#fossilquest

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 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. :)