MUSEUM QUALITY Carboniferous Arthropod Superhighway from Australia

Description: This trackway looks like some ascribed to trilobites, but is actually thought to have been made by an arthropod of the family Anaspididae. The extant members of this family are endemic to Tasmania, and have been termed “living fossils”. They are a small (10 mm) freshwater arthropod comprised of 5 species in 3 genera. This one is similar to one found in Tasmania, and has been placed in the same ichnogenus. The detail is quite good, with the specimen affording a most unique opportunity to own a moment in time frozen for nearly 300 million years. There are numerous tracks evident, making for an extensive example of this rarely-seen inchnogenus. The other, smaller marks are Rusophycus ( from the word meaning resting place). Rusophycus are shallow traces that are attributed to trilobites and other small arthropods, and may have represented such diverse activities as feeding, burrowing, resting, and possibly breeding. Each set of serially- arranged traces seen here are most likely made by a single animal. There is one repaired crack at the edge, but it does little to detract from this most unusual “Carboniferous Superhighway”. This is the largest trackway collection I have seen from the Carboniferous.