August 20, 2005 - Eocene Fossils, Covington and Cretaceous Fossils, Montgomery Co, AL

What a hot, humid day this was! According to weather reports, the temperature hit 97 where we were collecting, and there was virtually no shade. The first site we visited in Covington county was a real dud, for multiple reasons. We knew there would be a "constant steady discharge" due to some future plans at the dam. However, we didn't anticipate this discharge would raise the water level 3-4 feet above normal! This meant our normal collecting areas were underwater, way underwater, and we weren't prepared to scuba dive. We spent a short period of time collecting the few shells, teeth, and horned coral found in the banks, and getting hot and sweaty, then left early for our second site in Montgomery county. Much better collecting at this site! Members found a good number of shark teeth, ptychoda teeth, ammonites, and two unique finds, part of a turtle, and another item that we haven't seen from this site before, which is still being identified. According to Vice President Greg Mestler, in the late 1980's on another BPS field trip to this site, he found mosasaur skull bones in the same area where we found the turtle. Hmmmm.......

Once again, the group ended the day with a fine opportunity to hang out together at The Swamp, a kinda - sorta local eatery (only 20 minutes away, huh, Greg?) where we stayed way too long, but enjoyed the time spent with fellow fossil hounds.

(Pictures courtesy Jan Novak and Vicki Lais.)

Searching for shells, teeth and horned coral in the clay banks. Note how high the water is behind us.

The water was very high, severely impacting our collecting. Sylvie is walking in a spot that is normally dry. Even the island is flooded.

In spite of the high water, some nice shark and ray teeth were found.

Shells in matrix. They are very fragile and crumble easily, so are difficult to collect whole.

Ok, this isn't very productive, on to the next site!

At our second site, the water was high so a safety rope was necessary.

The site is cretaceous. Each layer has a unique set of fossils.

Searching for echinoids and shark teeth.

Greg explaining proper excavation techniques.

Ron found an unusual heart-shaped item which turned out to be a disk from a dear vertebra. It is very light-weight and recent, not a fossil.

Fragments found here are still being identified. Look just above the yellow handle to see the first "rocks", then straight to the left. There are some more fragments in the upper right quadrant. Some are probably turtle.