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.
At the beginning of the day, we eagerly head out into the gullies, not knowing what we may find.
Shark teeth found by Claire, Scapanorhynchus texanus and Cretoxyrhina mantelli.
Claire has found a Clidases mosasaur jaw, including several teeth, literally laying on the surface of the gully, in eyesight of where we parked our cars.
Almost as soon as Claire entered the gully, she spotted this Saurodon fish jaw with teeth. Her luck proceeded to get better and better throughout the day.
Badly worn shark teeth and a carina (medial plate) from a lepadomorph barnacle (the pointy item second from the bottom.)
Fossil shipworms (Teredo).
Protosphyraena fish bone found by Claire.
Leisa has found a tiny pearl and broken shark vertebra. A few pearls like this have been found in the south, but they are very rare.
The vastness of the gully makes one feel quite small. The gullies were extensive. We searched as much as we could, and felt as if we had barely started.
A nice string of connected fish vertebra, possibly ichthyodectid, also found by Claire (who'd you expect??)
James Lamb recording the finds of the day, including their locations, in his ever-present log book. This day, and our finds, will be preserved for posterity.
Shark coprolite and a tiny echinoid plate, very rare for this area.
Fossil fish jaw (Saurodon) found by James Lamb as he was blazing a trail to a new collecting location.
We hiked all the way across this large gully fairly quickly. On the way back, several nice finds were made. Each one takes quite a bit of time to excavate properly, and James Lamb jokingly told us to quit looking down!
Goblin shark tooth and fragment of bone
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.
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