Fossil hunters are a breed that will hunt fossils it seems in any kind of weather? Saturday was no exception. It had been raining all week. Saturday, the day of the trip there was rain forecast later in the afternoon? By that time we would have all left the pit, so we thought? We get to the site and could see it was going to be a muddy mess. From the looks of it, the only way into the pit is 4-wheeler pickup truck or a vehicle with all-wheel drive. My vehicle was certainly not going to make it so I caught a ride into the pit with a hunting buddy! As we descend into the pit, it was water and mud everywhere... if you thought your vehicle would be clean after going in and coming out of there, you would be wrong! I tell you, looking around all that mud and rocks is a fossil hunting paradise!
We were told by the foreman that we'd be taken to lots of berms down in the pit that contain all sorts of fossils! When we got there, there were berms as far as you could see so we parked near one of them on the main road. It was a muddy mess when we got out of the truck to get our gear!
I stepped out into the mud near the truck and found several 3D Blastoids near my feet and then scanned the ground and found more! I love finding the Blastoids, they look like little nuts scattered on the ground and so cool to hold in your hand... 300 million years of history in that hand!
Despite the mud and wet environment I definitely can get used to finding fossils like this! I worked my way up and down the berms available, finding all sorts of marine fossils!
Another favorite fossil to hunt in the Carboniferous/Mississippian formations are the Crinoids. They are much harder to find intact, but cool to look at. Sometimes I find them in the matrix like the ones above in pic #1. This one was found on a slab that was easy to carry out. Pic#2 is the smallest Crinoid I found to date, never seen one this small! Pic#3 is two different Crinoid species in situ... the stone was a huge slab buried in the dirt and a picture had to do in this instance.
One of the fossils I saw plenty of is the Horn Coral. Most fossil hunters skipped over them because they aren't an interesting fossil to take home so they either overlooked them or just plain ignore them. I, on the other hand just find them interesting and if they are in pretty good condition I will take them home with me because they look like mini tornados whether they are in 3D form or in the matrix.
It is my understanding that this next find is called Colonial Coral. A bunch of Horn Coral all together in a colony instead of stand alone like you see in the pictures above.
Another interesting find is what appears as teeth in a jaw. After close inspection, you see it's actually a Horn Coral sheared by earth's forces or an excavator. One would think that it's a fish's jaw when it isn't?
Our time was up at the quarry, so we gathered together in the staging area where one of the members wanted to take us to a site he had visited an hour away. Several of us wanted to go so we all got the directions and location, and the caravan of vehicles head north of where we were present. We hit several rain showers en route that was a foreboding of what was to come? No sooner than we arrive at this site the sky had darkened and it opens up with light rain turning into a pouring sheets! I grabbed several slabs that I thought would have fossils on them but couldn't tell because it was dark and I couldn't see because of the rain on my glasses! It got to the point where we had to pack it up and leave. I was soaking wet and had a two hour drive home!
Later that evening relaxing from the long trip I decided to wash the slabs I snagged before the monsoon. I was pleasantly surprised and excited that this site warrants a second visit soon. The first picture is a Clam hash plate. The second picture is a Gastropod and Clam hash plate. One of the members handing me the object in the third picture and told me it was a straight shelled Cephlopod. It was a squid-like creature that lived in Alabama ocean that covered a portion of North Alabama during the Carboniferous Period. I had an awesome time today despite the environmental hazards but it comes with the territory and the love of the hobby. I look forward to the next visit soon!
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