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: 2 species of sharks (Cretoxyrhina- a prehistoric cousin to great white sharks, 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 fish scale, lots of shells and invertebrate remains, fossilized driftwood, fossilized fish poop (coprolites), and a small partial sea turtle shell!
