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I have been searching for a small affordable slab with trilobite tracks to demonstrate trace fossils to the scouts. I found a slab that is the right size, but wonder about its authenticity.

Triassic - Lockatong Formation - Montgomery County - Pennsylvania This is another piece I collected March 2 at the Triassic Lockatong site I was exploring. The rock is a totally different color and the black marks on the pinkish rock are interesting but seem to be too indistinct to be fossils. My impression is that these are simply mineralizations and traces but since I've never seen these before I'm posting them here. These are natural light photos that show the pink substrate: These were taken with incandescent light: In technology innovation (which is my profession) we talk about "weak signals" indicating trends and innovations that are just beginning to appear. My few Triassic visits have been focused on some very fossil-poor Triassic formations that run like thin ribbons through Montgomery and Chester County, PA. I keep wanting to return to our fossil-rich Devonian and Carboniferous sites that are 1 to 2 hours away but the proximity of these sites (10-15 minutes from our home) makes it easy to spend an hour or two exploring. The trace fossils and few fish scales that turned up so far suggest that something more meaningful will eventually appear. This weekend Nan and I also found a very large flat rock with what appear to be lizard tracks but they were eroded into round circles - arranged in track patterns, and one has a sharp toenail type point - not worth collecting but another weak signal that keeps drawing us back to these sparse Triassic formations...

Although I taught biology at the college level and taught evolution I am relatively new to fossil hunting. While trying to find ammonites in Lamy, NM, reported on a blog, I came across some interesting casts/shapes in sandstone in an area having a few shells. My guess is they are the burrows of soft bodies organisms perhaps worms. One picture shows most of the tube and the other is a close up. The material inside the tube was a different color from the rock that contains the tube.

This is the third in our Juniata trip series - this one is a trace fossil that Nancy thinks represents water drops that hit the mud eons ago and were preserved. We'd like more opinions. We collected this piece because of the artistic pattern and the really great green color of the shale. There is a bit of trivia involved in this piece, by the way - the orange blotch in the upper corner looks to us like a bit of trilobite skin and when the full "blotch" is visible, the texture and pores are more evident. We did in fact collect some trilobites and "pieces" on this trip and will share those in the next in this series.

While most of the state of Vermont is metamorphic we do have a small portion of the state where we can find fossils. My daughter starts college in Buffalo, New York next week so I am looking for any suggestions for places to explore. I've been to 18 Mile Creek but am looking for other locations with public access. I am interested in trace fossils as I am putting a display case together for our clubs (Burlington Gem & Mineral Clubs) show next year. Thanks, Andy

So, I was going to open this topic called “Show me your Ichnofossils (aka Trace fossils) and we’d all get to see all kinds of feeding traces, tracks, footprints, burrows and other items, then this afternoon my 90lb dog left me a large gift on the carpet so I’m amending the request and excluding Coprolites from you all, which are ok, but I don’t want to really see them now—OK??!! LOL How about we call this Ichnofossils (part 1---Tracks/trackways/burrows/other traces only) for now!! Some other brave member or moderator can initiate Ichno part 2---Coprolites!) Here are 2 for starters--I'm sure you all have some better ones of these and lots more variety out there--let's seem them! Regards, Chris A trilobite trackway Arkansas A mammal like reptile? Cheilichnus trackway, Arizona