Thursday, December 29, 2016

Fossil Park

Playing on Google, I found the Mineral Wells Fossil Park.  Since Jesse has this week off, we decided to take a day trip out to search for fossils.  After driving a bit, stopping at In N Out for lunch, and then driving some more, we came to some unmarked gravel roads.  Luckily, I had written down directions that made note of where lakes and ponds were, and we eventually made it to a place that didn't have phone service but did have a very large pit in the ground.

 Immediately got to work collecting.  Rain erosion has made it so that most of the fossils are sitting at the surface.  Because of this, shovels aren't allowed.

 I was very glad we went in the winter - less things to bite you and less heat-stroke to suffer. 

Morley pointed out that this site is from before the time of the dinosaurs (he used the technical terms).  He still wore his new Jurassic Park shirt. 

 Eyvind mainly collected rocks and dirt clods.

 The path into the pit.



 We mainly stayed in this area.

 I borrowed Jesse's jacket.  It was cold and windy, but my coat didn't work so well for fossil hunting.

 There is an army base nearby.  I imagine this had something to do with that.

 See that little ridged thing towards the left center?  Fossil.  The fan-like shell at the center?  Fossil.  And those are just the most obvious ones; this picture actually has tons of fossils in it.

 He ended up with a lot more in his bag by the time we left.

This was probably the most exciting moment for Morley because Jesse found a portion of a trilobite fossil.
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8 comments:

  1. NonniDecember 30, 2016 at 11:12 AM

    Kind of a desolate area. What is the reason for the great amount of fossils at that place? I will be looking forward to seeing what you collected! :)

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  2. CaseyDecember 30, 2016 at 12:41 PM

    This area was a seabed during the Pennsylvania period. If you dig down, you're going to hit fossils. It's actually that way over a large portion of Texas. I think most locals would rather find oil than fossils, so they aren't terribly impressed by it. We're looking into going to another site which has larger, more recent fossils, but we'll have to get some gear before we go out - it's in a creek bed and we'll need wellies.

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  3. CaseyDecember 30, 2016 at 12:43 PM

    Edit: Pennsylvanian Period.

    Also, don't ask Morley about going to the next site; we're waiting to tell him about it until we're ready to go, otherwise he'd stop sleeping and never give me a moment's peace.

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    Replies
    1. NonniDecember 30, 2016 at 5:27 PM

      I am a bad Nonni...I am LOL!!!!

      Delete
    2. NonniDecember 30, 2016 at 5:28 PM

      The next trip sounds fun...where is it located? The same vicinity?

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    3. CaseyDecember 30, 2016 at 6:35 PM

      It's a little closer, slightly under 3 hours, and it's north of Dallas. It is actually pretty close to the OK border. It's outside a town called Sherman.

      Delete
    4. NonniDecember 30, 2016 at 6:58 PM

      Pretty cool. I have visions of interesting jewelry out of some of these. They really don't care if you take them...baffling. You can't take sea glass off the beach over at Sea Glass Beach by Eureka. It's ILLEGAL. :(

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    5. CaseyDecember 30, 2016 at 7:57 PM

      Yeah, when people started loading up luggage with sea glass, they ruined it for the people who only took a few pieces. Apparently, these fossils aren't considered of much importance because they are so plentiful. Although they do have rules about collecting at the sites.

      Delete

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