Raindrops on very shallow water, gentle wave. El Pueblo early Permian.

Description

Raindrop impressions on shallow water, which are somewhat blurry, are informally called elephant skin. The gentle wave is from water ingress after a light rain of 285 million years ago. The climate in the area was hot, hence the thick bumpy skin on tetrapods. Swamp lanes were usually target areas of CO2 heat retention because of volcanic venting triggered by continental collisions. These same continental collisions, which caused continents to push slowly but powerfully on each other, created faults that served as waterways. The pushing force was from ocean bottom volcanism that has often been referred to as the hand that compressed flat lands and oceans into mountains. At the time that the El Pueblo swamp was vital and functional the area that is now the American Southwest was tropical and located where Ecuador is now present.
For information on fossil site please visit the blogs, Exceptional Early Permian Footprints and Dimetrodon's Ichnology and Other Early Permian Footprints. Feel  free to ask any questions about specific fossils. We are the only complete trace-fossil source on the internet specific to the very early Permian Period.