A small group of dedicated fossil hounds arrived in Dallas County to assist James Lamb in searching for ancient bones and teeth of extinct animals in the Late Cretaceous chalk gullies. Suffering miserably in the heat of the day where temperatures were recorded at 109 degrees, our spirits were frequently lifted by the amazing fossils that were being found. We had the opportunity to search in gullies where no one had searched recently. The years of rain and weathering provided a treasure trove of a large variety of fossils, and no one had such a good day as did Claire. After arriving a little late, the first thing after arriving in the gully, she practically tripped over pieces of a fossil fish, including jaw and teeth, that others of us in a bigger hurry had stepped right over. She had her eyes set to find bone, and continued to find very nice specimens throughout the day. Most of the specimens found now reside at the McWane Science Center, where they will be available to researchers around the world.
[This is considered our "July field trip", since it took place between the July and August business meetings.]
Photos courtesy Jan Novak, Claire Smith, Don Hill, and Vicki Lais.
Entrance to a large gully. As we were working our way around the bushes and ledges, we heard Claire start screaming, and apparently jumping up and down. As several of us rushed over to see if she had spotted a snake, we realized it was something much better than that.
Larry found a handful of very detailed fossil shark coprolite.
This is the first of several gullies we surveyed. Note the numerous dark rocks in the foreground. These are rounded pieces of marcasite/ fools gold. They littered the ground throughout this gully.
Making plans on where to go next.
More shark coprolite and piece of a jaw.
A better view of the Clidastes mosasaur jaw found by Claire.
Very well preserved Squalicorax kaupi shark tooth (Crow shark).
The gangs all here. Weather reports predicting highs of 95+ degrees influenced some people's attendance. I can't imagine why.
Into a new gully - and James Lamb almost immediately holds up a nice find, but what is it?
Claire found this shark vertebra.
James Lamb has found a very nice sized Cretoxyrhina mantelli shark tooth (Ginsu shark).
James Lamb collecting fish bones from a side gully
Part of the Clidastes mosasaur jaw found by Claire.
This appears to be a very large ammonite (3-4 feet in diameter) in the side of a gully wall. Quicksand (wet chalk) 10 feet below and the ledge is 10 feet above, so this will prove to be a challenge to excavate.
Becky found this tiny fish vertebra when she sat down to rest.
He's found a shark tooth!
Tiny articulated exogyra.
Another shark vertebra found by Claire. NO, we weren't LETTING her find them, she was tuned in to all kinds of fossils on this trip! She was even finding fossils where several of us had scoured the area and found nothing.
Nice specimens of gypsum were found in one area.
Very detailed shark coprolite specimens were found by several people.
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