Myriapod Trackway

The first stop on the geotrail gives an insight into one of the other animals that existed at the same time as the tetrapods. Here myriapod trackways has been found. These footprints provide evidence of invertebrates which moved, fed, and excavated burrows in the muddy sediments. Myriapods were centipede like creatures which could grow up to 2m long. The body fossil record of myriapods is spares due to the poor preservation of their light and thin exoskeletons, but trackways have been noted on the island since the first geologic surveys in 1861. 
Myriapods were pioneers of the land and were well established in terrestrial environments before tetrapods ventured onto land. The myriapod trackway is found in a rock containing thin layers of mud to coarser sand. This kind of repetitive sequence is common of lake deposits, so suggests the presence ponds of water in the floodplain area which lasted for relatively long periods of time. The footprints were likely left as a myriapod walked along the sediment surface of one these shallow ponds. 
