010722

Balls of sand made by ghost crabs cleaning out their burrows after a storm. These have been rolled away from the crabs' burrows by the wind.

092921b

International Ichnofabric workshop 16A: held via zoom, and focused on younger faculty, students, and other early-career scientists. Registration & abstract-submission portals are open. The meeting will be November 13-14. https://www.uwa.edu/iiw16

080921

The International Ichnofabric Workshop 16A, a virtual workshop, has been rescheduled for November 13-14, which is a weekend. The abstract and registration deadline is now September 30. This will allow more time for people to prepare abstracts in what has been a very difficult year. The registration fee is $40. The website will be live in about a week, and will include information about how to register and how to submit abstracts. Those who have already submitted abstracts will not need to resubmit them.

051221c

 

Yay! I took more pictures of the Mississippian microbial reef in North Alabama.

 Oblique cut through a large burrow filled with micropelletal calcite cement. Surrounded by thick burrow wall constructed of similar, but denser, material. One millimeter in long direction.

 

 

031821b

 

frogs living 

in an elephant's footprint

they're coming back

020821b

 

300+ million-year-old rainprints in what was once mud on a tidal flat. Specimen collected by Prescott Atkinson. Associated rocks bear the best trace-fossil assemblage of its age in the world, discovered and preserved for posterity by the Alabama Paleontological Society.

http://kudzu.astr.ua.edu/cgi-bin/scm.pl  

APS (https://www.alabamapaleosoc.org/links ) book about the site: http://kudzu.astr.ua.edu/monograph/monofiles/monofiles.html -- free download

A newer book about the site: https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=

120120d

The real "Footprints in Stone" (300+ million years old, in this denialist state, available from indie bookstores:

https://bookshop.org/books/footprints-in-stone-fossil-traces-of-coal-age-tetrapods/9780817358440 

082620d

 

 

 

082520b

 

 

 Boring in brachiopod shell, Mississippian, Alabama, thin-section photomicrographs, 2.5 mm wide above; 1 mm wide below.

051420d

I and three other geologists just finished a livestreamed conversation about the fantastic Pennsylvanian trace fossils of North Alabama. These include the most important trace fossil site of its age, a story that stretches back to 1929, and the oldest known evidence of schooling in fish (with evidence for group behavior of tetrapods and invertebrates as well).

Links to the video:


YouTube: https://youtu.be/dR8TzWTJ5RY

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ALMNH/videos/714247095991609/


Books on the subject:

Pennsylvanian Footprints in the Black Warrior Basin of Alabama (free download) http://kudzu.astr.ua.edu/monograph/monofiles/monofiles.html

Footprints in Stone https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OVXWDLW284XM&dchild=1&keywords=footprints+in+stone&qid=1589477787&sprefix=footprints+in+st%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1

051420b

https://museums.ua.edu/museumsfromyourhome/

Alabama Museum of Natural History -- Museums From Your Home

Today, 10 AM Central: Pennsylvanian trace fossils from the most important site of its age in the world

International Ichnofabric Workshop 16

Announcement, International Ichnofabric Workshop – 16

Convened by Andrew K. Rindsberg, Charles E. Savrda, David C. Kopaska-Merkel,

James P. Lamb

Livingston, Alabama, USA, May 23-29, 2021

Tentative field trip dates: May 18-22 and May 30-June 3

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1981431391891255/

Twitter: @IIW161

Introduction — The International Ichnofabric Workshop began in 1990 as a conference devoted to the study of ichnofabric (sedimentary textures produced by bioturbation), but has since expanded to cover the full range of ichnologic topics. Research on ancient and modern traces, traces made by invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants, and traces of all places are equally welcome here.

This will be the first time since 2007 that the Workshop has been held in North America. Alabama is particularly well suited to host the workshop because of its diversity of trace fossil assemblages, found in rocks of ages from Cambrian through recent, allowing exciting field trips before, during, and after the conference. Tentative plans include seeing, in outcrop or in exhibits,

• Cambrian Conasauga Formation Brooksella (sponge or trace fossil? You decide!)
• Ordovician Chickamauga Limestone shallow-marine trace fossils
• Mississippian Hartselle Sandstone and Parkwood Formation, shallow-marine to estuarine trace fossils including the crustacean resting trace Alph
• Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation estuarine vertebrate and invertebrate trace-fossil lagerstatten including the famous Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site (Union Chapel Mine)
• Cretaceous Selma Group shallow-marine chalks and marls including the famous K-Pg boundary section at Moscow Landing, only a 30-minute drive from Livingston
• Tertiary marine units in south Alabama

Call for submissions in the subject areas of…

• general ichnology
• modern traces (neoichnology)
• vertebrate traces
• invertebrate traces
• ichnofabric
• evolutionary aspects of ichnology
• ichnostratigraphy
• roots and other plant traces
• ichnotaxonomy
• pseudotraces and dubiotraces
• microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS)
• ichnoentomology
• paleobiogeography of trace fossils
• form and function of trace fossils
• history of ichnology
• other
  

Venue and accommodation

The University of West Alabama

• A relatively small university (2500 on-campus students) in a small city (Livingston, 3300 permanent residents)

• Large, green campus

• Committed to a policy of integration (about half African American)

• UWA conference venues include auditorium, classrooms, and presentation area for posters

• UWA lodging in student dorms

• Dining at the UWA cafeteria, with an excursion to Touch of Home Bakery for lunch

Proposed field trips

Preconference field trip This will be charged separately from the conference fee, and the number of participants will be limited.

Day 1. Coastal Plain outcrops to be arranged

Day 2. Tuscaloosa, including Alabama Museum of Natural History (Pennsylvanian trace fossils) and Geological Survey of Alabama (cores, which might include Rodessa oyster biostromes; Smackover microcoprolites; Cretaceous cycles)

Day 3. Birmingham area, including Red Mountain and Parkwood formations; Pennsylvanian trackways etc. at McWane Science Center

Day 4. Minkin Site (Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation)

Other field trips are possible: watch the Facebook page and website!

Mid-meeting field trip: This will be a one-day trip for all conference participants; weather and river levels permitting, we will stop at Moscow Landing and Gaineswood. The Local Committee will handle arrangements. The charge for this field trip will be included in the conference fee. We will come up with an alternate stop in case Moscow Landing is submerged.

Post-conference field trip: This will be charged separately from the conference fee, and the number of participants will be limited. Tony Martin and Sally Walker will take participants to coastal Georgia for a neoichnological extravaganza.

Meeting organization

A 5-day conference with 4 days reserved for talks (8 hours per day, 20 minutes per talk for about 100 participants) and one day for a mid-conference field trip. If we allot a room for poster presentations, then talks can be longer.

Organizing committee:

•Andrew K. Rindsberg, University of West Alabama

•Charles Savrda, Auburn University

•David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Geological Survey of Alabama

•Gabriela Mángano, University of Saskatchewan

•James P. Lamb, Black Belt Museum

•George Phillips, Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

Contact and information:

Andrew K. Rindsberg

Biological & Environmental Sciences

University of West Alabama

Livingston, Alabama 35470, USA

Phone +1 (205) 652-3416

Email arindsberg@uwa.edu

or

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

Geological Survey of Alabama

Tuscaloosa AL 35486-6999

Phone +1 (205) 247-3695

Email dkm@gsa.state.al.us

032320d

Shrimp fecal pellets (large perforated objects) embedded in thrombolite, Parafavreina ziczac, Oxfordian, Smackover Fm., St. Stephens Ridge, Washington Co., Alabama, 2.5 mm wide.

031220c

A microcoprolite grainstone, a limestone composed chiefly of the fossil fecal pallets of burrowing shrimp, Jurassic Smackover Formation, Alabama. All photos 2.5 mm in the long dimension. Samples from cores between 2 and 3 miles below the surface. Most pellets are Parafavreina ziczac, seen in various orientations. Darker specimens retain more organic material. Relatives of the shrimp that made these pellets are common today in shallow tropical waters, which is why we know who made them.

The squished specimen in the middle was still soft at the time of burial.

120319d

bog
my footprint
fills with tadpoles

081719d

So the Alabama Science Teachers Association is meeting here in Tuscaloosa this year. Stop me if I have already told you about this. I decided to do a workshop about fossil footprints. Specifically, about trackways. Years ago I found this really cute activity where you step in paint, walk on paper, and then measure things, calculate other things, and, hopefully, realize that you can learn a lot from fossil footprints. I actually presented this to the same group years ago, but there is so much turnover among teachers (because they are treated like crap) that for most of them this would be a new experience. I recently discovered that the ASTA doesn't accept every single workshop proposal that is submitted, although I still think it's pretty close. But if they don't accept this one, it will be because the owner of the facility doesn't want people walking in paint on their floors. I have a plan for that, but I think if they say no they're going to say no before they hear about my plan. I guess I need to email the workshop organizer and make my pitch before it is too late! It involves using a large tarp and trusting teachers to be tidy. I can do that, can't I? Stay tuned.

080819d

The Encyclopedia of Alabama includes about two dozen short articles about the geology of the state. Including this one, about the Steven C Minkin Paleozoic Footprint site, in Walker County. This site is one of the best in the world for its abundance and diversity of trace fossils:

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1371

The encyclopedia is written for the general public.

Here are photographs of some of the fantastically preserved trace fossils found at the site:

 Insect jumping traces.

Horseshoe crab trackway.

Two crossing millipede trackways.

 Amphibian trackway.

Reptile trackway.

Giant amphibian footprint next to a small trackway of a different amphibian.

 Fish fin trails.

Insect wing impressions.

Trigonotarbid, an ancient spider relative.

A new book about these exciting Pennsylvanian trace fossils describes their discovery, their makers, and the environment in which they lived:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=

060919c

they parked inside

one of the footprints

was that thunder?

041819

Grainstone composed almost exclusively of Parafavreina, a fecal pellet made by burrowing shrimp. This deposit is almost identical to modern accumulations of fecal pellets made by related burrowing-shrimp.This thin section was stained with Alizarin red S, staining calcite pink. White particles are quartz silt grains.. Light pink areas are calcite cement crystals filling original open spaces among the pellets. Jurassic Smackover Formation, Alabama, image 2.5 mm wide.

The photos of Parafavreina that I have been posting were taken in the process of preparing this scientific article:

Rindsberg, A. K., and Kopaska-Merkel, D. C., 2013 , Parafavreina ziczac isp. nov., a crustacean microcoprolite from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) Smackover Formation of Alabama, U.S.A., Alabama Museum of Natural History Bulletin 31, v. 2. p. 74-93.

I have PDF copies of the article if anyone is interested.

031219b

more rain more mud
traces of my wheels
everywhere I go