Tag Archives: burrows

Someone passed this way: Tracks, trails, impressions, and footprints

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Trace Fossils

Imagine the squelch!

biped tracks across a mudflat

Footprints of people, birds, and dogs at the beach. Most of us have probably seen this kind of thing. Look a little closer and you will see other markings in the sand or mud – skinny trails meandering across the surface, or burrows. birds feet, crab holes on a tidal flat

Sometimes you will see the critter that made these. We can also observe structures like these preserved in many kinds of sedimentary rock; we call them Trace Fossils. The study of trace fossils is also called Ichnology (a branch of Paleontology), but we’ll stick to the more intuitive name trace fossil.  Continue reading

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