Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T07:14:12.443Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An unusual new trace fossil from the Lower Carboniferous of Ireland: Intexalvichnus magnus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2016

J. O. Buckman
J. O. Buckman*
Affiliation:
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Geology Section, University of Paisley, High Street, Paisley, PA1 2BE, Scotland, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Intexalvichnus magnus, new ichnogenus and ichnospecies, is erected for material from the Lower Carboniferous of northwest Ireland. This ichnogenus is characterized by a horizontal primary basal gallery, from which a series of secondary near-vertical shafts originate on either side of the gallery. Intexalvichnus magnus is typified by vertical shafts occurring in offset closely packed pairs on either side of the horizontal gallery, and by their recurved conical morphology. Such material somewhat resembles Phycodes, and in particular “Phycodes” pedum, although overall morphology and mode of construction distinguish I. magnus from Phycodes (including “P.” pedum), warranting separate ichnogeneric status. Although forming monospecific associations, I. magnus occurs within shallow-water deltaic sand-dominated facies with diverse ichnofaunal assemblages. Consideration of ichnofaunas from similar shallow-water paleoenvironments suggests that I. magnus should be globally and stratigraphically widespread. Perhaps because of its relatively large size I. magnus has been overlooked, or referred to other ichnogenera.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 71 , Issue 2 , March 1997 , pp. 316 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abel, O. 1935. Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren. Jena, Gustav Fischer, 644 p.Google Scholar
Bjerstedt, T. W. 1987. Trace fossils indicating estuarine deposystems for the Devonian-Mississippian Cloyd Conglomerate Member, Price Formation, Central Appalachians. Palaios, 2:339–349.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. G. 1990. Trace Fossils: Biology and Taphonomy. Unwin Hyman, London, 280 p.Google Scholar
Brunton, C. H. C., and Mason, T. R. 1979. Palaeoenvironments and correlations of the Carboniferous rocks in West Fermanagh, Ireland. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Geology), 32:91–108.Google Scholar
Buatois, L. A., and Mángano, M. G. 1993. The ichnotaxonomic status of Plangtichnus and Treptichnus . Ichnos, 3:217–224.Google Scholar
Buckman, J. O. 1992a. Palaeoenvironment of a Lower Carboniferous sandstone succession northwest Ireland: ichnological and sedimentological studies, p. 217–241. In Parnell, J. (ed.), Basins on the Atlantic Seaboard: Petroleum Geology, Sedimentology and Basin Evolution. Geological Society Special Publication 62.Google Scholar
Buckman, J. O. 1992b. Lower Carboniferous trace fossils from northwest Ireland. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Queen's University, Belfast, 356 p.Google Scholar
Buckman, J. O. 1994a. Rhizocorallium Zenker 1836 not Teichichnus repandus Chamberlain 1977 (taxonomic note). Ichnos, 3:135–136.Google Scholar
Buckman, J. O. 1994b. Archaeonassa Fenton and Fenton 1937 reviewed. Ichnos, 3:185–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckman, J. O. 1995. A comment on annulate forms of Palaeophycus Hall 1847: with particular reference to P. ‘annulatus’ sensu Pemberton and Frey 1982, and the erection of P. crenulatus (nov. ichnosp.). Ichnos, 4:131–140.Google Scholar
Buckman, J. O. In press. Heimdallia from the Lower Carboniferous of Ireland: H. mullaghmori a new ichnospecies, and re-evaluation of the three-dimensional format of the ichnogenus. Ichnos.Google Scholar
Chandra, A. 1974. Ichnology of Viséan sandstones in northwestern Ireland: a study of trace fossils in their palaeoecological and sedimentological context. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, London, 356 p.Google Scholar
Dam, G. 1990. Taxonomy of trace fossils from the shallow marine Lower Jurassic Neill Klinter Formation, East Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark, 38:119–144.Google Scholar
Dixon, O. A. 1972. Lower Carboniferous between the Curlew and Ox Mountains, Northwestern Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 128:71–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, T. N., and Oswald, D. H. 1957. The Carboniferous rocks of the Donegal Syncline. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 113:137–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geyer, G., and Uchman, A. 1995. Ichnofossil assemblages from the Nama Group (Neoproterozoic-Lower Cambrian) in Namibia and the Proterozoic–Cambrian boundary problem revisited. Beringeria Special Issue, 2:175–202.Google Scholar
Ghent, E. D., and Henderson, R. A. 1966. Petrology, sedimentation, and paleontology of Middle Miocene graded sandstones and mudstone, Kaiti Beach, Gisborne. Geological Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 4:147–169.Google Scholar
Hakes, W. G. 1976. Trace fossils and depositional environment of four clastic units, Upper Pennsylvanian megacyclothems, northeast Kansas. University of Kansas Paleontological Contributions, Article 63, 46 p.Google Scholar
Hubbard, J. A. E. B. 1966. Facies patterns in the Carrowmoran Sandstone (Viséan) of the western Co. Sligo, Ireland. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 77:233–254.Google Scholar
Hubbard, W. F., and Sheridan, D. J. R. 1965. The Lower Carboniferous stratigraphy of some coastal exposures in Co. Sligo Ireland. Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society, Series A, 2:189–195.Google Scholar
Lees, R. G. 1991. Trace fossils as facies indicators in Yoredale cyclothems (Carboniferous) of northern England and southern Scotland. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Manchester, Manchester, 373 p.Google Scholar
Osgood, R. G. 1970. Trace fossils of the Cincinnati area. Palaeontographica Americana, 6:281–444.Google Scholar
Oswald, D. H. 1955. The Carboniferous rocks between the Ox Mountains and Donegal Bay. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 111:167–186.Google Scholar
Pickerill, R. K. 1994. Nomenclature and taxonomy of invertebrate trace fossils, p. 3–42. In Donovan, S. K. (ed.), The Paleobiology of Trace Fossils. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Plaziat, J. C., and Mahmoudi, M. 1988. Trace fossils attributed to burrowing echinoids: a revision including new ichnogenus and ichnospecies. Géobios, 21:209–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1955. Spuren und Fazies im Unterkambrium. In Schindewolf, O. H. and Seilacher, A. (eds.), Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Kambriums in der Salt Range (Pakistan). Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur zu Mainz, mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Abhandlungen, 10:117–140.Google Scholar
Sheridan, D. J. R. 1972. Upper Old Red Sandstone and Lower Carboniferous of the Slieve Beagh syncline and its setting in the northwest Carboniferous basin. Geological Survey of Ireland Special Paper, 2, 129 p.Google Scholar
Walter, M. R., Elphinstone, R., and Heys, G. R. 1989. Proterozoic and early Cambrian trace fossils from the Amadeus and Georgina Basins, Central Australia. Alcheringa, 13:209–256.Google Scholar