While we were at my grandfather’s ranch in Texas we went to “the moon,” a spot on the ranch where there are lots of fossils. 265 million years ago, a large portion of Texas was under the sea. We found lots of ancient shells: gastropods, bivalves, echinoids, and porocystis. They were easily found on the surface, we didn’t even have to dig. We also saw beautiful orange, yellow and white lichens on the rocks. There was also a tiny cactus that had fruit the size of half a jelly bean and barely was off the ground at all. While we were there it was around 50 degrees, gray and cloudy.

(From Smithsonian.com, “when Texas was at the bottom of the sea.”)

I learned that at one point, Texas was partly under the sea. I also got to find and hold things that are millions of years old, which, in my opinion, is amazing. We call it “the moon” because it kind of looks like the moon because of the dusty and rocky hills. There were also some boulders and large rocks there. What creatures roamed the Texas beach 280 million years ago? What did Texas look like 200 million years ago? Why were there large boulders and rocks?