AUSTIN, Texas — With his eyes glued to the shoreline of the creek, Jared Cooke is carefully examining every object on the ground to determine whether he’s looking at a rock or if he's found something more. 

“When you do find them, when you’ve been sweating so much and trying so hard to find one, it’s a different feeling, because if it’s a shark tooth, you’re holding something that comes from like this predator that lived 90 million years ago that we’ll never see again,” Cooke said. 

Cooke studies biology at Austin Community College. The 20-year-old picked up fossil hunting as a hobby in the colder winter months as an alternative to snake photography, which he can only do in the warmer months. 

“Austin is on the lower end of some of this Cretaceous strata that yields fossils, so it is a lot harder to find them but there are some charismatic fossils,” Cooke said. 

Cooke has taken a particular liking to hunting at a portion of Walnut Creek in Austin. 

“These are Exogyra oysters,” Cooke said, picking up the fossil along the creek. “Locals call them devil’s toenails and they’re usually smaller, but these are pretty big. They’re from the Cretaceous, so anything found along this creek should be from the Western Anterior Seaway, making it 90 million years old usually.” 

Not every excursion turns up with results, but Cooke has made some exciting discoveries at Walnut Creek. Cooke has to maneuver through vegetation and walk ankle deep in water to get to an area where he says he’s made some of his best discoveries. That includes a piece of enamel from a Columbian mammoth.

“They were bigger than woolly mammoths. It took some old timers on a fossil forum to help me identify it,” Cooke said. 

Cooke has also found the tooth of a Ptychodus mortoni shark which grew up to 30 feet long. He’s also found a Scapanorhynchus texanus tooth. The species resembled a modern-day goblin shark. His most impressive find is the tooth of a mosasaur. 

“Mosasaurs were a family of large predatory sea reptiles. Like the thing in 'Jurassic World' that jumps out the pool and eats the shark,” Cooke said. 

Cooke is still trying to figure out which path to take in terms of a career, but plans to donate any important finds to local museums. 

“If I find a scientifically important find or even an impressive find, I can go to a museum and inspire some kids to have a similar interest,” Cooke said.