Some nice echinoids.
Once again, the word, "intrepid" comes to mind when BPS makes a midwinter trip! With the temps in the upper 30's and low 40's and 15-20 mph winds, it was a toss up as to which trip to this site was the coldest! In spite of the weather, around 23 fossil seekers came for the fun. Our first stop was under sunny skys and slight winds which brought the temperature up to a bearable level. This is a great site, featuring a prehistoric coral reef that always has excellent specimens washed out during the previous year. It's always a temptation go after the big boulders, but they're much larger than they look (like iceburgs) so we can only stand and drool and capture them on camera. At the first stop on the lake numerous specimens of blastoids, archimedes, and crinoid stems were found, and a very nice piece of petrified/ permineralized wood. Next we went to the other side of the lake where it was downright windy and bitter cold. More crinoid stems, straight cephalapods, and some unknown specimens were collected as well as great slabs of fossil hash. These make great teaching tools as well as attractive showpieces. We were also treated to the sight of Bill "walking on water!" Next we stopped at a roadcut which yielded a few more nice specimens, and a lot more icy wind. After one last site check, hunger was the issue, so most of the group organized to follow Greg, who always seems to know the best places to chow down, to a long enjoyable evening meal at a "secret" local steak house, After a great time of good food, rehashing the day and catching up, tired BPS members headed home.
--Edited by Vicki Lais
(Photos courtesy Jan Novak, Bill Fowler, Chris Lais, & Vicki Lais)
On to the next stop, where we were given an overview of the collecting area.
Shoreline of the lake, water is way down in winter.
Horned coral.
A sponge?
Horned coral.
Nice brachiopod.
Most rocks in the area consist of numerous small fragments of fossils. Most visible on this specimen are crinoid stems and bryozoan (or the netting material from archimedes.)
Parts of very large, but broken, blastiods.
Tiny gastropod.
Unknown round fossil.
Another unknown fossil.
Very nice specimen of petrified/permineralized wood.
How'd he do that?? Bill has found several nice specimens. Click, then click again for larger image.
Nice cephalopod.
Brachiopods.
After the lake, we collected at a nearby roadcut.
Numerous specimens of burrow casts were found, and also a few straight cephalopod's (in middle).
At the last stop of the day, geologic layering is very prominent.
Tall people have a distinct advantage!
--Leisa Whitlow, Contributor
--Edited by Vicki Lais
A few BPS members drove over to Tuscaloosa, AL to hear a lecture on fossil whales. We arrived early, and decided to "fossil hunt" at the Geological Survey of Alabama building. The steps and bannisters are of limestone, and are nicely weathered out to show beautiful fossils.
Some nice echinoids.
Large area of worm tubes - Bob says they look like shipworms.
Nice shells in matrix. Many times they are found loose, and more easily collected.
Echinoids in matrix.
Nice 1/2 vertebra found by Bill.
Becky and Don searching in all the nooks and crannies.
Very nice, whole shark vertebra.
A trip to a non-working mine site to explore spoil piles for invertebrate fossils was on the menu for BPS's August field trip. The mining company, headquartered in Tuscaloosa county generously offered us the opportunity to explore at this site. A long, hot day on a moonscape was nevertheless a great trip, yielding some beautiful specimens.
We met with the mining engineer who gave us a quick overview of the mining operations, then let us go onto the piles to do our hunting. We hunted until the heat got to us and it was time to seek air-conditioning.
After cooling off at a Mexican restaurant, we ended the day at the Museum of Natural History at Tuscaloosa with a visit to their superb collections.
(photos courtesy Chris and Vicki Lais)
BPS members listening to lecture on mining operations in the area.
Vast expanse of spoil piles, discarded rubble from the mining operation.
Collecting fossils in spoil piles.
Tailings piles from the mines, brought from hundreds of feet underground.
Fern
More black rock, empty landscape at the collecting site.
Becky got dirty - real dirty!
Miscellaneous fossils found by Leisa.
A trip to a quarry in the Mississippian age, Fort Payne chert was on the schedule for BPS' field trip in September. It was a beautiful day with a good turnout. THe quarry had been dug out since out last visit so we were able to look around the freshly-exposed areas. Sylvie and Michael made a heroic effort to find a trilobite in some of the material that resembled Frog Mtn. formation, but to no avail. We wandered freely over the huge quarry area, finding crinoid stems, brachiopods, corals and a number of nice geodes. The chert is lightweight and filled with cavities, leaving behind molds of long-ago crinoids.
Lunch break at the Top Hat Barbecue gave us a chance to cool off a little, since the heat was pretty intense. However, the troops headed back to the quarry after lunch for a full afternoon of collecting.
--Photos courtesy Vicki Lais
Members of the Birmingham Paleontological Society held a fossil exhibit at the Homewood Public Library from September 1 until September 30. On Sunday, September 30, an Open House was held for the public, which included refreshments, a short dinosaur movie, and best of all according to the kids, a sand pile where they could search for their very own fossils.
The exhibit was held in the Ellenburg Art Gallery, which is a fabulous location to display the wide variety of fossils found in Alabama. There were 3 flat exhibit cases, one for each major Era in Alabama, the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic. On the walls were photos from BPS field trips, and several posters with information on fossils and the geology of Alabama. Also there were two wall cases filled with fossils found on BPS trips, and tools that any budding paleontologist will need for starting their very own collection. Among the fossils on display were ammonites, mosasaur vertebra, shark teeth, calamites, ferns, echinoids, crabs, trackways, and fossil shells.
The younger fossil hunters walked into the room and immediately became totally engrossed in the dinosaur video; they never even realized there were snacks right behind them! After the movie, they joined the other fossil hunters at the sand pile. This was so exciting that many of them hunted for over an hour, just to see what turned up. (I'm sure all the fossil enthusiasts can relate to this!)
Overall, another great Exhibit and Open House experience. The Homewood Public Library was our meeting location for many years, and in a way, it felt like we were "back home".
The Sea Monsters exhibit that opened at McWane Science Center on October 5, 2007 took many months of hard work by McWane Science Center employees and others. One afternoon of this months-long effort was captured on film, and is presented here for your enjoyment.
(photos courtesy Vicki and Chris Lais)
The new "Sea Monsters" exhibit opened October 5th at McWane Science Center and will run until sometime in the spring. BPS members and other friends of McWane Science Center were treated to a preview of the exhibit on October 4th, showcasing the paleontology department's new "ocean" exhibit featuring life size casts of Protostega (turtle), Clidastes (mosasaur), Pachyrhizodus (fish), Xiphactinus (XL fish), and Tylosaurus (mosasaur). In one area was a "fossil dig" which was very popular with the kids. The all new exhibits feature fossils from the Late Cretaceous which were found in Alabama.
Also, attendees had the opportunity to watch the opening night sneak preview of the new IMAX movie Sea Monsters . Although the Sea Monster movie is being shown in numerous locations around the world, McWane is the only location where fossils of the depicted animals are on exhibit in the same building. And the most fantastic thing about them - they're from right here in Alabama!
JAMES LAMB CLONED - a new technology has captured palontologist James Lamb between two pieces of glass! Throughout the exhibit are stations called "Ask the Paleontologist". When a question is chosen from the list, a prerecorded video of James providing the answer to the question begins, with the video appearing to float inside a pane of clear glass. James spotted one of the attendees looking in his direction, and overheard something like "he looks like the man in the video!" According to James Lamb, the intent is for each exhibit case to provide brief descriptions of each fossil throughout the exhibit rather than a large detailed page of text. If a person participates in each of the exhibits, they will take home with them a large body of knowledge.
The current exhibit, the ocean environment, is the first phase of a larger plan. Next spring a new exhibit featuring land creatures - including dinosaurs will be completed. The fully complete exhibit floor will have the ocean environment at one end, the land environment at the other end, and perhaps a barrier island environment in the middle.
There was a very good turnout of BPS members on Thursday night. Spotted at the reception were Bobby Popwell and wife, Greg and Jan Mestler and daughter Melonie, Martha Ivey, Bill and Anita Fowler, Jeff and Sara Roseman and son Wesley, Chris and Vicki Lais, Becky Guthrie all the way up from Mobile, Steve Corvin and family, Sandy Ebersole, Bob and Pam Stewart, Claire Smith, Leisa Whitlow, and Keven and Nathan Hope. And of course, Jun Ebersole, Kathy Wallace, James Lamb and all the other staff and volunteers who worked late to make this event so memorable.
For more information, check out the The Birmingham News - October 5, 2007 which had a front page write-up on the new exhibit, featuring paleontologist James Lamb and a Protostega on the front page.
The current drought brought us to a favourite site in the Conasauga formation in Cherokee County, hoping that low water levels would have exposed more finds. Unfortunately, it proved to be a double-edge sword in that, while more shoreline was exposed, with the lack of water washing the rocks, the trilobite pickin's were slim, indeed. However, our first stop was at a Dresdachian stage site which produced a bumper crop of brooksella, so, win some, lose some. Stop 2 was an Albertan stage site where a few really nice trilobite finds kind of made up for the scarcity. All enjoyed the nice weather and the halloween cupcakes. We had fun welcoming young Liz to the club. She found some fossils, dug up some clay and practiced her rock-skipping skills and had a ball. We finished up at a favourite restaurant where some of the best fried green tomatoes in Alabama can be found. Yum.
After the main trip, three members scouted a couple of potential new sites. The first site was totally non-productive, while the second site had a large outcropping of shale, where a few tiny trilobites were found.
--Photos courtesy Vicki Lais
This month 14 people showed up for the BPS trip and collected in Mississippian age fossils in St. Clair county, Alabama. Along with the perfect brachopods and horned coral, quite a few trilobite parts were found in the Ft. Payne chert.
Photos courtesy Martha Ivey and Vicki Lais.