COPROLITES FROM CALVERT CLIFFS: MIOCENE FECAL PELLETS AND BURROWED CROCODILIAN DROPPINGS FROM THE CHESAPEAKE GROUP OF MARYLAND, U.S.A.

New finds of remarkable coprolites (fossilized feces) are here reported from the famous Miocene marine sediments of the Chesapeake Group exposed along Calvert Cliffs (Maryland, U.S.A.). Although vertebrate coprolites have been described from these deposits, here we provide the first description of tiny invertebrate fecal pellets. Thus far, these fecal pellets have only been found in the upper Miocene (Tortonian) St. Marys Formation. The micro-coprolites represent the coprulid ichnospecies Coprulus oblongus. The fecal pellets are found in small clusters or strings of dozens to masses of many hundreds. Pellets range in size from approximately 0.4 – 2.0 mm wide by 1.0 – 5.0 mm long, and range in color from gray to brownish black. Their length/diameter ratio is always very nearly 2. These coprulids have been found in a variety of Miocene fossils/concretions including a uranoscopid neurocranium, naticid gastropod, bivalve shells, barnacle tests, and in pellet-backfilled sinuous burrows through sediment. Because the fecal pellets are often found in tiny spaces or spaces thought to be inaccessible to shelled invertebrates, the coprulids are attributed to small and soft-bodied polychaetes or other annelids. Some coprolites attributed to crocodilians from the lower-middle Miocene Calvert Formation were tunneled into, presumably the result of coprophagy, by some unknown kind of organism(s). These compound trace fossils are in the form of burrows that excavate the coprolites, the sides of which are sculptured by scratch/gouge marks.

CHONDRITES-CLADICHNUS ICHNOCOENOSIS FROM THE DEEP-SEA DEPOSITS OF PIERFRANCESCO (CRETACEOUS; ITALY): OXYGEN- OR NUTRIENT-LIMITED?

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.

Were the First Trace Fossils Really Burrows or Could They Have Been Made by Sediment-Displacive Chemosymbiotic Organisms?

This review asks some hard questions about what the enigmatic graphoglyptid trace fossils are, documents some of their early fossil record from the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition and explores the idea that they may not have been fossils at all. Most researchers have considered the Graphoglyptida to have had a microbial-farming mode of life similar to that proposed for the fractal Ediacaran Rangeomorpha. This begs the question “What are the Graphoglyptida if not the Rangeomorpha persevering” and if so then “What if…?”. This provocative idea has at its roots some fundamental questions about how to distinguish burrows sensu-stricto from the external molds of endobenthic sediment displacive organisms.

Palaeontological surveys in Central Sumatra and Bangka

We report on results from surveys undertaken in Sumatra during 2018 and 2019. The surveys had three objectives: (1) to examine, sample, and record the extensive Quaternary fossil deposits from caves in West Sumatra; (2) determine the potential for fluvial deposits in Riau and Jambi provinces; and (3) relocate the fossil proboscidean remains reported from Bangka Island. Our surveys produced several significant results. We mapped three important Padang Highland caves, Ngalau Lida Ajer, Ngalau Sampit, and Ngalau Gupin, locating and sampling the main fossil deposits in each, as well as recording additional caves in the region. Our surveys of the fluvial systems in central-west Sumatra did not reveal any vertebrate Pleistocene deposits but did yield Mio-Pliocene trace fossils. Finally, we relocated elephant fossils from Bangka, but no in situ vertebrate remains could be found. These finds add important new data to the geological history of Sumatra.

Non-marine invertebrate trace fossils from the Tertiary Calatayud-Teruel basin, NE Spain

Relatively diverse trace fossils made by insects, other arthropods and oligochaete worms occur in the Miocene lacustrine and marginal lacustrine deposits of the Calatayud-Teruel basin (NE Spain). They include the ichnospecies Celliforma isp., Celliforma? isp. A and B, Celliforma? aff. habari, Rosellichnus cf. arabicus, Spongeliomorpha isp., Labyrintichnus terrerensis n. igen. et isp., Taenidium barreti, Beaconites filiformis n. isp. and Polykladichnus aragonensis n. isp. Their taxonomic and ethologic interpretations and cross-cutting relationships permit to envisage new lines of evidence for reconstructing transitions from dry-ground terrestrial to moist-ground and subaqueous environments, related to episodic floodings in lacustrine ponds. These environmental transitions (related to external controls) are characterized by benthic community replacements, evinced by vertical successions of Termitichnus, Scoyenia and Mermia-like ichnofacies.

Middle Triassic bivalve traces from central Europe (Muschelkalk, Anisian): overlooked burrows of a common ichnofabric

The ichnotaxonomy, producers and ethology of the bivalve trace fossil Oravaichnium Plička and Uhrová, 1990 are revised, and the mode of formation is discussed. The ichnogenus is compared with other mollusc trace fossils such as Protovirgularia, Lockeia and Ptychoplasma, as well as the common, cosmopolitan trace fossils Planolites and Palaeophycus, which are morphologically similar to Oravaichnium. A lectotype of Oravaichnium hrabei Plička and Uhrová, 1990 is defined and illustrated. Oravaichnium carinatum isp. nov. from the Middle Triassic of Poland and Germany is described and interpreted as a bivalve burrow. It differs from the relatively rare O. hrabei by a carinate rather than subquadrate cross section. However, O. carinatum isp. nov. shows a great variation of morphology and transitional forms with O. hrabei are common. Similarly, transitional forms of Oravaichnium with other bivalve ichnogenera, especially Protovirgularia, also occur. The studied Triassic ichnoassemblage clearly indicates that bivalve burrows are much more common than previously believed and are represented by repichnia, fodinichnia and cubichnia. The occurrence of similar ichnofabrics containing Oravaichnium in other Triassic succession of the Germanic and Tethys basins and elsewhere suggests a much wider distribution than hitherto known. It is evident that bivalves, most likely nuculids, participated greatly in bioturbation, and the Middle Triassic infaunalisation is one of the most important steps in Phanerozoic evolution of ichnocoenoses.

Sedimentology and ichnology of the mid-Cretaceous succession of Ouled Nail Mounts (Eastern Saharan Atlas, Algeria)

Shallow marine deposits characterize the upper Albian – lower Cenomanian deposits of Northern Algeria. In Djebel Azzeddine (Ouled Nail Mounts), the corresponding sediments have been subdivided into three distinctive units A to C. The first discovered ammonite fauna from the Bou Saada area allowed the attribution of a part of the mid-Cretaceous post-Continental Intercalaire deposits to the upper Albian. The ammonite-bearing level indicates a maximum flooding surface and could be correlated with similar levels from Northern Algeria. The studied succession is characterized by a low ichnodiversity containing eight ichnotaxa with abundant Thalassinoides, common Skolithos, and rare Gyrolithes, Oichnus, Planolites and cf. Tisoa. This ichnoassemblage is dominated by domichnion, fodinichnion and praedichnion trace fossils, and is attributed to the Skolithos and Glossifungites ichnofacies. These traces are produced mainly by decapod crustaceans, polychaetes and naticid gastropods. The sedimentological and ichnological data suggest shoreface to backshore environments with mixed tide/storm energy, and long subaerial exposures indicated by Lofer cyclothems in the lowermost part and dinosaur footprints in the upper part of the section.

Immature Insect Assemblages from the Early Cretaceous (Purbeck/Wealden) of Southern England

The record of immature insects from the non-marine Purbeck and Wealden groups (Lower Cretaceous) of southern England is reviewed and expanded. Fossils of adult terrestrial insects are locally common, but terrestrial immature remains are restricted to transported hemipterans, most of which are sessile nymphs or puparia resembling those of extant whiteflies (Aleyrodidae). Remains of immature aquatic insects are more diverse and comprise the extant orders Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera, Odonata, Trichoptera, Hemiptera and Diptera. The Trichoptera are represented by larval cases constructed from a variety of materials corresponding to several ichnogenera. The Wealden immature insects were preserved in predominantly freshwater fluvial settings, whereas the Purbeck ones occur in lagoonal palaeoenvironments, ranging in salinity from brackish to hypersaline. The composition of aquatic immature insect faunas in the latter offers potential for palaeosalinity analysis, although there are complicating factors relating to habitat stability. Uncommon trace fossils such as beetle borings in wood provide evidence of immature insects not represented by body fossils.

Eocene animal trace fossils in 1.7-billion-year-old metaquartzites

The Paleoproterozoic (1.7 Ga [billion years ago]) metasedimentary rocks of the Mount Barren Group in southwestern Australia contain burrows indistinguishable from ichnogenera Thalassinoides, Ophiomorpha, Teichichnus, and Taenidium, known from firmgrounds and softgrounds. The metamorphic fabric in the host rock is largely retained, and because the most resilient rocks in the sequence, the metaquartzites, are too hard for animal burrowing, the trace fossils have been interpreted as predating the last metamorphic event in the region. Since this event is dated at 1.2 Ga, this would bestow advanced animals an anomalously early age. We have studied the field relationships, petrographic fabric, and geochronology of the rocks and demonstrate that the burrowing took place during an Eocene transgression over a weathered regolith. At this time, the metaquartzites of the inundated surface had been weathered to friable sandstones or loose sands (arenized), allowing for animal burrowing. Subsequent to this event, there was a resilicification of the quartzites, filling the pore space with syntaxial quartz cement forming silcretes. Where the sand grains had not been dislocated during weathering, the metamorphic fabric was seemingly restored, and the rocks again assumed the appearance of hard metaquartzites impenetrable to animal burrowing.

Apostillas al artículo de Uchman y Alvaro (2000) Non-marine invertebrate trace fossils from the tertiary Calatayud­Teruel Basin, NE Spain

El artículo de Uchman y Alvaro (2000) es sin duda un buen trabajo, por el cual merecen una felicitación, pero cuando tratan el icnogénero Spongeliomorpha, creo dejan de lado algunos aspectos sobre los que me parece oportuno aportar algunas apostillas.