a wonderful geology fossil rock is here in the lobby of old dino tracks and a palm leaf incased in the sand stone. Tracks and trails are most commonly found in shallow marine sedimentary rocks; thus they are always subject to tidal washes. Furthermore because tracks and trails are the impressions left by organisms over soft sediment, the sediment must either harden before anything can disturb the markings or be buried by new sediment and remain undisturbed thereafter in order for these impressions to be preserved. A simple analogy to illustrate is one's footprints along the beach. If you have ever walked along the beach, you notice that you leave footprints, but you also notice that once the waves come in, those footprints are gone and so is the evidence of your presence. The same scenario applies in tracks and trails fossilization. Ancient organisms leave their "footprints" in much the same way and thus evidence of their existence.
There are four basic stages in the formation of footprint fossils. First, a footprint is formed when an organism steps into soft mud (usually silty sediment that is deposited in shallow temporary pools.) Then the impression is covered with loose sand so that the footprint is filled. The sand eventually consolidate into sandstone and finally the rock split open along the bedding surface to reveal the original footprint in the shale and its cast in the sandstone.
Many footprints have been found to have had occurred from the Mississippian epoch up to present time. The most notable and numerous footprints that have been found belong to the reptiles of the Triassic period---yes, the dinosaurs.
then there is the palm leaf this how it became a fossil, the first form of fossilization is permineralization. This occurs when the pores of plant materials, bones, and shells are impregnated by mineral matter from the ground, lakes, or oceans. In some cases, the wood fibers and cellulose dissolve and are replaced minerals. Sometimes the mineral substance of the fossils will completely dissolve and other minerals replace them. Common minerals that form this kind of fossil are calcite, iron, and silica.The fossils take the original shape of the tissue or organism as the pores of the organic tissues are filled with minerals, or the organic matter is replaced with minerals. However, the composition of the fossils will be different and they will be heavier. The second form Petrification occurs when the organic matter is completely replaced by minerals and the fossil is turned into stone . This generally occurs by filling the pores of the tissue, and inter and intra cellular spaces with minerals, then dissolving the organic matter and replacing it with minerals. This method reproduces the original tissue in every detail. This kind of fossilization occurs in both hard and soft tissues. An example of this kind of fossilization is petrified wood. and you can see that here with the palm leaf incased in the stone .
to log this earth cache you must answer these questions and then send me the answers do not incude them in your log ,
1 how big or small are the strides of the foot prints
2 are the fossils Permineralization or Petrification ?
3 look at one of the tracks was it a heaver dinosar or light one and explain why ?
4 look at both fossils what is two differances of the fossils
5 optional take a photo of you at the site
congrats to tigervhaga and strightcachehomey for the FTF