White Gulleys of South Alabama

After spending October wading in a creek of South Alabama looking for Eocene shark teeth, we used our November field trip at one of our favorite sites where the chalk gullies are created through the Mooreville Chalk representing marine deposits of the late Cretaceous (early Campanian ~82 million years ago). The APS trips to this site always seem to result in some incredible finds worthy of ascension into the University of Alabama Museum Collections. This day was no different as multiple fabulous specimens were contributed. It was a brilliant beautiful, if not warm, day for mid-November.

Some of the fossils collected included mosasaur teeth and vertebrae; turtle bones; fish jaws with multiple teeth including Pachyrhizodus, Enchodus, and Stratodus; multiple species of shark teeth, shark and bony fish vertebrae; isolated teeth of the bony fish (e.g. Enchodus and even Protosphyraena); trace fossils (e.g. coprolite, shipworm, and burrows); ammonite jaws; driftwood; worm tubes; barnacle plates; very rare lobster legs elements; a hermit crab claw; and bivalves to include clams, oysters, and even scallop.

Below are several fossils that were donated to the collections by APS members: (from top left to bottom right are a bony fish jaw with so many teeth, lobster leg parts, a Stratodus fish pre-maxillary jaw as found and then cleaned from two angles, finally pterosaur vertebrae!!!

Some of the other fossils found by our members from top left to bottom right: Shark Tooth in situ, fish vertebra in situ, ammonite jaws in situ, ammonite jaws washed and glued, Enchodus tooth in situ, Enchodus Jaw with "fang", associated fish skull parts (Enchodus?), and a shark vertebra.

Everyone found something and below are a couple of our members' hauls that are good representations of a good day at the site. A good mix of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils can be found!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures and we look forward to seeing you at one of our meetings or a future field trip.

Jim Braswell