Show t MONSTERS LEFT TRACKS SN IN MUD Footprints of Extinct Animals Animals Ani- Ani I mals Found by Scientists in Sandstone Before man came nature na na- ture wrote the simple record of life Ufe in sand or mud and erased It with the first rain or gust ot of wind At times however she allowed the writing to remain and the mud to harden and be covered with a protective de of more sand and ot of mud So thorough was she on occasion that she made that protective coverIng covering cover cover- Ing thousands of feet teet in thickness tillit till tillIt It would seem that never again was the record to see the light ot of day And nd then th n wIth the aid ot of It a stream and the Infinite time at her ber dIsposal she would cut through the blanket ot of hardened silt to deliver to the bands ot of men Itlen the fossil footprints which are the history ot of millions of years ago L A pIece ot of such old stone parch meat ment has been brought from the Grand canyon to the Smithsonian in It was collected by Ur Dr Charles W. W Gilmore paleontologist ot of the National museum It Is a slab ot of old red mud hardened into sand sand- stone Running across it ore are the tracks ot of at least three distinct kinds ot of animals Gigantic Early Animals Animal One was a heavy tooted creature wIth pads like a bear a second stepped lIghtly leaving marks of Q a i lIke cat claw while a third dragged a heavy tall which left a sharp groove in the mud between Its tracks With the evIdence of this single slab ot of stone it is possible to reconstruct a picture of the mud bordered water waterhole waterhole hole to which many animals came to drInk What the animals looked like it is impossible to tell exactly since their species have long since dIsappeared disappeared in the intervening millions of years The best that the SmithsonIan scIentists can do is to create re-create an approximation based on fossil skeletons skeletons tons and on contemporary animals whose tracks be bear a resemblance to the fossil footprints Doctor Gilmore collected this slab In the Hermit shale some 1800 feet below the present top of the canyon The thickness of the deposits above It suggests the infinite centuries which have passed since the animals animal lIved And yet roo feet still farther tarther down Doctor Gilmore has collected other fossil footprints of even older kinds ot of animals Veteran at Exploration The recent expedition made by Doctor Gilmore to the Grand canyon was as a member of the Museum Fund committee of the National Acad Acad- envy enly of Sciences which was aiding In 10 Inthe the installation ot of the Park museum which the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation is setting up in inthe inthe the canyon Doctor Gilmore has made two earlier ear ear- Her lier trIps to the Grand canyon brIng tug back each time valuable footprint collections An account of the results of his second trip is now In press at atthe atthe the SmithsonIan He regards the present slob slab as the finest specimen he be has yet collected |