crocodile

July 11, 2009 - Cretaceous Fossils, Greene Co, AL

BPS members and guests headed down to Greene county, Alabama for our July trip. This site is a creek covered with pea gravel - making screening for shark teeth and other fossils quite difficult. However, most found it fairly easy to spot the fossils lying on top of the gravel. Numerous shark teeth were found, a couple of mosasaur teeth, several ptychodus teeth, a gar vertebra and tooth, crocodilian bone, clams, oysters, and bryozoan. Vicki found a tooth so tiny (about 1/8 inch), that when she put it on her finger to get a closeup, it rolled off. The next 45 minutes was spent digging through the gravel in an ever widening circle, trying to find the tiny tooth again. As we finally gave up, she rolled the gravel around again, and there it was! It went in a medicine bottle for safekeeping, until a photo could be taken in a "safe" location! It has been identified as a gar tooth, which is more rare than mosasaur teeth in this area.

--Photos courtesy Vicki Lais

Greene

September 20, 2008 - Cretaceous Fossils, Dallas County, AL

Once again, BPS took a trip south to Dallas county, Alabama, to search in the extensive Cretaceous chalk gullies found there. This was our last gully trip of the season, since hunting season is about to start, so we were in a frantic hurry to collect the items we had previously flagged, and find as much as we could so it could be preserved, and not get washed down a gully, and potentially lost for research. In addition to the normal variety of shells, shark teeth and vertebra, fish including enchodus, and turtles, this month a baby crocodile was found, the first one found in Alabama, so we were quite excited.

(Photos courtesy Joey Golson and Vicki Lais)

A hot day in the gullies, but we had a good turnout.

After a slight delay, well, a very long delay, due to a mixup in who was going to call who, we finally gained access to the site. To get to this new set of gullies, we had to drive in, then park and walk the rest of the way.

We've just gotten into the gully, and are preparing to survey in different sections so we can cover the entire gully several times.

When we first arrived at the gully, it was difficult to find anything. No matter where we looked, it didn't seem like there was anything other than rocks and broken shells.

shells

A couple of shells common to the area, though most are broken in pieces.

Overview of the large gully where we first collected today.

teeth, fish, jaw

Part of a fossil fish jaw, with several teeth still embeded in the jaw.

Part of what makes it difficult to find fossils is the large quantity of rubble on the ground, that all looks like fossils. One has to tune out the "trash" and tune in to the correct shapes before being able to spot vertebra and teeth.

shark teeth

Squalicorax on left, Cretolamna appendiculata on right

This large slab of calcite or selenite crystals was found near the entrance to the gully.

shark vertebra

Three shark vertebra

crocodile

This tiny bone found by Vicki turned out to be one of the most important finds of the day. At first thinking it was a very large bird, after closer examination, James realized it was a baby crocodile, the only baby one found in Alabama! After waving us all away from the area, he proceeded to search on hands and knees, finding at least 8 tiny scutes, which had been missed when the bone was flagged. He even hiked back to the cars to get a screen, so the area below the find could be searched. If you examine the photo carefully, the small items that look bits of broken shell are actually parts of scutes.

fish

Fish bone

shark teeth, enchodus teeth

Shark teeth and a couple of enchodus teeth

enchodus

Enchodus fish tooth and part of the jawbone

bone

Fossil bone, possibly a very weathered mosasaur vertebra.

An unknown item, but it certainly looks interesting. Might be a horned coral.

enchodus tooth

Pieces of fish bone, probably enchodus.

shark tooth

Cretoxyrhina shark tooth

An area that has been flagged to mark several areas of fossil fish.

08-09-vl-crocodile-4457

08-09-vl-croc-4571

James Lamb demonstrating the difference in size of the baby crocodile bone and scutes we found, and those of an adult.

August 17, 2008 - Cretaceous - Dallas and Perry Counties, Alabama

Day 1 Friday Day 2 Saturday Day 3 Sunday

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 3 - SUNDAY

After a good night's sleep, we headed off to a set of larger
gullies early Sunday morning. A lot of fish bones, shark vertebra,
shark teeth, enchodus jaw/tooth, nice piece of turtle shell, and even
crocodile bones were found. As usual, we stayed in the gullies until
darkness made it impossible to collect any more.

(photos courtesy Claire Smith and Vicki Lais)

Overview of one of the gullies surveyed on Sunday.

fish

Fragments of fish bone.

Unidentified item

enchodus

Enchodus tooth still connected to bony part of jaw.

shark tooth

Cretoxyrhina mantelli shark tooth (ginsu - ecologically similar to the great white shark).

shark vertebra, shark tooth

Scapanorhynchus shark tooth and shark vertebra.

ammonite

Part of ammonite replaced by iron pyrite.

fish

Fish vertebra.

bone

Protestega (turtle) bone

James examines mosasaur rib bone fragments found by Don.

burrow

Distinctive burrow internal molds, probably made by ghost shrimp, were common in the gully.

mosasaur vertebra

Mosasaur vertebra.

Bob is assisting James with wrapping of specimens so they will make it back to the museum safely.

shark vertebra, fish

Fish bone in lower left, broken shark vertebra in upper right.

bone

Small bone in area filled with bone and shell fragments.

bone

Mosasaur rib bone fragments found by Don.

As the sun gets low in the sky, we're still going around to the marked items, surface collecting or excavating as needed, trying to finish before dark.

Sunset in the gully.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Navigation

User Menu

crocodile

July 11, 2009 - Cretaceous Fossils, Greene Co, AL

September 20, 2008 - Cretaceous Fossils, Dallas County, AL

08-09-vl-crocodile-4457

08-09-vl-croc-4571

August 17, 2008 - Cretaceous - Dallas and Perry Counties, Alabama

September