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Show "And Departing Leave Behind Us ! Footprints in the Sands of Time" j . : ..5 . '0 ,!-.',. ' ' . ""V ' 1 I ' t . I k y ') . . ' -': : f ' -s . . ; ;V i , ' . - . ! i i : ' " I i ! ,.' ' ' 'i, i ' t i r -t 'V. ; i . ..."...." Trail No. 1 was made first, because be-cause at the point indicated by the dotted arrow, trail No. 2 cuts into and crosses trail No. 1, being plainly marked upon the smooth portion of that trail. The two long arrows, and all the space between them which is confined within the double row of tracks, is smoothed down to an appreciable degree of slick-ness slick-ness by the belly of the animal which made trail No. I. And further, fur-ther, the dragging of the body has produced a very shallow trough for the entire length of that animal's trail. The short curved line, between the ends of the long arrows, shows in cross section how the space between the footprints is dished out, or troughed by the dragging belly.. I was the house guest of Charles Kelly, custodian of Wayne Wonderland Wonder-land National Monument, in October, Oc-tober, 1946, and one afternoon as we were returning from a day of research and picture taking, he suddenly applied the breaks, brot the car to an abrupt stop, saying "What do I see?" I looked at Chimney Rock, the Castle, other things in view from my side of the auto, and then to his side of the car, perplexed with the suddeness of it. He backed the car, stopped by the side of a sandstone slab up-reared up-reared by the side of the road, got out and quickly said "come look at this." There on what was once a muddy, mud-dy, soft surface, now turned to stone, horizontal when walked a-cross, a-cross, but now, after various earth movements uplifted sharply, were the trails of two different animals recorded in the stone. Upon careful care-ful study and much discussion, weighing suppositions, testing statements by consulting the record rec-ord before us, the evidence was interpreted in-terpreted that a soft-bellied, low-slung low-slung creature such as a lizard, or related form had passed across that little stretch of mud from lower right to upper left, his belly dragging drag-ging and distinctly smoothing the surface between his footprints; that no doubt, this creature had four legs; was comparatively small, estimated at about the length and width of the ordinary land lizard of today, say eight to ten inches long, and width of body about two inches. That it had slowly walked over the slab before us, not hurried, hur-ried, not alarmed, but casually, its stubby legs putting the feet down regularly, somewhat in pairs of movements, because the trail seems to be in units of opposite pairs; that the backward shove of the toes, digging into the soft mud to propel the body forward, dug deeper into the mud backward, a natural thing to do to force the animal forward; that the tracks of the claws on the feet dug into the soft material, deeper at one end (as would be the case) the end in opposite direction to the animal. Presumably this animal was low in stature, with a body very close to the ground, short legs, and in mud, the belly dragging. On the original rock, a path nearly two inches wide is smoothed between the footprints as the belly of the creature dragged in the (then) mud. A short, squat creature, probably prob-ably of four stubby legs; if with a tail of any length, such a tail was held up in walking, for we could find no evidence of marks of a tail swung, whipped sidewise, or otherwise other-wise leaving a mark. What Others Say of Similar Footprints Found Elsewhere Gilmore says in Smithsonian Institution, In-stitution, Publication No. 2832, in speaking of more ancient trails encountered en-countered in the Grand Canyon; "The creature which made the footprints were quadrupeds of moderate mod-erate size, with broad stumpy feet, apparently clawed. . . The limbs were apparently short, with a wide trackway, implying a bulky body. I No trace of a dragging tail is discernible dis-cernible on any of the specimens." This description is somewhat ap-pliciable ap-pliciable to those found in Wayne Wonderland. Gilmore further says, "At this time I see no way of definitely def-initely determining whether the impressions are amphibian or reptilian rep-tilian in origin." In the photo taken of the rock, so delicate are the markings that it will not reproduce with all details de-tails in rough newspaper printing. Nor does the smooth path show up well enough to show by coarse screen half tone. Cutting into the trail of this animal, ani-mal, is that of another one, a narrower nar-rower trail, which upon cursory examination ex-amination appears to be primarily of one set of markings, not opposite op-posite (in pairs) as was the first one; it also is smaller than the other, but each marking is dug into in-to mud deeper and sharper. At intervals, in-tervals, marks alongside (to the left) seem to indicate a softer imprint im-print of some part of the body, once in a while touching, irregularly, irregu-larly, a more delicate imprint, The peculiar trail of this second creature crea-ture leaves one in a quandary as to whether it was a clam with a single sing-le claw mainly used in propelling it forward, with a secondary imprint im-print at times as though of an additional ad-ditional 'moving part, or efforts to steer the course straight, or even if it was a bipedal animal, which at intervals came to rest, feeding or nosing forward, thereby producing produc-ing a forward trail as if bipedal, but when momentarily stopping or resting, setting its two feet down side; by side, instead of in a continuous con-tinuous row as when walking. It leaves one in doubt. It was a taller creature, and no part of its body dragged in the mud. Its footprints carry a deep shadow, sharp and well defined. The two trails are about 2y feet long, crossing near the top of the rock as it now stands. Takes Rock to Museum As Permanent Record The rock splits into laminations , about a quarter of an inch thick. Mr. Kelly took considerable pains, working slowly, and managed to separate this lamination from the body of the slab of rock, and took , it to his home. A cast may be made later, and close-up photographs made, and both to be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for pos- sible identification of the two animals ani-mals from their tracks (if that is , possible). In the meantime, speculation brings up several very interesting ' queries: Was the first (the larger) , animal a lung breaher, wading in shallow water? Or was it a creature crea-ture with gills, aquatic, below the surface of very .shallow water, crawling along? If such is the case, only by a miracle could the smoo-' smoo-' thing of its belly be retained in the imprint, and not washed away. t One better wait before coming to t any direct conclusion. r Was it during entry of ocean ' waters to the area, or was the trail made in fresh water "mud? Correlative study may fix a solution solu-tion to that. What geologic time? In what strata of rocks? Its time Kind of life usually found in thai era, and under those circumstances A few hundred yards away Mr Kelly found, and showed me distinct dis-tinct small tracks of what we bott tho't was of a lizard, with the hee dent of the foot showing ver; plainly; then forward, an imprin of the toes; and forward of both o those, the digging in of longer toe: or claws, such as lizards nowaday have. We estimated the imprint: were left by some animal abou eight or nine inches long. The im prints averaged about 58th t( 78ths of an inch long from wel defined heel to toe, not includin the marks of the finger nails o claws. Those imprints occur in thin bedded sandstone, and he wil mine in that area for others yet and gather samples of many, fron which no doubt much informatioi can be got. Of course, man is not then h is in the back pages of the book not yet turned to. Reptiles largely small mammals are just beginnin, to come in nicely the area u and down, at times above watei at times below; ripple marks i: shallow waters sediments laid o: in layer above layer after bein: walked upon. What a subject t lecture on! Something nice for the museum somthing distinctive for Mr. Kelt to have discovered. 1 |