Birmingham Paleontological Society

Our speaker for April is Thane Wibbels, UAB Professor of Reproductive Biology, who will speak on "The Biology, Paleontology, and Conservation of Sea Turtles." Hoover Public Library, Meeting Room C. Free and open to the public.

In May BPS members showed up for a weekend of camping and fossil collecting on a private creek in Butler County. Since our last visit a number of high water events had alterered the creek. Places that had been covered in sand were now bare, with rocky, clay bottoms. Numerous small shark teeth, cochina stone, fish vertebrae, and a few pottery shards were found. One area of clay that was seen appeared to be filled with fossil leaves, with ancient leaves. There is a strong possibility that the woody and leaf material found in the clay layers is Cretaceous age.

Don't have thousands of dollars to throw at outfitting your next fossil collecting expedition? What? No "Fossils-R-Us" outfitters in your area? Never fear, James Lamb of the University of West Alabama will share tips on how to make and/or modify easy-to-find tools to be appropriate for your favorite rock-smashing, hole-digging activities. No prior experience required. Hoover Public Library. Free and open to the public.

BPS members took a weekend trip to Washington County, to an old quarry where they found echinoids, sand dollars, numerous shells,  and foraminifera, plus a few scattered shark teeth were found.

The speaker for February will be Jun Ebersole, the collections manager overseeing the Alabama Collection’s at the McWane Science Center. The presentation will begin after a brief business meeting. The topic for this evening

What a wonderful two day trip we had in March. The weather was sunny; light jacket weather, just right for being outside. Saturday we were at a quarry in Colbert County, and Sunday we were at a lake in Franklin County. The spoil pods were massive and extremely steep making them difficult to navigate. But being the adventureous spirits that we are, we conquered the spires and were greatly rewarded for our efforts.

BPS went to St. Clair County this month and found various coral, including horned corals, and a number of trilobites. Shells were also found, including a few bivalves. It was an excellent collecting day, the temp was cool but not overly so and the humidity was perfect.

We're making progress on getting the site back up.  Best viewed in Firefox for now.  The tweaks to make the page render properly with the non-standard Internet Explorer are coming soon.