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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 2 - SATURDAY
Finally, after a night of gentle rain, around 7am Saturday morning the rain quit, and James Lamb set off to find another site that the large group could access without damage to themselves or the fossils. After tracking down landowners for at least an hour, we were granted permission to collect in a creek in Perry county. And what a nice creek! Along with the adventure of exploring a creek we had never visited, climbing over strainers and up and down steep bluffs, everyone found numerous shark teeth, ptychodus teeth, gastropods, and even a small piece of belemnite with the iridescent sheen still visible.
After leaving the creek, we went back to camp, and once we arrived, we noticed the cows were quite interested in camp and the strange large metal boxes sitting all around their pasture. One was carefully examining a particular red car! After resting and filling our bellies, we decided to check out a gully near camp, to see if it was dry enough to collect. Fortunately it was, and a number of nice specimens were found, including whole shells, mosasaur vertebra, turtle shell, fish vertebra, and worm tubes.
That night at camp Claire took numerous pictures of spider webs, and we listened to everyone's tall tales and tales of past field trips.
(photos courtesy Claire Smith and Vicki Lais)
Part of a large turtle shell (toxochelid turtle plastral element).
Large broken shells of inoceramids were common in the gully.
View of our camp area.
Bob and Pam preparing dinner in camp.
James Lamb, taking questions as he completes his entry for the day in his log book.
Very large orb spider web.
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