GMS Field Trip

GMS Field Trip
Trace Fossils in Alabama
Saturday, December 3, 2016

This unique location offers people a rare opportunity to collect some incredible trace fossils and plant fossils. Trace fossils are the preservation of the activity of an organism that lived a long time ago. Body fossils represent the remains of the organism itself. For example, at this site, there are tracks and burrows left by reptiles, amphibians, trilobites, insects, and other arthropods are perfectly preserved in shale as well as a variety of plant fossils. The track and burrow fossils are trace fossils because they are not the organism itself, but evidence of the organism’s activity i.e. walking, hopping, burrowing, etc. The plant fossils are body fossils because they represent the remains of the actual plants including stems, leaves, bark, etc.

After all of the requisite paperwork, members perused a field full of shale. Burrows were the first fossils we found as Charles wondered why we were all so excited about donkeys. Cameron Muskelley found many interesting burrows. Then we found trilobite traces and beautiful seed fern fossils. Morrison Nolan and Cam shared boulders to help each other extract exquisite specimens. It wasn’t until the dreaded rain started to fall that we began to find track fossils. Dr. Bob Madden opened a boulder like a book, each layer of shale like a page filled with 313 million year old stories of a shallow, muddy, swamp. He extracted several plates of tracks as well as some superb plant fossils. Juergen Poppelreuter and David Bruce carefully deconstructed a boulder to reveal an impressive assortment of plant fossils including lycopods and a perfect flower. Diana Poppelreuter found a boulder at the last minute with at least 2 sets of tracks and numerous plant fossils.

I think everyone found something special. We are deeply grateful to the Alabama Paleontological Society for keeping this site open and available to collectors. Many thanks to Milo from the APS for coming out on a cold, drizzly day to help us find these fascinating fossils and for identifying our finds.

Lori Carter
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
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