coprolite

April 19, 2025 - Cretaceous, Dallas County, Alabama

This month's field trip was to Dallas County, Alabama to a fossil site known as Harrell Station! This University of Alabama owned site is located in the Black Belt region of Alabama where the chalky Late Cretaceous rock layers are exposed in our state. This particular site is an exposure of the Mooreville Chalk, an 82 million year old layer of marine sediment from when half of Alabama was underwater during the Late Cretaceous Period.

We found: 4 species of sharks (Cretoxyrhina- a prehistoric cousin to great white sharks, Cretolamna- the direct ancestor to the Megalodon shark, Squalicorax- a mid to large sized generalist hunter, and Scapanorhynchus- a prehistoric goblin shark), fish teeth (Enchodus- a schooling fish with long sabre teeth, nicknamed "sabre toothed herring" but aren't related to herring), a Mosasaur tooth, a fish scale, lots of shells and invertebrate remains, fossilized driftwood, fossilized fish poop (coprolites), and a small partial sea turtle shell!

Additionally, if you'd like to get a firsthand look at what it is like to hunt this site, one of our members (Dylan Falkner) made a Youtube video on this hunt! Watch it at the link provided:

https://youtu.be/dG9xmdOYZmk?si=6wuyHjrme0q2ZnXY

September and October, 2010 - Cretaceous Fossils - Dallas Co, AL

During September and early October, BPS members had several field trips to find fossils and help excavate in the Cretaceous gullies of Dallas County. Over a period of several days (September 19, 24, 26, October 1, 2, 3) a turtle and mosasaur were excavated. Also, a number of other fossils were found, including shark teeth, upper and lower Xiphactinus fish jaw with teeth, a variety of shells, shark coprolite, shark vertebra, fish vertebra, and enchodus teeth. Most of the important finds will be used in exhibits at the (now in development) Black Belt Museum in Livingston.

Each field trip is similar to a class, in that participants are taught proper collecting techniques, how to find and identify fossils, and how to excavate fragile fossils out of the ground intact and make plaster jackets.