Benbrook Lake Fossil Site - Benbrook, TX, US
N 32° 39.612 W 097° 27.787
14S E 644124 N 3614660
Located at Benbrook Lake Spillway
Waymark Code: WMTQC4
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/29/2016
Views: 4
Benbrook Lake is a noted fossil-hunting location. Much of the rock that underlies Tarrant County consists primarily of seventy to eighty-five million year old sedimentary rock strata from the Late Cretaceous Period. These Goodland Formation limestones are roughly contemporary with the last dinosaurs on land, during the Mesozoic Era
Accessible in the Benbrook Spillway cut and many other exposed areas, these rocks are the remains of a shallow ocean that covered this part of the continent and receded over the last seventy million years to the present Gulf Coast shoreline in South Texas. It represents a shallow marine habitat, under about thirty feet of depth, which was populated by oyster reefs, corals, clams, sea urchins, and ammonites. It is very similar to what you might find off the Texas coast today at similar depth, except for the ammonites. Ammonites are an extinct group of shelled mollusks, related to the nautilus, squid and octopus. Most of the fossils you find have living descendants today, some in almost exactly the same form, like oyster shells.
What kinds of fossils are found here:
Ammonites
Admission Fee: no
Link for more information about this site: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:At least one good photo you have personally obtained and a brief story of your visit. Any additions or corrections to the information about the Waymark (for instance, have the hours open to the public changed) will be greatly appreciated.