Mississippian Subperiod stem-tetrapod footprints

[LoneRanger]

Took a recent collecting trip to a site that preserves stem-tetrapod, anthracosaur (reptile-like amphibian) footprints from the Mississippian subperiod.  As seen in the photos, it's fairly common for these to show an overlap of front and back (manus and pes) prints.  As part of the agreement for site access, I can't provide any info on geologic formation or location, but it's not the Union Chapel Mine or any other well-known Carboniferious ichnofossil site.  Paleontologist Alfred Romer coined the term "Romer's gap" to describe the lack of tetrapod fossils in the earlies Carboniferous Period (roughly 360 to 345 mya).  In recent years, new finds have been made that help fill in this gap, and an internet search on Romer's gap will provide a variety of papers describing interesting worldwide Late Devonian/early Mississippian tetrapod fossil finds.

[historianmichael]

Those are incredible! Amazing finds!

[traveltip1]

Neat tracks

[Fossildude19]

Thanks for posting these. 

Nice to see such great pieces in your collection.  

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lovely and interesting.

Thanks for sharing.

[jdp]

These are pretty interesting. Is someone working on these fossils?

[Nimravis]

Great tracks- they have become my favorite fossil to collect now and I have purchased many lately.

[LoneRanger]

12 hours ago, jdp said:

These are pretty interesting. Is someone working on these fossils?

Yes, these have been studied and scientifically named, but providing the name would make it possible -- by internet search -- to track down (pun intended) the site!

[Pemphix]

Veery cool tracks !