I found this little dude on the surface of the ground outside of work the other day.
A geologist friend and coworker of mine said it of the genus of Gryphaea, a species of ancient mollusks that lived over 65 million years ago. Parts of Texas were once covered by shallow warm-water seas. Fossilized remains of ancient oysters and other sea creatures can be found all over Austin and the surrounding areas.
Not a metal detecting find, but cool stuff nonetheless! I can remember finding tons of these as a kid, but who knows where I put them!
More metal detecting finds coming soon. I have a lot of stuff to post, just not a lot of time for video editing lately. Stay tuned!
Don't Stop Digging!
Krakken
Thats awesome, I'm pretty sure I found quite a few of those too in the creek bed behind my house as a kid. Nice knowing what they are, thanks man.
ReplyDeleteCool find. We have a lot of that around here in the Kansas limestone. Kinda makes me want to take my boys fossil hunting!
ReplyDeleteI am new to metal detecting and am just web-surfing info and happened upon your site; funny thing is that in my back yard I have found about fifty or more of these little critters while doing yard work. I had a feeling they were something that was fossilized and hadn't a clue as how to ever find out what they are. I tried looking on a few websites about dinosaur fossils and gave up. My thinking was that they were a claw of some small creature. I darn near fell out of my chair when this picture stared me in the face on the computer screen! I live about forty miles north of Austin. Some of these I found are in quite good condition showing ridges on the back with a well defined point at the small end. I am truly amazed as is my wife; she had thought I finally lost my mind! Thanks for posting the photo
ReplyDeleteGlad I could help! If you ever find yourself coming to Austin, contact me and we'll go detecting!
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