Expert: Ralph Salier - 4/11/2006

Question
Hello,

I am merely an amatuer at archaeology but I have two girls, 6 and 4 and we love to go walking.  We live in Allen, TX which is just north of Dallas.  When we go walking we walk along spring creek which runs over a sandstone bottom.  I am always looking in the creek bed and the washed out places running into the creek.  My question is, where do you look for fossils and dinosaur bones?  I understand that there are different levels of dirt that represent different times in the past.  I want to know where to look.  I don't want to waste my time and my kids attention on searching in the wrong place.  So, if you could possilby explain or provide some online literature that could be helpful for the Dallas area we would really love it.  

I am just waiting for that day to find a good fossil so my kids will love to dig through the dirt as much as I do.  Thank you for your time and sorry it was so long.

James McIntyre

Answer
Mr. McIntyre,  It is a great way to encourage interest in science in girls.  My own daughter is getting her Masters in Secondary Science Education from Duke University and her first experiances was looking for fossils with me.  

I would recommend that you go the the Science Museum in Dallas and in their book store you should beable to find a copy of "Roadside Geology of Texas" by Spearing.  This is a great little paper back and I have found it very useful.  There are several similar books on the subject.  Some times Barnes and Noble book stores have a section on Texas and you can find it there too.  

The areas around Dallas and up towards Denton are all sitting on an Upper Crataceous shelf made of lime stones.  If you are walking on sand stone, I'm not sure where this would be.  

The best thing to do is get a copy of the book, Identify where you are and then start looking for the right strata which may bear fossils.  The other option is to look in the road cuts.  Just make sure that you are very careful as these sites can be unstable.