Ecologic interpretation of deep-sea trace fossil communities

The Italian Northern Apennines are acknowledged as the place where ichnology was born, but there is comparatively little work about their ichnological record. This study bridges this gap by describing two new ichnosites from the locality of Pierfrancesco, which preserve an abundant, low-disparity trace-fossil assemblage within the Late Cretaceous beds of the M. Cassio Flysch. Results show that lithofacies and ichnotaxa are rhythmically organized. The base of each cycle consists of Megagrapton-bearing calciclastic turbidites, which are overlain by marlstone beds with an abundant, low-disparity assemblage of trace fossils. This includes Chondrites intricatus, C. patulus, C. targionii, C. recurvus and Cladichnus fischeri. The cycle top consists of mudstones with no distinct burrows. The rhythmic pattern of Pierfrancesco reflects a deep-sea ecological succession, in which species and behaviour changed as turbidite-related disturbances altered the seafloor. This study opens the question of whether the Chondrites-Cladichnus ichnocoenosis represents low-oxygen or nutrient-poor settings.

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Deep-sea foraging pathways: an analysis of randomness and resource exploitation

Paleobiology ◽

10.1017/s0094837300006400 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 107-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Jennifer A. Kitchell

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Trace Fossil ◽

Empirical Modeling ◽

The Arctic ◽

Foraging Strategies ◽

Foraging Efficiency ◽

Resource Exploitation ◽

Foraging Patterns ◽

Risk Of Predation ◽

Random Behavior

The foraging paradigm of trace fossil theory has historically accorded random behavior to non-food-limited deposit-feeders and non-random behavior to food-limited feeders. A series of randomness measures derived from empirical modeling, simulation modeling, stochastic modeling and probability theory applied to foraging patterns observed in deep-sea bottom photographs from the Arctic and Antarctic yielded a behavioral continuum of increasing non-randomness. A linear regression of trace positions along the continuum to bathymetric data did not substantiate the optimal foraging efficiency-depth dependence model of trace fossil theory, except that all traces exhibited a greater optimization than that of simulated random foraging. It is hypothesized that optimization as evidenced by non-random foraging strategies represents maximization of the cost/benefit ratio of resource exploitation to risk of predation and that individual foraging patterns reflect an exploration response to the morphometry of a patchily distributed food resource. Differential predation and competition may account for the co-occurrence of random and non-random strategies within the same bathymetric zone.

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A NEW TEICHICHNOID TRACE FOSSIL SYRINGOMORPHA CYPRENSIS FROM THE MIOCENE OF CYPRUS

Palaios ◽

10.2110/palo.2019.051 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (10) ◽

pp. 506-514 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

OLMO MIGUEZ-SALAS ◽

FRANCISCO J. RODRÍGUEZ-TOVAR ◽

ALFRED UCHMAN

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Trace Fossil ◽

Taxonomic Group ◽

Energy Conditions ◽

Bottom Current ◽

Lower Paleozoic ◽

Shallow Marine ◽

Current Flows

ABSTRACTA new teichichnoid trace fossil, Syringomorpha cyprensis from the Miocene of Cyprus, is proposed as a vertical burrow composed of an arcuate-like tube with horizontal parts to subhorizontal distally and vertical to subvertical parts proximally and triangular spreiten in the inner corner of the tube. Previously, this ichnogenus was represented only by the lower Paleozoic, shallow marine S. nilssoni, which disappeared after the Cambrian. Syringomorpha cyprensis marks the reappearance of similar behavior, in a deep-sea environment with pelagic, contouritic, and turbiditic sedimentation, influenced by frequent turbiditic and bottom current flows. Both ichnospecies of Syringomorpha could be produced by the same taxonomic group of probable worm like organisms (polychaetes?). Energy conditions were a stronger influence on the distribution of S. cyprensis tracemaker rather depth.

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The Trace Fossil Polykampton cabellae isp. nov. from the Pagliaro Formation (Paleocene), Northern Apennines, Italy: A Record of Nutritional Sediment Sequestration by a Deep Sea Invertebrate

Ichnos ◽

10.1080/10420940.2017.1308362 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alfred Uchman ◽

Bruno Rattazzi

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Northern Apennines ◽

Trace Fossil

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Phanerozoic flysch trace fossil diversity—observations based on an Ordovician flysch ichnofauna from the Aroostook–Matapedia Carbonate Belt of northern New Brunswick

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e80-131 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 17 (9) ◽

pp. 1259-1270 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

R. K. Pickerill

Keyword(s):

New Brunswick ◽

Deep Sea ◽

Benthic Communities ◽

Trace Fossil ◽

Geological Time ◽

Organic Detritus ◽

Systematic Effort ◽

Behavioural Diversity ◽

Stratigraphic Range ◽

Sufficient Oxygen

An Ordovician flysch trace fossil assemblage from the Aroostook–Matapedia Carbonate Belt, northern New Brunswick, consists of the following identifiable ichnogenera: Alcyonidiopsis, Asteriacites, Asterosoma, Belorhaphe, Bifasciculus, Buthotrephis, Chondrites, Cochlichnus, Cosmorhaphe, Diplichnites, Fucusopsis, Glockeria, Gyrochorte, Helminthoida, Helminthopsis, Neonereites, Paleodictyon, Planolites, Protopaleodictyon, Scalarituba, Spirodesmos, Spirorhaphe, and Taenidium. The stratigraphic range of six ichnogenera, viz. Glockeria, Gyrochorte, Helminthoida, Spirodesmos, Spirorhaphe, and Taenidium, is, therefore, now extended to rocks of Ordovician age.The diversity exhibited by the assemblage is inconsistent with currently proposed models of Phanerozoic flysch trace fossil diversity. It is suggested that existing models suffer from an inadequacy of sampling and systematic effort per period of geological time, as reflected by the limited number of post-Cambrian/pre-Cretaceous, particularly post-Carboniferous/pre-Cretaceous, adequately documented flysch ichnoassemblages. The assemblage described here clearly illustrates a significant radiation of deep-sea behavioural diversity in the Ordovician. This is possibly related to the development during the Ordovician of a sufficient oxygen concentration and supply of organic detritus in the deep sea or colonization of deeper-water habitats concomitant with the significant diversification of Ordovician shelf benthic communities.

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A diverse deep-sea trace fossil assemblage from the Adriatic Flysch Formation (middle Eocene – middle Miocene), Montenegro (central Mediterranean)

Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology ◽

10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.06.023 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 506 ◽

pp. 112-127

Author(s):

Zoran Kilibarda ◽

Alec Schassburger

Keyword(s):

Deep Sea ◽

Middle Miocene ◽

Middle Eocene ◽

Trace Fossil ◽

Central Mediterranean ◽

Fossil Assemblage

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Trace fossils from Lower Palaeozoic ocean-floor sediments of the Southern Uplands of Scotland

Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Earth Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0263593300009627 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 73 (2) ◽

pp. 67-87 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

M. J. Benton

Keyword(s):

Oxygen Content ◽

Deep Sea ◽

Trace Fossils ◽

Trace Fossil ◽

Ocean Floor ◽

Turbidity Currents ◽

Northern Margin ◽

Iapetus Ocean ◽

Lower Palaeozoic

ABSTRACTThe Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands of Scotland have been interpreted as sediments deposited on the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean. Trace fossils are abundant at many localities in ocean-floor turbidites and mudstones that usually lack all other evidence of life. Twelve ichnogenera are present, and they are mainly meandering locomotion and feeding trails and burrow networks: Dictyodora, Caridolites, Helminthoida, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia, Gordia, Megagrapton, Paleodictyon, Chondrites, Plano-lites and Skolithos. The trace fossils occur in at least five distinct assemblages and the composition of these was probably controlled by the frequency and nature of the turbidity currents, and possibly by the oxygen content of the mudstones. Where turbidity currents were weak, abundant Dictyodora, together with Caridolites, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia and Gordia occur in various combinations. Where currents were stronger, traces such as Gordia, Paleodictyon and Megagrapton may be exhumed and cast on turbidite soles, and the sand may contain Skolithos. The ‘deep-sea’ Nereites trace fossil facies is divisible into several assemblages, presumably environmentally controlled.

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