Fossil Hunt

A few weeks ago (November 19), I had gone on a short hike near FR 80 and thought I had found some fossils. I speculated that they were cross sections of sticks, but that didn't seem right. Then I remembered that I know somebody in the Dallas area that takes his classes out on fossil hunts. I sent an email today hoping that he could identify what I had pictures of. Anyway, I went out there again today planning to get a better look at the "fossils". I also had some ideas of what I wanted to look for to help determine whether they were fossils or just funky rocks. Unfortunately I didn't leave the house early enough and the sun was very low by the time I got to the fossils. I couldn't find the ones I had photographed before and the ones I found today didn't look as good. Click below to open a new window with the pictures.

Fossil Hunt

The first picture shows something with a spiral shape. I can't imagine how a rock could get a spiral shape, so maybe it is a fossil.

I did a little web searching and decided that some of the fossils I had found before might be cross sections of crinoid stems. The next picture shows a couple of what might be crinoid heads, the part that catches food floating by in the water. Come on, it doesn't take a LOT of imagination to see that.

At first glance, the next picture looks like it might be cross sections of crinoid stems. But then you see that a couple of them seem to overlap; not something you would expect to see crinoid stems do. Then you notice some round nodules. There are a lot of those out there. Some are broken in half. They have the same radial pattern as seen in this picture. Just rocks. I'd like to know how the nodules form, though.

The next picture is a trapdoor spider hole. He wasn't home. I'm surprised he left the door open. Maybe something happened to him.

Next is a lousy picture of the canyon next to the fossils. I included it to show how deep the canyon is, though I don't think this picture really does that. Down at the bottom of the picture you will see some light patches. The next picture is zoomed in all the way (12x) on those light patches. You can see that there are some mines down there and the light patches are the rock that was dug out of them. I'd like to go check out the mines but I'm not sure how to get there. The canyon walls are pretty much straight up and down. The people that dug them got there, though. I'll find a way. In the zoomed in picture, you will notice that there are trees with colored leaves. Maybe cottonwoods. Whatever they are, they require more water than one typically finds where they are located. I wouldn't be surprised to see them on the canyon floor, but not up the side like that. I wonder if the water they get is a result of the mines, since they seem to be in the tailings.

The remaining pictures are just pretty stuff. Well, it looked pretty while I was there. I hope the pictures look nice, too. Having a camera with 12x zoom makes it easier to get good sunset pictures. Only a very small patch of the sky had the pretty red colors. Zoom in enough, though, and the whole picture is colorful.