Search results for "Trace fossil"
showing 10 items of 25 documents
Ichnological evidence of semi-aquatic locomotion in early turtles from eastern Iberia during the Carnian Humid Episode (Late Triassic)
2018
Abstract Some of the earliest European records of fossil turtle footprints (Late Triassic, Middle Carnian, ~ 227–237 Ma) are interpreted from 46 footprints from three outcrops, Domeno, Quesa and Cortes de Pallas, located in the Iberian Range (eastern Spain). The samples were obtained from Upper Triassic rocks in Keuper Facies. They are characterized in the studied area by two well-defined evaporitic sequences, separated by a detrital stratigraphic interval, constituting the Manuel Sandstones Formation in which the studied fossil footprints were recorded. These fluvial deposits are correlatable with the Carnian Humid Episode. The footprints are tridactyl and tetradactyl, mainly digitigrade, …
Palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the Pliocene fan-delta system of the Vera Basin (SE Spain): Fossil assemblages, ichnology and taphonomy
2020
Abstract The marine fossil assemblages of the Pliocene of south Spain constitute the record of the marine fauna that colonised the western part of the Mediterranean after the Messinian Salinity Crisis. This work focuses on the analysis of lithofacies and fossil assemblages including trace fossils, invertebrates, and vertebrates with special attention to taphonomic features, for interpreting palaeoenvironmental conditions in the Vera Basin (SE Spain). The sedimentary sequences of the northern region of the Vera Basin display diverse stratigraphical, sedimentological, and palaeontological features that correspond to the evolution of a fan-delta in a narrow basin. The Vera Basin was characteri…
Upper Ovetian trilobites from Spain and their implications for the palaeobiogeography and correlation of the Cambrian Stage 3 in Gondwana
2016
Abstract The upper part of the La Herreria Formation in Los Barrios de Luna (Leon Province, N Spain) has been revised from a palaeontological and biostratigraphical point of view. Two stratigraphic sections have been studied including their trilobite and ichnofossils contents. The ichnofossil assemblages have a high diversity of species characterising the Cruziana ichnofacies, suggesting a shallow sublittoral environment for the upper part of the La Herreria Formation. The trilobites species recognised are Lunagraulos antiquus , Dolerolenus formosus , Dolerolenus longioculatus , Lunolenus lunae , Metadoxides richterorum , Metadoxides armatus and Sardaspis ? sp. from the upper Ovetian (lower…
Middle Jurassic tracks of sauropod dinosaurs in a deep karst cave in France.
2019
14 pages; International audience; Although the deep galleries of natural underground cavities are difficult to access and are sometimes dangerous, they have the potential to preserve trace fossils. Here, we report on the first occurrence of sauropod dinosaur tracks inside a karstic cave. Three trackways are preserved on the roof of the Castelbouc cave 500 m under the surface of the Causse Méjean plateau, southern France. The tracks are Bathonian in age (ca. 168–166 Ma), a crucial but still poorly known time interval in sauropod evolution. The three trackways yield sauropod tracks that are up to 1.25 m long and are therefore amongst the largest known dinosaur footprints worldwide. The trackm…
Re-examining the rare and the lost : a review of fossil Tortricidae (Lepidoptera)
2018
We re-evaluate eleven fossils that have previously been assigned to the family Tortricidae, describe one additional fossil, and assess whether observable morphological features warrant confident assignment of these specimens to this family. We provide an overview of the age and origin of the fossils and comment on their contribution towards understanding the phylogeny of the Lepidoptera. Our results show that only one specimen, Antiquatortia histuroides Brown & Baixeras gen. and sp. nov., shows a character considered synapomorphic for the family. Six other fossils ( Electresia zalesskii Kusnezov, 1941; Tortricidrosis inclusa Skalski, 1973; Tortricites skalskii Kozlov, 1988; Tortricibaltia d…
The beast burrowed, the fluid followed – Crustacean burrows as methane conduits
2015
Abstract An extensive pockmark field with associated methane-seep carbonates has recently been reported from the late Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Ubidepea Mudstone of the Black Flysch Group in the Basque Country, northern Spain, but the exact pathways of the migrating methane-rich fluids remained elusive. Here we provide petrographic, stable carbon and oxygen isotope evidence that abundant crustacean burrows in the surrounding mudstone, preserved as the trace fossil Thalassinoides, and the seep carbonates themselves have acted as long-lasting fluid conduits in this system. The Thalassinoides infill generations show a diagenetic parasequence often starting with a distinctive lining, followed b…
The trace fossil gyrochorte: ethology and paleoecology
2021
Specimens of the trace fossil Gyrochorte from the Ordovician, Jurassic and Cretaceous of Utah, and the Pliocene of Spain are described. These occurrences expand the stratigraphic range of the ichnogenus, and allow for a reexamination of this paleoenvironmentally sensitive and puzzling trace fossil. The recognition of the penetrative characteristic of the trace is essential for a correct identification, as some trace fossils have been erroneously ascribed to Gyrochorte in the past. The producer must have been a detritus-feeding worm-like animal, probably an annelid, that created a bilobed, vertically penetrating and sometimes plaited meandering trace. Gyrochorte typically occurs in sandy f…
Non-marine invertebrate trace fossils from the Tertiary Calatayud- Teruel Basin, NE Spain. Reply
2021
We thank the comments of Dr Calzada. We think that this kind of discussions is very healthy to the Paleontology and it would be necessary to do it more frequently, so that thanks again for your example. It is true that some of the descriptions of ichnofossils in our work need further discussion and comments, but when we analysed several poorly-preserved specimens (such as the so-called Spongeliomorpha isp.) we preferred to make a quick introduction and describe them in open nomenclature. It was beyond the scope of our paper to make a revision of the ichnogenus with this kind of material, but we hope that Calzada's comments and our reply will improve some ideas concerning the ichnogenus Spon…
First xiphosuran traceway in the middle Muschelkalk facies (Middle Triassic) of the Catalan Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula)
2021
In the last decade, the first ichnoassamblages from the middle Muschelkalk facies (upper Anisian-middle Ladinian) of the Catalan Basin (NE Iberian Peninsula) have been discovered. Herein, the first xiphosuran trace fossils are described from the locality of Penya Rubí, a newly discovered ichnosite from the Catalan Basin. The finding opens a window into peri-Tethys ecosystems with coastal influence. The traceway is referred to the ichnogenus Kouphichnium, a locomotion trace attributed to xiphosurans. The traceway preserves telson grooves and different imprint morphologies from the various appendages. The traceway pattern and arrangement of the different traces suggest a crawling locomotion s…
Stranded jellyfish in the lowermost Cambrian (Corduban) of Spain
2021
Ninety discoid structures of big size occurring on a bedding plane of Nemakit-Daldynian to Tommotian sandstones (i.e. Corduban in the Spanish scale of Cambrian stages) from south-western Spain are described. Cross-cutting relationships between discoid structures and associated trace fossils, as well as evidence for penecontemporaneous deformation of sediment laminae below the discoids, permit to interprete these structures as impressions of ancient, soft-bodied marine organisms. Taphonomic, biometric, and morphological studies suggest that they are outer moulds of both sides, subumbrellar and exumbrellar, of ancient jellyfish of hydrozoan coelenterates, whose canals resemble the modern genu…