Alabama

Everyone met at a central location, and a brief introduction to the geology of the area was given before driving about 12 more miles to the entrance to the site. While past trips to this location have found the entrance roads to be very slick from rain, this years access was dry and easy. The entire caravan was able to drive to the limestone hilltop parking area.

The fossil hunting started the moment you exited your car with small gastropods and segments of large ammonites being found on the cleared hill top. The trail down to the creek provided more ammonites.

The creek was beautiful with white quartz sand beaches at many of the bends. Shark teeth, ray teeth, fossil bone, ammonite pieces and nautiloids were found in the gravel bars, along with numerous non-fossilized bones and teeth from various mammals. Some of the more interesting finds were various human artifacts rather than fossils. Indian potshards, some with incised decorations, a couple of projectile points and an Indian pipe, probably of European origin, were found.

The end of the day found the diehard fossil hunters resting at the beach where the trail intersected the creek. The Novaks organized a fire on the beach to roast small sausages, while others brought snacks to contribute, and the Stewarts returned to the parking area to set up camp for the night and fix their dinner.

By dark, everyone headed home, leaving Pam and Bob to enjoy a pleasant night at the site with owls hooting and Whip-poor-wills calling. At daybreak turkeys could be heard at the tree line adjacent to the camp area. After a couple of hours of walking the creek on Sunday morning the Stewarts packed up and reluctantly left the site, letting it return to nature.

(Photos courtesy Jan Novak, Bob Stewart, Becky Guthrie, and Vicki Lais)

Vice President Greg gives an overview of the geology of the site and collecting rules.

A lot of excited people showed up for the field trip - fossils can even be found on the limestone earth in the foreground.

If you look carefully, you can spot tiny round gastropods, each approximately 3/8 inch across.

Hiking down to the creek from the parking area (and of course, looking for fossils along the way!)

The creek was higher this year than normal, but there were still numerous gravel bars.

A recent storm had washed up a huge pile of brush and trees, and left behind rocky rubble and mud rather than the white sand we normally find.

Nice nautiloid found by David.

Ray tooth and shark tooth.

Unknown item, can anyone identify? Looks kind of like a tooth. . . .but . . . .

Nice turritella in coquina.

Lea's mom was visiting from the Czech Republic, and decided to join us for the fun!

Shells in matrix.

Probably a pottery handle.

Worm tracks in the sand. Fossil worm tracks much like these are found in shale in north Alabama.

Numerous clayballs were found in the creek. This one shows bits and pieces of plant debris. The finder did not examine it closely to determine whether these were fossil leaves or recent, however, based on the geology of the area, they could easily be cretaceous fossil remains.

While Bob & Pam set their tent up . . .

The others built a fire and enjoyed the evening.

The campfire has about died out as some of the diehard fossil hounds hang out wringing that last little bit of enjoyment from the day!

Since the grey-on-grey of the limestone makes it difficult to photograph the details clearly, Chris took multiple photos of the boulder, then used “stitch” photo technology to create detailed photographs of the complete rock surface. By using extreme macro and pasting the sections together, we have gotten far better records of those surfaces and the fossils they contain than with past techniques.

The Ruffner Mountain quarry is a fascinating place to visit and learn more about the Alabama fossil record. BPS is glad that we can contribute to the educational services of the Nature Center by our documentation.

After a late lunch at a locally famous hamburger joint, it was time to head home and get ready to party! All-in-all, a great day, topped off by the annual Xmas party. Good company, good food, Dirty Santa, a lot of laughter, and live music from our very own Lea Novak. It doesn’t get much better than that!

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(Photos courtesy Chris and Vicki Lais)

Iron ore spotted on path to quarry.

Mixture of fossils including brachiopods and bryozoans.

Most of the fossils are badly weathered.

Coral.

Large coral in boulder.

Another view of the same coral.

This is very tiny, no more than 1/2 inch across (My apologies for lack of a scale). Dr. Phil Novack-Gottshall says this appears to be a diploporitan, a type of echinoderm .

Taking a break.

This is the rock/boulder that has been etched so that more fossil material is visible.

A closer view.

This odd looking fossil had us speculating, but according to Dr. Phil Novack-Gottshall, it is a crinoid stem with very regular cirri.

A macro view of the unusual crinoid stem.

After the butterfly viewing, we then convoyed to a quarry of Mississippian age Fort Payne chert where we had permission to hunt the whole day! Doesn't get much better than this, and the weather was absolutely perfect! Along with more large crinoid stems, several kinds of coral, brachiopods and a few trilobite pieces were found. Quite a few of us found beautiful geodes and concluded that this is just about as exciting as the fossils. They certainly are gorgeous souvenirs.

Later in the afternoon, a few of us sneaked off to one of Greg's barbecue spots and chowed down on some excellent vittles while our more dedicated crew-members devoted themselves to the task at hand. Well, you can't have everything. Sometimes a blackberry cobbler just has your name on it.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(pictures courtesy Bill Fowler and Vicki Lais)

Our first stop of the day, where we found Monarch chrysalis on numerous surfaces, including plants and house siding. This chrysalis has turned clear, and you can see the butterfly inside. There were several newly emerged Monarch butterflies slowly pumping their wings, waiting for them to harden (that's what everyone's staring at on the porch.)

We had a great turnout and beautiful weather; here we pose for a group picture before setting off on our day's adventure.

The first fossil stop, a gravel road paved with chert from the Mississippian age. Almost all the rocks have crinoid stems or impressions in them.

Examining recent finds.

Samples of fossils found today.

On to the next stop at a nearby quarry which was large, hilly and had multiple collecting areas. Everyone scattered in different directions to collect, so it was difficult to get closeups of people and their finds during the day.

Crinoid stems in matrix.

Crinoid stems.

Crinoid stems. Click picture for closer view.

Horned coral found by Bill.

Clockwise, from upper left - unknown (possible stromatolite), possible burrow, part of a trilobite and shell, bryozoan.

Small trilobite found by Bill, magnified.

Large trilobite found by Bill. This is what we came for, he must have found their secret hiding place!

Coral.

Part of a trilobite.

Crinoid encrusted rock.