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Found in Luna County New Mexico. Looking for an identification, hoping it's a footprint.

I’ve made a lot of progress. I have one large main section and a smaller section that I still haven’t gotten connected up. The red circles are the manus (front) tracks that Dr Klein wanted me to be sure I got. I’m still digging out more tracks but the rocks have gotten smaller and more irregular. The individual pictures are what I’ve found in the last couple days. Dr Lucas is coming in September to take what he needs for his research

I’ve made a lot of progress on the reassembly. One more large satellite piece to join to the main body. Pictures don’t show the tracks very well but give you an idea of the scale. About 17’ long. Hope to get back to digging (and efficiently marking the slabs this time) in the next few days.

Found this today. It will eventually hook into the new trackway. By far the biggest I’ve found. Dr Lucas was very excited, which for a paleontologist is remarkable lol. Attached an update on my reassembly.

Dr Lucas and Dr Klein have been looking at my track photos. Looks like I have summer plans lol. The reassembling is coming along pretty good. I was smart and marked my pieces. Unfortunately the markings washed off. I used both paint pens and construction crayons but apparently there was still too much dirt despite my efforts to brush it off first. Next up, a metal scribe. I’m learning.

My father pointed this possible trackway on a sandstone paving stone on his front walk. I don't know the source of the rock. It looks clearer in person than on the images. There are several possible tracks in sequence- I took a picture of the only one that looks mostly complete (last image, with quarter). Other pavers in the path have odd marks that look sort of like drag marks from vegetation, bubbles, or worm or crab tracks. (not pictured on this post). What do you all think?

Hello everyone! Today I ventured out to the Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area for my first time, and it was… something. This post is going to serve as both a journal of my day, and as a request for assistance as I try to figure out what exactly a concretion looks like. Once I got my permit outside the office (which is just down Huston Rd a bit from the IL-53 and Huston Rd intersection; this is for people like myself who struggled to find an address or location of the office), I headed to Mazonia south unit, where I went to fossil hunting site 3. There were not really any exposed rocks here, so I went deeper into the brush. I spent two hours picking up random rocks that looked remotely orange and red, until I realized that I was probably looking for the wrong types of rock in general. I had seen a ton of pictures online of concretions from Mazon creek, but all of them were of the fossils people found on the inside, which left me befuddled about what the outside looked like. I walked around until I found a place with cell service and planted myself on rock so I could watch a couple YouTube videos of people who had visited the area before. I learned a little about what I should be looking for, but I was still very confused. I managed to find the rock below, which looks vaguely like a fossil and gave myself some false hope, but I believe it’s probably just the way minerals formed on the rock that are deceiving: As morale dwindled, I made my way back toward the parking area and decided to walk a bit down the road. I found a neat little skull in a ditch as I was walking: As I kept going, I started stopping at some small exposures within a few feet of the road, and that is actually where I saw what I now understand to be the nodules I should be looking for. It was one of the two below: It made me feel a bit better that I found an actual concretion, as I went much of the afternoon without seeing any rock exposures. I have come to believe that fossil hunting site 3 may have a dearth of concretions, though I may be incorrect. Anyway, after finding the first concretion, I found a few similar rocks. However, I’m not entirely sure if they are potentially fossil containing material or if they’re just rock: They all have the dark red sections that I associated with iron, so I took them with. That is about the extent of what I grabbed that I thought were concretions, though I realize now that not all of those are even concretions. As I was wrapping up a mostly forgettable day, in the last roadside stop before my car, I came across this: I asked elsewhere on the interwebs and was informed that it might be a trackway, which I would think would be from an insect. However, if it is something else, please do let me know. Regardless, I was thrilled with this. I didn’t know what it was, but I did know it wasn’t something I had ever collected. In fact, today was the first day I have ever collected fossils from organisms that lived on land. It more than made up for the cold, gloomy weather and the disappointment I had experienced earlier. Just make sure to know generally what you should be looking for before you get there, unlike me. Now to my big question. How do I differentiate concretions from any regular old weathered rock? Are they typically round to some extent, as I see on others’ posts, or do they sometimes occur as jagged shapes? Are spherical rocks more likely to be regular rocks, whereas concretions are generally flatter in a dimension? I understand their shapes and sizes are diverse, but are there any patterns that tend toward a concretion over any a generic rock? As I finish up this topic, I do have one question about the two oval concretions I showed in my hand. Are the theoretical fossils inside the “egg” shape that lies inside the shell, or would they be on the outside of the egg shape? In other words, once I remove the rest of the shell from each of them, do I do the freeze-thaw cycles on the rock inside the shells? Thank you for reading and helping, and I apologize for all the questions!

Had a four day visit from Spencer Lucas and Hendrik Klein to study my track finds. Lots of photography, made tracings of the tracks. They took a few truckloads of slabs for the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and will be coming back to collect the large trackway. It was a fascinating week.

I found these Rhynchosauroides trace fossil trackways well-defined in the Triassic red bed sedimentary deposits in the Newark Basin in southeastern Pennsylvania. Lincoln cent shows scale.

Thought I would share some of my Acrocanthosaurus tracks in my collection from Texas. These are from the Glen Rose Formation. Anyone who has dino tracks, please feel free to post them here on this thread too...would love to see them! The associated pair are big...both over 20 inches long.

I have recently been looking at some of my photos from trips and found photos of when I was in Alberta in 2018. I saw a photo of a Hadrosaur footprint from a trackway in Dinosaur Provincial Park that me and my brother found. I also read not to long ago that no big trackways have been found in this area so I decided to give the information and location to the Palaeontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta. I was responded by Dr. Caleb Brown, he told me that I was most likely right and it was probably Hadrosaur. I am currently waiting for him to reply again to see what he thinks about the other information of the trackway and footprint that I gave him. One of the footprints outlined in the photo with pen.

I am considering buying this fossil offered online but it's NOT on our "favorite" auction site- just straightforward purchases. I really like this, and it's not QUITE up to what is not affordable for me. It is offered as an arthropod trackway in hyporelief.

The strange creatures that lived in Ireland millions of years ago, RTE Radio, Wednesday, 13 Nov 2019 https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2019/1113/1090543-the-strange-creatures-that-lived-in-ireland-millions-of-years-ago/ 385-million-year-old footprints in Co Kerry represent turning point in evolution, Michael Dorgan, Irish Central, June 7, 2019 https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/valentia-island-tetrapod-footprints Yours, Paul H.

The race to rescue 95-million-year-old dinosaur footprints from the elements in the Queensland outback. Belinda Smith for The Chase, ABC Science, Australian Broadcasting Corporation https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-14/the-race-to-save-wintons-dinosaur-footprints/10578212 Winton footprint fossils saved from floods By Belinda Smith on AM, Australian Broadcasting Corporation https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/winton-footprint-fossils-saved-from-floods/10810194 Related paper is: Romilio, A. and Salisbury, S.W., 2011. A reassessment of large theropod dinosaur tracks from the mid-Cretaceous (late Albian– Cenomanian) Winton Formation of Lark Quarry, central-western Queensland, Australia: a case for mistaken identity. Cretaceous Research, 32(2), pp.135-142. https://dinosaurs.group.uq.edu.au/files/2119/Romilio_Salisbury_2011.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222618836_A_reassessment_of_large_theropod_dinosaur_tracks_from_the_mid-Cretaceous_late_Albian-Cenomanian_Winton_Formation_of_Lark_Quarry_central-western_Queensland_Australia_A_case_for_mistaken_identity https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anthony_Romilio Yours, Paul H.

Okay so I found this specimen at the Taughannock Falls in Ithaca New York. I found it at the edge of the gorge which consists of shale, composed of slit and clay that fell onto lime mud and hardened into rock. I've done some research and it appears to be a Brittle star trace fossil formed by their arm grazing the sand floor. Although, these Brittle Star fish traces are known as "Pteridichnites biseriatus" and they have only been discovered so far in upper Devonian shales out in western and eastern Virginia. I'm not an expert but to my knowledge the Ithaca geological formation is Devonian and was slowly covered by sand. Is it possible that the Brittle Star fish once roamed in the ancient sea now known as "Taughannock falls" today? Because a research team is trying to find this specimen and they are wondering if anyone has discovered it. Edit: Im referring to the dotted trackway. check this link out for more information. http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/www/news/Pteridichnites.htm

Hello everyone. I am an incredibly novice fossil hunter from Pennsylvania. From where I live, it is heavy Carboniferous territory. One of the items on my bucket list is to eventually find something from a temnospondyl, even if it is nothing more than a trackway or even better - a bone fragment! Would anyone be willing to share with me advice on what to look for / or what has helped them in finding anything from a Temnospondyl or Lepospondyl? Do they appear more in certain rocks than others? I live in the Pittsburgh area, near where Fedexia was discovered ten years ago. I'm hoping to eventually find something related to Fedexia or another temnospondyli. From what I'm realizing, these little guys are hard to come by. Any advice? Thanks everyone!

Hello everyone! I am a total noob to all of this and just joined today! I've been on this website before and everyone seems very knowledgeable and helpful. Having said that, can someone help me out with this specimen? I tried to look this up online and ended up confusing myself. Initially I thought it may be referred to as Diplichnites left behind by a millipede, but another Google search led me in the direction of possibly Protichnites left behind by trilobites. Is there any way to tell (if any) what this is or what could have made it? I believe this to be from the Carboniferous, being as this was found in Beaver Pennsylvania just north of Pittsburgh in a shallow creek. I can also say from studying it that one track seems to be more like flat rectangles (trackway on the left), while the other two are more like little dots(trackway on the right. Could it be from two separate animals? Thank you all for your help!

This stone came out of a stream-bed, so no certain provenance; BUT - I'm sitting on the top of the Oneota dolomite, in extreme SE Fillmore County, SE Minnesota. Ever since I moved here, I've found blocky chunks of what I always called quartzite in nearby stream beds; often with ripple marks like this: Sorry about lack of scale, but if you look at the top of the stone, you can see a northern pin oak leaf - it's about 4 inches long. I was told when I arrived that my Oneota dolomite was overlain by the St. Peter sandstone- which has no record of rippled silicified layers. Two years ago, asking among friends on Facebook, I was plugged into 3 different and authoritative geologists, who suggested my stone had to be from the Sioux quartzite- located well north, and had to have been transported by an older glaciation. That quartzite is supposed to be pink when freshly fractured- and I did indeed find some precisely pink stone eventually; verified as the right color. I stick by my "quartzite" rather than "sandstone", and you can see why. However. Several things did not add up, and I kept the ID tentative in my mind. Then I started finding dolomitic marble- not known in the literature, and indicative of some very active silicification episodes locally- which might make quartzite as well as marble. Digging further, I found a few references that say my own bit of Minnesota has the New Richmond sandstone on top of the Oneota dolomite; just locally. And eventually found a reference that in Indiana, there are rippled sandstones from the New Richmond, so highly silicified that "some call them quartzites". That makes more sense from all aspects- the quartzite I find is so abundant it could easily be a layer overlaying my dolomite, and surviving erosion far better, so quite evident. Also- the Sioux quartzite is measured at around 1.2 to almost 2 billion years old - too old for any critter fossils. I have not yet found any fossils in my quartzite - but it's really metamorphosed hard, and some deformation was going on at the time as some strata are curved; in the Oneota it's strictly flat. The New Richmond is still classified as "lower Ordovician"; somewhere around 450 MYA, I think. There were critters. This next image is the right upper corner of the rippled stone, rotated for a different perspective: Next; same stone; rotated right so you don't have to break your neck looking: and last the same only with "definition" and "sharpness" enhanced as far as I can with my cheapo software. The photo of the entire stone shows you that the rest of the ripples show no disturbances at all; it's only this corner; which looks just a bit like - feet? Hopping along, then 'taking flight"? or if going the other way, landing, causing that different mark? Also note; the "entire stone" photo is of the stone slightly wet; changing some visible details. I have these same photos at about 6 megabytes each, if that might help at some point, and of course I have the stone if you have suggestions for improved images. What do you all think; is there any chance this is actually a trackway- that should perhaps be shown to the real expert folk? I just can't quite dismiss it; there are several aspects that repeat regularly... Theoretically, SE Minnesota was mostly marine tidal flats at this point- the source of the ripples. I eagerly await your thoughts.

If you are ever in Alaska and want to check out something cool this paper reports details of a unique association of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks found in the Late Cretaceous lower Cantwell Formation, Denali National Park, central Alaska Range, Alaska https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-30110-8

Mammoth steps found at Fossil Lake Ancient trackways discovered in Lake County By Kurt Liedtyke, Herald and News, Oregon https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/mammoth-steps-found-at-fossil-lake/article_72c659d4-38f6-545f-b7a2-5718be8c4d51.html Rare Mammoth Tracks Reveal an Intimate Portrait of Herd Life Researchers piece together a 43,000-years-old tableau of an injured adult and concerned young, Smithsonian Magazine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/rare-mammoth-tracks-paint-intimate-portrait-pachyderm-group-life-180968256/ Retallack, G.J., Martin, J.E., Broz, A.P., Breithaupt, B.H., Matthews, N.A. and Walton, D.P., 2018. Late Pleistocene mammoth trackway from Fossil Lake, Oregon. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.01.037 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018217312154 Yours, Paul H.

Hey guys finally got a chance to finish the first print on the tracks Im casting. In theory they are Acrocanthrosaurus tracks and there are a total of 6 tracks (may be more buried). Anywho I got the original cast done then made a negative mold. Im now making positive casts of the initial track. Im still messing with the color I want but Im pretty close

Fossil Footprints of Early Human Ancestor Stolen from Crete By Tasos Kokkinidis,Sept. 14, 2017 http://greece.greekreporter.com/2017/09/14/fossil-footprints-of-early-human-ancestor-stolen-from-crete/ Man charged with antiquities theft over fossils Ekathimerini News, September 15, 2015 http://www.ekathimerini.com/221719/article/ekathimerini/news/man-charged-with-antiquities-theft-over-fossils The footprints are discussed in: Fossil footprints challenge established theories of human evolution, PhysOrg, Uppsala University, August 31, 2017, (Has overall picture of trackways.) https://phys.org/news/2017-08-fossil-footprints-theories-human-evolution.html 5.7-Million-Year-Old Human Footprints Found in Crete, Greece, Greek Reporter, September 2, 2017. http://greece.greekreporter.com/2017/09/02/5-7-million-year-old-human-footprints-found-in-crete-greece/ Controversial footprint discovery suggests human-like creatures may have roamed Crete nearly 6m years ago by Matthew Robert Bennett And Per Ahlberg, The Conversation, September 1, 2017 https://phys.org/news/2017-09-controversial-footprint-discovery-human-like-creatures.html The paper about these footprints is: Gierliński, G.D., Niedźwiedzki, G., Lockley, M.G., Athanassiou, A., Fassoulas, C., Dubicka, Z., Boczarowski, A., Bennett, M.R. and Ahlberg, P.E., 2017. Possible hominin footprints from the late Miocene (c. 5.7 Ma) of Crete?. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001678781730113X PDF file at http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/29687/ Yours, Paul H.

I was looking at the latest news and this popped up which I thought was very cool that something like this exists "A group of paleontologists from the University of Queensland and James Cook University has documented the most diverse assemblage of dinosaur tracks in the world on the north-western coast of Western Australia." http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/worlds-most-diverse-collection-dinosaur-footprints-04740.html The paper is part of SVP memoir series #16. Not sure if one can purchase this journal, it's pretty nice and if this interest you a hard bound copy is the way to go. Here are a few highlights Of the tracks examined, 150 could be identied and are assignable to a least eleven and possibly as many as 21 different track types: ve different types of theropod tracks, at least six types of sauropod tracks, four types of ornithopod tracks, and six types of thyreophoran tracks. Eleven of these track types can formally be assigned or compared to existing or new ichnotaxa, whereas the remaining ten represent morphotypes that, although distinct, are currently too poorly represented to confidently assign to existing or new ichnotaxa. Unfortunately the trackways are in a tidal area and will eventually disappear Here are some of the tracks found with descriptions

Ancient beasts roamed this secret spot in Death Valley Washington Post, Dcember 2, 2016 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/secret-spot-in-death-valley-contains-evidence-of-ancient-animals/2016/12/02/7542aafe-b722-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html Death Valley's 'secret' fossil canyon could finally be opened to the public after being hidden for almost a century 1. Remote fossil hotbed covers an area of around five sq miles (12.9 sq km) 2. The area was closed to the public in 1940 to preserve the cache of tracks 3. The US National Park Service, which is celebrating its centennial year, has been called on to open up the forbidden area to visitors http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3989588/Death-Valley-s-secret-fossil-canyon-finally-opened-public-hidden-century.html Death Valley's hidden fossil canyon slowly opens to public San FranciscoGate, November 17, 2016 http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Death-Valley-s-hidden-fossil-canyon-slowly-10621796.php Yours, Paul H.