New species of ancient sea turtle identified by Wilcox County fossils

Asmodochelys parhami is the scientific name of a new species of ancient sea turtle that was recently identified through fossils discovered 35 years ago in Wilcox County.

According to a January al.com article written by Ivana Hrynkiw, scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently published a study that showed that fossils found in Wilcox County, Sumter County and eastern Mississippi belonged to a previously unidentified sea turtle that lived below the surface of the prehistoric seas around 75 million years ago. UAB researcher Drew Gentry, who led the study, said these fossils will help scientists better explain the origins of modern sea turtles.

Hrynkiw’s article goes on to explain that some of the sea turtle fossils were found by amateur fossil collectors decades ago, and that these fossils were donated to a wide variety of museums and institutions. Those fossils were never scientifically examined until Gentry’s recent study, which was published in the journal, Royal Society Open Science. The Wilcox County fossils used in this study are currently held by the McWane Science Center in Birmingham.

A close reading of Gentry’s study provides more information about where the sea turtle fossils were found in Wilcox County. According to the study, the fossils were collected in 1985 from surface exposures of prehistoric rock and soil that date back to the Upper Cretaceous period, found in the community of Alberta, which is in the northwest corner of Wilcox County. Because no additional information was available about exactly where the fossils were found, Gentry and researcher Jun Ebersole visited Alberta in the winter of 2019 to examine the Upper Cretaceous surface exposures in the vicinity of Alberta.

(The Cretaceous period of earth’s history lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. This geologic period was relatively warm, which resulted in high sea levels, and dinosaurs continued to roam the earth. This period in time ended with the large mass extinction of the dinosaurs.)

When Gentry and Ebersole visited Alberta, they examined all roadside exposures of Cretaceous rock within the limits of Alberta, but didn’t find anything of note. Less than half a mile north of Alberta, they visited Chilatchee Creek, which makes up the boundary between Wilcox and Dallas counties. They observed multiple “geological exposures” on the banks of this creek, but the water was too high at the time of their visit for a thorough examination.

Gentry and Ebersole believe that the fossils found in Alberta in 1985 were probably collected from somewhere along Chilatchee Creek. The creek is easily accessible to fossil hunters and its “width and depth strongly suggests it cuts through the underlying Upper Cretaceous units that have been mapped in the area.” The scientists noted that no other known vertebrate specimens have been collected from this site.

In the end, it would be interesting to know if anyone in the reading audience has any more information about how the original Wilcox County fossils were collected in 1985. Who found these fossils? Where exactly did they find them? Did they find anything else of note? If anyone knows, please shoot me an e-mail because there are some scientists in Birmingham who might be very interested.