I took off yesterday morning and drove to a Grayson County creek, one of my previous hunted and favorite spots. It was my first fossil hunting trip since early in the year. I haven’t made any fossil posts here since October of last year, and had made only a couple of trips where I didn’t find much since then. The multiple meniscus tears in my left knee finally became too much to allow for hiking creeks, so I stopped hunting. I finally had meniscus repair knee surgery May 2nd, but have not been able to kneel on that knee again until very recently. The past few weeks, I have felt like that, with a bit of extra padding, I could use my knee pads again, but with daily temperatures from 105 to 110 degrees, I have just not been willing to fossil hunt. Finally, yesterday was cooler, so off I went.

Here are some in situ photos. That first photo has two teeth.

That last photo shows the biggest Ptychodus tooth I’ve ever found, sitting up pretty as a picture, on the gravel. I’ve always hiked a fair distance from creek access points, figuring my chances of success were better further away from popular easy to access spots. But in more recent trips to creeks in Grayson County, even my more remote spots show plenty of evidence of other fossil hunters. Yesterday was no exception, with digging evidence everywhere on the gravel bars, even the ones furthest away from access points. But that big Ptychodus tooth serves as a reminder that, even with very picked over conditions, you still have a chance of finding something you’ll really like. Here is what I brought home: 4 Ptychodus teeth, 1 gastropod, and 49 other teeth.

Here are two views of that biggest Ptychodus tooth.

Here are individual photos of some other teeth from the day.