Fossil Quest

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!  Oyster Pycnodonte.  The growth line striations on these little critters are very interesting! 

Fossil Quest : Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Echinoid (Sea Urchin) Loriolia. These tiny round regular urchins are a fairly common in the Glen Rose Formation of Central Texas.

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Gastropods Purpuroidea. These large snails have a distinctly different shell than Tylostomas. 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Inoceramus Clams - These are and indicator fossil of the Austin Chalk formation. 

Fossil Quest ! Cetnral Texas Fossil Finds! Oyster Exogyra Ponderosa  Also known as Devil’s Toenails. They are usually rather large oysters. 

Fossil Quest ; Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Oyster Texigryphaea  

Fossils Quest : Central Texas Fossil Finds! Algae Fruit - Porocystis Globularis. These little round or flattened balls can be found in the hundreds in some areas and not at all in other areas! Sometimes you can see the indentations of the “skin” of this algea fruit. 

Fossil Quest : Central Texas Cretaceous Fossils Finds!  Gastropod Leptomaria. This low spiraled marine snail are not one of the more common finds in Central Teas, so they are always a special treat...especially since they look like cinnamon rolls. 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Oyster Cerostrean - this interesting crenulated oyster is a common find in the Central Texas area, often very water worn. But sometimes you will find huge beds of these oysters, almost perfectly preserved!  

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!  Rudist Clams.  The joke is if you find something you can’t easily identify, it’s probably a rudist. So many shapes, sizes, and weird forms these rudists take! They were large bivalves that created large reefs in the Cretaceous. 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Coral - unidentified Genus and species. I find bits of coral in the rivers around here, they are too worn down to be able to identify.  Reefs in the Cretaceous were coral in the deep parts but in the shallow waters instead of coral, reefs were primarily composed of rudist clams.

Fossil Quest  - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!  Brachiopods . These little things are found all over the world in all shapes and sizes. They were one of the very first fossils I learned to Identify, some 40 years ago! I first hunted these in the creek behind my house in Austin TX with a friend when we were 7 or 8. He invited me to go to a meeting of the Paleontology Society of Austin. I have recently joined the PSoA after that initial introduction 40 years ago. :) 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!  Oyster Ilymatogyra - also known as “Rams Horns”. These are one of my favorites to find and they are very abundant where I live! I love the variety of color and texture on these fossils! 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! These are rather large versions of Foramnifera Orbitolina-  single cell marine animals,  Sometimes they are no larger than a pin head! 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds! Gastropod Turitellas. Love these spiral shells! They come in all shapes and sizes. There are many many different species of Turitellas all around Texas! 

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!   Various bivalves often called Deer Hearts.

Fossil Quest - Central Texas Cretaceous Fossil Finds!  Clam Artica. In Texas we call them Deer Hearts or Texas Hearts!