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Point-a Dam Alabama


Guest N.AL.hunter

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Wow great finds!! I am just stunned that there is a bone bed that rich sitting there so well exposed. Looks like next to no slump at all to deal with! If this site were in NJ it would be demolished as quick as you posted your pictures from the weekend!

Some pics. Quality not great. Love the small teeth. There are two I do not know what they are, they will be posted last. Any ideas?

---Wie Wasser schleift den Stein, wir steigen und fallen---

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Great trip! Thanks Del for all the scouting work. It was a scorcher, even though the water wasn't swimming quality it sure was a relief to cool down in it, otherwise we were all goners. As usual I found the fewest quality fossils, I was at the end of the formation, and it was not easy digging, but still got a couple hundred nice teeth. Almost all were sand tigers(Striatolamna macrota, Carcharias hopei, Serratolamna lerechei), good amounts of sawfish rostrals(Pristis ssp.), some broken ray teeth(Aetobatus, Myliobatis), a few nice tigers(Galeocerdo latidens) and Tope Sharks(Galeorhinus huberensis), couple of nurse shark(Nebrius sp.), a possible Anoxypristis fragment, few snake verts, some billfish frags(Cylindricanthus), fish tooth plates(?Egertonia), and and a nice 3/4" quartz crystal cylinder. Just sorted out the broken ones so far so I might have a few more species:

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Here's a group shot before we started passing out from heat stroke(Brett, me, Del & Holly, Jason, Hawkeye with 2 of his boys):

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Here we are busting our buns, Del employed the top down approach, while Jason, Brett and I used the undercut and watch out for the collapse method(messy, but less strenuous):

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And my wife's and Holly's favorite spot(you can just see the the dike part of the dam way upriver):

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It is a great site, but I fear it will be closed off in the future, just glad we could make it there at least once.

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Those are some great finds from you guys on this trip. Looks like a great creek to canoe at.

I was amazed on how good of condition the teeth were (not to mention the number found....WOW!!) :drool:

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Here's some more photos of some fossils I brought back from this trip:

The crab carapace is Costacopluma grayi or an undescribed species (Roger Portell described C. grayi and recently stated there may be another undescribed crab from this formation).

I am open to any ideas as to what the cylindrical fossils may be from? The longest specimen measures about 2 inches. Looking in a publication by G. Case, there is a photo of what he called Cylindracanthus acus from the Eocene of Georgia. Any chance that is what these are?

Some of the smaller teeth in the fossil mix photo include Orectolobus/Squatiscyllium sp., Nebrius cf. thielensis, and Squatina.

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The two unknown ones. The thin blade of the tooth is weird and the other thing is a ???

It is a pectoral spine from Arius sp. (fossil catfish)

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Here's some more photos of some fossils I brought back from this trip:

The crab carapace is Costacopluma grayi or an undescribed species (Roger Portell described C. grayi and recently stated there may be another undescribed crab from this formation).

I am open to any ideas as to what the cylindrical fossils may be from? The longest specimen measures about 2 inches. Looking in a publication by G. Case, there is a photo of what he called Cylindracanthus acus from the Eocene of Georgia. Any chance that is what these are?

Some of the smaller teeth in the fossil mix photo include Orectolobus/Squatiscyllium sp., Nebrius cf. thielensis, and Squatina.

Yes - Cylindracanthus acus

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Yes - Cylindracanthus acus

Great thanks. I have just added a thread to the Fossil ID section regarding these specimens. I guess I didn't think I'd get an answer so quickly! Thanks again.

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It is a pectoral spine from Arius sp. (fossil catfish)

The western central Atlantic extant member of the genus Arius along the eastern U.S. coast (Arius felis, the hardhead catfish) was changed to Ariopsis felis a few years back. I can't seem to rule out other members of the sea catfish family, such as Bagre marinus, thus I would only be able to classify it the the family level (Ariidae).

Jason

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Congratulations and great job everyone. This was a great thread. Great planning and insight, great "in the field" pictures and great fossils found. Sounds like you all had a great time!

DO, or do not. There is no try.

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