"Ichno Fossils" also known as "Trace Fossils", provide us with indirect evidence of life through footprints, tracks, burrows, borings, and, feces left behind by animals or insects millions of years ago.
In between the times my hunting buddies and I aren't hunting fossils somewhere in the state I like to keep it down home cuz at times. I have an area I hunt locally for trace fossils and love going there after a big rain. The rains loosen some of the stone, creating small landslides falling to the foot of the rock face. When I drive to the site I find impressions of trackways laid down by organisms that traipsed across an ancient mudflat 300 million years ago during the coal age known as the Carboniferous Period in Alabama.
The site is several minutes away from home, and is a good place to just get away from it all and focus my energies on the hunt. On this site, I have to time the sun's angle just right to be able to hunt because without the rays hitting the shale you can't see the tiny trace impressions in stone. So far I've managed to time it just right, especially during the winter months. The summer months are another story, but feel confident I got that right too. I've been hunting this site for over 15 years and it still doesn't disappoint and is a site that just keeps giving! I am collaborating with a state Paleo/Ichnologist who studies trace fossil trackways. He hopes to write a paper about the formation and the fossils that are found there?
On occasion I will join the Alabama Paleontological Society for field trips to their trackways site that is located in what is known as the Black Warrior Basin. A former coal mine, this site boasts one of the most prolific trackway sites in the Americas. The track ways are pre-dinosaur and some of them featured in photos below were made by decendants of the dinosaurs.
Here not only Carboniferous Flora Fossils are found, but trackways of assorted arthropod, horseshoe crabs to tetrapod tracks are found as well, and have been lucky to find most of them when hunting there. In addition to the Carboniferous Period trace fossils I find at my local site, this location is several hours from home and look forward to going there each opportunity arises.
I have found other trace fossils from another time period as well, such as the Cretaceous Period. It was the time period of the dinosaurs, but half of South Alabama at the time was part of the ocean. The above setting is situated out in the middle of nowhere, the countryside of Alabama.
Here Mosasaurs and sharks rule the seas and fish everywhere the plenty and left traces in the form of Coprolites or poop. Above are shark coprolites featuring the spiral pattern that most displays. Below, the samples featured are fish coprolites.
When on creeks hunting for shark teeth, one, maybe two Coprolites will show up in my sifter. A welcomed addition to my Cretaceous Marine collection anytime!
The above picture features a road cut in North Alabama. The fossils found here are mostly Carboniferous Period trace fossils consisting of Arborichnus horseshoe crab traces such as the sample below. It looks like they were having a party at the time. Sometimes a plant fossil will show up a time or two on this site?
Aside from all the other fossils I love hunting, Trace Fossils are high on my list! Trace Fossils tell a story and in my mind's eye I can literally see what that organism was doing when it laid down the tracks or poop in the ocean! I can now see why in Paleontology, those who study this is so intrigued by what the creature left behind!