During September and early October, BPS members had several field trips to find fossils and help excavate in the Cretaceous gullies of Dallas County.  Over a period of several days (September 19, 24, 26, October 1, 2, 3) a turtle and mosasaur were excavated.  Also, a number of other fossils were found, including shark teeth, upper and lower Xiphactinus fish jaw with teeth, a variety of shells, shark coprolite, shark vertebra, fish vertebra, and enchodus teeth.  Most of the important finds will be used in exhibits at the (now in development) Black Belt Museum in Livingston.

Each field trip is similar to a class, in that participants are taught proper collecting techniques, how to find and identify fossils, and how to excavate fragile fossils out of the ground intact and make plaster jackets.

BPS members defied the extreme heat and went to south Alabama to assist in collecting fossils and close down the dig site until the weather cools off some.  A number of mosasaur bones were found, and a mosasaur jaw still containing a tooth.  Other fossils found included shark teeth, shark vertebra, various varieties of fish, turtle bone, and enchodus jaw and teeth.  The thermometer read 110 degrees, so after lunch under a covered pavilion, we headed to a nearby creek to cool down.  The creek yielded numerous shark teeth, brachiopods, and a few cephalopod pieces.

This month the group went to a shallow river in Covington Co, AL we haven't visited for a long time.  Our memory of this site is that the pickings were better in years past.  It took a while to find fossils.  We don't dig, as the landowner has requested "no digging", but most of our honey holes were empty, possibly from the recent rainy seasons or over-collecting by commercial collectors.  Whatever the reason, everyone left with a small handful of shark teeth, and we had a great day visiting and keeping cool in the river.  Jan and Lea decided to arrive at the site via kayak, making for an interesting upriver paddle.

This month's trip was to northern Mississippi, where we collected in the Coon Creek formation.  The area was once a bay in the Gulf of Mexico.  This is a Late Cretaceous site, where we found numerous turritella (most in an extremely fragile condition), and even more crab and lobster parts, mostly looking like they had exploded, though several intact "bellies" and a couple of claws were found.  The finds of the day had to be the mosasaur tooth found by Don H., and the fragment of a duck-billed dinosaur (hadrosaur) tooth found by David.  This site is being studied by George Phillips, paleontologist at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, who will be reviewing our finds for anything of scientific interest.  The hadrosaur tooth fragment has already been sent to him for inclusion in his research.

Don C. had this to say about his collecting efforts for the day:  "I'm very happy with my haul of crabs and shrimp (7 different genera and species in all), plus I got quite a few gastropods and bivalves, a squashed nautilus, a good piece of an ammonite with sutures, an Enchodus fang, and a small shark tooth.  I brought home a bag of clay to sift and I'm still finding all manner of micro goodies too."

The diehards of the group had an evening of BBQ at a local restaurant, and as everyone headed home, two additional sites were scouted, neither of which appeared promising.

Our annual trip to Butler County turned up several shark teeth, fish vertebra, ray teeth, turritella in cochina, and a number of pottery pieces.  The day was spent roaming the creek, playing in the sand and creek, or just hanging out sunbathing.  Several members camped out for the weekend on the bald, where more fossils were found.

On a chilly rainy day a few BPS members braved the weather to view a spectacular waterfall in Shelby County.  After the waterfall hike another stop was made to find some wonderful plant material.

There must have been a lot of people concerned about the weather report, which predicted snow and ice in North Alabama.  Only 5 of us showed up, but what a wonderful day it turned out to be.  It stayed cold in Birmingham, but the weather at the collecting sites warmed up to the 50's, and Don remarked we better tell the field trip planner thanks for picking such a great day!  The smaller number of people meant we could stay at each location longer, and it really paid off. We found numerous crinoid stems, several varieties of blastoids, part of a straight cephalopod, brachiopods of all sizes, trilobites, and lots of horned coral.

This weekend trip to northeast Alabama was delayed due to several weeks of below freezing weather.  When the day arrived, a high percent of rain was predicted.  However, being the troopers we are, and seeing that it has been so long since we've been on a field trip, 21 of us showed up anyhow!  Amazingly, the weather cooperated.  A light drizzle first thing in the morning that cleared up by mid-day, and the temperature rose to 50.  We were excited, and Bob had brought his boat so we could go to our favorite site on the lake.  We got to our first collecting location, and began scrounging through the pebbles.  Nothing.  More looking.  Still nothing.  This is the first time in many years that we have had such poor collecting at this site, and since we missed coming for the past 2 years, we thought more would have been washed in.  Not.  So, off we went to a different site that the group hasn't been to.  A few of us scouted it 3 years ago and found a few small trilobites.  Pickings were slim at this site too.  Yes, there was plenty of Conasauga shale, but it was low in trilobites.  Ok.  Let's go to the main lake site.  We showed up there fully intending to put the boat in first.  However, the weeks of below freezing weather had frozen the lake!  Never had we seen it like this.  Several members spent some time skipping rocks on the frozen lake, to see where the ice ended.  It didn't.  Every rock thrown sat on top of the frozen lake.  So we resigned ourselves to collecting near the boat ramp, and saving the other site for another trip.   

Eight members stayed in a cabin overnight, playing games, watching tv, and generally having a good time.  The next morning, the lake had thawed, but we decided not to go out without the bulk of the group being there.  After about an hour of collecting along the lakeshore, we headed home.

Several nice trilobite pieces were found, but the collecting was sparse at all the locations where we stopped.  Whether this area played out due to our once a year collecting, or the site is frequently collected by locals and other people who found out about it is unknown, but it looks as if this site may be on the back burner for a while.

Photos courtesy Claire Smith, Ted Nicolle, and Vicki Lais