ptychodus

On Saturday, Sept. 22, a nice-sized group of BPS members and guests gathered in anticipation of a gully and creek exploration and discovery.  The day was predictably hot but spirits were high – fossils out there, waiting to be found!!  After a brief orientation and explanation of potential finds, the group moved into the gullies and began searching.  Finds from this site included shark and enchodus teeth, shark and fish vertebrae, shell fragments, worm tubes, shrimp burrows, and ubiquitous, sparkly pyritized organic material (still hard for me to resist).  While talking to another member, James spotted a string of shark vertebrae (5-6) on an adjacent gully which he carefully collected and wrapped for transport.  Still really spectacular and incredible to me that an animal used those vertebrae to swim around and live his life and here we find them 80 million years later.  And, they are still in pretty good shape (considering)!

After a lunch break, we moved to the second site (my personal favorite) which is the very productive creek in the next county.  After the hot gullies, a cool wade through a very fossiliferous creek is just what the group likes!  Before we made it to the creek, I had the opportunity to meet the owner and express gratitude for his hospitality and generosity in allowing us access to this treasure on his property.  He told me he was glad we were enjoying it and that he was also glad that so many fossils were being found and appreciated.  Me, too!!

In the creek, my first screen yielded 5 shark teeth!  How can this not be a favorite location?!?!  James and several others went upstream to find gravel bars and while some stayed at the downstream spot that seemed to be yielding nice and plentiful teeth and bone fragments.  Also found were 3 ptychodus teeth of unknown species, 1 Ptychodus polygyrus tooth (way to go LEISA!!!) a piece of Native American pottery (also Leisa) and other interesting fossil, geofact and late hominid artifacts (vintage glass, metal, pottery mostly).  If someone leaves this site empty-handed, it’s because he or she chooses to do so!  There’s something here for everyone!  So, a little before daylight started dimming, the group called a halt to the searching, changed into dry clothes and shoes and bid the lovely creek site good-bye until next time.             

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

The March field trip was graced with perfect weather for playing in a creek. The morning started out pleasantly cool but was shorts and T-shirt weather by the time we got to the site.