Once half-covered in oceanic predators, Alabama’s terrain has proven conducive to the harvest of more than just cash crops. Since the dawn of civilization, Alabamians have sowed and tilled in a hotbed of cretaceous fossils.
University of Alabama paleontology researcher Ikijiri Takehito has compiled a comprehensive survey of what remains of these prehistoric creatures, as well as their land-faring counterparts.
Takehito’s paper identifies 8,275 specimens and 92 species of vertebrate fossils found in Alabama’s upper cretaceous rock, a significant contribution to the science of paleontology.
“Quite a bit, about 12 percent, of the surface of Alabama is covered by cretaceous rock and young to ancient dinosaurs,” Takehito said. “During the [cretaceous period], a good part of Alabama was under the ocean, so we have a combination of both land and marine fossils.”
He said one of the aims of the study, which he co-authored with Jun Ebersole, is to act as a reference material for more research.
“This information should help give us what rock we should look for, what county we should go to,” Takehito said. “If we want to find where a dinosaur is, this paper will help.”
Alberto Pérez-Huerta, an assistant geology professor at the University, said Alabama’s terrain is especially beneficial to finding fossils.
“We have very good exposure in the central part of the state, not much vegetation and rocks that wear away with rainfall,” Pérez-Huerta said. “This allows the fossils to be exposed continually.”
During the cretaceous period, ravenous marine lizards, monstrous sharks and colossal sea turtles dominated the oceans of Alabama.
“The ocean you would least like to be diving in would be the cretaceous ocean, because of the sheer profusion of things that could eat you,” Asher Elbein, a UA junior who illustrated the cover art for Takehito’s paper, said.
In order to begin his survey, Takehito requested a complete record of specimens from each museum that housed Alabama fossils.
Once Takehito gathered the data, he broke it down and organized it according to the taxonomy of the specimen, the year the fossil was collected, the geological unit it was from and the area in which it was found. According to his findings, more than 70 percent of all recorded vertebrate fossils were from Dallas and Greene counties. Takehito said Dallas County is a geological catchall for cretaceous fossils.
“We could just find fossils on the surface,” he said. “We didn’t have to dig. We just had to hike and cut down trees. We have most vertebrate specimen fossils from that area, called Harrell Station.”
In fact, Takehito said he plans to take one of his paleontology classes to Harrell Station this summer for a fossil excavation.
“We’ll still find a lot of fossils,” he said. “It’s a really good trip, not only for research, but for education for students and kids. Occasionally we’ll find an interesting specimen that hasn’t been identified yet.”
Takehito said he hopes to find more dinosaur fossils and more fossils from the later cretaceous period, closer to the extinction. He said he thinks they are there and that people just need to spend more time digging.
“We have a lot of fossils in this area, you know,” Takehito said. “They’re everywhere. Just take a couple of hours to look, and you’ll probably find one. We are very important to reptile evolution.”
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