Ellis Sandpit Fossil Collection Field Trip

For: Mr. Wallace’s 3rd Grade Class

By: Jon D. Wilson, NMGK-12 Fellow

Date: April 19, 2002

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0 5 10 Miles

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Ellis Sandpit Location Map

Scale

Hwy 7 North

Hwy 30 East

Hwy 78 East

Hwy 15 North

To Holly Springs, MS

To Ripley, MS

Oxford Elementary

Ellis Sandpit

To Tupelo, MS

Ellis Sandpit Location Map

Directions to the Ellis SandpitLeaving from Oxford Elementary on Hwy 30:

1. Take a left out of school parking lot headed east on Hwy 30 toward New Albany, MS2. Stay on Hwy 30 East for approximately 30 miles3. Upon entering New Albany, MS, proceed to the junction between Hwy 78 and Hwy 304. At this junction, go right onto Hwy 78 East toward Tupelo, MS5. Stay on Hwy 78 East for approximately 1.7 miles6. At the junction between Hwy 78 and Hwy 15, exit right and proceed to the bottom of the exit ramp7. At the bottom of the ramp, take a left onto Hwy 15 North toward Ripley / East New Albany8. Stay straight on Hwy 15 North for approximately 6 miles till you get to County Road 829. Take a right onto County Road 82 (toward Concord, MS)10. Proceed for 1/10 of a mile down Country Road 82 and take a right turn onto dirt road11. This is the entrance to the Ellis Sandpit12. Park buses along County Road 82 or pull on into the sandpit given road conditions are good enough for the buses to travel (should not be a problem unless it rains)

Trip Time and Mileage:

Total Mileage from Oxford Elementary to the Ellis Sandpit is approximately ~ 38 milesTotal Time by Car is approximately ~ 45 minutes

Buses should allow 1 hour for travel time and mileage estimates of 45 miles is probably best.

Important Things to Know...Facilities:

1. Bathrooms are located approximately 1.5 to 2 miles back down Hwy 15 (south) at local gas stations as well as establishments to gather lunch or snacks if needed2. Possible lunch areas include open fields across from sandpit on the other side of Hwy 15 as well as a localpark located back toward New Albany near the New Albany High School3. Bus parking should either be done at the end of County Road 82 just before entrance to the sandpit or about .5 miles down Country Road 82 where it junctions with another road heading to Concord, MS where a gravel lot maybe used with permission4. Before planning or leaving on a trip to the site, the owner Dr. David Ellis of New Albany should be contacted by phone at (662) 534-62775. In case of inclement weather, the field trip should be postponed as parking conditions and conditions for fossil collecting will be poor and may cause problems

Fossil Hunting Supplies

• Sandpit location map and directions

• Sample bags (zip lock or cloth)

• Garden trowel

• Old clothing

• Boots

• Snacks

• Water

Fossil Concepts To Be Discussed

• Geologic time scale– Tertiary and Cretaceous Periods

• Local geology– Owl Creek Formation

• Major phyla– # of different phyla of invertebrates (Kingdom Anamalia)

• Extinction and theories– KT boundary (what does it mean)

Fossil Concepts To Be Discussed

• Different types of fossils– trace, mold, cast, part of the critter

• Index fossils– very abundant and help date the age of rocks

• Human impacts– creating new fossils and destruction of old ones

• A great presentation to aid with fossils can be found at:

http://www.aqd.nps.gov/grd/edu/teaching_paleo2_unit_I/

Potential Fossil Types

Definitions and pictures provided in this sectionwere taken from a variety of both internet and hard

copy sources for educational purposes only.

Potential Fossil Types

• Exogyra

Exogyra is an oyster from phylum mollusca and class bivalvia. They lay in the mud on their heavy or big side and the smaller valve was on top. They made thicker and thicker shells because of predators. Snails bored into their shells and were their main predator. Borings can be seen on the shell surfaces. These became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. They are used as a Cretaceous index fossil due to their abundance and diversity.

Potential Fossil Types

• Baculites

Baculites is also an ammonite. The suture lines or those curly lines on the shell are what make them an ammonite. Those lines represent the walls between the chambers that the animal lived in as it grew - like a Chambered Nautilus of today. The ammonites had very ornate and curvy walls between their chambers. The nautilus is related, but it has much simpler walls between the chambers. It is a nautiloid. Baculites was always a straight-shelled guy, like a squid. They are from phylum mollusca and class cephalopoda.

Potential Fossil Types

• Clams

A common name for certain bivalve mollusks, especially for marine species that live buried in mud or sand and have valves (the two pieces of the shell) of equal size. The oval valves, which cover the right and left sides of the animal, are hinged together at the top by an elastic ligament. Clams burrow by means of a muscular foot, located at the front end, which can be extruded between the valves. The

head, located within the shell, is rudimentary, without eyes or antennae. Clams are classified in the phylum Mollusca, class Pelecypoda or bivalvia. Clams are highly valued as food.

• Snails

A name commonly used for a gastropod mollusk with a shell. Included in the thousands of species are terrestrial, freshwater, and marine forms. Respiration is carried on by gills in the aquatic species; terrestrial forms have a pulmonary sac, or lung, in the mantle cavity. Eyes are borne on stalks or tentacles. A snail secretes a slimy path over which it progresses slowly by rhythmic contractions of the muscular base, or foot. Snails are classified in the phylum Mollusca , class gastropoda.

Potential Fossil Types

• Sea Urchins

This group of marine invertebrates can today be found in almost every major marine habitat from the poles to the equator and from the inter-tidal zone to depths of more than 5,000 m. There are around 800 existing species and the group has a long and detailed fossil record stretching back about 450 million years ago to the Late Ordovician Period. Sea Urchins are from phylum echinodermata and class echinoidea.

Potential Fossil Types

• Ammonite

The Ammonite was an early mollusk, a fast-moving predatory marine invertebrate (a cephalopod). These animals were protected by a shell (usually spiral-coiled) that contained many air filled chambers; the animal lived only in the outer chamber. Ammonites ranged in size from under an inch to about 9 feet (3 m) in diameter. They appeared during the Devonian and went extinct during the K-T extinction, 65 million years ago. The closest living relative of the ammonite is the chambered nautilus. Ammonite fossils are found in great quantities and are used as an index fossil.

Potential Fossil Types

• Bryozoans

Bryozoans (meaning "moss life") are a phylum of small invertebrate animals that live in salt water (or occasionally in fresh or brackish water) and are also called moss animals or sea mats. Bryozoans live in colonies of many polyps. They have ciliated tentacles and a hard, box-like, calcium carbonate skeleton. Bryozoans date from the Early Ordovician, roughly 400 million years ago. Fossil bryozoans are abundant and are important in the rock-forming process.

Potential Fossil Types

• Turritella

Abundant family of sandy mud snails usually found offshore. Several hundred known species in mostly

tropical waters. A genus characterized by long slender whorls with spiral ribbing. The numerous whorls hardly overlap and the aperture is simple. This genus ranges from Cretaceous to Modern day.

Potential Fossil Types

• Crab parts

Crabs (order Decapoda) first appeared during the Devonian. Crab fossils from the Cretaceous and the Tertiary can be found at the sandpit. Crabs are from the phylum Arthropoda and are commonly referred to as

Crustaceans.

Potential Fossil Types

Sandpit photographs

All photographs taken by Jon Wilsonand Julie Kelley on 4/8/02 except for

the photograph of the Turritella sample

Burrows made by Thallasinoides

Field #1

The burrows are all trace fossils. The Thallasinoides are a type of tracefossil produced by a shrimp-like creature. They tell us about thedepositional environment. They didn't live on the beach, but in deeperwater. The burrows are bifurcated, or split in two directions. That is adiagnostic feature for this type of trace fossil. The walls of the burrowscontain shell fragments, which also give us clues that these might beThallasinoides burrows. These are found in the Tertiary or Paleocene sediment indicating a different depositional environment from the Cretaceous age Ophiomorpha.

Thallasinoides Burrows - Close Upof the Bifurcations

Field #2

Ophiomorpha Burrows

The Ophiomorpha is a trace fossil produced byanother kind of shrimp-like animal. The walls of these burrows are bumpy. They lived on the beach.

Field #3

Cretaceous Bryozoans

Field #4

Tertiary Bryozoans

Field #5

Cretaceous - Tertiary Boundary Contact

Field #6

Cretaceous - Tertiary Boundary Contact

Field #7

Tertiary Limestone Markingthe Change from the Cretaceous

Field #8

Exogyra

Field #9

Human Trace Fossils

Field #10

Turritella

Field #11

Questions???

• Are we creating any kind of fossils while visiting the sandpit?

• Do you see anything that will be a fossil in the millions of years to come that are linked to humans? If so, what kind of fossils are these such as trace, mold, cast, or part of the critter.

• What happens at the contact between the Cretaceous Period and the Tertiary Period?

• What have you learned about fossil hunting?

Good Post-Field Trip Assignments

• All field trips help students better understand science concepts than the classroom environment can provide. They are also more fun.

• Have the students make a book of all the fossils they collected. Also have the class make one collective book to help future classes and other teachers enjoy advantages this class had in taking a field trip. Include a small description about each fossil in the students own words.

• Label all the fossils with a number that corresponds to the actual fossil name somewhere on a chart. Mix them up and have the students identify each fossil, checking their answers to see what they have learned.

References• Julie Kelley, Graduate Student

– The University of Mississippi Dept. of Geology and Geological Engineering

• Mississippi Office of Geology Publications (MDEQ)– Windows into Mississippi’s Geologic Past BY David T. Dockery III

– **other publications exist from MDEQ that are good for more fossil areas in Mississippi

• Bringing Fossils to Life by Donald R. Prothero

• Historical Geology: Interpretations and Applications by Jon M. Poort and Roseann J. Carlson

• Provided Powerpoint Reference Slides– Prepared by Jon D. Wilson, NMGK-12 Fellow

• Internet Resources on Fossils and Geology– http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/contents.html

– http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/fossils.html

– http://www.fossilkingdom.com/FK-Fossil%20Dic.htm

More Helpful Web Resources

• This site helps explain extinction, the different fossil types, and the geologic time scale with both text and graphics– http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/

– http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/glossary/IndexFossils.shtml

• Geologic time – http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mesozoic/mesozoic.html

• Major invertebrate phyla– http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/inverts/diver/divnav.htm

The End