Union Chapel Coal Mine vertebrate and invertebrate tracks

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

This story hasn't gotten much press, but here is the latest from Tuesday's 
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

http://www.ajc.com/tuesday/content/epaper/editions/tuesday/news_f3d5e6ee36e1a03f0025.html

or

http://www.ajc.com/print/content/epaper/editions/tuesday/?urac=n&urvf=10632877560270.5764712450265647

The Alabama Paleontological Society has been a leader in the effort to preserve 
this unique site. 

Mary
______

ANCIENT FOOTPRINTS IN PERIL: Mine reclamation may bury history
Mike Toner - Staff
Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Jasper, Ala. --- More than 300 million years ago, nature froze time in its 
tracks here --- leaving a legacy of fossil footprints that paleontologists say 
is now one of the richest records of coal age life in the world. 

In the last three years, thin sheets of gray shale unearthed at the Union 
Chapel Coal Mine in Walker County have yielded thousands of perfectly preserved 
footprints of creatures that are older than the dinosaurs. 

(See above links for the complete story.)

Mary