042512 - guidebook

my latest publication, still at the printer, is a field-trip guidebook to the Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site. This is an important fossil site in Alabama, first discovered in 1999. It has been visited at least monthly since its discovery, but, strangely, no one wrote a guidebook for the site until Ron Buta and I did it this spring. The guidebook is available as a free PDF download or on paper for a few dollars from the Alabama Paleontological Society. The download has some color, but it is lower resolution. Also, you can't jot notes on it as easily.

To my mind, the coolest thing about this site is that there are so many cool things about it.

-oldest known examples of schooling and herding behavior
-early reptiles and amphibians living together
-insect and other arthropod body fossils
-diverse trace-fossil fauna
-literally thousands of specimens
-mix of aquatic and terrestrial species
-yields new unique specimens on a regular basis

footprints 313 million years old

The fossils at the Minkin site are about 100 million years older than the oldest dinosaurs. They include some of the oldest reptile footprints, associated with footprints of amphibians. The site has also produced footprints of a transitional group that had some characteristics of primitive reptiles but not all of them. Five different tetrapod species, at least, are responsible for the tricks that have been found. More than 100 fish-fin traces were made by small fish. Invertebrate traces were made by millipedes, wingless insects, horseshoe crabs, fly larvae, and others. Body fossils include insect wings and a primitive spider relative. More than 4000 specimens have been collected to date.

This is really a cool site.

The guidebook is about 30 pages long, includes a bunch of photographs, and it's free. I think it will soon be available as a free download from the website of the Alabama Paleontological Society, but for now, just ask me for it.