Fossil Hunt #1 (Watch Out For Snakes!)

[For RJH, JTH, RWH, HF and GF, young adventurers]

On Saturday I went to a garage sale.

I bought two bowls and a big soup pot at the sale.

Can you keep a secret? One of those bowls is for my sister!

After I put them in the car I saw slithery movement in the grass.

Something was moving near a shell fossil.*

This is a pretty nice fossil. It is some kind of a clam or oyster left over from when Texas was under a shallow sea (REALLY! It's pre-historic!)

What was moving?

It was a SNAKE!

Do you see the snake in this photo?

It was a LITTLE snake. But I did not know this snake and even a little snake can be dangerous.

I followed the snake to take photos.

I took MANY photos. 

The snake tried to act BIG to scare me away.

See the snake slithering along the ground?

It stopped and decided to see if it could make me stop following.

It puffed up to look bigger and acted like it might want to "strike" or BITE me! 

I think the snake was afraid. So I stopped following the snake and picked up the fossils. 

After I paid for them (it was a sale so I thought I should show them I found the fossils in the yard), I went home to write about my adventure for my nephews and niece. They love adventure.

I also looked in my snake book to identify and learn about the snake. I found out the snake is a special snake - a Dekay's Brownsnake. **

I hope all adventurers are careful when they look for fossils and I hope they do not frighten any snakes!

NOTES:

* Sometimes a fossil - a trace of something that lived LONG AGO - must be dug out of the ground. 

Sometimes a fossil is on the surface of the ground.

** Dekay's Brownsnakes can be found from Canada to South America (I do not think this snake traveled that far. I think this is a central Texas snake).

Dekay's Brownsnakes are only 12 to 20 inches long.

They are UNUSUAL snakes because while most snakes lay eggs, these snakes do not lay eggs. They give birth to LIVE baby snakes.

They can have from 3 to 30 babies at a time. That is a big family.

These snakes eat slugs, snails, and earthworms.