Title: Message
After a long
struggle, the Alabama Department of Conservation has acquired the Union Chapel
tracksite, which was in danger of being covered up during reclamation of this
coal mine. The tracksite has yielded hundreds of well-preserved Langsettian
(Early Pennsylvanian) trackways and vertebrate swimming traces (Undichna), as
well as invertebrate trace fossils such as Treptichnus and Kouphichnium. A
multiauthored book on the site is in preparation under the auspices of
the Alabama Paleontological Society. The news was reported online by the Huntsville Times
at
This comes soon after the preservation of the St.
George tracksite for the public. I hope that other important tracksites can be
set aside for research and display.
Andrew K.
Rindsberg
Geological Survey of
Alabama
P.O. Box 869999
Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-6999,
USA