October
saw the troops
headed to Hale
county, AL to a favorite creek. After meeting at a rest area,
we
headed South to Tuscaloosa where we made a stop at the Museum of
Natural History on the University campus. Great fossil
collections as well as a fun exhibit of bugs and bats caught
everybody's interest. We were delighted to see that
the
Mosasaur is still on display. Stopping at the museum gave us
a
chance to get a visual fix on what we might find during the day, so it
was a nice start for the day.
The creek was higher than expected when we got there, and it became
clear that wading (sometimes in some over-the-knees water)
would
be on the menu. Part of our
group chose to
sift from a bank while standing in knee deep to thigh deep water while
the
other part of our group headed downstream. The downstream group
discovered that
mother nature's engineers had built a very nice dam, thus explaining
the high
water level. Below the dam sifting was very easy.
This creek runs through the Mooreville Chalk, producing
mostly shells,
bones, shark and mosasaur teeth. Numerous shark-teeth were
found,
also
several ptychodus
teeth, LOTS of fossil clam shells and exogyra, a few fish
vertebra, bivalve steinkerns, and several gastropod steinkerns.
Almost everyone had a sieve of some kind. Only one
of us managed
to get completely dunked but claimed it was a refreshing
experience! See, kids, we aren't kidding about bringing a
change
of clothing! You NEVER KNOW!
Some brave souls tested out MRE's at
lunch.
Interesting. Our fighting folk have our deepest
sympathies!
Actually they weren't that bad.
A long day was capped off by chowing down at a
great local barbecue
place!
All in all, a fun and productive trip!
--Edited by Vicki Lais(Photos
courtesy Vicki Lais)
First stop
was the Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa.
Thousands of fossils, but none we could collect! We were
pleased
to find the large mosasaur specimen was still being exhibited.
Steve, Lea,
and Glyn screening the gravel.
One of Nancy's screening efforts. Several large exogyra.
One of
Steve's hauls, note the shells and partial ammonite.
Shark and
ptychodus teeth found by Steve.
Jan, Claire,
& Leisa.
View
up the creek.
At the end of a beautiful day, we had several show-and-tell
displays.
Greg's
display.
Lea's finds,
note the mosasaur jawbone in lower right corner.
Paige's
display. She wanted to find enough shark teeth to
share
with her classmates, and she certainly accomplished her goal!
35 shark
teeth found!
Vicki's finds.