Monthly Archives: May 2020

NSR – May 20th

Posted on by

I made a hike down the North Sulfur River bottom today, and as usual, there were fun things to be found. There are shell fragments everywhere in the shale at NSR, but most of them aren’t from ammonites like this one. Click the photos to be able to zoom in and get a closer look.

This ammonite imprint in the shale actually had two pieces nearby which fit together nicely.

I found this almost complete ammonite in a creek wall, but it sure is trying to fall apart.

And a beautiful fish tooth, even if it’s broken. It’s from an Enchodus.

The most common fossils at this part of NSR are baculites and barbed wire. They’re both everywhere. I left all the barbed wire, but kept these two baculites.

I keep telling myself I’m not going to make that long hike down the river bottom with another heavy Egogyra Ponderosa oyster in my backpack, but then I find a beauty like this.

April rides

Posted on by

I managed 12 rides in April, for 459 miles. That’s about what I should be riding in April. For a change, I got in some outside riding. 10 of those 12 rides were on the F-5, on the road. I had to modify my routes, with the closing of Purtis Creek State Park, which is where I usually turn around on my shorter routes, and stop in on my longer routes. It has likely reopened now, but not wanting the human interaction at the gate, I’ve continued to ride my closed park routes.

I ride past the state park, then on to FM1861. I usually turn around at mile 15, and on 40 mile rides, I’ll turn onto FM316, and ride some miles out it before turning around. On my longer routes, I still ride out FM1861 to State Highway 19, then back. I just don’t stop at the state park like I usually did before.

My last ride of the month on the 27th.

NSR – May 1st

Posted on by

I walked the North Sulfur River yesterday. I was surprised at how low the water is. There had been a 3 1/2 foot rise at the gauge downstream just a couple of days earlier, but it’s obvious there has been no rain at the FM2990 bridge. There is not much water flow at all. No fresh water made me wonder how picked over it would be, but there always seems to be interesting things to be seen at NSR, so down into the river bed I went.

I found these two ammonite fragments lying, half buried in sand, exactly in the position in this photo. If they are halves of the same ammonite, there is some material missing between them. These are the largest ammonite fragments I’ve found at NSR. Click the photos to be able to zoom in and get a closer look.

More ammonite pieces.

A lamniform shark vert.

And the bones. Most are mosasaur bones, but the thought in The Fossil Forum was that the bone in the lower right and in the bottom photo is part of a fish skull, a Xiphactinus, to be exact.