Cambrian Protichnites Ichnofossil

Coming from the Krukowski Quarry, this Protichnites arthropod trackway may represent some of the earliest footprints on land. This quarry is currently under study as perhaps containing ichnofossils of the earliest animals to venture ashore during the upper Cambrian. Among the different trackway fossils found in this quarry (including Diplichnites and Climactichnites), Protichnites is the rarest both in terms of dispersion and absolute numbers. The sandstone slab here lacks ripples, suggesting that the tracks were made on a sand flat well above the tide, rather than underwater. This, in turn, suggests that the animal which made Protichnites tracks could have been made by one of the first animals walking on its legs on land.

This particular specimen contains an extraordinary density of both footprints and tail drag tracks, and is totally natural without any staining.