The Georgia Mineral Society, Inc.
4138 Steve Reynolds Boulevard
Norcross, GA 30093-3059

GMS Field Trip January 2021

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GMS Field Trip
Pennsylvanian Tracks and Plants in Alabama
Saturday, January 23, 2021

On January 23rd, the Georgia Mineral Society participated in a field trip to the most prolific locality for early Pennsylvanian tracks in the world. The site is owned by the state of Alabama and is overseen by the Alabama Paleontological Society, Inc.

Forty-five of us met near the site and filled out all the necessary paperwork and reviewed the safety instructions. Promptly at 11:00 am a caravan of 18 cars drove 15 minutes to the collecting site.

The field had been plowed a week earlier by the state. There had not been enough rain yet to wash all the dirt off the shale. Despite that, lots of interesting things were found, from a variety of tracks like limulid (horseshoe crabs), tetrapods, and undichna swimming traces, and plant fossils like lycopod foliage. The Alabama Paleontological Society also had their first field trip of this year on this day, and their members were very helpful in identifying fossils for GMS members.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect – sunny, temperature in the high 50’s and no wind. After a fun-filled day playing in the dirt, we stopped collecting at 4:00 pm and headed home.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my co-lead Jason Leatherwood and the Alabama Paleontological Society representative Prescott Atkinson for their support.

See you on the next field trip

Juergen Poppelreuter, Trip Lead
On behalf of Charles Carter, GMS Field Trip Chair
e-mail:

Testimony to GMS Time Travel

On Saturday, January 23, 2021, the GMS conducted a field trip under the able leadership of Juergen Poppelreuter to internationally recognized Carboniferous fossil beds. It was a beautiful sunny day and the maximum allowed number of collectors avidly pursued trace-evidence of life 310 million years ago when earth’s land mass was sparsely populated with vertebrates. Spirits were high, the chatter was exciting and Juergen’s entertaining commentary all helped to create a very enjoyable time. The photographs of my finds which are part of this report are below.

Another fascinating feature of this fossil site is that approximately 310 million ago it was apparently located below the Equator and near the juncture of three cratons (land masses) that helped form the supercontinent Pangea.

Henry Frantz, GMS Member

(a) a plate of small ripples showing the presence and movement of water
in the wet, warm swampy environment of the time

(b) a rear foot under-print of the proto-reptile Attenosaurus subulensis,
the largest (2-3 ft. long) and most rare or the vertebrates evidenced at the site

(c) a track of the insect Stiaria which shows its tail/body drag between the feet markings;
in addition to the insect track, there are two partial claw under-tracks (two prominent marks each) on the left and right sides of the plate that were apparently made by a swimming amphibian after this area filled with water and one of the swimmer’s appendages partially and intermittently hit the mud bottom;
notice also a light elongate swipe of this apparent swimming track across the insect track approximately midway between the two more prominent marks.

Photo by Diana Poppelreuter