"Fossil Detectives Close the Case on Prehistoric ..." Topic

…Spider footprints.

"These are footprints left behind when a tarantula-size arachnid crawled over the sand of what's now northern Arizona, 260 million years ago. We don't know where it was going or what it was doing, but each time the critter pressed one of its eight feet into the ground, it left a tiny, cup-shaped imprint in the dewy grains.

The sand's moisture helped preserve the imprints of the creature's journey: As the sand dried out, the delicate prints solidified. Over millennia, layers of sand covered the arachnid's footwork and hardened into rock. Then, in 1968, the rock and its footprints were pulled from the Arizona desert; it now lives in The Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, where visitors can stop by and see the footsteps of an ancient spider.

Well, it's probably a spider. There are many clues that suggest as much, though the organism responsible for these tracks, which span 2.5 inches, is long gone…"
Full article here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

Fantastic archaeological detective work!

probably looking for the waterspout before the rains came.

Glad you like it my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

This is another example of where careful reading is important.

If you just skim, you see "Prehistoric" "footprints" and "eight feet into the ground" and might think AGGGHHHH!!! GIANT SPIDERS!!!!