Birmingham Paleontological Society

BPS members visited 2 areas of new road development and a small quarry in Jefferson County this month, making 3 stops total. We had not visited these locations before, so were not sure how prolific the sites would be.

(Photos courtesy Greg Mestler, Ron Beerman, and Vicki Lais.)

At stop #1, several brachiopods and a couple of slabs with small amphibian track prints were found.

BPS visited a new location in Butler County this month for our field trip.  The creek was shallow, making screening and hiking in the creek particularly easy.  A number of shark teeth were found, including Odontipus robusta, scapanorhynchus and odontaspis elegans, and bones and teeth that we really wanted to pass off as fossils.  Unfortunately,

This month, BPS visited the "education center" of a local Jefferson County quarry, where school children are taught about quarry operations in a nice building with a great view of the quarry, and a small working model of the conveyor activity. Inside, there were numerous fossil displays exhibiting fossils from many of their quarry locations

(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.