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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Wyoming Geological Association
Abstract
Reptilian Markings on the Upper Mowry Shale Emigrant Gap Area, Natrona County, Wyoming
Abstract
Footprints, tracks, and traces abound on the upper surface of the hard, siliceous layer at the top of the Mowry Shale in the Emigrant Gap area. Characteristics of this top are excellently preserved by the fall of the ash of the Clay Spur bentonite. The marks were made by fauna living at the time of the ash fall; the fauna may have perished during the fall. The marks include footprints which measure .25 foot in diameter, body tracks which zigzag and are as much as .6 foot wide, body impressions that are about 1.5 feet long, and .15 foot-wide discontinuous tail tracks. The multiplicity of markings and the more-or-less parallel orientations of all body and tail traces suggest a presence of many reptilian vertebrates moving in the same general direction. Fossil bones and teeth are, to date, lacking; the markings were probably made by crocodilian or crocodile-like reptiles.
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