Collecting in the creek
BPS members defied the extreme heat and went to south Alabama to assist in collecting fossils and close down the dig site until the weather cools off some. A number of mosasaur bones were found, and a mosasaur jaw still containing a tooth. Other fossils found included shark teeth, shark vertebra, various varieties of fish, turtle bone, and enchodus jaw and teeth. The thermometer read 110 degrees, so after lunch under a covered pavilion, we headed to a nearby creek to cool down. The creek yielded numerous shark teeth, brachiopods, and a few cephalopod pieces.
Excavating a mosasaur jaw bone. Several members carefully sifted the chalk down the gully from the main excavation, finding several vertebra.
Fish vertebra, enchodus tooth and several shark teeth found in the gullies. Notice the whiteness of one of the shark teeth - many have deteriorated under the hot sun.
The long pointy tooth is an Enchodus tooth, and the others are shark teeth
This month BPS members went to Perry County, in south Alabama, and collected in a creek where it has been said, this is the furtherest north that cretaceous material is found. It has been a while since we collected at this site, and kudzu and other grassy plants had grown over the road, making it a challenge to find our way to the site this time.
As Vicki searched for the elusive "easy way down" for over an hour, the others slid down the steep embankments to reach the fossils found in the creek. The fossils consisted mostly of various varieties of shark teeth. A few mosasaur teeth, gastropods and ammonite parts were also found. One of our visitors even found an arrowhead.
Photos courtesy Vicki Lais