(Photos courtesy Greg Mestler.)

BPS members visited the quarry at the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center. It includes a limestone quarry containing Mississippian and Ordovician-era fossils. A number of good "teaching opportunities" were identified.

We visited two late Cretaceous sites in Montgomery County, Alabama, where we collected primarily shark teeth and echinoids. A surprise awaited - one site we have visited for years used to have a huge sand pile shaped like a mushroom that was filled with shark teeth. The mushroom

This month, BPS members were given a private tour of Cathedral Caverns, located in North Alabama near Gant. Cathedral Caverns bosts the World's Largest Cave Opening, the World's Largest Stalagmite and the World's Largest Frozen Waterfall. The tour was a real treat!

Press Release

WORLD-CLASS FOSSIL DISCOVERY IN NORTHWEST ALABAMA

Just prior to the July 4th holiday last week, U.S. Representative Robert Aderholt (District 4) visited an extraordinary fossil discovery just northwest of Birmingham in Walker County.  Hosting Rep. Aderholt and his aide Bill Harris in a tour of the site were members of the Birmingham Paleontological Society (BPS), a local amateur fossil group, and a number of professional geologists and paleontologists who have participated in studying the fossils that have been recovered so far from the site.

Again this year, a number of BPS members visited several mines near Wilmington, North Carolina, the beach, and a shell pit a number of miles inland. We spent extra days there, from June 13 - 16. We found a good quantity of shark teeth and echinoids, and also found litterally thousands of shells.

Thanks to Ashley for setting up this multi-day excursion to a number of sites. It was a very interesting trip, and I hope the young student whom Ashley brought along contacts me sometime. Am very interested in how your life is going these days!