Shale at Gettysburg Reveals
Valuable Clues on Dinosaurs
Dr. C. W. Gilmore, curator of vertebrate paleontology, is
shown pointing to the footprint which is said to have been
made 190,000,000 years ago. —Star Staff Photo.
A 180,000,000 - year - old dinosaur
pasture within a few miles of
the Gettysburg battlefield has
just been investigated by
Smithsonian Institution paleontolo
gists.
Here, presumably on the mud-cov
ered shore of an ancient lake, some
of the earliest known of these fantastic
reptiles left five-toe footprints. The
mud became, in the course of millions
of years, the Gettysburg shale of
today.
This summer rock was being quar
ried for a bridge on the battlefield.
The quarrymen called the attention of
the footprints they uncovered to El
mer R. Haile, Department of Agricul
ture engineer, who recognized them as
dinosaur tracks, and now is at work
on a scientific description of them.
Some of the choicest slabs have been
deposited in the United States National
f- ^ -
Museum. Othen have been distributed
to other paleontological museums.
Dawn of Reptile Age.
The footprints date from the Trias
sic geological period, the beginning of
the age of reptiles. Here the first
creatures which can definitely be iden
tified from their fossil remains as dino
saurs made their appearance. They
were of all sizes from a chicken to a
horse. The monsters of the dinosaur
race, the largest animals ever to appear
on earth, were a few millions of years
in the future.
The tracks near Gettysburg are
from a half inch to six Inches in
length. ,The longest stride is approxi
mately 30 inches, indicating an animal
about the size of a man. The creatures
were more primitive and generalized
than the later dinosaurs, says Dr.
Charles W. Gilmore, Smithsonian In
======
ititutlon paleontologist, but were in
every respect perfect dinosaurs.
Appeared Suddenly.
This constitutes one of the paradoxes
pf paleontology. Like man himself,
he dinosaur race seems to have ap
peared on earth almost fully developed.
It has no know ancestry. In the
Permian geological period which pre
cedes the Triasslc by a few million
years, only quite questionable dinosaur
remains have been found. Abundant
were the great amphibians, giant fore
•unners of the toads and frogs of to
lay. Unquestionably the dinosaurs
were derived from them in some way,
nit the intermediate steps are almost
jompletely lost. Yet, Mr. Gilmore
points out, it must have taken millions
>f years of evolution to have made
such a perfectly good reptile as a
linosaur out of an amphibian.
The Gettysburg dinosaurs seem to
lave been lords of all they surveyed.
Some rather amomalous footprints in
he Gettysburg shale indicate that
some small creatures of another reptile
Family may have lived among them.
No traces of vegetable life have been
Found in the shale, yet it is reasonable
So believe that it must have been there.
n»e dinosaurs ordinarily were bipeds,
walking upright on their hind legs and
cerhaps roughly comparable to kanga
roos. In Triasslc beds elsewhere, tracks
}f the front limbs of the animals are
Found only rarely.
Show Traces of Claws.
At Gettysburg, however, the reptiles
seem to have been engaged in leisurely
feeding. They often dropped fore
ward so that their front feet were im
pressed in the mud. Most of the front
feet tracks show traces of claws. Their
makers very probably were flesh
eaters, perhaps grabbing their living
prey from the lake shore ooze. But
some show no evidence of claws. They
may have been plant browsers, the
forerunners of the herbage-eating
dinosaurs which developed into the
titans of the race.
Altogether about 150 tracks have
been found in the shale. Also the rock
bears traces of ancient raindrops fall
ing on the soft mud and many water
ripple marks are found. There are
also sun cracks, made when the mud
became baked hard under the hot sun
of 180,000,000 years ago. The area
appears to have been intermittently
submerged.
The find constitutes an important
addition to early dinosaur material.
Other important Triassic sites are in
the Connecticut Valley and in Loudoun
County, Va„ where a porch at Oak
Hill, former home of President James
Monroe, is floored with slabs contain
ing dinosaur tracks.
~ Welcomes Jail.
CHESTER, 111., Dec. 3 (JP.—Re
marking that “conditions on the out
side are terrible, I’m sure glad to be
back," John Ketchmark surrendered
at the Southern Illinois prison yester
day and told a story of wandering
I. ..-■_ «
since he walked away from the prison
quarry in March, 1920.
Warden Joseph Montgomery said
Ketchmark, nor 52, must serve seven
more years to complete his sentence
for burglary and larceny.
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FINE FURNITURE INTERIOR DECORATING
Au Revoir
December I
To April I, 1938 i
When in Florida
Visit Olney Inn
Miami Beach
1045 Dade Blvd.
Announcing
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V
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