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=

011918c

313 million-year-old trace fossils. Attenosaurs were reptile-like amphibians.  This footprint is about the size  of an adult human hand. The amphibian trackway is called Nanopus reidiae. Its maker would have looked like a salamander. There is a third trace fossil on the slab. Can you find it?

Read a lot more about this in our book "Footprints in Stone."

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469797628&sr=1-1&keywords=%22footprints+in+stone%22

This book helped the American museum solve an 87 year old mystery:

https://www.ua.edu/news/2018/01/ua-book-helps-solve-87-year-old-fossil-mystery/

Footprints in Stone update

Reading and signing at the UA Press book sale and fair yesterday. They have the book at a 40% discount today and tomorrow ($30). Older titles priced as low as $2. You can still get the book, signed, from me, any time.

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469797628&sr=1-1&keywords=%22footprints+in+stone%22

Order a signed copy from me for $43 postpaid.

Interview about Footprints in Stone

A half-hour interview about the Pennsylvanian trace fossils from Walker County, Alabama, and about the recently published book on the subject, called Footprints in Stone

http://www.specialpeopleandplaces.com/

The interview took place at a book signing at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in Tuscaloosa

Signing Saturday

So, this Saturday, I will be signing "footprints in stone," along with my co-author Ron Buta, in the Barnes & Noble in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We will be there from 1 until 5 PM and we are going to have some actual trace fossil specimens for people to look at

Invitation to a book signing and reception

Fossil insect trackway

A small fossil insect trackway from the Minkin site in central Alabama. This is the ventral side of the slab, so footprints have positive relief. On the left, you see a shallow undertrack on a layer close to the original sediment surface. On the right, you see a deeper layer, on which the trackway was more shallowly impressed. Same trackway, same insect, but preserved slightly differently on different layers.

Want to know more about this kind of stuff? Here is a new book:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469797628&sr=1-1&keywords=%22footprints+in+stone%22

Signed copies are in the Barnes and Noble in Tuscaloosa. Order a signed copy from me for $43 postpaid.

And you can learn a lot on this website:

http://alabamapaleo.org/Alabama_Paleontological_Society.html

Attenosaurus subulensis

Top of the food chain on the Westphalian tidal flat in north Alabama. Note burrows of fly larvae in lower image.

Read the book:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469578003&sr=8-1&keywords=kopaska-merkel

Resources online:

Alabama Paleo. Soc. http://alabamapaleo.org/Alabama_Paleontological_Society.html
2005 book about the site http://bama.ua.edu/~rbuta/monograph/monofiles/monofiles.html
Online photographic database http://bama.ua.edu/~rbuta/scm/scm.pl

Yet more Pennsylvanian traces from the Minkin site

Fish fin traces

Millipede trackways

Book cover

More Pennsylvanian traces, Minkin site

Barnes and Noble in Tuscaloosa has signed copies of "Footprints in Stone," my book (with Ron Buta) about this great trace-fossil site.

Amphibian trackways (small, four-toed, forefeet)

Reptile trackways

Gas bubbles, large trackway (right), small trackway (middle)

New book about the site:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469578003&sr=8-1&keywords=kopaska-merkel

Minkin site photos

Attenosaurus subulensis, the footprint of a top predator, and raindrop impressions, both 313 million years old, much older than dinosaurs. Raindrop impressions are very rare at the site, because the muddy tidal flat rarely dried out. The maker of A. subulensis looked a bit like an alligator, and far outweighed any other land animals found in the area.

New book about the site, Footprints in Stone:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469578003&sr=8-1&keywords=kopaska-merkel

071816b

this four-footed thing
seeking to assuage hunger in tidal mud
maybe an ancestor
of a cosmologist or carpenter
maybe today's lunch
but its footprints will last
300,000 millennia
and that's something

Alabama Paleontological Society

The APS (link below) is an amateur organization of fossil enthusiasts based in Birmingham, Alabama. They have monthly meetings in field trips. They also discovered the Steven C Minkin Paleozoic Footprint site, the most important trace fossil site of its age in the world, and made sure that it was preserved for posterity. Without their work, my new book about the site (co-authored with Ron Buta) could not have existed.

Fossils at the site are abundant and diverse, but one of the best things about it is that you can visit the site, with the APS, and keep most or all of the wonderful fossils that you find

http://alabamapaleo.org/Alabama_Paleontological_Society.html

062416

I am pretty excited to report that "Footprints in Stone," has just been published. This book, co-authored with Ron Buta, describes what is one of the most important fossil sites in Alabama. The Minkin site has yielded many thousands of trace-fossil specimens ranging from amphibian and reptile trackways to millipede trails and the burrows of fly larvae. The book has many photographs of specimens from this diverse fauna, but it is not just about the rocks and fossils. We also talk about how the trace fossils were discovered and how the site is protected so that they can be studied and enjoyed for years to come.

As for the book, it is really beautiful. The photographs are crisp, even the ones that was a bit worried about. The digital proof version was of relatively low resolution, so I couldn't tell how good the photos were going to be. They are great! Okay, I will stop bragging about the book now. Anyway, Ron took nearly all of the photos.

You can get it from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447?ie=UTF8&keywords=%26%2334%3Bfootprints%20in%20stone%26%2334%3B&qid=1460989262&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

You can collect trace fossils at this site yourself, and keep them. Contact the Alabama Paleontological Society (http://alabamapaleo.org/Alabama_Paleontological_Society.html). Go with them to the site and they will help you find all kinds of amazing traces of ancient animal life. If you find anything unique, I am afraid it will have to go to a museum. Otherwise, everything you find is yours.

Steven C Minkin Paleozoic footprint site update

Ron Buta has restored his interactive website, which includes thousands of photographs of Pennsylvanian trace fossils from the Minkin site:

http://bama.ua.edu/~rbuta/scm/

Users of this site can propose tentative IDs for the fossils in the photographs, and can estimate or measure other characteristics of the fossils based on examination of the photographs. All of your comments are recorded and you can see comments previously made by other people. So many specimens have been collected from this site, that many of them have not yet been studied in any detail, or even at all.

If you don't want to record your observations, that's fine. You can still look at the amazing pictures of this astoundingly diverse trace fossil fauna from more than 300 million years ago.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I had nothing to do with putting the website together, but Ron and I have a book about the site, due out in a couple of weeks. It is possible to preorder the book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460989262&sr=1-1&keywords=%22footprints+in+stone%22

Footprints in Stone update

Available for pre-order, my forthcoming book (written with Ron Buta) about a fantastic trace-fossil site in Alabama. Reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, millipedes, horseshoe crabs, etc, left their marks.

http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Stone-Fossil-Coal-Age-Tetrapods/dp/0817358447/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457887693&sr=1-6&keywords=kopaska-merkel

Cover for Footprints in Stone

Coming out next year.

Footprints in Stone update

The book is scheduled to be published in just over a year. Here is a web page about the trackway site. http://eoa.duc.auburn.edu/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1371

Video about "Footprints in Stone"

Here is the link to a 16-minute video about trace fossils. In particular, about 300 million-year-old footprints from North Alabama. Prof. Ron Buta and I wrote a book called Footprints in Stone. It is about the discovery of the site by amateur fossil collectors, their successful efforts to get it preserved by the state of Alabama, and thousands upon thousands of tracks and trails made by reptiles, amphibians, horseshoe crabs, and many other creatures on a mud flat so long ago.

http://vimeo.com/114215060

Footprints in Stone

This weekend I will be working on the Kickstarter to fund this book about fossil trackways from Walker County Alabama. Specifically, I'm going to come up with some draft text for the Kickstarter page and continue to brainstorm ideas about what to offer as premiums. So far, my favorite is some limited edition T-shirts.