Seed Fern Fossil

Fossil seed fern fronds, possibly of the species Neuralethopteris biformis, from the Crescent Valley Mine in Walker County.

Courtesy of Ron Buta
Seed Fern Fossil

Lepidodendron Fossil

Fossil impression of the bark of Lepidophloios laricinus, an extinct plant from the early Pennsylvanian stage of the Carboniferous Period, about 299 to 323 million years ago. Related to low-growing modern club mosses, Lepidodendrons, commonly known as scale trees, could reach 130 feet in height. The fossil was found at the Crescent Valley Mine in Walker County.

Courtesy of Ron Buta
Lepidodendron Fossil

Trilobite

Fossil trilobite found in Cherokee County in deposits from the Conasauga Formation of the Cambrian period, approximately 530 million years ago.

Courtesy of the Birmingham Paleontological Society
Trilobite

Fossilized Crab

Fossil of the crab Avitelmessus grapsoideus Rathbun collected in Lowndes County. This specimen dates to the Maastrichtian age of the Cretaceous, approximately 66 to 72 million years ago.

Courtesy of the University of Alabama Museums/Alabama Museum of Natural History
Fossilized Crab

Cretaceous Ammonite

Cretaceous ammonite Placenticeras syrtale Morton found in Barbour County. Ammonites first appeared in the seas 400 million years ago and died out during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction about 66 million years ago. This specimen dates to the Campanian age, approximately 72 to 83 million years ago.

Courtesy of the University of Alabama Museums/Alabama Museum of Natural History
Cretaceous Ammonite

Fossil Worm Tubes

Fossilized tubes that once served as the home of Hamulus squamosus, a marine worm in the Serpulidae family. Worms in this family still exist today in the world's oceans, and they build protective tubes to live in from calcium carbonate, sand, and mucus. Their soft bodies are rarely preserved as fossils, but their tubes can be found in great abundance. These fossils date to the late Cretaceous period, 150-200 million years ago.

Courtesy of the Geological Survey of Alabama
Fossil Worm Tubes

Barnacles

Fossilized exoskeleton parts of barnacles in the genus Arcoscalpellum from the University of Alabama‘s Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Dallas County. They date to the Campanian age of the Cretaceous period, approximately 72 to 83 million years ago. Unlike the barnacles most commonly seen encrusting boats and marine life, these barnacles attached to surfaces with stalklike appendages.

Courtesy of the University of Alabama Museums/Alabama Museum of Natural History
Barnacles

Fossil Photomicrograph

This photo displays the fossilized remains of a microscopic snail (center in cross section) and other tiny marine creatures. They were found in a Lawrence County in a section of the Bangor Limestone formation from the Mississippian sub-period of the Carboniferous, about 323 to 359 million years ago. They are all encased in a section of the rock only 0.1 inch (2.5 millimeters) wide.

Photo courtesy of David Kopaska-Merkel
Fossil Photomicrograph

Fossil Trackway

Fossilized trackway of the ancient salamander Cincosaurus cobbi collected from the Crescent Valley Mine in Walker County. The fossilized footprint pattern, approximately 12 inches (30 centimeters) long, is one of numerous trackways of many types of animals that once lived in a delta and riverine environment during the Carboniferous period, approximately 300 to 360 million years ago.

Courtesy of Ron Buta
Fossil Trackway

Nautiloid Cephalopod

Nautiloid Hercoglossa ulrichi cephalopod fossil dating to the Paleocene epoch, about 65 million years ago.

Courtesy of the University of Alabama Museums/Alabama Museum of Natural History
Nautiloid Cephalopod

Coprolite

Coprolites, or fossil dung masses, are common in paleontological sites. This specimen was recovered from a site in west Alabama that was part of a shallow sea during the Cretaceous. Sometimes, scientists are able to tell what type of animal left such a fossil behind by studying its chemical composition or by identifying plant or animal remains within it.

Courtesy of the Auburn University Museum of Natural History; photo by Claire Wilson
Coprolite