Texas Trip 10-28-2012
Day 4 consisted of several Cretaceous Duck Creek Formation sites around Ft Worth where we searched for (and found) large Macraster echinoids, and a few ammonites, then on to a couple more Cretaceous Goodland Formation sites including one with the coveted Salenia mexicana echinoids. The end of the day saw a few folks heading over to a different Pawpaw site, where the fossil gods were kind to Ramona and she scarfed up a partial jellyfish impression. Day 5 saw us heading north to Sherman, Texas to meet up with Ed Swiatovy, who would show us around Lake Texoma (Cretaceous Pawpaw, Duck Creek and Mainstreet Formations)and the Post Oak Creek area (Eagle Ford? Formation). We started at Russwood on Lake Texoma. This stretch of the shoreline is famous for its jellyfish impressions though due to the lack of rain and heavy collecting, none were found this day. There were lots of other neat fossils collected though, including several associated cidarid plates and lots of spines. After lunch munched at our cars we drove south to Post Oak Creek renowned for its large Cretaceous shark teeth. Again, the lack of rain and heavy collecting worked against us, though George managed a couple nice Ptychodus teeth, and everyone found at least a tooth or two. Ed and his wife Cathy joined us for dinner at an all you can eat Chinese buffet, where Ed passed out beautiful Ptychodus teeth for all! Full bellies and great fossils ended another wonderful day. Day 6 the final day, found us back at Lake Texoma at a site that yielded scores of Macraster and Holaster echinoids, much to the delight of all. A second site, well known for its large ammonites showed obvious evidence of heavy collecting, though Walt and George both managed to find and extract good sized specimens. The rest of us were happy with the large chunks of whorls with delicate suture markings laying all around. A few of us drove across the dam (and across the border) into Oklahoma for the traditional catfish dinner at Windys. A wonderful ending to a wonderful trip.