias are a different story. They are like winning the Easter Egg hunt! I found probably 200 salenias this past weekend

The last time I went to Dallas--two weeks ago--I took 281 instead of hideous IH 35, and hunted the whole way up and back. I found some fantastic spots!

[Traviscounty]

Hey Travis--You caught me! Hey listen to this--a lady in Florence has given me permission to go into her 90 acre quarry this weekend! I'll go the first time by myself, but maybe the next time you can come with me! The oldest Clovis settlement in North America, according to one guy I spoke to, was discovered right down the street. This could be exciting.

Hi Mike--if you want to come down to Austin I could take you to some sites where you can find lots of Phymosomas and Salenias! As long as you keep the site between you and me.

Cool. I'd like to check it out. I just went down to the Onion, and have decided I'm buying a canoe tomorrow. Nothing will stop me now.

[BobC]

Cool. I'd like to check it out. I just went down to the Onion, and have decided I'm buying a canoe tomorrow. Nothing will stop me now.

You can get a plastic canoe for like $200 at Academy

[tracer]

enjoyed the video. your exuberance regarding your collecting was refreshing. your self-description as an "advanced beginner" was funny. quite a good haul of fossils. i think the red things are just infillings of burrows or holes and aren't really fossils or anything. it was hard to see the actual surface textures of your fossils from the sunlight glare on them, but it kinda looked like a neithea shell on that one urchin. don't know.

there are some serious central texas echinoid scarfers on the forum that'll be commented soon on your finds, no doubt...

[makoken]

Cool. I'd like to check it out. I just went down to the Onion, and have decided I'm buying a canoe tomorrow. Nothing will stop me now.

Hey Travis let me know how onion goes I've been wanting to go there .But work ruined my unemployment.

[CreekCrawler]

Great video and welcome to the forum.

[barefootgirl]

AWESOME. I love all those little Echis, what a haul. I think the bar has just been raised for posting. Dang, I'm still learning how to work my camera.

By the way welcome to the family. Us Texas folk rule the forum.

[JohnJ]

Welcome to the Forum, BobC.

[fossil man]

ok i have question. I see these sweet echinoids on here all the time and people say, they found them in "Central Texas". I am not asking for anyone to give me specific sites (unless someone is feeling generous) but what counties constiute "Central Texas"? What formations are best for these type of echinoids (anything but heart echinoids)? Are they found in creeks, or consturction sites? If they are found in construction sites how do you know where to find them, or is it a matter of driving around and finding them? The driving around thing, while it may be the prefered method, i would rather not just since i live in southwest oklahom (dont want to waste any more time then i have too) so any info any one can offer would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and effort.

Lloyd

[Oh-Man]

Hey Travis--You caught me! Hey listen to this--a lady in Florence has given me permission to go into her 90 acre quarry this weekend! I'll go the first time by myself, but maybe the next time you can come with me! The oldest Clovis settlement in North America, according to one guy I spoke to, was discovered right down the street. This could be exciting.

Hi Mike--if you want to come down to Austin I could take you to some sites where you can find lots of Phymosomas and Salenias! As long as you keep the site between you and me.

Bob,

Congrats!!! I have a handful of the Salenias, but nothing like your haul! Are they s. texana or s. mexicana? Or other?

Let us know how the quarry hunt goes. Sounds like it's near Buttermilk Creek. I found my first horse teeth there years ago, but no clovis points.

I'd love to con my way into joining you guys, too, but have to head for Tampa on business. And of course a side trip or two to hunt for megs, hemis, etc. Maybe later this summer. MikeD and I car pool a lot... heh heh

Thanks again for posting the really cool video.

Oh-man

[Oh-Man]

Cool. I'd like to check it out. I just went down to the Onion, and have decided I'm buying a canoe tomorrow. Nothing will stop me now.

Travis, do you know where the old quarry is right off the Onion about 5 miles west of the old Adams Extract plant?

I used to fish there all the time, and walked through the quarry a bunch to get the hole. Unfortunately I didn't have enough horse sense to look for fossils at the time... Some big bass were up there in the creek.

Oh-man

[MikeD]

Hey Travis--You caught me! Hey listen to this--a lady in Florence has given me permission to go into her 90 acre quarry this weekend! I'll go the first time by myself, but maybe the next time you can come with me! The oldest Clovis settlement in North America, according to one guy I spoke to, was discovered right down the street. This could be exciting.

Hi Mike--if you want to come down to Austin I could take you to some sites where you can find lots of Phymosomas and Salenias! As long as you keep the site between you and me.

Thanks. I'll take you up on that sometime this year.

[Traviscounty]

ok i have question. I see these sweet echinoids on here all the time and people say, they found them in "Central Texas". I am not asking for anyone to give me specific sites (unless someone is feeling generous) but what counties constiute "Central Texas"? What formations are best for these type of echinoids (anything but heart echinoids)? Are they found in creeks, or consturction sites? If they are found in construction sites how do you know where to find them, or is it a matter of driving around and finding them? The driving around thing, while it may be the prefered method, i would rather not just since i live in southwest oklahom (dont want to waste any more time then i have too) so any info any one can offer would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and effort.

Lloyd

As to your question about what counties constitute "central Texas", I think there are some gray areas. It seems to have a lot to do with where you live. I consider central Tx. to be from San Antonio on the south, Temple on the north, Bryan on the east, and Kerrville on the west. Me being in the exact center.

Just look in that area, and you should have no problem.

[BobC]

Holy snarge! I didn't think I'd get this many responses! People here are very nice! Paris Texas huh? I saw that movie back in the 80's! It was very cool.

I think those of you who guessed the red tubes were worm tunnels are probably right. I've never found perfectly vertical tunnels before but you never know.

Where do you look for echinoids? I can tell you exactly where to look--on the sides of roads! What you want to do is look for where yellow clay is being eaten away by rain. I will post some vids that will illustrate what I mean--but look for yellowish clay that has obvious rain gulleys in it. Every weekend I pack up my dogs, jump in my car and just go scouting on country roads--and I have never once come home empty handed. I have literallly hundreds of phymosomas, probably thousands of heart urchins (several pails full) of different varieties, and something like 60 salenias of two different varieties, and what I think are three tetragrammas (these guys are rare and people on the internet are always misidentifying phymosomas as tetragrammas). I have only been collecting echinoids for a year, but was lucky enough to meet some people who really knew what they were doing.

If any of you guys are in Austin, and are seriously wanting to find some of these echinoids, I'd be happy to show you some locations where I guarantee you'd find some. When I say Central Texas I'm not being coy--I just go all over the place--Florence, Wimbereley, Buda, San Marcos, Liberty Hill--tons of places. Like I said, half the time when I take off in the morning I don't even know where I'm going--I just follow my nose. Right now is a great time to go because we got some great rain.

All that being said--I have had several disastrous experiences where I've told people where to look--and they have jumped fences and done other disrespectful things--so I am a bit reticent to tell people specific spots. I have gained the trust of a lot of country people out in these rural towns and they let me on their property--and I don't want that ruined. So if you go out with me collecting, I will need your word that the site stays between you and me--and that you be respectful of peoples' property. I'm not trying to be a jerk--just being honest. I went to one paleontological meeting here in Austin--mentioned a certain country road--and suddenly like 15 people descended on that road, jumped a fence, and totally embarrassed me. I am still dealing with the fallout but I learned a lesson. I am happy to share these spots as long as people are respectful.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Lloyd

Step 1: Memorize aerial outcrops of the various formations in Central Texas, focusing on the Walnut and Glen Rose if you are looking for quantity of regular echinoids

Step 2: Memorize what echinoids hail from your target formations

Step 3: Purchase papers concerning target species and formations by searching online. This will help you narrow your search with more specific site information. Some of these refs are old, so focus on the natural exposures as they may still present viable collecting.

Step 4: Look for exposures in target areas using Mapquest or Google Earth, keeping in mind that images may be a few years out of date at times or lower res than you want in rural areas

Step 5: Make a plan, then drive, look, drive, look some more, drive, drive, drive - construction sites, creeks, road cuts, etc

Step 6: Generally speaking, when looking for echinoids, target marly layers (soft, undercut, dirt like layers between harder limestone layers)

Step 7: Crawl - When targeting fossils smaller than an inch, most of us will find way more by crawling than by walking around

Step 8: When you find a good site, be very selective who you share it with. When the bug bites someone, trust me, you don't want your hard earned sites to be the only places they know to collect. Even "nice guys" can compromise your future prospects at small or slow weathering sites

Step 9: Barter! When you have good sites, you can then do reciprocal guided trips with other collectors willing to share their hard earned, good sites with you.

Step 10: If somebody does magnanimously show you a site, keep the site info to yourself, and if the guy that shows you has some preference for how often you use the site, show him that courtesy.

Step 11: Size up your sites for how often they can be productively hunted, how many collectors they can support, etc. Some sites may only support 1 person each time it rains. Others are better in drought. Some can handle a bus load of people. In my experience, most can't. Before telling the world about your sites, consider how sharing may interplay with future collecting prospects of yourself, your kids, and your close friends. I like to share, but generally find it best to send the masses to the same handful of sites. I keep the best sites in my back pocket for serious collectors willing to sling museum grade site info my way. In other words, scale things so that the info exchange is fair and equitable. This all, of course, goes out the window when dealing with your kids, girlfriends, etc. - take them straight to your best spots!

There is no real shortcut in consistently finding quality fossils. Most consistently successful collectors have put lots of time, effort, and money into building personal paleo libraries, transportation, and spending time in the field. It is still possible for you to do exactly that...although collecting is getting more popular, new sites pop up all the time, and existing ones get refreshed by weathering.

Once you put in the effort to get over the experience hump, it really does get easier. Soon you'll feel like you simply fall into fossils every time you walk out the door!

[BobC]

I can only add that looking for these sites is as fun as finding the fossils! I do it for the sense of adventure. I love talking to the ranchers who live out in the rural areas. I'm an animal lover and in the past few months I've seen a badger, wild turkeys, emus, donkeys, cows, horses, gray foxes, bobcats, deer and god only knows what else.

[Traviscounty]

Travis, do you know where the old quarry is right off the Onion about 5 miles west of the old Adams Extract plant?

I used to fish there all the time, and walked through the quarry a bunch to get the hole. Unfortunately I didn't have enough horse sense to look for fossils at the time... Some big bass were up there in the creek.

Oh-man

I'll see if I can find it on google maps. Fishing and fossils.....this is a good plan.

[BobC]

Speaking of Onion Creek--if you guys want to find Devils toenails, they are all over the place in Onion creek--especially the branch of Onion Creek that is just past the airport