Special Features - Slideshow

Representing Fossil Footprints

Drawing by J. Peckham, from "Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts," plate 36. Image courtesy of Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

About this Image

This is the same specimen as drawn by J. Peckham, who may have been the son of the Robert Peckham thought to have done the "Homecoming" painting shown in Chapter 6 of the Working Together story on this website. This is plate 36 in Edward Hitchcock's "Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts." The artist's hand unavoidably interprets as it draws. The overall tone here is softer than Orra Hitchcock's drawing. Peckham did not show an edge of the slab to indicate its depth, and the talons appear to be a little sharper than the ones Orra drew. The large footprint is Ornithoidichnites giganteus. The smaller drawing depicts impressions of the skin of the trackmaker's foot.