Fossil Mountain

Today I went to a trip to fossil mountain, it is not really a mountain but a big hill where fossils abound. There you can also find calcite. This place is located at Lat 31º 49.240´N and Long 106º 05.384´W. The fossils found at this location have an estimated age of about 225 million to 275 million years and are from the Permian age. I was able to find Horn Corals (Cone-shaped) with longitudinal partitions (they were abundant), see below:

I could also find some Brachiopods:

Note the crystals growing on one of the Brachiopods

I though the following was a nice find, it is a Rugose Coral embedded in a pretty big rock,  and it is surrounded by many tiny fossilized particles.

Before leaving fossil mountain, we searched for some calcite which was easy to find. Calcite easily gives up to shear force, and hitting it with my hammer I could get shiny surfaces.

Then we moved to a different location at Lat 31º 49.733´N and Long 106º 59.537´W. Here we could find Horn Coral Stems. I could find a small sample of not too good quality, I expect to go again and find a better piece.

After this stop, the group traveled to a place just on the side of the road at Lat 31º 49.844´N and Long 106º 59.456´W. Here I was able to find small Auger Shells clustered together as follows:

And a slate containing on one side Crinoid stems, Fusilinids, and many embedded small fossils; Brachiopods are on the other side of it.

After this, we went to a the Franklin Mountains and stopped at scenic drive point, then we walked up the mountain to see some fossil formations on the Montoya Limestone. This place is very interesting. Here we could see Coiled Nautoloids, Chain Corals, Cephalopods and Sponges. These fossils date from about 500 million to 405 million years, from the Ordovician, Silurian age.

I will update with more information soon. This trip was very interesting and informative and although the sun was a bit annoying, it was worth it.

Dinosaur Footprints

Today I went to Cristo Rey Mountain located in El Paso, Texas, along with some other geology enthusiasts and students from the University of Texas at El Paso. Our guide name was Erick and he is the one who in 2002 discovered the dinosaur tracks that I will show you here. The trip was a leisurely walk on the North side of Cristo Rey to look at marine fossils, cool layers of sedimentary rocks, and dinosaur footprints. This dinosaur track-site is from the middle-Cretaceous period, and is the southernmost extension of the “Dinosaur Freeway.”

According to Erick, the area this area was the beach during the cretaceous period. Layers of sedimentary rock formed during millions of years were pushed up by a blob of magma forming a dome that eroded with the pass of time, exposing deeper layers of sedimentary layers that now can be seen on the surface.

The first picture shows a Theropod footprint on a vertical wall. At one point in time this was the land where dinosaurs walked and it was horizontal but when the sedimentary layer was pushed up by the magma it stayed vertical. See the following pictures and see the footprints. The picture below depicts some dinosaurs and their footprints.

 Interesting stuff for kids too

 The following pictures show a footprint of an Iguanodon

And what appears to be a worms view of a Hadrosaur:

We wondered what this could be:

I was impressed by how easily it was to find fossils in this area, one could also find pieces of calcite easily.

A small shell fossil

The following site contained many dinosaur footprints, it was amazing to see; however, it appears that the top portion of the area is being eroded too fast, and I could see the main reason why as you probably can by looking at the following pictures. It is great that kids learn about geology and that they get exposed to sites like this one, but I could see that many of them were sliding through the footprints and causing erosion on the surface of the rocks. These rock are not too strong and erode easily.  I believe this amazing section will disappear within a few years unless it is covered with some kind of protective layer that withstands erosion. Unfortunately, human activity is the predominant cause of erosion here. Also see a map of the footprints below.

Some of the footprints:

A great example of a normal fault can be observed in the following picture:

Overall it was a great experience and very informative. I live close to Cristo Rey Mountain and will come here more often to collect fossils.