Row of fish vertebra on the side of a gully.
September 20, 2008 - Cretaceous Fossils, Dallas County, AL
Once again, BPS took a trip south to Dallas county, Alabama, to search in the extensive Cretaceous chalk gullies found there. This was our last gully trip of the season, since hunting season is about to start, so we were in a frantic hurry to collect the items we had previously flagged, and find as much as we could so it could be preserved, and not get washed down a gully, and potentially lost for research. In addition to the normal variety of shells, shark teeth and vertebra, fish including enchodus, and turtles, this month a baby crocodile was found, the first one found in Alabama, so we were quite excited.
(Photos courtesy Joey Golson and Vicki Lais)
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Close-up of a fish vertebra
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Very badly worn fish bones, based on the tooth, it looks like a type of enchodus.
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Worn enchodus tooth.
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This is the location where the baby crocodile bone and scutes were found. James and Claire are sifting the dirt down the gully from the find, in hopes of finding more scutes and bones.
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Tiny pieces of a crab found by Claire.
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Gully season is over for the year due to hunting season. On a prior trip, parts of a fossil were found, and James is hoping to find more small bones in the large bags of dirt he collected from the same area. We had so many fossils to collect, it was dark by the time we arrived at this gully.
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James Lamb pulls out a tray of fossil crocodile bones, to show us the difference in the size of the baby crocodile bone we've found, and what is normally found in Alabama. He is holding the same bone in both hands.