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cngodles

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This one comes from a friend. He found this on a piece of sandstone that had fallen from an outcrop. With his GPS coordinates, it’s close to the border of the Greenbriar and the Mauch Chunk Formation. It looks like a modern mammal track to me, with 4 toe pads and a central pad. But I’ve identified 0 fossil animal tracks so far, so it might just be a strange arrangement of shapes.

 

Mammals doesn’t fit, as it’s 100 million years too early. Synapsids are officially 10 million years out.

 

So I’m at a loss. Anyone good with tracks?

C03F8D9B-25F9-4411-9DB1-905000E07B85.jpeg

Fossils of Parks Township - ResearchCatalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos

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This doesn't look like a track to me. 

This looks like imprints of something, with maybe some breakage an erosion. 

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Yeah, I feel like it matches up in shape with modern cat, lynx, wolf, otter, etc., but it can't be from that age.

 

It might be that it's not really sandstone and it was hardened from some other material. Perhaps some clay or mud on the back of a piece of sandstone and stepped on by a modern animal. I'm not sure, I didn't see it myself.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. :)

Fossils of Parks Township - ResearchCatalog | How-to Make High-Contrast Photos

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16 hours ago, cngodles said:

This one comes from a friend. He found this on a piece of sandstone that had fallen from an outcrop. With his GPS coordinates, it’s close to the border of the Greenbriar and the Mauch Chunk Formation. It looks like a modern mammal track to me, with 4 toe pads and a central pad. But I’ve identified 0 fossil animal tracks so far, so it might just be a strange arrangement of shapes.

 

Mammals doesn’t fit, as it’s 100 million years too early. Synapsids are officially 10 million years out.

 

So I’m at a loss. Anyone good with tracks?

C03F8D9B-25F9-4411-9DB1-905000E07B85.jpeg

 

The Mauch Chunk produces tetrapod footprints in Pennsylvania, but this is probably not one of them. I've found some tetrapod footprints from the underlying Pocono Group, but again they don't look like this specimen. Generally the footprints occur in shale intervals, not sandstones, such as these from Pennsylvania:

 

Some characteristic tetrapod footprints from the Mauch Chunk Formation... |  Download Scientific Diagram

 

Tetrapod Tracks from the Mauch Chunk Formation (Middle to Upper Mississippian) of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. on JSTOR

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2 hours ago, cngodles said:

strange arrangement of shapes

It is roughly in the ball park of the look seen in Nova Scotia that are thought to be from the time known as Romer's gap. I don't see how just one, is going to make it as a specimen though. Especially with such a rounded look, and indistinct extra features.

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I dont see a track either. That looks like dissolution pits caused by water dripping on the rock over a long time.

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