Back in July 2022, I got the opportunity to visit a creek that I had never been too. I had heard stories about it and the finds that it produces and was so looking forward to visiting it! With Alabama weather being unpredictable as it is, we were very fortunate to have good weather this particular day but it was another hot one though. I often enjoy the long rides since I'm not driving to our destination because the company I keep make it endearing and fun. It was an hour and half drive to our destination, I needed the encouragement and laughter because my sweet mother was deathly ill at the time, and not expected to live much longer. During the difficult times hold your friends close, especially in times like this! Not only are the trips fun, but they are quite therapeutic as well, at least for me!
We get to the site and I mean it's in the woods! The gracious landowner bush hogged us a path near the creek where we disembarked from our vehicles with gear in hand. I see a promising area in the picture above around the bend and set up shop there for the next hour or two. I found lots of shark teeth in that spot until I ran out of real estate to look for them. I took a break and ate my lunch before deciding to move downstream to join one of my hunting buddies. After eating I made my way downstream where the water was deeper, above the knees. As I sloshed through the water I could feel lots of gravel beneath my feet, which is rare in some cases. Most creeks have huge gravel bars but no gravel lining the bottom. My hunting buddy had already been working his spot since he got there and showed me what he found so I set up residence about 10 feet from where he was.
For the rest of the afternoon I began finding lots of shark teeth and other marine fossils. In the picture above are teeth from 3 different species of Cretaceous shark called the: Scapnorynchnus, Cretolamna and Squalicorax. I've visited quite a number of creeks that cut through the Eutaw Formation, never have I seen so many Cretolamna's found in one spot. It's usually the Scapnorynchnus that are found in huge quantities? Second to that is the Squalicorax.
I also found teeth from the crusher shark called Ptychodus that elude me a quite a bit. Today I find three in the same spot in the picture above! Lots of Ptychodus teeth were found by the group today! This is another tooth that isn't found quite regularly in other places. but here there is a lot of them!
In the pictures above is a horse tooth (either fossilized or modern?). A modern horn core, I almost peed in my pants when this showed up in my sifter! The lighting on the creek was very low that day because of the canopy of trees, and for a split second I thought I had found a monster tooth!!! It's shaped like one and when I picked up the waterlogged object and saw that it wasn't a tooth, of course I was disappointed! I was later told by the on site paleontologist that it was a very worn and weathered modern horn core. The last picture is a culmination of Baculite and Ammonite sections as well as some bone pieces.
Last but not least I had the opportunity to bring back some micro gravel to sort through when I got home. When the gravel dried in 48 hours I began sorting. I worked a lot of gravel into the next week or so and this is what it produced, not a bad day for a good variety of species represented for another part of our state where the Eutaw Formation exists.
It was quite a productive day and toward the end of it I was exhausted! We all left thinking we can't wait to get back here soon! Some of us stopped to eat en route home and enjoyed good food and fellowship, sharing about our finds and the day. This is such a fun hobby shared with great people!
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