page_title: Paleontology in Texas
section_title: Prehistory
hierarchical_section_title: Paleontology in Texas / Prehistory
caption_attribution_description: This just might be a depiction of Edaphosaurus pogonias, to make a guess from the title. If you know more about this image, please place a good description here.
context_page_description: Paleontology in Texas refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Texas. Author Marian Murray has remarked that "Texas is as big for fossils as it is for everything else." Some of the most important fossil finds in United States history have come from Texas. Fossils can be found throughout most of the state. The fossil record of Texas spans almost the entire geologic column from Precambrian to Pleistocene. Shark teeth are probably the state's most common fossil. During the early Paleozoic era Texas was covered by a sea that would later be home to creatures like brachiopods, cephalopods, graptolites, and trilobites. Little is known about the state's Devonian and early Carboniferous life. However, evidence indicates that during the late Carboniferous the state was home to marine life, land plants and early reptiles. During the Permian, the seas largely shrank away, but nevertheless coral reefs formed in the state. The rest of Texas was a coastal plain inhabited by early relatives of mammals like Dimetrodon and Edaphosaurus.
context_section_description: During the Cambrian period, Texas was covered by a sea. Cambrian life in Texas included brachiopods, gastropods, graptolites, and trilobites. Areas of Texas distant from the shore were home to bivalves, brachiopods, sponges, and trilobites.  Contemporary graptolites were preserved in the central region of the state. Texan wildlife during the ensuing Ordovician period included brachiopods, cephalopods,  corals, gastropods, graptolites, sponges, and trilobites, although apart from the graptolites, these sorts of fossils tend to be poorly preserved. The graptolites were preserved in the Ordovician deposits of western Texas, especially some of the stratigraphic units of the Trans-Pecos region. In some places these graptolite fossils are common. The presence of these marine habitats distant from shore persisted into the Silurian. Few fossils were preserved locally during the former period. Silurian brachiopods and corals fossilized in the Van Horn and El Paso Regions.
  Devonian Texas still contained marine habitats distant from shore. However, the state's Devonian rocks are buried below the surface and inaccessible apart from core drilling. Consequently, the contemporary life is not well known. Known life of Devonian Texas includes brachiopods, bryozoans, conodonts, corals, gastropods, radiolarians and trilobites. Contemporary brachiopods were preserved in great abundance, however their fossils tend to be fragmentary. Their remains were preserved in the El Paso, Van Horn, Llano Uplift, and Marathon areas. Contemporary radiolarian fossils are also very common in the El Paso, Van Horn, and Marathon areas, and like the brachiopods, their fossils tend to be fragmentary. Fossils of the other listed taxa were preserved in the Llano Uplift area. Vertebrates included armored fishes, also preserved in the Llano Uplift. Contemporary placoderms were preserved in central Texas.
  Like the state's Devonian rocks, those of Early Carboniferous age are buried below the surface and inaccessible apart from core drilling. Consequently, the contemporary life is not well known. Texas was home to brachiopods, cephalopods, crinoids, gastropods, ostracods, trilobites during the Mississippian. Contemporary brachiopods were preserved in the Hueco Mountains of the Trans-Pecos Region and Llano Uplift. They tend to be the most common fossil in the Hueco Mountain sites. Contemporary bryozoan and gastropod fossils were preserved in the Hueco Mountains of the Trans-Pecos Region, but are less common. The other taxa's fossils were preserved in the Llano Uplift.
  During the Late Carboniferous many fossils were preserved in the north-central part of the state. Texas had a fauna including algae, brachiopods, corals, crinoids, fusulinids, gastropods, and pelecypods during the Pennsylvanian epoch. Pennsylvanian fossils are widespread in Texas. Pennsylvanian fossils of the listed taxa were preserved in both the Diablo and Hueco Mountains. The Llano Uplift region also preserves Pennsylvanian fossils. The north-central region of the uplift is the best source. Pennsylvanian taxa preserved there included  brachiopods, branching bryozoans, lacy bryozoans, horn corals, other corals, crinoids, fusulinids, gastropods, goniatites, nautiloids, and pelecypods. The contemporary vertebrate fauna included sharks, which left behind their teeth. Plant fossils were preserved in abundance in the Llano Uplift, north-central, and Trans Pecos Texas. Plant fossils from the latter two localities tended to be poorly preserved. Very early reptile fossils are also known from the deposits of the Llano Uplift.
  Permian fossils are widespread in Texas. The shallow seas occupying this region began to retreat during the Permian. Coastal lowland environments formed in their place. However, the far western edge of Texas was still covered in sea water. A notable reef system formed there in the area now occupied by the Guadalupe Mountains. A great variety of marine invertebrates lived here. Brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and mollusks were preserved in what are now the Glass Mountains.  Local vertebrate 
caption: Edaphosaurus.
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