Birmingham Paleontological Society

The April 2008 field trip brought beautiful weather and a nice relaxing weekend. Claire, Martha and Leisa were able to get to the site on Friday and enjoyed an evening gazing up at the stars and listening to the night birds. Saturday morning brought the arrival of the rest of the field trip party. Members ventured up stream and down stream. Several shark teeth and ray teeth were found, along with cochina stone embedded with turritella, gastropods, and nautiloids. A few Native American pottery shards were also found.

Our June speaker will be Jon Gilliam of the University of Alabama, who will be presenting his research on Cretaceous predacious shell borings found in Sumter County, Alabama.

George Phillips, paleontology curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science will be speaking to us about Cretaceous paleo research. Here is some advance information:

A rare 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit southern Illinois early on Friday, April 18, 2008. It was felt as far south as Memphis, TN, and as

A recent article in Gallivant magazine highlights a museum in East Tennessee where a road building project uncovered a huge repository of fossils, including camels, elephants, rhinos, and tapirs.

The 112 acre Huntsville Botanical Garden will feature full sized dinosaur models through July 15, 2008. They will be displayed in life like settings using plants similar to those of ancient times. Included will be a 30 foot Edmontosaurus, a 30 foot Parasaurolophus, a 20 foot Allosaurus and many others.

--from Gallivant, Spring 2008

Original article below. Click to enlarge.

This month BPS spent our field trip exploring road cuts along a new highway, which included 10+ stops to survey various likely looking areas. Though rain was widely predicted, it didn't happen, and the weather was perfect for being outside. The fossil collecting wasn't as prolific as expected, but everyone found quite a few nice specimens, including brachiopods, tracks, and ferns. We also discovered an upright hole that appeared on first glance to be a blasting hole, but on closer examination one could see the impression of a lycopod, perhaps a lepidodendron.

Tonight's presentation will be "Southeastern Dinosaurs", by James Lamb, Curator of Paleontology at McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama. For a great dinosaur and fossil day, check out the current McWane exhibit on Alabama Dinosaurs, catch the Dinosaurs Alive IMAX movie, take a supper break, then head on back down to hear the lecture!

A new exhibit "Alabama Dinosaurs" opened on March 14, 2008 at McWane Science Center showcasing fossil skeletons and other remains of dinosaurs found in the Eastern half of the United States, primarily from Alabama. It is the largest showcase of eastern US dinosaurs in the world. Associated with the new exhibit is the IMAX presentation "Dinosaurs Alive".

McWane Science Center Press Releases:

A large crew of BPS members and guests headed to northwest Alabama this month, in hopes of finding crinoid heads and trilobites. Well, we found both! We left Birmingham expecting a high of 50, however, that must have been in the wee hours of the morning, as the temperature hovered in the mid-30's all day. Brrr!! But that didn't keep the fossils inside, nor did it deter detemined fossil seekers.

Our first stop was a roadcut where numerous specimens of coral were found, many too large to carry home.