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 1 Friday Day 2 Saturday Day 3 Sunday
DAY 1 - FRIDAY
On Friday morning, Jan, Becky and a co-worker joined James Lamb on a search for ancient bones in a set of gullies that had not been visited for a number of years. Very nice specimens of fish, shark, mosasaur, enchodus, and rudistid clam were found. To excavate shark vertebra which were scattered over a large area, an awning was erected to provide protection from the 100+ temperatures of the gully. Later that afternoon, other members of the group began showing up for the weekend campout.
That night we set up camp in a cow pasture, where we fended off curious cows and hungry fire ants that seemed to find every crack into anything. One could literally not stand still without finding several ants crawling up their boots. Beautiful spider webs and large cow patties were obstacles to dodge during the night. Then, about midnight, the rain started. A slow, gentle rain. And it continued through the night. Not good, since it would make the gully chalk as slick as oiled glass.
(photos courtesy Jan Novak and Vicki Lais)
Shark vertebra
Overview of one of the gullies surveyed on Friday.
Enchodus fish tooth.
Cretolamna appendiculata shark tooth
Shark vertebra
Rudistid clam
Large shark vertebra
Becky holding a rudistid clam.
Mosasaur vertebra (fish vertebra in middle).
Shark vertebra scattered on the sides of a gully. The red flags mark the highest spot a bone has been found.
An awning was set up over the shark vertebra excavation to provide relief from the relentless glare of the sun.
Shark vertebra
Fish bones
Becky watches as James records the site and finds of the day in his logbook.