Press Release
January 2, 2018
87-Year-Old Fossil Mystery Solved
In the world of paleontology, mysteries abound. Apart from questions about
their makers, sometimes fossils create their own mysteries after they are
collected. The book, “Footprints in Stone: Fossil Traces of Coal-Age
Tetrapods,” by Ronald J. Buta and David C. Kopaska-Merkel, helped solve
a mystery at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Senior Museum Specialist Carl Mehling had been working to identify some
unknown specimens from an unlabeled crate. His only clue was the
newspaper used to cushion the specimens. He explained in an email to
Buta and Kopaska-Merkel on October 11, 2017:
“I
have to thank you guys for something unexpected. I got a copy of
Footprints in Stone about a month ago. In the Intro, I read that G.G.
Simpson collected trackways down there in January 1930. I was
immediately thrilled because this promised to help solve a mystery I
first became aware of in 2005.”
The
newspapers were from the time of initial discovery, which inspired
Mehling to continue digging. He found documentation that proved at
least three of the specimens were associated with the Galloway No. 11
underground coal mine near Carbon Hill, Alabama – the location in
Buta and Kopaska-Merkel’s book.
In the 1920s,
workers at the Galloway No. 11 Mine reported seeing fossil animal
footprints (trace fossils) preserved in the rock layers above the
coal seam they were mining.
The animals
that left the footprints were a mystery because no skeletal remains
were found, making it difficult to know what they might have looked
like. Nevertheless, the discovery was considered significant enough
that the mining company contacted not only professionals in Alabama,
but also the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York,
where the footprints attracted attention of paleontologist George
Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984), who worked at AMNH for three decades .
Simpson selected 14 large slabs of tracks, now thought to be 310-315
million years old, to be shipped to New York.
Alabama trace
fossils received little study until 1999, when tracks were
re-discovered by amateur fossil collectors in the spoil piles of an
active surface coal mine, the Union Chapel Mine, near Jasper,
Alabama, 23 miles east of Carbon Hill. Renewed interest in the
ancient Walker County footprints brought them back to the forefront
of Alabama paleontology. This led to the publication of “Footprints
in Stone: Fossil Traces of Coal-Age Tetrapods”
by Buta and Kopaska-Merkel. The book tells the story of the discovery
of the site of fossil tracks at the Union Chapel Mine and its
preservation by the State of Alabama as the Steven C. Minkin
Paleozoic Footprint site. The book also recounts the discovery in
2011 of a second prolific fossil trackway site, the Crescent Valley
Mine, located only a quarter of a mile from the former entrance to
the Galloway No. 11 Mine.
Mehling
closed his email:
“I
am absolutely thrilled to have reunited these specimens with their
data. And I love the serendipitous path that took me there.”
The retrieval of Simpson's slabs after so
many years is a thrilling development in the history of fossil
collecting in Alabama. The Simpson slabs are an important part of
Alabama's heritage, and their re-discovery provides a remarkable
story of paleontological sleuthing.
Footprints
in Stone: Fossil Traces of Coal-Age Tetrapods,
by Ronald J. Buta and David C. Kopaska-Merkel, is available through
the University of Alabama Press.
For more information:
Dr. Ronald J. Buta
Professor of Astronomy
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Alabama
Box 870324
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
email: rbuta@ua.edu
cell phone number: 205-310-9062
Dr. David C. Kopaska-Merkel
Section Chief, Petroleum Systems and Technology
Geological Survey of Alabama
Box 869999
Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-6999
205-247-3695
email: davidkm@gsa.state.al.us
Carl Mehling
Senior Museum Specialist
Fossil Amphibian, Reptile, and Bird Collections
Division of Paleontology
American Museum of Natural History
200 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024
email: cosm@amnh.org
