You see a lot of significant and insignificant stuff on social media! I had seen postings of fossils that come out of the Cahaba River but had no idea the extent of what was there? One of my Facebook friends invited me to a spot where she had found fossils on several visits. I was curious, so we set a meeting time and when I get there it was beautiful location that I had never been to! I've traveled around in the area a lot but didn't know of this particular location?
This place was no secret because along the shoreline there were signs showing the shale stone had already been split by folks looking for fossils. There hasn't been much rain the past several weeks, so the waterway bed was exposed with lots of worn rocks. I made my way down into the riverbed and upon closer inspection I could see some of those rocks could be split with a rock hammer. I was able to split several and was astonished at what I found. A full range of Carboniferous Period Floral at my fingertips!
I started seeing lots of fern impressions! Now, I was on the hunt for shale to split wherever I could find it. In the picture above, impressions of Cordiate leaves and fern impressions!
I came upon this one slab and split it, what lay before my eyes was this beautiful positive and negative plate of a Carboniferous Nueralopteris Fern Fronds, the biggest yet found to add to my collection! The colors that came with it is a mixture of sulfur and iron. The stone I split that day had this kind of coloration.
Most fossil finds in this state I have found show exquisite detail especially in this fossil. I am so amazed and fascinated! The veins in the leaflets are visible, and it's fascinating how the earth upheaval and processes actually preserve this kind of detail over 300 million years! The close up picture shows the detailed fern pinnules (leaflets) on the fossil.
Yeah, I was pretty excited with this find but the daylight hours were dwindling. It was a good two hour hunt and conversation with the host. The mosquitos at this point were getting rough so we wrapped it up and decided we'd come back for a visit maybe next week?
There was definitely a second visit! I went back after two weeks and still found shale to split! That shale stone contained some fern surprises such as these Mariopteris fern fronds! It had rained the week before, so the riverbed was a tad bit muddier and wet, but managed to find these fern fossils too.
This particular day also had a short window to hunt, but finding these fossils made it worth it. I'm looking forward to another trip soon! During the hunt I noticed a lot of yellow jackets buzzing around and landing on the rocks. I needed to be a bit cautious and on the lookout for them. Good thing, I found one crawling up my pant leg and not inside it because I would of done a quick strip tease and the happy dance in the process! I was able to swat it to the ground and squashed it with my foot because I'm allergic to them! After parting and headed for home, I drive by a Dairy Queen and just had to stop for a Heath Bar Blizzard!
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