Alveley Footprints at Severn Valley Country Park
Severn Valley Country Park, run by Shropshire Council’s outdoor recreation service, is pleased to announce an exhibition of trace fossils as part of Geofest 2013.
The ‘Alveley Footprints’ are series of sandstone slabs containing trace fossil footprints of animals from 300 million years ago. The whole collection contains over 200 individual slabs which show over 2,400 individual footprints within 203 track ways. The slabs are the only series of vertebrate trackways in Europe, making Alveley a very important geological area.
The Alveley Footprints were found in 1914 and 1919 in a sandstone quarry less that half a mile from the country park by Dr Frank Raw from the University of Birmingham. The full collection is kept at the Lapworth Museum of Geology on the university’s Edgbaston campus.
The Alveley Footprints are able to tell us about the environment and ecosystem at that time. The fossils suggest that pools or small lakes developed on the flood plain, with arthropods, amphibians and reptiles living alongside each other. Some of the slabs show both sun cracks and rainfall prints, which indicate periods when the pools and lakes dried out as well as periodic rainfall.
Susie Comaish, Visitor Centre Manager, said:
“We are very happy to be able to display the Alveley Footprints at the park. Lapworth Museum of Geology have very kindly loaned us three fossils for the duration of Geofest 2013. It is fascinating to see the variety of footprints on the slabs, and is great fun imagining the animals that used to live on and around the park 300 million years ago.”
Geofest 2013 itself runs from 31 May – 30 August across many locations within the Abberley and Malvern Hills Geopark, which includes Severn Valley Country Park. The full series of guided walks, tours, children’s activities, field trips, workshops and exhibitions can be found online at www.geopark.org.uk, or a what’s on leaflet is available in the Severn Valley Country Park visitor centre.
The Alveley Footprints are on display from now until 30 August 2013.
