The next adventure takes me down to a Southwest Alabama creek to hunt Cretaceous Period Marine fossils. This time period where dinosaurs roamed the landmasses and the oceans teeming with life from rays to sharks and other organisms. South Alabama was under the sea at the time so our finds will show that. Not much of a morning person and getting up at the crack of dawn to head to a location to find fossils will be worth it. My hunting buddies and I are ready for the long trip. We arrive at the location and meet the landowner, and as we got out of the vehicle the driver left the keys in the ignition. I be darned the vehicle locked itself with all our equipment inside. We would've considered this a random incident but this has happened twice so something screwy is going on with the vehicle! Introductions were made and the other half of our crew headed down to the creek with the owner of the property while we contacted a local service to come help and unlock the vehicle. It was going to take 45 minutes before service arrives so while waiting on them we went down to the creek to see what was going on.
The other half of our party found some really cool fossils just lying on the gravel beds! Most of it Mosasaur vertebrate, some shark teeth, mammal teeth from another time period and bones. We had a blast but as for me I really didn't find a whole lot other that a few Coprolites and broken shark tooth which I gave to the property owners. There was so much gravel and sand on this creek I decided to bucket up some of it to take home to sift for micro fossils. The group overall had a productive trip and the owner of the property wants us to come back again in the future. The above pictures are from the gravel I brought back from the new site. Pic#1 & 4- Fish Coprolites (poop), Pic#2- Broken shark teeth, Pseudocorax (lone perfect tooth) and 3 fish teeth, Pic#3- Urchin spines, Bryzoan and Brachiopods and Gastropod.
One of the members of the group knew of another site near where we were, and we all decided to visit that site along with our new friends.
There I had some success finding Shark Teeth. Although I didn't have the production that I normally do, I found the outing to be a wonderful one because it was time spent with friends who have the same crazy love for hunting fossils! Pic#1- Three different species of shark: Cretalamna, Scaphnorynchus and Sqaulicorax, Pic#2- Pieces of Ammonites and Baculites.
After the sifting I bucketed up some of the material and brought home to micro sift. Pictured are teeth and others re-sifted from the bucketed material. Most folks like the big teeth and I find these just wondrous in themselves because sharks and fish, no matter how big they got started out small. Pic#1- Assorted shark teeth, Squalicorax to Scapanorynchus, Pic#2- Squalicorax, Pic#3- Gastropods, Pic#4- Assorted Ray and Fish teeth, Pic#5- Enchodus teeth, Pic#6- Eostriatolamia and Scapanorynchus, Pic#7- Hybodont teeth, Pic#8- 3 conical teeth to left, two worn could be a Xiphactinus? The other a Plesiosaur?? Pic#9- Unknown teeth?
What a better way to spend the day with friends and new friends alike on a gorgeous day like today. I wouldn't trade that for nothing!