Cretaceous

Day 1 Friday         Day 2 Saturday         Day 3 Sunday

A
weekend trip to the Cretaceous chalk gullies of Dallas County Alabama and a
creek in Perry county turned up numerous fossils.  Ancient creatures,
including shark, turtle, mosasaur, ptychodus, fish, clam, and ammonite
were found during the three day weekend trip.

DAY 2 - SATURDAY

Finally, after a night of gentle rain, around 7am Saturday morning the rain quit, and James
Lamb set off to find another site that the large group could access
without damage to themselves or the fossils.  After tracking down
landowners for at least an hour, we were granted permission to collect
in a creek in Perry county.  And what a nice creek!  Along with the
adventure of exploring a creek we had never visited, climbing over
strainers and up and down steep bluffs, everyone found numerous shark
teeth, ptychodus teeth, gastropods, and even a small piece of belemnite
with the iridescent sheen still visible.

After leaving the
creek, we went back to camp, and once we arrived, we noticed the cows
were quite interested in camp and the strange large metal boxes sitting
all around their pasture.  One was carefully examining a particular red
car!  After resting and filling our bellies, we decided to check out a
gully near camp, to see if it was dry enough to collect.  Fortunately
it was, and a number of nice specimens were found, including whole
shells, mosasaur vertebra, turtle shell, fish vertebra, and worm tubes.

That night at camp Claire took numerous pictures of spider webs, and we listened to everyone's tall tales and tales of past field trips. 

(photos courtesy Claire Smith and Vicki Lais)