Alabama

What a hot, humid day this was! According to weather reports, the temperature hit 97 where we were collecting, and there was virtually no shade. The first site we visited in Covington county was a real dud, for multiple reasons. We knew there would be a "constant steady discharge" due to some future plans at the dam. However, we didn't anticipate this discharge would raise the water level 3-4 feet above normal! This meant our normal collecting areas were underwater, way underwater, and we weren't prepared to scuba dive. We spent a short period of time collecting the few shells, teeth, and horned coral found in the banks, and getting hot and sweaty, then left early for our second site in Montgomery county. Much better collecting at this site! Members found a good number of shark teeth, ptychoda teeth, ammonites, and two unique finds, part of a turtle, and another item that we haven't seen from this site before, which is still being identified. According to Vice President Greg Mestler, in the late 1980's on another BPS field trip to this site, he found mosasaur skull bones in the same area where we found the turtle. Hmmmm.......

Once again, the group ended the day with a fine opportunity to hang out together at The Swamp, a kinda - sorta local eatery (only 20 minutes away, huh, Greg?) where we stayed way too long, but enjoyed the time spent with fellow fossil hounds.

(Pictures courtesy Jan Novak and Vicki Lais.)

Searching for shells, teeth and horned coral in the clay banks. Note how high the water is behind us.

 

 

The water was very high, severely impacting our collecting. Sylvie is walking in a spot that is normally dry. Even the island is flooded.

 

In spite of the high water, some nice shark and ray teeth were found.

Shells in matrix. They are very fragile and crumble easily, so are difficult to collect whole.

Ok, this isn't very productive, on to the next site!

At our second site, the water was high so a safety rope was necessary.

The site is cretaceous. Each layer has a unique set of fossils.

Searching for echinoids and shark teeth.

Greg explaining proper excavation techniques.

Ron found an unusual heart-shaped item which turned out to be a disk from a dear vertebra. It is very light-weight and recent, not a fossil.

Fragments found here are still being identified. Look just above the yellow handle to see the first "rocks", then straight to the left. There are some more fragments in the upper right quadrant. Some are probably turtle.

Closer view.

Greg has exposed more fragments, probably turtle.

James had an opportunity to practice making a protective plaster jacket.

Nice ammonite found by James.

 

Rychard carefully excavates an ammonite.

A close-up view of a ammonite found by Rychard.

Tracks of a recent visitor, a large alligator . . .

Paige, get out of the water, you look just like gator bait!

Ron's other interest is gold panning, and he gave some of us a demo, using gold bearing material he found in Georgia.

Greg, turn around! They told me to quit taking pictures of people's rear ends!

What a group of tired, sweaty people. So where do we go to cool off and relax a while?

The Swamp, of course! Our favorite restaurant on the Alabama River.

 

This month, BPS members and guests returned to a creek in Chilton county that hasn't been visited by the group in about 6 years. The weather was perfect, and the creek was ideal for cooling off. We obtained permission to enter the creek at a new location, and everyone found numerous specimens of Cretaceous age petrified/ permineralized wood, from the Gordo Formation. Permineralized wood forms in this environment because of the presence of dissolved silica within the groundwater, which gradually replaces the cells in the wood. A few of the specimens collected showed signs of having small crystals on them at one time in the past, but the crystals were almost worn completely off by the tumbling action of the water and rocks.

(Pictures courtesy Lea Martin and Vicki Lais.)

Hanging out at the meeting location, waiting for everyone to arrive.

Just hanging out. Claire was busy distributing BPS T-shirts that had been purchased for our fund-raiser.

Vicki and Loni are stretching out the aerial map of the creek, preparing to give an overview of the geology of the area and show the collecting sites to the group.

Our initial view of the creek, checking out the gravel bars.

Rick brought a hoe to tease the rocks, which worked very well.

Walking along a large sand and gravel embankment. Roger was visiting relatives in Alabama and decided to join us, and found some nice pieces of wood. Hope your vacation was memorable!

Gravel bars were quite wide in some locations.

Nancy searching off the beaten path.

Claire showing off one of her first finds.

A closer look

Paige with some of her finds.

 

Claire fishing for a nice piece of wood, you can see the dark image under the water.

The water looks deep, but in most places you will barely get your knees wet crossing to the other bank.

Rick lives in Chilton county, and obtained permission from the local landowners for BPS members to collect in several spots on the creek. A big thank you to Rick from all of us!

Loni is back after an absence of almost 15 years - Welcome Back, Loni!

This is a view through the water, which is about 1 foot deep at this point. Bottom of sand and gravel looks remarkably like pudding-stone. Some of the better petrified wood specimens were found in the water.

Rychard and Vicki, setting up for a photo op.

This is what we see as we walk along the bank of the creek. Notice how the piece of petrified wood blends in with the pebbles. Also, in many cases, the pebbles are actually very worn pieces of wood, so worn that one would never be able to convince a novice that it really was wood! When one taps pieces of the wood together, it sounds like tapping drinking glasses together.

Another piece of petrified wood hidden among the gravel. Some of us also collected the multi colored pebbles.

An outcrop of mottled red and pale red-purple clay, an indicator of the Gordo Formation. There are small outcrops in some areas, and other areas are all red-purple clay, with no sand and gravel bars at all. Some parts of the creek bed are also covered in this material, so it is important to be able to see the bottom as one is wading in the creek, as the clay is extremely slick, and you need to walk on the gravel or sand instead.

And here goes Paige fishing in the water. . . .

Another nice specimen "caught" by Paige.

And now it's Rychard's turn. . .

Rychard found some large pieces of wood that were badly weathered.

A small feeder creek draining into the main creek.

More pieces of wood. This creek location is known for wood, and wood was the only fossil found on this trip.

End of the day, plumb tuckered out. Claire with the nice sized section of wood she found midstream (see picture above) And yes, we get hot, wet, dirty, and sweaty on these trips, and have a wonderful time doing it!

Another wonderful day on the river! Weather forecast called for a cold front to come in, but we were far enough south to enjoy very nice weather. The river had risen 10-15 feet since the scouting crew checked it out the previous week, and much of our collecting area was under water. The collection area is in the marl limestone sequences in the Arcola Limestone Member (Late Cretaceous Campanian 83-74 mya). We were hoping to find more of "our" mosasaur, whom we have named "Bigbee", and we actually did find one piece, another vertebra, in situ. Much of the collecting area had been scoured by the water and wave action. A few other pieces of mosasaur bone were found, including one vertebra, but not in the same area as the ones from the last trip, so there is no way to be certain they are from the same animal. Numerous steinkerns (internal molds) of gastropods (snails), bryzoan (look like a bunch of worm tubes stuck together), brachiopod, pelecypod, straight cephalopods, and ammonites were found, also some carbonized fossil wood.

Steve was spotted tooling around in the boat, looking as if he planned to go way down to a place that was difficult to walk to, so Vicki stuck out her thumb and she and Paige hitched a ride. A very exciting time getting into that boat from a cliff face! Claire decided not to try the boat trick, but decided to risk walking along the steep bluff. We got there about the same time, and of course were looking for "great treasures". Vicki spotted something that looked "odd" pretty quickly, and it turned out to be part of a large ammonite embedded in a huge boulder that everyone had walked past. We all started hunting around that area, but didn't find the other half. Further down, Steve stuck his hammer up under a rock before putting his hand there to check for fossils. Good thing he did, because a cottonmouth attacked the hammer! After moving away from the snake, we heard Claire squeal. She had found another large ammonite near where the first one was found, and it was almost complete. Steve just shook his head, and declared he would never pick up hitch-hikers again!

A small group took off on a scouting expedition after the trip was officially over. They found a nice shelf area with numerous fossils which were very fragile and easily breakable. So, we'll just enjoy the pictures! Found a number of very nice ammonites, a few shells, and pieces of fossil wood.

A big THANK YOU goes to Captain Gilbert and Captain Steve for the use of their boats!

(pictures courtesy Lea Martin, Claire Smith, and Vicki Lais.)

Hanging out waiting for everyone to arrive.

Paige, Leisa, Gilbert, Carl & Vicki popping out the small gastropods and straight cephalopods.

Claire is just getting started.

Mosasaur vertebra found by Vicki, quite a distance from the others that were found on the last trip.

Leisa excavating around a fragile fossil.

And the nice gastropod she collected.

The chalky shoreline. (Paige isn't tired, just getting a closer look!)

Steve's attention has just been diverted as someone stopped to talk . . .

Close-up of some of Steve's finds, mostly gastropods. There is also a nice mosasaur bone in that box.

Tiny nautiloid found by Steve.

Several Exogira were found.

Some of Lea's finds.

Some of Paige's finds.

Gilbert has found another one (what, I don't know!)

Nice gastropod and the impression it left in the chalk, found by either Lea or Paige.

Nice partial ammonite in place. It really blends in with the boulder quite well. Several people passed by without spotting it, leaving it for Vicki to find!

Same ammonite after excavation. This is the bottom that was protected from weathering.

Paige holding an ammonite found by Claire.

Carl showing off his favorite finds.

Captain Steve and Captain Gilbert. Thanks, guys!

Gilbert found some fossil carbonized wood and a mass of what is either worm tubes or bryozoans.

Another nice gastropod and image it left in the chalk.

Shells embedded in the chalk.

Carl & Leisa, tuckered out after a long day.

Steve's finds, all cleaned up and protective coating applied.

Nice Ammonite found by Claire (after cleaning)

Another view of the ammonite.

A limestone shelf filled with fossils found in the late evening. Nice to look at, but the fossils were too fragile to collect. Below is our "picture collection".

Nice ammonite.

A limb of carbonized wood.

Another nice ammonite.

Our January trip was delayed a week, due to the ice storm that hit the eastern part of Alabama on our scheduled day. Just a week later, it was a very nice, sunny day, with a slight breeze coming off Weiss Lake. Isn't this Alabama weather wonderful! If you don't like the current weather, just wait a few days!

This year we decided on a boat trip to a new, uncollected area of the lake, where everyone found a plentiful supply of trilobites. The water level was up higher than expected, due to the recent rain, but the area where we collected had a very wide beach, so the water level was not an issue. Shown in the pictures are the best samples, though there were numerous specimens of tiny trilobites, no more than 1/4 inch long, and some rocks were covered with these small ones (ask Clare how much a 5 gallon bucket of rocks weighs!). Though there was shale covering the ground in many locations, we focused on collecting nodules. This site is from the middle Cambrian Conasauga Fm. Albertan stage, approximately 530 million years old. Cephalon (heads), pygidium (tails), and several whole specimens of the following were found: Coosella, Coosia superba, Kingstonia, Densonella, Holcacephalus, and Norwoodella. Also found were a number of "Brooksella" which are believed to be the internal mold of a "primitive jellyfish", possibly from the Conasauga Fm, Dresbachian stage, late Cambrian approximately 515 million years ago.

Late in the day, some of the diehards in the group proceeded to another site we checked out last year, to see if more of the larger triloibites (possibly Tricrepicephalus) had weathered out. Alas, the water level was too high, and all we collected were shots of the rock formations, and a great sunset. What a pleasant way to end the day!

(pictures courtesy Lea Martin and Vicki Lais)

Most of the group, waiting on the rest of the crew in the parking lot.

Paige's mom (Lea) made pouches with the BPS logo to collect the finds of the day.

Hanging out at the boat ramp, and of course everyone has to search, just in case. Paige did find a nice trilobite, almost whole, see the "hands" picture below, the 3rd hand down on the left.

On the way again with Captain Steve . . .

Claire and Nancy hoping to spot the "big one"!

Nancy found a nice brooksella!

Everyone scattered along the shoreline after we landed.

So many rocks to turn over, so little time!

Greg and Paige.

Paige and Nancy show off their brooksella specimens.

Wide but muddy shoreline provided lots of collecting space.

Leisa found several brooksella.

Various members found some nice specimens throughout the day.

With so many rocks, the trilobites are difficult to spot.. Look closely in the center.

Wished I had lined everyone up, Claire's boots are relatively clean at the end of the day! Note the small pieces of shale covering the ground, there was so much, it was almost like a carpet in places. We collected very few fossils in this thin shale, it is very fragile and difficult to transport without crumbling, and there were plenty of nodules to examine.

Vicki with her bag of rocks (and many more pounds in the backpack!)

Leisa, Steve, and Greg get ready to head back, after a very nice day of collecting.

The prize of the day goes to Greg, who found this wonderful specimen on the scouting trip.

Same specimen from a different angle.

Specimens after cleaning. The shine is from a protective coating of Elmer's Glue and water solution.

More samples shiny with protective glue.

Thanks, guys, it was a fun trip!

We must fill our bellies before that long trip home! The food and company were excellent!

A few members went to another site to check for larger trilobites, but the water level covered the collecting area. Instead, we studied the geology.

This interesting bluff shows where the river has deposited layers in smooth bands over thousands of years.

We have been told these are snail attachment points.  The odd marks cover many of the rocks in the area.

A beautiful sunset to end the day!