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Fossil hunting in Alabama


Williamrock

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Trying to get up to alabama to do some fossil hunting around the Marion area , I don't know anything about this area was wondering if anyone could give me some advice or info? Thanks yall !

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It seems odd to head to a place you know nothing about to go fossil hunting.

Anyway, Marion is situated on the Cretaceous outcrop belt. I don't know of sites in the immediate area, maybe others can help you. Arcola is not far away, and that area is the type locality of the Arcola Limestone which sometimes yields ammonites, but again I haven't visited that site myself.

If you don't mind a bit of a drive, Moscow Landing on the Tombigbee River southwest of Demopolis has a lot of Late Cretaceous and Paleocene fossils. The Cretaceous is the Prairie Bluff Formation; fossils can be found throughout but there is a band of concentrated fossils near the top. Mostly they are internal molds of snails and bivalves (very well preserved and highly diverse), but I collected ammonites and nautiloids, and a few echinoids and shark teeth, as well. The Cretaceous/Paleocene contact is well exposed; some geologists have described the contact as "tsunami beds" that record a massive wave from the meteor impact across the Gulf to the south, but others dispute this. The Paleocene Clayton formation is not not very diverse faunally, but I collected some large Hercoglossa nautiloids; there are also a lot of fossils reworked from the underlying Cretaceous. If you go be careful, the bluff is steep in places, gets very slick when wet, and the river is deep with a strong current.

Don

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Thank you for the info ! I'm heading up that way to help a friend build on his land , and I love collecting fossils so I was curious if I could in that area

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Also, in that area if you find gravel in stream beds it will sometimes yield shark teeth and mosasaur teeth and vertebrae.

Don

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  • 6 years later...
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Hello do you have the exact location for searching along the Tombigbee river? Not sure where Moscow landing is. Thank you 

 

@FossilDAWG

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