October 9, 2006

 
LIVINGSTON, Ala.--The University of West Alabama and the Alabama Geological Survey will host a one-day paleontology workshop, providing teachers of every grade level the opportunity to visit several sites and collect fossils to take back to their classrooms. “Fossils of the Black Belt,” a hands-on field workshop, takes place Oct. 24.

Dr. Doug Wymer, an environmental scientist and assistant professor at UWA, is helping lead the workshop. He says the Black Belt area of Alabama is a wonderful place for fossil hunting.

“We find specimens from 65-70 million years ago when this part of Alabama was a shallow tropical sea,” Wymer said. “Some places have numerous fossils lying on the ground, ready to be picked up.”

The workshop, now in its eighth year, is divided into three parts. First, the teachers will spend time in a UWA classroom learning the principles of field study in earth science. Next, the group will head to a variety of Sumter County sites to find their own marine fossil specimens. The rest of the afternoon will be spent properly identifying and labeling the collected fossils.

The visited sites contain diverse marine fossils from the Cretaceous period, including oysters, casts of snail shells, bryozoa, worm tubes and shark teeth. On these excursions, fossil hunters have also found vertebrae or teeth from an extinct marine reptile called a Mosasaur.   

Teachers from across the Southeast are expected to attend the fossil workshop. Participants will earn 8 hours of CEU credit and receive a field guidebook, a geologic map of Alabama, their own fossil kits from specimens they collect and more.

For more information “Fossils of the Black Belt,” contact Dr. Doug Wymer at (205) 652-3862 or dwymer@uwa.edu.