Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
It was decided at the March meeting that the BPS should return to this mine once again as an organized field trip. As I have noted in previous reports, this is a site the BPS visited with great success just two months earlier. The site is rich in footprint fossils of Pennsylvanian amphibians and other creatures. Although the previous organized visit, on January 23, occurred on a rather bleak day, it was nothing like the one today. Rain fell hard all day across most of Alabama and never let up even for a few minutes. Because of the weather, only six people turned up for this outing. |
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Figure 1 Unusual tracks of one or two large creatures that must have been moving in very wet mud. |
In spite of the weather, several of us still found nice tracks and other fossils. I show a few that I picked up here. One large set of tracks I found was lying at the bottom of a rock pile that had been thoroughly searched. After the tracks were cleaned of mud, it looks to me like they are amphibian tracks that were laid down in rather wet mud. The impressions are wide as the creatures' whole body probably sloshed in the mud. There are two sets of tracks on the main piece, and details of one are shown in the close-up. |
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Figure 2 Close-up of part of the previous specimen, showing likely toe prints flanking the broad body scrape. |
A much smaller set of tracks I |
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Figure 5 Two tracks of the same creature, the one at right being the same foot as in the previous picture, but the print looks different because it is at a different level. At this level, only three toes are seen, with a strong pad. |
Other
Notes on the Union Chapel Site January 23-March 19, 2000
The Union Chapel Mine was visited many times by BPS
members and guests
between January
23 and March 19. Ashley Allen brought to the February BPS meeting a
huge rock with a set of excellent large amphibian prints. Bruce Relihan
brought to the March BPS meeting a large stump cast of a likely
Lepidodendron. The stump is more than a foot in diameter and tapers
around the edges, as if it were near the bottom of the original trunk.
Bruce related the heroic effort he put into getting the huge fossil by
himself, which involved building a rock ramp to allow him to get it
into his truck. Steve Minkin also brought to the last BPS meeting an
excellent set of modest-sized tracks found by his wife.
All in all, the Union Chapel site elicited such great
interest and
finds that Steve Minkin asked Ed Hooks if the BPS could have a
temporary display case at the Alabama Museum of Natural History in
Tuscaloosa. Ed agreed to this and some of the new Union Chapel pieces
may soon be on display for the public to see!