nautiloid

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.

oyster

Fossil oysters

Checking out the latest finds.

Screening for fossils in the shallow creek.

We found several areas where tadpoles had taken over shallow pools of water.

coquina

Coquina, a very hard "stone" composed of compressed shells, used in many parts of Florida as building stone.

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?

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Nautiloid in matrix

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Nautiloid in matrix.

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Nautiloid

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Claire with a nautiloid find

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Nautiloid

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Closer shot of a nautiloid found by Claire

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Loni with a nautiloid she found.

April 26, 2008 - Cretaceous and Tertiary Fossils, Butler Co, AL

The April 2008 field trip brought beautiful weather and a nice relaxing weekend. Claire, Martha and Leisa were able to get to the site on Friday and enjoyed an evening gazing up at the stars and listening to the night birds. Saturday morning brought the arrival of the rest of the field trip party. Members ventured up stream and down stream. Several shark teeth and ray teeth were found, along with cochina stone embedded with turritella, gastropods, and nautiloids. A few Native American pottery shards were also found. After a relaxing cook out and campfire on the beach, four members of our party left for the big city, while the rest of the group had come prepared to camp for the weekend.

Sunday morning was a little foggy, as some of the early risers found out, but it lifted shortly after true light. Two members headed home early to care for pets while the remainder hiked the creek and other parts of the property. Several nautiloids were collected from an area that was newly exposed. In spite of dire weather reports, the weather at the creek was perfect for the weekend.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(Vicki sends tons of thanks to those who shared their field trip stories, let her paw through their fossils, and took pictures while she was under the weather a bit.)

(photos courtesy Leisa Whitlow, Jan Novak, Claire Smith, and Vicki Lais)