Alabama

Our activity for December was the annual BPS Holiday Party, this time held at the home of Judy and Bill Lewis.  They are fabulous hosts, and have a house built for entertaining.  Their numerous trips to exciting locations around the world, and the treasures they have collected made for interesting conversations.  Also, a number of members greatly enjoyed the pool table downstairs!   Bill was in for a surprise.  He hasn't been attending outings or meetings, but discovered that his favorite hobby, fly fishing, was shared by most of the men attending.  He also found out many of our sites are found on fishing trips - I suspect we have another convert!

There was no official BPS outing this month, but several members participated in a "Scouting Outing".  We took boats back to Franklin county, and scouted numerous spots around the lake.  Some nice finds, but from debris piles, saw marks, and 4 wheeler tracks, it appears that there has been some serious collecting going on around this lake.  One site that had been scouted about 3 years ago as a promising site, was virtually void of fossils now.

Some common fossils found around the lake are shown below.

(Photos courtesy Vicki Lais) 

Gastropod and ostrocods.

So much lakeshore, so little time....

So where do we go next, guys?

A wonderful day of exploring.  Had fun.  Goodbye - see you next time!

BPS took an earlier than normal trip to Russellville this month. Generally, the water is lowered during the winter, and a good low water level in January makes it easy to collect in the Bangor Limestone that surrounds the lake. But we found they were releasing the water much earlier, and much lower, than normal for a special project. Collecting was the best I've ever seen. Many formations that have been under water on all prior BPS trips were now out in the open. Crinoids were plentiful. Another trip is being planned to take advantage of this unique opportunity.

The one that got away. We discovered on our next trip that someone had come behind us and popped this one off.

Back side.....

Front side.

BPS did a return trip to Butler County this month.  South Alabama had a lot of rain this year, and the creek looked very different from our previous trip; also, the water was much higher this time.  A number of nice teeth were found, nautaloids, and small gastropods on the ridge.  The best entertainment for the day was watching Claire spin her way up the mountain, after getting stuck in the very soft, wet clay/chalk.

Several of us proceeded on south to Point A Dam for the late evening.  The water was being released, so the normal collecting area was underwater, however, Claire found a new area that was very productive.

Searching on the ridge for nautiloids and gastropods.

Playing in the sand.  Creek is much higher than on our last trip.

Steve had some good finds screening.

Robert found a nice nautiloid.

Another view of the nautiloid, being held by Kate.

A beautiful arrowhead was found.

Jonathan found a very nice piece of incised pottery.

Becky looking at her finds.

We had so much fun at this site back in May, we wanted to do it again, and search for more mosasaur bones. And we were in luck! 2 more large vertebra were found, and 2 pieces of jawbone, one with pieces of the tooth still there, however, we did not find where they were washing out, but we all had a great time scouting. This site in Greene County, AL is characterized by large quantities of pea gravel. Going east along the creek one is in Pleistocene age material, while going west moves one through an area of Mooreville Chalk (Cretaceous).

A number of teeth from Scapanorhynchus Texanus were found by all. This shark, also known as the Goblin shark, was thought to have been extinct until it was re-discovered in the late 1800s off the coast of Japan. Its living relative is referred to as Mitsukurina Owstoni. The sharks most dominant characteristic is its long protruding snout. Living species frequent the greater depths around 1000’ or more. Scapanorhychus is estimated to have reached lengths between 3-5 meters (10-17 feet).

Its teeth are varied in shape depending on their position within the jaw. Anterior teeth are identified by their high arched bilateral roots, as shown in figure 1 below. The teeth themselves have prominent longitudinal striations running from the top of the cusp up most of the way of the inner curve. According to some sources, some anterior teeth may have tiny lateral cusplets, however not which were found exhibited this characteristic. Many of the anterior teeth (excluding root) found ranged between 2.5 to 3.5cm.

Lateral teeth, shown in figure 2 below, are much different than the anterior teeth. They are triangular in shape and have cusplets on each side of the tooth. The roots are more flattened and lack the arch that the anterior teeth possess.

--Edited by Vicki Lais

(Photos courtesy Ron Beerman and Vicki Lais)

Figure 1	Figure 2

The second type of tooth found at this site was identified genus Squalicorax. Not enough information nor specimens were collected to specify the species at this time. Squalicorax, or crow shark as it is commonly known as, was believed to be both a predator and a scavenger. Fossil evidence seems to indicate that this shark grew to a length or 4.5 meters (15 feet) or more. Fossil teeth from this shark have been found in Europe, North Africa and North America. Some of the Squalicorax teeth found are shown below in figure 3.

Another jaw part with portion of tooth.

Way down the creek. Mooreville chalk can be found in this area.