GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Late Cretaceous Fossil Location in Mississippi
Sunday, May 22, 2016

The last part of the epic trip was the next day at a late Cretaceous fossil location in Mississippi. George Phillips, Paleontology Curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, had hoped to join us there, but when he could not, he arranged for another North Mississippi Gem and Mineral Society member to help. Dave Hanes walked around the site helping us find and extract decapod fossils. The fossils there are Upper Cretaceous in the Coon Creek formation. Exogyra oyster shells, gastropods, decapods like crabs and lobsters, as well as mosasaur and shark fossils can be found there.

Crab fossils are relatively abundant. Most are found without appendages or with broken and scattered appendages nearby. Phosphatized gastropods are shiny, black, and solid while nonphosphatized gastropods are white and very delicate. Exogyra are also abundant and sturdy. Shark teeth from various species are found, including Squalicorax.

Michael Gropp found what may be a part of a turtle. Dave Hanes worked on it with help from Richard, Shelda, and Laura Aultman. So exciting!

I was on a quest for poo (coprolites) and I think I found a few. I saw people find more sharks' teeth this year than last year and of course I saw lots of crabs.

As always, this was a fantastic place to collect and we received so much help from North Mississippi club members Daves Hanes and Jennifer.

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
e-mail:

Click here for more information about the May 2016 epic trip