On this first field trip of the first year of the new millennium (or the last year of the old millennium), the BPS had the pleasure of visiting a truly interesting surface mine in Walker County. The Union Chapel Mine is smaller than the Cedrum Mine we visited last month, but is located in the same general area. The field trip was attended by 11 "diehards" who were not put off by the weather, which started out rainy and cold. By the time we arrived at the site (about 9am), the rain had completely subsided and we were virtually rain-free the whole time we were there. However, the clouds persisted and the day was a little gloomy.

Fig. 1 - Group at the site conferring about finds. The trip was arranged by Ashley Allen, who heard about the site through his science class. The site proved particularly rich in tracks of amphibians and probably arthropods from the lower Pennsylvanian subdivsion of the Carboniferous Period. The tracks are trace fossils of the footprints of the creatures, and it is clear from the variety of tracks we all found that many different species of creatures are represented. According to Jim Lacefield, track fossils are found at most of the lower Pennsylvanian sites in Alabama, but often they are not as obvious or as richly abundant and diverse as they are at Union Chapel Mine. Like Cedrum and other Pennsylvanian sites the BPS has visited the past year, Union Chapel Mine is also rich in plant fossils. Jim has told me that the mix of other fossils with the usual plants reflects more the environmental differences between sites, rather than significant age differences.

Fig. 2 - One of the rock piles at the site that was rich in tracks.

The following pictures show a few of the track fossils found. These range from some fairly large tracks (a few centimeters per print) to smaller prints that look like Chinese characters, and finally to really small prints that are at most a couple of millimeters or less in size. Some tracks also included obvious tail dragging marks. These can straight or curved, and I recall that Ashley found a particularly wavy specimen. Virtually everyone who was there found one or more interesting track fossils.

Fig. 3 - Excellent amphibian tracks held by Matthew Valente.

Fig. 4 - Tracks resembling Chinese characters.

Fig. 5 - Two sets of small tracks, with likely tail dragging marks.

Fig. 6 - Inverse tracks of unknown creature.

Probably the most spectacular prints from the site were a huge set found by Jim Lacefield, the "likes of which I had never seen", according to Jim. Jim relates the following: "The handprints, which include long, curving toes with easily-distinguished pads on the tips, are nearly as big as my own. This was a huge beast. Although I had read that some amphibians reached rather large size in the Pennsylvanian, in all my collecting in Coal Age rocks I have never seen any that were anywhere nearly this large." A digital photo of Jim's specimen is shown here.

Fig. 7 - Monster tracks found by Jim Lacefield, in an image prepared for inclusion in his book.

Fig. 8 - Stunning and unusual branch cast of a species of Sigillaria, probably S. elegans according to Plant Fossils of West Virginia by Gillespie et al. 1978. Although the track fossils were superb, and were the principal things we all searched for, the plant fossils were also quite impressive and ranked as my favorites. Bark impressions of Lepidophloios, a subgenus of the Lepidodendrales, were especially abundant at this site. Jim Lacefield was seeing so much Lepidophloios that he was wondering if there was any Lepidodendron. However, both Sigillaria and Lepidodendron were well represented at the site. I show specimens of Sigillaria and a genus related to Lepidodendron here. By far the most beautiful of any specimens I have seen, at Union Chapel or any other site, were the compressed cast fossils of two branches of a Sigillaria species. The leaf scars are small hexagons with a central spot, and are so well-preserved that even fine ridge-like details are seen. I spent 45 minutes hammering on a large rock to get pieces of these branches out. On the same rock was an especially beautiful species that looks at first like a Lepidodendron, with pieces of highly compressed cast fossils lying about. According to Jim Lacefield, this might be a representative of a related genus called Diaphorodendron.

Fig. 9 - Close-up of Sigillaria specimen

Fig. 10 - Bark impression of a likely Diaphorodendron, a genus related to Lepidodendron.

Other items of interest were a snail fossil found by Kathy Twieg, a large Lepidophloios cast found by Ashley Allen, a rhizome of Calamites by Jim Lacefield, myself, and others, a small medullary cast of Calamites found by Bruce Relihan, and a gigantic lycopod stump (probably weighing more than 800 pounds) noticed by Jim Lacefield Jim also showed me a likely trace fossil of a hermit crab and also tiny insect prints. Concerning the rhizome of Calamites, Jim gave me the following comments: "Calamites, like all horsetails, propogates vegetatively through spreading by underground stems called rhizomes. New Calamites stems sprout upward from these horizontal, underground stems. It's a type of asexual reproduction that allows them to spread quickly into new territory and also anchors them firmly in the unstable ground along rivers and out onto newly deposited delta sediments. Those round structures were clusters of cells that, under the right conditions, could develop into new Calamites shoots. The rhizomes of Calamites look quite similar to the stems in most cases, but have nodes that get progressively closer together as they get out approach the apical area (the growth tip that spreads outward through the soil.
	Fig. 11 - Part of a rhizome of Calamites , showing characteristic round features that are not normally seen on calamites branch casts.

Fig. 12 - Huge stump cast fossil, probably 800 pounds in weight, probably of a lycopod.

There is no question that Union Chapel Mine has been one of the most interesting fossil sites that the BPS has had the privilege of visiting. According to Ashley, the Union Chapel Site will be reclaimed very soon. Since our original visit, various subgroups of BPS members have been back to the site, trying to salvage as many tracks and other items as possible before the site is gone.

Additional Pictures from Union Chapel Mine

The following pictures provide more examples of the types of fossils found at the Union Chapel Mine. In the two weeks after the January 23 field trip, several of us returned to the site. These are some of the items found on these return trips.

Fig. 1 - Stump cast of a Lepidophloios arborescent lycopod. Jim Lacefield and I were exploring one of the popular track rock piles at the site, and he pointed out this excellent stump cast to me. The piece weighs close to 300 lbs, but fortunately it lay on a slope that was accessible by my truck. All one could do is move the thing downhill. I rolled it down about 25 feet of slope onto a dirt embankment, and then with help moved it into my truck. It is pictured in my backyard garden area.

Fig. 2 - this is a different view of the same stump cast, showing the large indentation that seems to characterize the shape of the trunks of these trees. In the January 23 report, I show a picture of an 800 lb stump with a similar indentation.

Fig. 3 - this piece shows two criss-crossing tracks from small creatures with no tail-dragging marks.

Fig. 4 - two sets of small tracks with distinct tail-dragging marks.

Fig. 5 - complex inverse tracks of a still different creature, with only a weak tail dragging mark.

Fig. 6 - a single large inverse print of what must have been a massive creature. This could have been a type of Attenosaurus, although the print is really different from those shown in Museum paper No. 9 of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, by Aldrich and Jones, published in 1930.

Fig. 7 - excellent set of small inverse prints with a weak tail-dragging mark.

Fig. 8 - another lycopod stump, this time covered with excellent leaf scars on side facing camera. Weighs about 200 lbs

Fig. 9 - three sets of small prints, found on a "page" of a vertically standing rock that opened into many layers.

Fig. 10 - a set of tracks, nearly 2 feet long, found by Jim Lacefield. Jim believes these are fossil tracks of a horseshoe crab. The actual crabs were not in the original photo!

Fig. 11 - Jim also found this rock with excellent fossils of lycopod branches. Details are present at various levels and the branching is complex.

Every year, the BPS visits a lake in Franklin County, Alabama when the lake level is down from normal, exposing rocks from the Bangor Limestone dating back to the late Mississipian Period of geological history (about 320 million years). About 25 BPS members and guests attended the field trip, which took place on a beautiful, sunny, and pleasantly warm day.

According to Jim Lacefield, the Bangor Limestone formation is "fossiliferous from top to bottom, and collecting sites in it in both Colbert and Franklin Counties are world famous for echinoderms - particularly for crinoids and blastoids - and bryozoans such as Archimedes." Indeed, there are numerous sites in Alabama connected with this formation, and Jim says it is the best rock unit in Alabama for Mississippian fossils, and that few other units are better anywhere for the time frame in question.

We all parked our vehicles along an access road by the lake, and then walked out along the rocky, sandy shoreline. It was in these areas where we found a variety of interesting fossils: blastoids, crinoid stems and loose stem plates, Archimedes spirals, brachiopods, and horn corals. Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned while I was at the site, so I have no pictures of the lake itself or the sandy shores.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

Fig. 1 - examples of blastoids over a range of sizes. Fossils were found in two "modes": loose specimens lying in the sand, or encased specimens lying in strong limestone matrix. I show pictures of specimens in both modes here. The first picture shows a variety of blastoids from the sand, up to a penny in size. These were quite common and everyone there found at least a few if they got down on their knees and looked closely at the sand. Much larger blastoids have been found at this site. I recall two years ago how Ken Hoyle picked up a giant blastoid 1-2 inches in length. This kind of blastoid is much rarer than the pieces in the photograph. According to the Fossil Handbook by Rich et al. (1996), blastoids represent stemmed echinoderms whose top sections resemble petrified "nuts". The pieces in the picture represent the calyx of the original animal. Fine details are usually seen in the calyx, such as ridges, a five-fold symmetry, and small holes around the apex representing mouth and possibly anus.

The second photograph shows a variety of crinoid columns (or stems), some with unusual side holes that I think represent nodes where possibly small branches emerged. Typically these pieces are less than an inch in length, and some have interesting five-petaled flower or star designs on stem plates (columnals) themselves. Even single stem plates could be found in the sand. The third photograph shows loose "Archimedes" spirals or corkscrews. These represent a type of animal known as a bryozoan, or moss animal. Archimedes spirals are members of a group of bryozoa known as Cryptostomata, that includes the lacey grid-like fossils seen on other larger rocks from the same site. The two features were part of the same animal according to the Fossil Handbook. The authors of the Fossil Handbook state that the combination of a lacey support and a central column in the form of a wide-flanged corkscrew was an efficient feeding arrangement.
	Fig. 2 - examples of short sections of crinoid stalks, some with nodal holes.
	Fig. 3 - examples of Archimedes corkscrew bryozoa.

The fourth photograph shows a variety of small horn corals. According to the Fossil Handbook, these belong to the group Rugosa because their surface is marked by wrinkles. Most of the pieces I found were weathered and in poor condition.
	Fig. 4 - examples of small Rugosan horn corals.
The remaining photographs show a variety of small brachiopods, Archimedes spirals and crinoid stem plates encased in a limestone matrix. The last picture is typical of many Mississipian rocks in northwest Alabama: showing hundreds of loose crinoid stem plates. Although I was able to stay at the site for only an hour and a half, it was still possible to find many interesting specimens. Unfortunately, I missed the highlight of the trip: a visit to the home of Jim and Faye Lacefield in Tuscumbia. It was very kind of Jim and Faye to invite the BPS to their home, and I heard from those who went that it was a very nice experience.
	Fig. 5 - examples of small brachiopods.

	Fig. 6 - rock with two strong Archimedes spirals encased.
	Fig. 7 - piece covered with crinoid stem plates and bryozoa.

The BPS will continue to visit this area, probably at least once a year. The possibility of finding interesting Mississippian fossils is always present at this site, and it is a trip worth looking forward to each year.

Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

It was decided at the March meeting that the BPS should return to this mine once again as an organized field trip. As I have noted in previous reports, this is a site the BPS visited with great success just two months earlier. The site is rich in footprint fossils of Pennsylvanian amphibians and other creatures. Although the previous organized visit, on January 23, occurred on a rather bleak day, it was nothing like the one today. Rain fell hard all day across most of Alabama and never let up even for a few minutes. Because of the weather, only six people turned up for this outing.

Figure 1 Unusual tracks of one or two large creatures that must have been moving in very wet mud.

In spite of the weather, several of us still found nice tracks and other fossils. I show a few that I picked up here. One large set of tracks I found was lying at the bottom of a rock pile that had been thoroughly searched. After the tracks were cleaned of mud, it looks to me like they are amphibian tracks that were laid down in rather wet mud. The impressions are wide as the creatures' whole body probably sloshed in the mud. There are two sets of tracks on the main piece, and details of one are shown in the close-up.

Figure 2 Close-up of part of the previous specimen, showing likely toe prints flanking the broad body scrape.

Figure 3 Small tracks of one or more creatures that could be Bipedes aspodon. A much smaller set of tracks I found in a different area has small y-shaped prints in a bit of a random pattern. In Museum Paper No. 9 of the Alabama Museum of Natural History (authors Aldrich and Jones), a creature that produced similar tracks is known as Bipedes aspodon. At least two sets of tracks are also present on this piece. Bipedes aspodon is described by Aldrich and Jones as an animal with only two toes. Although Aldrich and Jones clearly considered the creature to be an amphibian, BPS members who found similar tracks felt they are more likely to be tracks of an arthropod.

Figure 4 Single print of Quadropedia prima, a modest-sized amphibian. At this layer, the track shows five clear toes as well as a pad. I found some other interesting and larger tracks on a large rock on the well-searched rock piles. I suspected tracks might be inside at a deeper level in this rock. The rock had interesting deposits or formations that covered different layers, but it was not clear what these features might be. After removing many layers of the rock, I did indeed find four footprints of a modest-sized creature which, according to Museum Paper No. 9, is an amphibian known as Quadropedia prima. Aldrich and Jones state that the creature is higher in the scale than most of the species they illustrated in their article, because it walked more like later reptiles. They point out the presence of a distinct pad, which we can see in the pictures I show here. The four prints could be detected at several different layers, and at least one of the prints was well-defined at all of the layers. The appearance of the prints seemed different at different layers, suggesting that some of the variety in the prints we have been finding at the site is due in part to the different layers that were exposed.

Figure 5 Two tracks of the same creature, the one at right being the same foot as in the previous picture, but the print looks different because it is at a different level. At this level, only three toes are seen, with a strong pad.

Other Notes on the Union Chapel Site January 23-March 19, 2000

The Union Chapel Mine was visited many times by BPS members and guests between January 23 and March 19. Ashley Allen brought to the February BPS meeting a huge rock with a set of excellent large amphibian prints. Bruce Relihan brought to the March BPS meeting a large stump cast of a likely Lepidodendron. The stump is more than a foot in diameter and tapers around the edges, as if it were near the bottom of the original trunk. Bruce related the heroic effort he put into getting the huge fossil by himself, which involved building a rock ramp to allow him to get it into his truck. Steve Minkin also brought to the last BPS meeting an excellent set of modest-sized tracks found by his wife.

All in all, the Union Chapel site elicited such great interest and finds that Steve Minkin asked Ed Hooks if the BPS could have a temporary display case at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa. Ed agreed to this and some of the new Union Chapel pieces may soon be on display for the public to see!

The New River Mine is a surface mine which was spotted by Jim Lacefield in early February this year, and shortly thereafter Jim and I scouted the site out. As expected, the site included plant fossils, but one difference compared to other sites that Jim noticed was an abundance of fossils of Artisia, the pith of the gymnospermous tree known as Cordaites. The only other sites where I have seen Artisia fossils are the Kimberly surface mine (see BPS report for May 29, 1999), and another mine near Eldridge that the BPS visited with Wayne Canis's class in March 1998.

About 20 BPS members and guests attended the formal field trip to the site which we had on this day. The weather was sunny and hot, and once we got inside we all saw that the mine covered a vast area. I show two pictures of the site here. However, Jim and I also noticed that the area where we found fossils in February had been reworked and was largely gone. In spite of the vast area, it was hard finding fossils at this site.

Figure 1 Trip attendees explore the area between two large rock piles.

Figure 2 View of a rock wall roughly on the east side of the site.

Bruce Relihan was the first to find an interesting specimen of Artisia, shown in the picture here. Artisia is characterized by horizontal ridges along the pith, which can be found in cast form as well as impressions, much like a Calamites pith. The specimen Bruce found appears to be either an impression or a highly flattened cast. The ridged area is framed by a larger area obviously affected by the plant. This frame must indicate the true extent of the trunk.

Figure 3 Artisia specimen found by Bruce Relihan.

Other types of fossils found were bark impressions of arborescent lycopods. I show pictures of two different types here. One appears to be of the type Lepidodendron obovatum, with very large leaf scars. I am not certain about the type of the other piece shown, other than it is also likely to be a Lepidodendron.
	Figure 4 Bark impression of Lepidodendron obovatum, with large, distinct leaf scars.

Figure 5 Bark impression of another likely type of Lepidodendron.

The last pieces I illustrate are ones I found in February during my scouting visit with Jim Lacefield. One appears to be a mostly unflattened cast of a branch of Calamites. The piece shows 15 strong, indented nodes, and I must say it resembles a petrified tootsie roll! I am not sure of the species of this Calamites, but I did find a type of Calamites at this site that I was able to identify. I found highly compressed cast pieces of what I think is Calamites suckowi, one of the more common species of this genus.

Figure 6 Cast fossil of a branch of Calamites, with 15 clear nodes.

After a couple of hours of searching with limited results, trip attendees decided to return to Union Chapel Mine, about 30 miles east of the New River site. Union Chapel Mine is so rich that it continues to yield good specimens even though many people have visited the site the past 4 months. It is a good site to fall back on when other sites do not live up to expectations. See the reports for January 23, March 19, and May 28, 2000 for information on this mine.

This report (installed on Sept. 27) is late because of the month-long trip to South Africa that I took from mid-July to mid-August. As a result, I can only roughly describe what the BPS did this day. There were three sites in Sumter County that were visited, all well-known and previously visited by the BPS.

There are numerous Late Cretaceous chalk exposures in Sumter Co. One of these is found in a field near Livingston, and includes numerous shells, shell fragments, and other fossils (see Figures 1 and 2). The site is visited annually by various groups, and is known for the tiny echinoids (Boletechinus mcglamerii) which can be found there. Several were found on this day, one of which is shown in Figure 3.

Fig. 1 - BPS members and guests collecting Late Cretaceous marine fossils.

Fig. 2 - Close-up view of a small part of the outcrop, showing numerous shells and shell fragments. The whole area shows a similar distribution of fossils.

Fig. 3 - One of the small echinoids this site is famous for having. The echinoids are called Boletechinus mcglamerii, and are named for one of Alabama’s state paleontologists, Winnie McGlamery, according to Dave Kopaska-Merkel.

One of the highlights of the visit was the apparent fossil "claw" held by Alan Collins in Figure 4. The interpretation as a "claw" is not clearcut , however. Dave Kopaska-Merkel (Geological Survey of Alabama) suspects the piece could also be the hinge of a large oyster.
	Fig. 4 - Possible claw (or, alternatively, the hinge of a large oyster), held by Alan Collins.

Figure 5 shows a general mix of the types of fossils found at this site in abundance, including internal molds of bivalved mollusks, steinkerns, small scallops, and oyster shells. Larger oyster shells of the genus Exogyra are also found. I originally thought the internal molds were of brachiopods, but Dave Kopaska-Merkel notes that brachiopods have calcite shells while many mollusks have aragonite shells. We mostly see internal molds of these bivalve mollusks because aragonite is much more susceptible to dissolution.

Fig. 5 - A sampling of the fossils from the site, including oyster valves, internal molds of bivalve mollusks, steinkerns, and a small scallop shell.

After spending more than an hour at this site in the intense heat, the BPS went to a site on the Tombigbee River where fossils around the K-T boundary are exposed (see Figures 6 and 7). The K-T boundary is the boundary between the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period of Earth history. The site is well-studied and the personal favorite I have heard of Dr. Charles C. Smith of the Geological Survey of Alabama. Dr. Smith has written articles about the site and has published a stratigraphic profile showing the connection between the Late Cretaceous Prairie Bluff Chalk and the overlying Tertiary Clayton Formation. Once we arrived at the site, Dr. Andy Rindsberg (also of the GSA) gave the BPS a brief discussion of the significance of the site and what we could expect to find there. After spending a month in South Africa where fossil collecting is highly regulated, I am, in retrospect, surprised that we are allowed to collect at this site. Still, it was a great pleasure to do this and extremely educational. Fig. 6 - Tombigbee River, in Sumter County. The K-T boundary is to the left of the backpack, at the point where the chalk color changes from light gray to a light brown.

Fig. 7 - View of river facing in opposite direction from Figure 6.

Fig. 8 - Cretaceous fossils from the light brown area, just below the K-T boundary in Figure 6. Includes oyster shells (Exogyra costata), some steinkerns, and internal molds of bivalve mollusks affected by boring sponges. On looking at the boundary, one readily notices that the fossils below are different from the ones above. Figures 8 and 9 show some of the lower fossils while Figure 10 shows the upper fossils. Oysters from below include Exogyra costata, while those from above include Ostrea pulaskensis ("pulies" for short according to Andy Rindsberg). I think the pulies are the small gray oysters in Figure 10. Figure 9 shows some gastropods, internal molds, and a fragment of a cephalopod shell that I at first thought was a crinoid stem. Also, Figures 8 and 9 show strange fossils, probably connected with large bivalve mollusks, that have a "brain matter" look. According to Dave Kopaska-Merkel, sponges bored into the aragonitic shells of the bivalves, and their borings become filled with calcitic mud. Later, the aragonite dissolved, but the filled borings remained and these preserved the general form of the shells.

Fig. 9 - Cretaceous fossils from closer to the river, including gastropods, internal molds of bivalve mollusks with holes due to boring sponges, and a fragment of a cephalopod shell.

Fig. 10 - Tertiary fossils from the light gray area, just above the K-T boundary in Figure 6. The small gray shells are Ostrea pulaskensis.

The third site the BPS had planned to visit was the oyster fields in the Belmont area. I did not attend this part of today’s trip, but I have been there before, and show in Figures 11 and 12 photographs I took two years ago. The site is absolutely remarkable in the large numbers of giant Exogyra and Pycnodonte oyster shells. A variety of shells are found at this site and are summarized in a pamphlet provided by the GSA.

Fig. 11 - A field of Late Cretaceous oyster shells, near Belmont, Alabama.

Fig. 12 - A close-up of a typical area in one of the above fields, showing shells mainly of the genera Exogyra and Pycnodonte.

In summary, this was a very pleasant and interesting field trip for the BPS. Given how much time many of us have spent at the Union Chapel Mine collecting tracks and plant fossils recently, today’s trip was a nice break from the strip mine rock piles. Thanks to Dave Kopaska-Merkel for comments and revisions to this belated report!

On August 19, the Birmingham Paleontological Society (BPS), the Alabama Museum of Natural History, and the Geological Survey of Alabama will hold an all day session in Smith Hall at the University of Alabama to photograph and label Pennsylvanian age trackways collected from the Union Chapel Mine in Walker County, Alabama. The Alabama Museum of Natural History will host the event and provide refreshments and lunch to everyone involved. Persons with tracks/trackways are asked to arrive at Smith Hall around 9:00 am to begin set up for photographing and labeling. The photography, specimen labeling, and data recording will last until around 5 pm Saturday afternoon. From 11:00 to 12 noon, there will be a break for a series of short talks that will address the group on the geology of the Union Chapel Mine and the significance of collecting these Paleozoic trackways.

This "Track Meet" is a unique opportunity to document most of the trackways that have been taken from the Union Chapel Mine, collected mainly during the year 2000. The purpose of this session is:

1. To compile a photographic record of the Union Chapel Mine trackways,
2. To document the owners of tracks/trackways in the event a researcher needs to study these specimens in the future. A photographic catalogue is planned for the publication of this data and will be titled BPS Monograph # 1.
3. To permanently label all specimens collected at the Union Chapel Mine. These labels will be affixed to the back side of the specimen, not interfering with the track/trackway.

It is requested that people bring only tracks/trackways from the Union Chapel Mine for the August 19 Track Meet. Also, plant fossils from the Union Chapel Mine should not be brought to be photographed at this session. There will a separate photo session for plant fossils collected at the Union Chapel Mine. Likewise, trackways from other Alabama locations collected by the BPS would also be the subject of a future photo session.

It is also requested that each specimen brought to the Track Meet for photography be thoroughly cleaned before unloading the specimen at the registration table. This cleaning should be done by the specimen(s) owner before arriving at Smith Hall. If calcite scale is present, a bit of vinegar poured onto the shale for 10-15 seconds may remove some of it, if the vinegar is gently worked over the surface with a soft toothbrush. Be extremely gentle with the specimen because vigorous scrubbing the specimen with water/vinegar will destroy the track/trackway.

9 am to 11:00 am: Registration, triage, preparation of permanent labels, photography

11:00 am to 12:00 noon: Speakers

• Ed Hooks, Alabama Museum of Natural History:
  • Welcome
  • The Importance of the Amateur Paleontologist
  • BPS Display Case
• Kathy Twieg:
  • Address from the President to the Birmingham Paleontological Society
  • BPS Monograph Series
• Andrew K. Rindsberg, Geological Survey of Alabama:
  • Donation of Pennsylvanian Trackways to Geological Survey of Alabama for their Educational Outreach Program and Permanent Collection; Ethics in Collecting, Trading, and Selling Fossils
• Jack Pashin, Geological Survey of Alabama:
  • Geology of the Pottsville Formation and its relation the Union Chapel Mine

12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m.: Lunch (provided by BPS)

1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Photography and preparation of permanent labels

Upon arriving at Smith Hall at the beginning of the Track Meet Saturday morning, each person will be greeted at the registration desk set up outside the front of Smith Hall. Labeling and filling out data base forms will also be done outside the front of Smith Hall. In the event of inclement weather, registration, triage, data base work, and labeling will all take place inside Smith Hall, on the 1st floor. Volunteers will be available to help specimen owners unload and carry specimens to Smith Hall from the parking area. If a person has specimens for the photo shoot, the person should be registered by a BPS host at the front table. Upon signing in, the person will present his/her specimens to be photographed. Andy Rindsberg, Geological Survey of Alabama, will evaluate each sample for photography priority. Those track/trackway specimens of the highest quality will be given a red dot and receive first priority for the photo shoot. The second quality tracks/trackways will be given a blue dot and will be photographed later if time allows in the afternoon. Specimens of minor value to this effort will be given a green dot, and if the owner prefers, may be donated to the Geological Survey of Alabama for their educational outreach program. A depot for such specimens will be marked. Conversely, there will be trackways that the Alabama Museum of Natural History or Geological Survey of Alabama consider of high value to scientific research. If this is the case, Andy will place a yellow dot on the specimen and request donation of the specimen to the Museum or Survey for their permanent collections, again, at the discretion of the owner. In addition, Ed Hooks (Alabama Museum of Natural History) will request that several of the most important trackways be displayed in the BPS display case in Smith Hall for a 4-6 month duration, after which time the specimens will be returned to their owners. These specimens will also receive a yellow dot.

Once Andy Rindsberg has graded track/trackway specimens with red, blue, or green dots, a Track Meet volunteer will give the owner of the specimen(s) to be photographed a series of unique numbers, one number for each rock specimen. Next, the volunteer will give the owner a data sheet on which the owner shall list the necessary data for each track/trackway. The information on this data sheet will be:

1. Collector’s name
2. Taxon (ichnogenus and ichnospecies, if known)
3. Date collected (month/year)
4. Location collected (Union Chapel Mine)
5. County location (Walker County, Alabama)
6. Geologic formation (Pottsville Formation)
7. Geologic Age(Pennsylvanian)
8. Unique sample number (e.g. UCM –1)

All that the specimen owner needs to write on the data sheet(s) are: his/her name, specimen name, and date collected. These data sheets will be pre-printed with the standard site information (categories d-h).

After the data sheet has been filled out, the owner with the assistance of a Track Meet volunter, will move the track/trackway specimens to a table where permanent labels are being attached to the rock. The rock will be turned over and a permanent label will be affixed to the back side of the rock by a Track Meet volunteer. This label will be a postage stamp-sized white label, and another volunteer will take the data sheet and print the necessary information on the permanent label on the rock with a black indelible pen. The permanent label on the rock should read:

1. Unique sample number
2. Taxon (ichnogenus and ichnospecies, if known)
3. Date collected
4. Location collected
5. County location

Finally, the volunteer will give the owner a temporary label to be attached to the specimen with two way cellophane tape. All that is written on the temporary label is the specimen’s unique sample number within the range of UNC-001 to UNC-500. This temporary label will be attached to the specimen for the photograph; after which it may be discarded. However, it is critical that this paper label stay attached to the rock specimen until after the track/trackway is photographed.

Another Track Meet volunteer will assist the owner in transporting the specimens to the 2^nd floor of Smith Hall for photographing. There are two large classrooms on the 2^nd floor of Smith Hall where the specimens, in their boxes, must be staged prior to the photo shoot. In one classroom, a camera table and artificial lighting have been arranged for the photo session. Once the specimens have been photographed, the owner will place the specimens back in the staging area and attach a "post-it" to the specimen box indicating that photographs have been taken.

In another classroom where the specimens will also be also staged, Prescott Atkinson will be using a computer to input information about the samples into the BPS database.

The owner will take the data sheet to Prescott to enter specimen data in the database. Track Meet volunteers will assist in transporting the rock specimens downstairs and back to the owner’s vehicles, after the photo session and data input are finished.

There will probably be many tracks that will not brought to the August 19 "track meet". The labeling session at the "track meet" should demonstrate to everyone the importance of labeling the Union Chapel Mine specimens and how everyone should label their additional specimens not brought to the August 19 Track Meet.

Ricky Yanaura, Staff Photographer for the University of Alabama, has provided technical assistance to the Alabama Museum of Natural History and the BPS on how to best photograph the track/trackway specimens. He recommends using 35 mm print film, in a camera mounted on a tripod in a large classroom on the second floor of Smith Hall. A camera table will be positioned in one corner of the classroom and serve as a stationary base to place the rock specimens for photography. The camera can be raised or lowered depending on the size of the specimen. Ricky will supply all artificial lighting and a series of lighting reflectors to capture the best possible lighting contrast for the rock specimen. The Alabama Museum of Natural History will furnish all the film and pay for the film developing. Ron Buta will be the photographer for the track meet and will use a Nikon 35 mm camera with a macro lens. Ron will have a volunteer to assist him throughout the entire photo session. Ron and Ricky will get together a few days in advance to practice a dry run for the lighting and camera table set up on the second floor of Smith Hall.

Each specimen may be lightly sprayed with water before the photo shoot to enhance rock contrast in order to see the track/trackway more clearly. A metric bar scale will be placed next to each specimen for each photograph. The temporary label shall be arranged properly on the rock specimen for the photo shoot.

Others are welcome to also photograph track/trackway specimens with their own cameras/digital cameras while the specimens are being photographed for the BPS Monograph by Ron Buta.

Security will be provided by volunteers to ensure that the general public does not enter the museum while the museum is closed. In addition, the BPS will provide volunteers to ensure the security of all track/trackway specimens during the August 19 Track Meet.

The Alabama Museum of Natural History has invited the local media to cover the August 19 Track Meet.

Currently, 13 persons have volunteered to work all day at the Track Meet. Twelve volunteers are needed at a very minimum to operate this event. Anyone who would like to help with the Track Meet is strongly encouraged to volunteer. The BPS and the museum would really appreciate it.

Two Track Meet volunteers will assist to ensure that the building and grounds of Smith Hall are properly policed for debris, trash, and disposable lunch and refreshment materials. This will be most important if it rains and registration, triage, and labeling have be done inside Smith Hall. These volunteers will also assist with serving lunch.

Coffee, drinks, and pastries will be served during the day. Lunch will consist of chicken/sausage gumbo, rice, French bread, and a touch of filé. There will be no charge for lunch or refreshments.

The publication of Jim Lacefield's new book, "Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks: A Guide to the State's Ancient Life and Landscapes" led the BPS to this new site for a field trip this month. In previous BPS field trip reports, I have noted the abundant plant fossils that we have found at various surface mines in Walker and Jefferson Counties. These sites include plants from the Coal Age in Alabama, dating back to about 310 million years. It was interesting, therefore, to learn from Jim's book that it was possible to find plant fossils in Alabama from a much later period, the Cretaceous period. Jim agreed to lead the BPS to a site where he had found fossil leaves, dating back to about 85-90 million years (Late Cretaceous). The site is in the Tuscaloosa Group of sediments (the earliest part of the Cretaceous found at the surface in Alabama). About 20 BPS members and guests attended the field trip, which took place on a cool but pleasant and mostly sunny day.

The site was certainly different from the surface mines. At the surface mines, fossils are usually impressions, molds, and casts in shale, or solidified mudstone. Often, these fossils include the carbonized remains of the original plant material. At the Cretaceous site, however, the leaf fossils were in a light gray mud just a few inches below the ground level, concentrated in a fairly small area near a roadcut. The types of leaves found were almost exclusively angiosperms bearing a strong resemblance to modern varieties.

Figure 1: Viewing of digging site towards road. The hole is where nice brown Cretaceous leaf fossils were found.

Figure 2: Group at area where the blacker leaf fossils were found. From left to right: Dave Shepherd, Kathy Twieg, Jim Lacefield, Vicki Lais, and Marcella.

Figure 3: In the foreground, Ashley Allen is collecting the darker brown leaves. In the background is the group in Figure 2

According to Jim, the angiosperm species included Salix (or willow), which represented greater than 90% of the specimens, and two members of the Lauraceae (or laurel family). The Salix leaves tended to be long and thin with a single dividing vein and very little additional detail. Often, stem attachment points were found, but it was rare to get a complete leaf on one slice of mud.
	Figure 4: Examples of Salix (willow) leaves showing the distinctive brown color characteristic of one part of the site.

Several examples are shown in the photographs which accompany this report. Some are also shown on page 81 of Jim's book. The Lauraceae leaves tended to be Cinnamomum, a possible Sassafrass. These had a distinctive vein structure which can be seen on page 82 of Jim's book. Jim also found what he thinks are probable flowers in different stages of decomposition, representing possibly 3 different species. The "flowers" he found included a willow twig with catkin attachments (no catkins were found) and two small but identical unidentified (possibly laurel) flowers with crumpled petals.

Figure 5: One half of a divided mud plane showing beautiful brown Salix leaves.

An interesting aspect of the site was how the color of the leaf fossils changed with position. At the left side of the site, the color was a very light brown, while near the middle it was a darker shade of brown. About 20 feet from these areas, the fossils are completely black and often incomplete. Presumably, the color is not the same as the original color, although modern angiosperm leaves look remarkably similar to the dark brown fossils after they achieve their fall color. The best quality fossils were these dark brown ones.

Figure 6: The other half of Figure 5, showing virtually identical colors and structure, with no sense of direct or inverse impressions being given.

Figure 7: Beautiful thin Salix leaves.

The area where these were located was found by Bruce Relihan, who generously shared the find with others. The illustrated specimens are mainly from Bruce's area, and some are very beautiful. Most remarkable is how different these plants are from the coal mine plants. At the coal mine sites, we often find scale tree bark impressions, ferns, and pith casts of giant horsetails. At the Cretaceous site, we mainly found rather normal-looking leaves - no bark impressions and no ferns at all. By this time, many of the Coal Age plants were extinct and had been replaced with more modern-looking species.

The blacker leaf fossils were more like coal age fossils. These looked like the carbonized remains of the original plants, while the brown ones seemed to have iron deposits replacing the original material. The black fossils seemed more fragmentary, and also more concentrated in random assortments than the brown leaves. In the area where these blacker leaves were found, we also came across what appeared to be lignitized wood. Some of this was layered as in a coal seam.

Figure 8: Small mud slab showing a mix of black and brown Salix leaves.

The fact that the fossils were found in clay, and not rock, is certainly interesting. It is difficult to understand this, and it suggests that the area where these leaves lie has not changed much during the past 85-90 million years. If it had been under water, there would presumably have been more deposition over the area and conceivably the clay might have solidified under pressure. Jim thinks the site possibly represents an upland bog in the process of being filled in with fine-particled sediment.

Note that it is also possible to find Coal Age Alabama fossils in clay, as Jim notes on page 65 of his book. The distinctive color of the clay where the fossils were found helped to tell us where to look. Just across the street from the site, we found mostly a reddish clay with a presumably high iron content. However, this clay included no fossils. The gray clay was more homogeneous than this reddish clay, and provided high quality fossils.

Cleaning clay fossils is another issue. With shale, you can simply wash off dirt or scrub off mud with a brush. With clay fossils, washing has the risk of damaging the fossils. The procedure I used to clean the specimens I brought home involved using an air blower usually used to blow dust off of photographic negatives, followed by gentle brushing with a small paintbrush. Even after this, the long-term storage of such fossils may require something extra. When extracted from the ground, the mud was a little wet, but after a while it becomes dry and more brittle. The best time to extract these kinds of fossils is when they are a little wet, because then the mud breaks apart into planes a lot like shale. After drying this might not work. Jim recommended that after the specimens are completely dry, it might be worth placing them into a 50% Elmer's glue for long-term preservation. Jim notes that the clay to be preserved in the Elmer's solution needs to be very close to dry when the solution is applied through soaking for 5 - 10 minutes, otherwise the surface may appear cloudy. He recommends that excess solution be then gently dabbed off the leaves themselves, and further that the specimens should be dried thoroughly before much handling.

In summary, this was a very interesting field trip for the BPS. It was interesting to venture into new territory in Alabama's past, and in particular to focus on the plant life, rather the marine life, of Alabama Cretaceous history. Thanks to Jim for his excellent book and for taking us to the site! I also thank Jim for comments on this report that improved its accuracy.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The Union Chapel Mine is now known to be one of the best Lower Pennsylvanian track sites in North America. During December, the mine was in the process of reclamation, and the BPS returned one more time as a group to search for trackways among turned-over spoil piles in one of the most productive areas of the site. About 15 BPS members and several newcomers attended the field trip on a pleasant mid-December day.

Figure 1: Trackway of a likely arthropod. Each print is a small spot. When we arrived at the site, only one small area was not reclaimed. This particular area was one which had yielded many good tracks in the past and so we were all delighted to see that the mine workers had moved some of the old rock piles around, allowing us to see if any new material had been exposed. In spite of this, we all had difficulty finding any new high quality tracks. Nevertheless, there were still tracks to be found. I found the interesting specimen shown in Figure 1. It appears to be the trackway of an arthropod, where each track is a small roundish spot. In the significant collection of track photos which the BPS "track meets" have provided, I had not seen another set like this one. I also found the tracks shown in Figures 2 and 3.
Figure 2: Trackway of another likely arthropod, notable for its asymmetry and strong trail-dragging mark
Figure 3: Two tracks of an Attenosaurus subulensis, a common alligator-like amphibian from the Union Chapel site.
On the reclaimed areas and in the overturned area, one can still find nice plant fossils at this site. Figure 4 shows an especially nice set of ferns from a split rock. Most interesting is how strong the stem of these ferns is.   Figure 4: Strong fern impressions from a split rock.
Figure 5 shows brown ferns of the genus Neuropteris, which was common at this mine. Figure 5: Beautiful Neuropteris ferns defined by iron compound deposits.
Figure 6 shows a single large seed impression of a seed fern. This is how such seeds are often found. Figure 6: A seed impression, Trigonocarpus.
However, I found another rock in the overturned area having more than a dozen seed impressions. Several of these are shown in Figure 7. Figure 7: Part of a slab showing numerous seed impressions
The ferns they are associated with are shown in Figure 8. Jim Lacefield discusses the seeds of seed ferns on page 66 of his new book, "Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks", and gives a wonderful general discussion of the Coal Age in Alabama and what happened to the seed ferns. Figure 8: Part of the same slab showing another seed impression among the ferns likely associated with the seeds

The reclamation of the Union Chapel Mine caps off a spectacular year of discovery for the BPS, and the Union Chapel experience marks the beginning of a remarkable cooperation between BPS amateur rock collectors and two professional organizations, the Geological Survey of Alabama and the Alabama Museum of Natural History on this new project. The more than 500 track specimens salvaged by BPS members and guests since January 23, 2000 are currently being researched by professional paleontologists. Hundreds of high quality plant fossils were also salvaged and will eventually be studied. We will no doubt be talking about the experience for years to come.