BPS members visited a late Cretaceous site in Montgomery County, Alabama, where we collected primarily echinoids, gastropods, and a few shark teeth. This trip was a real adventure!

A week of daily summer rains and pictures from Friday's site reconnaissance were not enough to daunt those needing a field trip fix. By mid-day Saturday the water had receded enough to give hope to those who had been standing on one bank of the creek and staring longingly at the other bank. There was a spark of hope.

At lunch it was decided that after a trip to a second site that enough time should have passed and the creek could possibly have receded enough to be crossable.

Steve waded the creek with one end of a 60 ft rope in hand. Once tied off on both sides the rope was a sufficient balance for a slow and steady crossing. There were crossers who faced downstream, crossers who faced upstream and those who sidestepped their way across. All present decided to journey to the other side. And by my count - taking the rope and escorting 6 people X two = 22 crossings for Steve.

Flood level water the day before washed out good material for collecting, and yes, we finally needed that change of dry clothes.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

- - "TALES FROM THE PAST" BY JAMES LAMB - -


(Photos by Nancy Kenfield and Vicki Lais)

The creek was higher than expected when we got there, and it became clear that wading (sometimes in some over-the-knees water) would be on the menu. Part of our group chose to sift from a bank while standing in knee deep to thigh deep water while the other part of our group headed downstream. The downstream group discovered that mother nature's engineers had built a very nice dam, thus explaining the high water level. Below the dam sifting was very easy.

This creek runs through the Mooreville Chalk, producing mostly shells, bones, shark and mosasaur teeth. Numerous shark-teeth were found, also several ptychodus teeth, LOTS of fossil clam shells and exogyra, a few fish vertebra, bivalve steinkerns, and several gastropod steinkerns.

Almost everyone had a sieve of some kind. Only one of us managed to get completely dunked but claimed it was a refreshing experience! See, kids, we aren't kidding about bringing a change of clothing! You NEVER KNOW!

Some brave souls tested out MRE's at lunch. Interesting. Our fighting folk have our deepest sympathies! Actually they weren't that bad.

A long day was capped off by chowing down at a great local barbecue place! All in all, a fun and productive trip!

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(Photos courtesy Vicki Lais)


First stop was the Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa. Thousands of fossils, but none we could collect! We were pleased to find the large mosasaur specimen was still being exhibited.


Steve, Lea, and Glyn screening the gravel.




One of Nancy's screening efforts. Several large exogyra.


One of Steve's hauls, note the shells and partial ammonite.


Shark and ptychodus teeth found by Steve.


Jan, Claire, & Leisa.


View up the creek.

At the end of a beautiful day, we had several show-and-tell displays.

Greg's display.


Lea's finds, note the mosasaur jawbone in lower right corner.


Paige's display. She wanted to find enough shark teeth to share with her classmates, and she certainly accomplished her goal!


35 shark teeth found!




Vicki's finds.

On November 15, 2004, Vicki Lais and Nancy Kenfield, members of the Birmingham Paleontological Society Community Education Committee, were the guests of Mrs. Woods' "gifted student" class at Meadowview Elementary School in Selma, Alabama. These are all third-graders and BPS had been invited to speak when one of the students told her teacher about seeing Nancy's collection. Vicki supplied the knowledge and experience and a LOT of samples to show and give away, Nancy supplied more samples, her own stories and a whole bunch of stuff "scored" from Ward Science, fossil books, and maps from the GSA office in Tuscaloosa.

An overview of the geological history of Alabama was given, including type of fossils found and why. We showed and passed around numerous fossil samples, including corals and a large coral head, large pieces of petrified/ permineralized wood, one covered with quartz crystals, nautiloids past and present, ammonite, calamites, echinoids, crabs, shark teeth, ptychodus teeth, exogyra, cast of a very large crinoid, rocks containing numerous bits of archimedes, shells, and crinoid hash, and some mineral specimens, including calcite and quartz with tourmaline crystals. This was the first time some of the students had ever been allowed to hold fossils, and we took some nice, sturdy ones for everyone to examine. Most of these samples were collected on BPS field trips. The general area of collecting locations were marked on a geologic map to show the diversity of Alabama fossils, to provide a simplistic way to determine which fossils are older or younger, and to emphasize the importance of knowing the location of Alabama counties. We also showed pictures of BPS members on various outings (incuding the "rope trick" adventure!), told them stories about exciting things that happened on trips, and Nancy presented a slide show of various common fossils. During the course of the day, we showed them the BPS web site, touched on the ethics of fossil collecting, and the reason why museums only list the county where the fossils are found.

THEN came their own fossil hunt! Nancy had a lab-activity kit from Ward Science that included a bucket full of small fossils and gravel, sorting trays, tweezers, and magnifying glasses. Add a little landscape sand to "stretch" the supplies, then seed the mix with a few goodies from the BPS give-away stash, and you have the recipe for an unforgettable event! The kids had a great time sieving and searching, and their exciting "finds" included echinoderms, horn coral, archimedes and crinoid parts, blastoids and a few fern fossils which were "donated" by the finders to the classroom! To end the day there were "door prize" drawings where each student could choose a fossil of their own.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

A lot of assistance was provided in laying out the specimens. What they didn't know, was that this box contained the fossils that would be given away at the end of the day! Later in the day, the calcite crystal being intently examined had a large amount of pressure applied to it (i.e, we hit it with a rock hammer) to show how this mineral splits into smaller crystals of the same shape.

"Sticky's" were added to the map as a particular fossil specimen was discussed.



Examining nautaloids and echinoids.


Nancy assisting with screening and sorting the different fossil specimens.




Examining the fossils. An ammonite was inside this split nodule.