Blackerry Hill Ichnofossils

These ichnofossils are from a site that may shed light on one the least known aspects of the evolution of life on earth, the colonization of land by animals during Paleozoic Time. Ichnofossils of the Cambrian are paramount to ongoing research because they may elucidate animal behavior as well as animal morphology. The peer-reviewed literature already supports transition to land by amphibious arthropods during the Lower Ordovician, and now ongoing research into a diverse Ichnofauna from Central Wisconsin may push the date of this evolutionary milestone to the Upper-Middle to Upper Cambrian.

They come from the Krukowski quarry, a working flagstone quarry that is part of the Elk Mound Group. Ichnofossils occur in quartz sandstones that sometimes exhibit wave- and wind-induced ripples and trough cross bedding, rain drop imprints, and a total absence of any shelly animals as if locked in a evolutionary time warp where time stood still. All evidence is indicative of a an ancient intertidal, marginal marine (subaerial) environment, in which the ichnofossils were formed.