ammonite

June 15, 2019 - Cretaceous, Dallas and Perry County, Alabama

On Saturday, June 15, 2019, a group of BPS members and guests met at a pre-determined meeting spot for a visit/pit stop/supply gather before heading to the field trip destination. The weather was warm but with slightly lower humidity which was much appreciated. After a short drive to the site and a short hike to the gullies, James gathered everyone for an informative talk about the age, formation and fossils in the gullies, as well as some collecting etiquette.

Fossil collectors spread out across the gullies in hopes of findings nice specimens but the gullies weren’t revealing many finds on this day. Still, not a total shut out, though, with shark teeth, enchodus teeth, fish vertebra, Hamulus tubes, turtle bones, Inoceramus clam fragments, shrimp burrows and other fossils being found. James checked on some of his previously tagged finds and reinforced them for stability where needed.

At noon, the group went to the shed for lunch. It’s always very comfortable there with shade and usually a fresh breeze – just what is needed to recharge the biological batteries! At that point, too, everyone has an opportunity to compare fossil finds and have them identified. Then, after a pleasant break, it’s time to move to the second part of the day – the creek!

Just a short drive away, there’s a lovely, shady creek with Cretaceous fossils that are slightly older than the fossils found in the chalk gullies we’d just visited. There are usually gravel bars by the creek access point but the ever-flowing water moved the gravel from the usual places. James hiked overland to find a sizable gravel bar for the group to screen. Everyone was able to find very nice shark teeth as well as gastropod casts, ammonite and baculite segment casts and other fossil and non-fossil pieces. It is a special place and will remain one of my favorite trips.

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Bobby went for a walk to stretch his legs, and found a whole ammonite.

May 29, 2010 - Cretaceous Fossils, Union Co, MS

This month's trip was to northern Mississippi, where we collected in the Coon Creek formation. The area was once a bay in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Late Cretaceous site, where we found numerous turritella (most in an extremely fragile condition), and even more crab and lobster parts, mostly looking like they had exploded, though several intact "bellies" and a couple of claws were found. The finds of the day had to be the mosasaur tooth found by Don H., and the fragment of a duck-billed dinosaur (hadrosaur) tooth found by David. This site is being studied by George Phillips, paleontologist at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, who will be reviewing our finds for anything of scientific interest. The hadrosaur tooth fragment has already been sent to him for inclusion in his research.

Don C. had this to say about his collecting efforts for the day: "I'm very happy with my haul of crabs and shrimp (7 different genera and species in all), plus I got quite a few gastropods and bivalves, a squashed nautilus, a good piece of an ammonite with sutures, an Enchodus fang, and a small shark tooth. I brought home a bag of clay to sift and I'm still finding all manner of micro goodies too."

The diehards of the group had an evening of BBQ at a local restaurant, and as everyone headed home, two additional sites were scouted, neither of which appeared promising.