March 18, 2006 - Mississippian Fossils, St. Clair Co, AL

BPS members collected in St. Clair county, Alabama this month. The weather started out a little chilly, but turned into a perfect, pleasant day. The first stop was a Mississippian age road cut, where geologic uplift is obvious. There we found several varieties of coral, including quite a few large horned coral, brachiopods, and sponges in layers of the Tuscumbia Limestone. The Ft. Payne chert contained numerous hollow molds left by archimedes and crinoids. After we had decided to stop collecting (let's see, Leisa decided this how many times???) and were winding up to go to the the next site, Michael split open a rock and found a trilobite. Well, we had been looking for the correct layer for several hours with no luck, so this set off another search for the "correct" rocks in the "correct" layer, and everyone began splitting rocks, hoping for a nice trilobite. A local landowner stopped by to ask what we were doing, and once he found out, offered to let us drive across his property to an old quarry and check it out. We already had a second quarry site in mind where local people fish, however, both quarries turned out to be overgrown, with large boulders, and in a very quick assessment, we found no fossils. All was not lost - the ride to the quarries was quite exciting, and we enjoyed the scouting trips and being out in the woods on such a glorious day. Good memories of time spent with friends.

Edited by Vicki Lais


(photos courtesy Steve Corvin and Vicki Lais)

geologic layers


hunting fossils
Greg is explaining how to spot the fossils.

fossil coral
Look closely in the rocks and several horned corals and broken pieces can be spotted. They blend in well.

fossil brachiopod

fossil sponge
Michael has found a couple of items we believe to be sponges.

fossil sponge

fossil coral
More rocky area, with numerous fossils waiting to be collected.

hunting fossils

fossil coral
Another view of the ground littered with broken and whole fossils.

hunting fossils
Steve is heading to the top, to see if there are different fossils up there. Or, maybe he just likes to climb!

fossil coral

fossil coral


fossil coral


fossils
Some interesting fossil material found by Steve.

fossil brachiopod
Note the nice brachiopods.

hunting fossils

fossil coral
Claire has found a nice coral head.

fossil coralMore nice finds by Claire.

fossil coral
Another nice specimen, probably coral, found by Vicki.

fossil coral
Michael and Sylvie showing off their coral and sponges.

fossil crinoid

fossil brachiopod
Note the nice shell on the upper rock in the middle. When the fossils are the same color as the matrix, they are difficult to spot.

fossil crinoid
Crinoids have left impressions on these rocks. A different area from where the coral is found.


examining the geologic layers
Greg and Michael searching for the trilobite layer.

hunting fossils
Leisa has found some nice horned coral.

fossil coral and others
A closer look at Leisa's finds.

hunting fossils

fossil trilobite
After diligent searching, Michael found the trilobite layer!

fossil trilobite
Greg has found part of a trilobite - the black coloration at top of rock. The larger oval is the head, the smaller one is an eye.

fossil trilobite

fossil trilobite eye
A close view of a trilobite.

quarry where we hunted fossils
We briefly scouted this quarry and found some interesting structures and fish, but no fossils.