08-09-vl-flagged-4477
An area that has been flagged to mark several areas of fossil fish.
Visitor
Cretaceous
08-09-vl-crocodile-4457
This tiny bone found by Vicki turned out to be one of the most important finds of the day. At first thinking it was a very large bird, after closer examination, James realized it was a baby crocodile, the only baby one found in Alabama! After waving us all away from the area, he proceeded to search on hands and knees, finding at least 8 tiny scutes, which had been missed when the bone was flagged. He even hiked back to the cars to get a screen, so the area below the find could be searched. If you examine the photo carefully, the small items that look bits of broken shell are actually parts of scutes.
08-09-vl-fish-4520
Back half of a fish that was embedded in the chalk gully wall. According to James Lamb, it was only half there when it fossilized - none has been lost. After finding so many partial fossils, we are speculating that this was a shallow feeding ground.
08-09-vl-shark-vert-4588
Remember the pile of shark vertebra laying on the side of the gully? This is them after being cleaned up in the lab.
08-09-vl-gully-4534
After searching the first gully carefully, some of us moved on to the next large gully.
08-09-vl-collecting-fish-516
A fish is being carefully excavated from the side of this gully. It was found by accident, when the tooth part of an enchodus jaw found on top of the gully rolled down, and we were hunting for the broken off tooth.
08-09-vl-croc-4570
Back at the lab, James showed us the difference in size of the baby crocodile we found in the gully, and what is normally found in Alabama. This scute is the smallest one found in Alabama thus far.
08-09-vl-dirt-bag-4566
Gully season is over for the year due to hunting season. On a prior trip, parts of a fossil were found, and James is hoping to find more small bones in the large bags of dirt he collected from the same area. We had so many fossils to collect, it was dark by the time we arrived at this gully.
