graptolite

February 21, 2009 - Pennsylvanian Fossils, Bibb Co, AL

Well, sometimes things happen unexpectedly. A call on Monday to the landowner to schedule a field trip for March. Well, actually he said, the site is ready to be reclaimed. Next week. Can you come this Saturday? Well . . . . . Sure we can! A hastily planned trip to Bibb County, Alabama caught many members by surprise. We came here a couple of years ago, but our collecting area was severely restricted due to ongoing construction. This time - no restrictions - we had access to the entire site. Those who could come found beautiful plant material at this old coal washing facility. Numerous specimens of lepidodendron, calamites, some delicate ferns and numerous other fossil plants were found. Afterwards a quick trip to the Cahaba River where the Cahaba Lilies bloom in May, then to a beehive oven location. Our last stop of the day was to collect graptolites.

Photos courtesy Bill Fowler and Vicki Lais

Bibb

fern

Fern.

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A slab of graptolites - notice how small the slab really is using the hand as a scale.

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Tiny graptolites as seen through a magnifier. They look like pencil markings on the shale.

November 24, 2002 - Bibb Co, AL

This months trip was to a graptolite site in Bibb County, Alabama. This is the Athens Shale formation (Ordovician age). Graptolites are found from the Cambrian to the Carboniferous, and are an extinct group of Paleozoic colonial organisms. They are usually found as thin carbonized films in various shales or limestones.

We made several scouting stops also, one at a reclaimed strip mine, where we found the old high wall, with lots of collectible fossils well away from the "danger" area.