Fossil Reefs around Austin

This past weekend I took my graduate level reefs class out to the field to check out some fossil reefs.
We took 2 days and saw Cretaceous coral patch reefs/biostromes, Cretaceous rudist reefs, and some Cambrian algal mounds. We covered a lot of territory but saw some great stuff!

Some lovely Cretaceous corals! A nice thick branching type

This one is weathered beautifully

There were lots of big massive/domal colonies.

Just like modern Porites!

Hard to see the outcrop, but there are still some nice corals here!

Good geology is a stroll through the wildflowers...

Some awesome borings in the Cow Creek Formation.

After the Cretaceous corals, we went to check out some Cambrian algal mounds from the Wilburns Formation.

They look even better in the cliff faces!

On Day 2, we checked out some Cretaceous rudist mounds.

What a fabulous exposure!

An awesome cross section of a Caprinid rudist.

Down into the core of the reef!

A very complicated sedimentary structure.

We tried to take a group photo, but the camera slipped....

This one was better, although I still had to dive a boulder to make it into the shot.

An awesome site!

The Prickly Pears had just started blooming

And last of all, the guard peacocks!