Mississippian Trilobite? Tracks

[Archimedes]

Are these trilobite tracks??? It looks like he was tiptoeing across the spot.

[erose]

Certainly look like some sort of arthropod. Nice fossil.

[old bones]

That's a really neat trackway! You must be pleased with that find.

[painshill]

Those don’t look like trilobite traces, but they do look like “Diplichnites”:

https://twitter.com/DavidKM/status/396280638996635649

Dawson (1873) initially proposed a large crustacean, annelid worm or myriapod (such as a millipede) made them and then, later, that they were produced by some kind of fish “walking” in shallow water on its pectoral or ventral fin spines. General consensus today is that his original belief was close to correct and they are now attributed to giant herbivorous myriapods such as Arthropleura (related to modern centipedes and millipedes).

Edited January 21, 2014 by painshill

[KHunter]

Don't look like trilobite tracks, trilobites generally leave bands/lines as opposed to dots as tracks. Great fossil anyway!

[squali]

very cool find. What is the width between the tracks?

[Herb]

they're some kind of tracks, don't think they are trilobite, but a nice trace fossil.

[Archimedes]

That's a really neat trackway! You must be pleased with that find.

Yes i am pleased with it, i found it early when the light hit it just right for me to see

[Archimedes]

very cool find. What is the width between the tracks?

the tracks are about 1.3 cm wide and 5.5 cm long

looking at the surface that was facing downward

[Archimedes]

Those don’t look like trilobite traces, but they do look like “Diplichnites”:

https://twitter.com/DavidKM/status/396280638996635649

Dawson (1873) initially proposed a large crustacean, annelid worm or myriapod (such as a millipede) made them and then, later, that they were produced by some kind of fish “walking” in shallow water on its pectoral or ventral fin spines. General consensus today is that his original belief was close to correct and they are now attributed to giant herbivorous myriapods such as Arthropleura (related to modern centipedes and millipedes).

Thanks I will look into this since i have some specimens from this site

these tracks are in a veryfine grained sand that got washed out into deeper water, then the tracks were made

Edited January 22, 2014 by Archimedes

[Archimedes]

thanks all for your comments and help

[mstimson29]

Diplichnites isp. These are not triplibite for all of the reasons posted above. However they are not nessessarily myriapod either, these look very "underprinty". Having recently looked at the UCM collection in great detail last year there are a number of other invertebrates that could have made these Diplichnites traces as well. oddly enough limulids are not off the table due to the underprint nature of Kouphichnium (limulid traces) which are very abundant at the UCM site.

Very nice specimen. feel free to sent me a higher res image and I will see if I can add any further details.

Matt