I drove down to the North Sulfur River Friday morning. It was my first trip to the new temporary fossil park. This part of the river was my favorite even before the new park. But it looked very different in 2020 than it does now. It’s a muddy mess right now. There were clean washed gravel bars everywhere in 2020, but now the gravel bars are all covered with dried mud and clay pieces. I wondered if the diggers and sifters had the better plan Friday, but I didn’t bring my sifter, so I made a long hike away from the bridge, and spent my time searching gravel bars. With so many clay pieces covering everything, it was harder to spot fossils, but I still had what I thought was a great day. I’m going back and bringing my girlfriend tomorrow morning, for her first fossil hunting trip ever. She has always been fascinated by the stuff I bring home, and will finally get the chance to try it out herself. We almost certainly won’t hike as far as I did Friday, and after a holiday weekend of fossil hunters picking over the gravel bars, it seems unlikely that we’ll find nearly as much as I did Friday, but we’ll see.

Some in situ photos from the day. Click on a photo to zoom in for a better look.

Here is what I brought home.

Because of the conditions, I spent more time than usual on elbows and kneepads, and got myself quite a collection of Hamulus worm tubes. I’m not sure anyone else bothers picking these up, but I’ve always thought they looked cool, and put them in the backpack when I find them.

This enchodus fang is the most complete one I’ve ever found.

Here are the other teeth from the day. I’d never found four teeth on the same day at NSR before, but like I mentioned, I did spend more time on kneepads than usual.

I couldn’t resist picking up this rock. It has two embedded bacculites that perfectly show the two types of bacculites most commonly found at NSR.

Here are the ammonite pieces from the day.

And I was thrilled to find this mosasaur vert.

But I stumbled across the find of the day just a few steps from that vert, this piece of mosasaur jaw. It’s partially embedded in rock, likely what kept it together in this large a piece. That last photo makes it look like there was a row of smaller teeth behind the big teeth. I haven’t seen this in any other mosasaur jaw photos.

I hadn’t been out fossil hunting lately. We’ve been getting enough rain to make me wonder how high the water level in creeks would be, plus spring fishing is so good on Cedar Creek Lake, where I live, that on days where I don’t spend a couple of hours on the bicycle, I’ve just been going fishing. But now we’ve had a couple of weeks without much rain, so I’d been wanting to make a trip back to Grayson County. I had a doctor appointment in Dallas Friday morning, so I decided I would leave from there and make the drive to Grayson County.

It was 10:30 am before I reached this day’s creek, rapidly approaching the heat of the day, so I knew this would be a short visit to the creek. It was hot and sunny Friday, and I got reminded just how much heat you feel from those gravel bars when you’re on knees and elbows. By shortly after 1:00 pm, I was cooked and ready to make the drive home. But this part of the creek is so much more grown up than when I was last there, I had a tough time getting out of the creek without getting torn up by briars and tree limbs. I ended up looking like I had been on the short end of a fight with a wildcat. I was already carrying leg chaps, but just never stopped to put them on. I’ve found some old kevlar arm chaps too. I’m going to start making myself wear both when traversing the thick stuff from now on. 71 year old skin just seems to suffer a lot more damage in these situations than young skin does.

But as always in Grayson County, I did find some fossils. Here are photos of some, just as they lay when I found them. Each of those last two photos have two teeth in them. It’s not often that I find two teeth that close together. Click the images to be able to zoom in for a closer look.

Here is what I brought home on Friday. One of those teeth is so small, I don’t know how my old eyes spotted it. It makes you wonder just how many micro teeth there are in these creeks.

One of the things I really like about the creeks in this area is that there’s always the possibility of finding a very large tooth (very large for Texas, that is), and Friday, I found this beauty. If I ever stop getting excited about finding a tooth this size, I’ll know it’s time to find a new hobby.

The day produced only two Ptychodus teeth. Here they are.

And as usually happens on these trips, I got reminded of my beginner status by a piece I couldn’t identify. The first side of this piece just looks like a round black rock, but the flat second side has quite a distinctive pattern on it. The Fossil Forum identified this as a Pycnodus fish jaw plate. It’s always fun and exciting to find something new and different.


Here is a piece of a sawfish rostral tooth. I’ve never found a complete one.

Some other teeth from the day.