Big Bend Area Fossils

Buckets of Big Bend Area Fossils.    11 buckets available at $150 each. These are mostly aquatic fossils.  Oyster shells, such as exogyra ponderosa, are the actual shells, not fossils, because their calcium carbonate shells were denser than any material that was available to replace it.  There are also fossil snails, clams, and other shells, and impressions of oyster shells in the sandstone.  In the Big Bend, these shell fossils are made of a mudstone that is softer than the limestone that comprises the fossils in other parts of Texas.  They can be grey, brown, or yellow.  Fossils here are found inside Septarian nodules, as well.

Buckets of Glass Mountains Fossils.   1 bucket available at $200.   These fossils are agatized, and encased in calcite and aragonite.  They are marine fossils, and interesting enough that the Smithsonian Institution came out in the 1910s and dug up lots of these to take back for study and display.  They need to be cleaned, which is accomplished in a two-part process:  you put super glue on the fossil parts that you can see, then put the piece in a very weak solution of water and Muriatic (hydrochloric) acid.  Leave the piece for a week or so, then wash off the old acid, put more superglue on the fossils, and do it again.  Keep doing this very gently until the calciferous mud holding the fossils has totally dissolved.