We lucked out getting a Saturday in July that was warm, but not blazing, in North Alabama. The APS took advantage and got out collecting at one of our favorite sites. The site represents a Pennsylvanian age (~310mya) site. The incredible fossils from the site include footprints of this large animal. The footprints in this picture are the ichnospecies attenosaurus. Note these prints are about the same size as the more modern human hand - this was a pretty big animal that was walking the muddy ground that once covered the site in Walker County, Alabama.
We had about 12-15 members show up for this field trip some for the first time. It was a great day with many fossils being found. The next group are some of the plant fossils that were found. These include various ferns, fern pollen organs, and some leaf fossils.
In addition to the fantastic Attenosaurus fossil in the first picture, there were a few other tetrapod tracks and trackways found below:
We hope to see everyone on our next field trip!
Jim Braswell, APS President