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giant undersea dunes beneath Louisiana T. rex's tombstone

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Fossils of the Black Belt 21 (2021) — a Hands-on Field Workshop

The Geological Survey of Alabama and the University of West Alabama take the lead in presenting Fossils of the Black Belt 21, the latest in a long-running series of annual field paleontology workshops for teachers. This year's workshop will focus on paleoecology and paleoenvironmental analysis, the science of understanding environments and living things of the distant past.

The workshop will be in two parts. In part one, Alabama paleontologists will present the geologic history of West Alabama, the origin and nature of the chalk, as well as methods and aims of paleoecology and paleoenvironmental analysis. These lectures will be prerecorded and delivered via Zoom. They will be viewable beginning a few days before the field workshop, and you can watch them whenever it's convenient. The field workshop will take place on Tuesday October 12 on a large chalk outcrop near Selma. You will divide into groups and, by examining the chalk and its fossils, develop hypotheses about the origin of the chalk. This field activity will be conducted using social distancing, and masks will be required. Depending on the nature of the health crisis at that time, and the possibility of severe weather, the field activity may need to be canceled. If this happens, we will mail the guidebook, Jim Lacefield's book, and all other handouts, to registrants. The Zoom lectures will be provided even if the field workshop is canceled.

We will meet at Harrell Station, a productive Cretaceous fossil site on private land near Selma, Alabama. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, October 12 2021. The cost is $28 for this one-day workshop. This includes lunch and a vast array of science-education goodies, including the famed book by Jim Lacefield, Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks (a $25 value).

To register, please contact Dr. David Kopaska-Merkel, 205-246-9346, dkm@gsa.state.al.us.

 

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Teacher workshop in paleontology, West Alabama, October, when the weather is perfect. Two photos of participants from previous years, collecting fossils  and learning by hands-on doing, followed by the registration form. If you have any questions, ask me here: dkm@gsa.state.al.us.

 

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Micaceous very fine sandstone, thin section photomicrograph, scale bar 100 µm, crossed polarizers, equant particles mostly quartz, curved sheet-like particles muscovite mica, Rodessa Formation, Cretaceous, Citronelle Field, 11,500 feet below the surface, South Alabama.

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this shell
remnant of a critter
lived its own life
no thought of you
who might hold it
80 million years post-mortem
and decide
it's not that pretty at all

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When the sea returned to Kansas.
We were unprepared
For so long, Fox had been assuring us
Global warming was a lie
I now suspect the decapod lobby
Were big investors
Where the waves were amber once
Crabs and lobsters walk daintily
Coral crusts the fish-gnawed bones of cows
Anemones bloom in a thousand burning colors
Mount Oread, KU's proud home's awash
Cyclones batter what remains
Students, faculty, and all, moved on
If our nation could still afford
Colleges, they'd have moved west and up
Denver, maybe, or Boulder
Dirt farms, instead, deepsea fishing
Off coastal Montana
I hear Nessie's been spotted there
Finally able to travel
Nice to see someone's doing well

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I will be helping to lead a hands-on field workshop for K-12 science teachers on the subject of paleontology in West Alabama this coming October (see above). The subject this year is "Palaeoecology and Extreme Events." Participation is limited to 26.

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Tidal deposit in Tombigbee Sand Member of Eutaw Formation, H&R Point, Montgomery Alabama.

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Alabama is well known as a home to billions and billions of Cretaceous fossil oysters. People come from the other side of the world to examine them. Here is just one example.

Agerostrea falcata, a small oyster that is found almost anywhere Cretaceous fossil oysters are found in the state of Alabama. Like many oysters, this one has a very labile shell shape, controlled by the situation in which it grows.

This is a death assemblage of A. falcata, from the Bluffport Marl. This heap of oysters is interpreted to have grown on a sea fan, which was not preserved. These little piles of shells are found in many places on the outcrop where this one was discovered.

Paleontology Field Workshop for Teachers

Field Workshop — Paleontology of the Black Belt of Alabama

The Geological Survey of Alabama, the University of West Alabama, Discovering Alabama, the Alabama Geological Society, and the Birmingham Paleontological Society have collaborated for 20 years on an annual one-day field workshop in paleontology. This workshop is specifically aimed at K-12 teachers, but other kinds of educators are welcome to participate. The workshop is held on a Tuesday in October (the dry season) at a privately owned large fossil-rich outcrop, to which we have access for this purpose.

The Black Belt is a swath across central Alabama, named for its rich soil.

Last year, we focused on studying evidence of interactions among ancient organisms. This year, our focus will be using fossils to understand the stratigraphy, the layering of different kinds of rocks, in the field area.

Here are some photographs from past expeditions. We always find many kinds of fossils. In the past, these have included two pterosaurs, a brittle star, a mosasaur jaw, and a sea turtle shell.

At the bottom, is a registration form. We hope you will join us this coming fall!

Heading out to the field site.



Final instructions.

Scenery not to be sneezed at.

A fish vertebra just lying on the ground waiting to be picked up.



Conversations in the field.

Shark teeth from many species can be found here.

As well as many other things.



See!

All kinds of teeth.

Oysters and other kinds of shells are common.

All kinds of free publications for teachers to take home. Lunch and snacks are provided. We will help you identify the fossils that you find. You get to take them home, unless you find something truly remarkable. Those specimens go into the museum, with you listed as the collector.

Use this form to register, or email me at dkm@gsa.state.al.us

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You are almost out of time to sign up for the October 16 paleontology workshop for teachers in West Alabama. This is a one-day field workshop, inexpensive, but valuable.. You will get lots of free stuff, including the fantastic book "Lost worlds in Alabama rocks." you will spend the day learning about interactions among fossil species, that we can learn about by looking at the fossils they leave behind. West Alabama is a great place to learn about this because Cretaceous fossils are diverse, abundant, and show many traces of their interactions.

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Paleontology workshop for teachers
Mainly aimed at K-12 teachers, but also appropriate for informal educators
October 16, 2018, West Alabama

Our focus this year is on evidence that fossils provide of interactions among organisms. What species grew on the shells of other species (or on other members of their own species). What animals drilled holes into other animals to make a living or to get dinner.. Which animals used their big strong teeth to bite into which other animals. And so on. We can learn a lot about the community by looking at clues preserved on the remains that we find.

And of course, participants get Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks, one of the best books there is describing the fossils and rocks of a particular region so that anyone can understand. Many other publications and goodies will also be provided free.


You can use the registration form below, but email me if you have any problems with it.

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this ichthyosaur
never knew its inmost secret
skeleton for what it was
much less that we would
display it shamelessly
for the millions to wonder at
and inside, its unborn  progeny
that never swam
or tasted a delicious fish
or breached
and felt the sun

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civilized dinosaurs
ritually consumed their dead
left no cemeteries
for us to find

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When the First Time Machine Needs to be Tested


no matter how many specimens
the paleontologist always wanted one more
volunteering was a natural choice
aiming for the Cambrian
arriving in the Cretaceous
no defensive weaponry beyond a sun hat
almost more than needed
half a billion years in the past
alas, an RPG launcher would not have gone amiss
as things turned out

one more anomaly
on its way
back to the future

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cold this year
in the field
fondly remember last year's  90+F
this time?
afternoon in the sun
priceless
and one of us
found a turtle femur
82.5 myo

Fossils of the Black Belt teacher field workshop

the workshop roster is almost full. If you would like to attend, and have not signed up yet, get in touch with me right away.

https://www.facebook.com/Fossils-of-the-Black-Belt-690641810945830/

Field workshop in paleontology for teachers

FOSSILS OF THE BLACK BELT

This is a 1-day field workshop, aimed primarily at K-12 teachers. This year, the main activity will be learning how fossils are preserved or are not preserved, by examining fossils you will collect yourself at a Cretaceous outcrop in West Alabama. A fossil shark's tooth is typically brown or gray. If you catch a shark while fishing, it's teeth are white. Why the change in color? This is just one of the changes that animal bodies undergo in the process of becoming fossils.

Workshop participants will get lots of free stuff, including a copy of the book "Lost Worlds in Alabama Rocks," by Jim Lacefield, DVDs of Discovering Alabama shows, science posters, and much more.

You don't have to be a K-12 teacher in Alabama to benefit from or take this workshop, but they will get priority

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Gathering up the goodies for the teacher fossil workshop Tuesday: labeled fossils, books, Ziploc bags, posters and postcards, sharpies, you know the drill. The only important thing I don't have yet is the guidebooks, but I am supposed to get those Monday hot off the presses. I have never cut it this close before, but circumstances beyond my control…. My usual approach is to print them weeks ahead of time, just in case.

A ripple, close-up and personal

Silty micaceous sandstone, cross laminated, crossed polarizers, muscovite and biotite mica. From 2 miles below the surface.