oyster

September 28, 2019 - Cretaceous, Perry, Al

On Saturday, September 28, a sizable group of BPS members and guests got together to take advantage of the unseasonably hot weather to visit a favorite creek in Perry County. After a stop at a local burger restaurant that served very tasty biscuits, we caravanned to the site – off-roading a little bit at the end. The dry weather was definitely in our favor there!

This particular creek has historically been loaded with fossils but, due to the recent drought, was a little less forthcoming with fossil finds. Not to be daunted by the circumstances, the trip attendees found deeper water gravel or searched shallower areas for things that might have been previously missed. And, that diligence paid off! Among the finds were 2 (!!) Cretoxyrhina mantelli teeth, other varieties of shark teeth, Ptychodus teeth, oyster shells, a turtle flipper bone, Baculites segments and even some Native American artifacts. This creek always delivers, even after heavy collecting and little material turnover. No wonder it’s a favorite location!

Perry

June 13-14, 2009 - Cretaceous and Tertiary Fossils, Butler Co, AL

This month the group traveled to Butler County, Alabama, to a sandy creek which runs through early Tertiary and late Cretaceous material. The weather was overcast on Saturday, making collecting very pleasant. A number of members camped out for the weekend. Sunday the sun was out, and it made us grateful for the cloud cover on Saturday!

The sandy beaches and gravel areas yielded up shark teeth, ray teeth, some nautiloid sections, and recent mammal material which was sometimes as fasinating as the fossils.

We had quite a few young people on the trip who enjoyed both the fossil collecting and swimming, splashing and running in the shallow creek. There is an area of soft clay, and some enterprising young men fashioned bowls from it.

More about the artifacts found on the trip.

--Photos courtesy Claire Smith and Vicki Lais.

The whole group, except for one young lady who didn't want her picture taken.

coquina

He's holding a very large piece of coquina found in a pile of boulders.

Shell from a recent turtle.

Making ones way up the creek took a very long time. First you have to play in the water, feel the sand between your toes. Then you have to stop at every gravel bar and see what's there. It takes most people hours to get less than 1/4 mile.

Hanging out on the large sandy beach. This is like a crossroads, everyone passes this way, or returns here to rest.

Nancy neck deep in a swimming hole.

Martha screening for shark teeth

Picking through the gravel bars hunting for fossils.

Everyone set up for enjoying this wonderful creek in their own way.

ray tooth

Tiny ray tooth

Collecting fossils in the creek.

coral

Small piece of fossil coral.

shark tooth

Shark tooth

Is it a fossil?

gastropods

Several small turritella.

Sitting in the creek is sometimes the most effective and cool way.

gastropod

Some tiny gastropods found on the flat limestone "bald", and an unkown black item with serated edges.

Noah has found a large piece of soft, grey clay and fashioned himself a bowl.

July 11, 2009 - Cretaceous Fossils, Greene Co, AL

BPS members and guests headed down to Greene county, Alabama for our July trip. This site is a creek covered with pea gravel - making screening for shark teeth and other fossils quite difficult. However, most found it fairly easy to spot the fossils lying on top of the gravel. Numerous shark teeth were found, a couple of mosasaur teeth, several ptychodus teeth, a gar vertebra and tooth, crocodilian bone, clams, oysters, and bryozoan. Vicki found a tooth so tiny (about 1/8 inch), that when she put it on her finger to get a closeup, it rolled off. The next 45 minutes was spent digging through the gravel in an ever widening circle, trying to find the tiny tooth again. As we finally gave up, she rolled the gravel around again, and there it was! It went in a medicine bottle for safekeeping, until a photo could be taken in a "safe" location! It has been identified as a gar tooth, which is more rare than mosasaur teeth in this area.

--Photos courtesy Vicki Lais

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Fossil oysters

May 16, 2009 - Cretaceous Fossils, Sumter County, AL

Old hands as well as new joined up early on Saturday morning for a trip to some great Cretaceous gully sites in West Alabama. Dr. John Hall and Dr. Andy Rindsberg, both from the University of West Alabama, led us down chalk roads (more later on the chalk roads!) and through the woods to the bottom of the ancient ocean. The landscape looked like the remains of an ancient clam-bake! Literally MILLIONS of fossilized shells including exogyra, various clams, shark and sawfish teeth, crab claws, oyster shells, echinoid spines, and at least one small shark vertebra. One of our teen-aged guests, Megan, discovered a large Rudist clam. This was only her second trip with BPS and her find was sufficiently rare from this location that Dr. Hall claimed it for the nascent Black Belt Museum in Livingston. Her name will remain with it and she will get a letter of recognition.

Many who drove up from Birmingham were watching the weather, and at least one member called to see if the trip had been cancelled. Cancelled??? Hey, this is BPS, guys! But later in the day rumbling could be heard and the clouds looked angry. The landowner sent word that the rain was about an hour away, so we started moseying back to the cars. Oops, not fast enough, we were drenched by the time we made it back to the field. So. How many people remember James Lamb telling us over and over - GET OUT OF THE GULLIES BEFORE IT STARTS RAINING??? Let's see. . . chalk . . clay . . water . . slick . . stuck in mud. Yeah, right. At least 3 vehicles had to be pushed out, um, slid out, perhaps? Needless to say, we were all pumped up with adrenaline by the time we made it back up the long winding road to the top of the hill! An exciting trip we will be discussing for years to come!

Edited by Vicki Lais

Pictures courtesy Nancy Lea, Larry Herr, Vicki Lais

Here's the whole gang, ready for a day of collecting. We have to drive quite a ways through the woods.

What's that? Rumbling in the distance, and word was sent that the rain was about an hour away. So we headed back to the cars.

shell

Small shell embedded in the chalk wall.

exogyra

Exogyra sitting on pedestals created by rain washing away the underlying and surrounding chalk.

We've arrived at the field next to the gullies, where Dr. John Hall gives us an overview of the ecology and geology of the area. This area is being transformed into prairie with careful culling and burning. He also explains collecting techniques to follow so fragile fossils aren't damaged.

exogyra

Complete exogyra in place, both halves.

exogyra

Leisa found both halves of a large exogyra.

Megan has found a large section of Rudistid clam. This type clam is unusual at this location, and will be taken back to the University of West Alabama for study.

exogyra

Top and bottom of an exogyra.

shells

Hundreds of shells on the gully floor.

echinoid spine

Echinoid (sea urchin) spine.

hanging out after the slick climb up the hill

When we finally got back to the top of the hill, the landowners son helped wash off the thick clods of mud that were practically filling our wheelwells. Here we are waiting in line for our turn with the hose.

Becky searching the bottom and sides of a gully.

View of the group finding shark teeth and echinoid spines.

Mike heading back to the car to unload his fossil finds.

Our first sighting of the gullies. BPS has never visited this set of gullies, and they have rarely been collected, so we are anxious to start searching.

crab, shark tooth, enchodus tooth, echinoid spine

Couple of badly worn shark teeth, fish tooth (enchodus?), echinoid spine and small part of crab leg.

Nancy and her two young charges searching along the edge of the chalk.

exogyra

Joshua has found an exogyra with both halves. It's easy finding just bottoms, or just tops, but matching pieces are much more difficult.

exogyra

Joey holding an exogyra with both sides found.

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Oyster bed.

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Joey's box of fossils.

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A fossil oyster shell bed is in the background, with an enchodus tooth in the lower right, a fish vertebra, shell and what appears to be a coprolite specimen in upper left.

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Various fossils and pottery shards found by Leisa.

July 21, 2007 - Cretaceous Fossils, Greene Co, AL

A very large group of 31 people showed up for the July BPS trip to Greene county. Thanks to James Lamb, our trip leader this time, we visited some Cretaceous sites that we have not visited for at least 10 years, so we were all pretty excited. The first site was a chalk gully which has produced nice mosasaur bones in years past. James Lamb gave a short training session on how to collect in chalk gullies, how to walk around in them (slowly and gently), how to collect (when you find something, look up-hill to see if there are more), and other collecting tips. There are numerous pieces of what looks like rubble scattered throughout a gully - each piece of "rubble" is actually part of a fossil, though most of them are unrecognizable without close examination, sometimes under a microscope. James Lamb checked some areas where fossils had been found in the past, and discovered another bone, which was flagged so that it could be retrieved on the way out. Bob found a bone which turned out to be part of a turtle. Also, we found a wide variety of other fossils, including another mosasaur vertebra, a couple of mosasaur teeth, Tylosaurus flipper bone, several shark teeth, including a large one found by Sylvie. Ammonite pieces, worm tubes, burrows, a tiny fish tooth, a fish vertebra, and oyster shells were also found. One member asked James to go check some bones she had flagged; he discovered they were bones of a recent rabbit, and as he was approaching her to return the flag, he asked "Are you keeping that mosasaur vertebra there by your foot?" Well . . . She would've had she seen it first! Many fossils are light colored and blend in well with the environment. It takes time to adjust ones eyes to be able to spot them. We also discovered some fresher fish bones, leading to the conclusion that the birds who regularly raid the catfish farms have been using the gulley as their dining hall. Though we were hot and dripping wet, we were willing to stay longer, wondering what was in the next gully, and the next, and . . .

After rounding up the gang (which is a minor miracle in itself!), we hiked back to our vehicles for lunches, then headed for the creek. Finally, time to get wet and cool off! Out with the sieves, from collander baskets to "real" geology sorters, to home made wood-sided screens. At least a dozen ptychodus teeth turned up - Claire may be the "winner" on these, she had found 6 at last count. Every screen we searched had several shark teeth, and other fossils were also found, including a large fish vertebra, gastropod steinkerns (internal molds), worm tubes, and one very nice arrowhead. We left relatively early (hey, some of us would have stayed til dark if we could have!), and many of us stopped by a famous BBQ joint to continue the fun and fossil discussion.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(photos courtesy Bob Stewart, Steve Corvin and Vicki Lais)
ethics & landowner rules lecture by Dr. Lamb
James Lamb gives a refresher talk on rules about collecting at museum sites, BPS ethics, and landowner restrictions.

Typical Greene County, Alabama chalk gully.

lecture in chalk gully
James Lamb explaining gully collection techniques.

collecting fossils in chalk gully
Even the younger members had fun.

fossil bone of Tylosaurus
Flipper bone of a Tylosaurus found by James Lamb.

collecting fossils in chalk gully

fossil rubble on the ground in chalk gully
Many "pieces" are scattered throughtout the gully, and according to James Lamb, they are all fossils.

fossil turtle shell
Small piece of turtle shell found by Bob.

collecting fossils in chalk gully

fossil teeth and shells
Some typical fossils found in chalk gullies - one finds hundreds of worm tubes, and only a few shark teeth.

fossil shark tooth
Shark teeth are "normal" to find in gullies, but Sylvie found one whose size is truly spectacular for these gullies!

fossil worm tube

fossil ammonite section
Large ammonite section found by Vicki.

fossils

fossil fishtooth

fossil mosasaur vertebra
Mosasaur vertebra found by James Lamb (right beside Vicki's foot, darn it!)

fossil fish vertebra
Fish vertebra.

fossil mosasaur tooth
Nice mosasaur tooth.

fossil ammonite section
Another piece of ammonite.

collecting fossils in chalk gully

fossil teeth

fossil mosasaur vertebra
Small mosasaur vertebra found by Leisa as we were leaving the gullies "Everybody just stepped right over it or passed it by without noticing".

chalk gully overlook

collecting fossils in creek
After lunch we headed to the creek to screen for teeth and whatever else we might find.

fossil ptychodus tooth
One of the many ptychodus teeth found in the creek.

fossil teeth in typical screen
Typical finds after washing the sand/mud from the gravel - notice the shark teeth and the piece of bone.

fossil teeth in screen
Another load of "pay dirt" - fish vertebra, shark teeth, ptychodus tooth.

fossil fish vertebra
Closer shot of the fish vertebra.

fossil gastropod, shark tooth
Nice internal mold of a gastropod.

collecting fossils in creek with screens
A laid back group, keeping cool, having fun. There were various groupings of people all along the creek - some went upstream, some went downstream. James Lamb is collecting material to be used in an upcoming exhibit at McWane Science Center.