Brazos River, Texas - Claws, Teeth, Bones

[texasriverdigger2.0]

I'm reposting this in here for education and posterity reasons.

Brazos River, Texas

This "bird thing" came out of a working sand pit on the Brazos River 20 yrs ago when a drag line crossed a clay fossil vein. I dug around for a few days and found a few other small black companion bones to this "bird thing", that I can't currently find, in the same layer of Brazos orange clay. It's not a iron nodule. It feels like some type of asphaltum. It has a hard rubber texture and is very light.

I think bird thing floated down here from someplace else just waiting for me to find it and one day post it on Treasure net.

The pit flooded a few months later and is owned by another family today.

I've searched for other bird fossils and profile examples and I've only found a few.

A few more details....

No, it is not pliable at all. It's so light, its kind of brittle. The very tip of the beak broke off years ago after it fully dried. I glued it back on to keep from losing it. And misplaced the companion bones, when I stored it away properly. The other 3 small bones are here someplace.

Yes, it will semi burn with a trace of black smoke and it smells like road tar. (Think bird covered in a oil spill)

It don't float now. It dont totally sink. It holds a bob on the bottom of the sink. That's how it could have floated or tumbled to the Texas coast, me thinks... I think, it floated or tumbled here from someplace else a very long time ago and come to rest in a fossilized clay vein in a sand pit 30 ft deep.

But I'm just a amateur.

And for the record. I went by the Post Office and had bird thing weighed. The lady checked the weight on both scales. It weighs 2.5 oz.

A slice of bread weighs about 1 ounce.

I'm also determined to find out just what type of material it is. Until then....

I also want thank all of you for looking or your time and input, and I will continue to share my fines for education and posterity reasons.

Thanks again from the Brazos river Texas....

















.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Family Maps of Hinds County, Mississippi, Deluxe Edition - Grab it through Amazon!

[texasriverdigger2.0]

Brazos River, Texas - fossils, artifacts, geofacts

When I was 16yr old, I found a porcelain fossil (stag horn base) on the Brazos river. I was told by the old timer that owned the land, it might possibly have been used as a flint knapping tool because he had found arrowheads in the same place. It was the coolest thing. And that find, started a boy on a life long hunt for treasure.

The stag base has faint cut marks where the tines was removed. It has wear marks on the sides of the small tine stub. It fits a man's hand just fine.

As the years passed, I eventually started finding other fossilized bones frags, bone and stone tools, arrowheads, burnt rock, burnt bone and possible clay pottery fragments around what I believe to be a old 10-20 acre hearth site, on a 150 acres of high ground on the Brazos river.

The bone and wood tools are possibly a knapping tool, pendant, sabre tooth bone awl. The razor thin awl was sharpened on both sides, a large broken wooden handle with pine pitch or asphaltum stains, a bone shaft tool, it also fits a man's hands just fine, and a broken antler or wood spoon.....

If you look at the bison bone? closely, you can see what looks to be cuts, hack marks, scratches or teeth marks on the bone.

I also found little geofacts...ie... A gray geode baby's rattle? A small hand ground pink jasper snake head effigy? (I also found more rough gold and pink jasper rock and possibly more ground jasper effigies or tools) And a few other odd bone and stone things, I'm not sure about.

The old timers have all died that allowed me to treasure hunt for a couple decades. Today, the family dont want me digging anymore. I hadn't been back to that site in 10yrs. So I continue to work the Brazos river banks for treasure.

Yes, I admit it, I'm a bone hoarder.....

I still have stones and bones from that site to go thru. I'm trying to catch up and catalog it all. Before my wife, for 34 blissful years, dumps it all back in the river..... cheeeese

.































.

 

[Perico]

Yes that looks like butcher marks. Very interesting. Thanks!

 

[Kentuck]

Those are some very nice finds. I am surprised that you haven't found a mammoth tooth yet. We used to work where the Navasota River empties into the Brazos and would find arrowheads and pieces of pottery from the Indians. If you go to a gravel pit and look through their bull rock pile you can find all kinds of fossils also. The gulf coast is full of fossils that were washed here over the millennia. I go out metal detecting in remote areas and I bring home arrowheads and fossilized bones among other interesting looking rocks such as petrified wood.

 

[texasriverdigger2.0]

Thanks Perico and Kentuck..... I'm headed fort the beach. We had a very rough surf and high tide over the weekend. No telling what was exposed.... Have a good day everyone.

 

[Brookie13]

I'm new to this forum and relatively new to Texas. I've been a rockhounder since about 10 years ago. Recently I have been looking for fossils around the Brazos River. I am excited that I found this forum because I have found a couple of bone fragments that are mineralized in and around the Brazos River. Maybe someone on here can help me with the ID. The previous posts are very interesting and exciting. I can't wait to get back out there and keep looking!

 

[Brazos]

Lots of cool stuff in and around water.