Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T11:27:40.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Burrows of Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius) as related to slopes of substrate surfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Glen A. Duncan
Glen A. Duncan*
Affiliation:
School of Journalism, University of Georgia, Athens 30602
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Diameter, dip and orientation of burrows of the ghost crab Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius) were measured in back-beach areas: dune faces, dune crests, swales, blowouts and washover fans. Slope direction of the substrate at each burrow site was also measured. Results support three conclusions. First, burrow diameter increases landward. Second, burrow dip is related more to topography than to distance from shoreline; burrows dip more steeply in flatter areas (swales, blowouts, washovers). Third, a causal relationship exists between burrow orientation (as measured by the direction in which apertures point) and substrate slope; contrary to previous conclusions, burrow orientation is unrelated to shoreline direction. Burrow apertures simply point in the same direction as substrate slopes. In fact, on landward faces of dunes, burrow apertures point away from shoreline.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , March 1986 , pp. 384 - 389
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

Chakrabarti, A. 1980. Influence of biogenic activity of ghost crabs on the size parameters of beach sediments. Senckenbergiana Maritima, 12:183–199.Google Scholar
Chakrabarti, A. 1981. Burrow patterns of Ocypode ceratophthalma (Pallas) and their environmental significance. Journal of Paleontology, 55:431–441.Google Scholar
Curran, H. Allen. 1984. Ichnology of Pleistocene carbonates on San Salvador, Bahamas. Journal of Paleontology, 58:312–321.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W., Allen Curran, H. and George Pemberton, S. 1984. Tracemaking activities of crabs and their environmental significance: the ichnogenus Psilonichnus . Journal of Paleontology, 58:333–350.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W. and Mayou, T. V. 1971. Decapod burrows in Holocene barrier island beaches and washover fans, Georgia. Senckenbergiana Maritima, 3:53–77.Google Scholar
Fürsich, F. T. 1981. Invertebrate trace fossils from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal. Comunicações Serviços Geológicos de Portugal, 67:153–168.Google Scholar
Hill, G. W. and Hunter, R. E. 1973. Burrows of the ghost crab Ocypode quadrata (Fabricius) on the barrier islands, south-central Texas coast. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 43:24–30.Google Scholar
Radwanski, A. 1977a. Burrows attributable to the ghost crab Ocypode from the Korytnica basin (middle Miocene; Holy Cross Mountains, Poland). Acta Geologica Polonica, 27:217–225.Google Scholar
Radwanski, A. 1977b. Present-day types of trace in the Neogene sequence; their problems of nomenclature and preservation, p. 227–264. In Crimes, T. P. and Harper, J. C. (eds.), Trace Fossils 2. Geological Journal, Special Issue 9.Google Scholar
Stephenson, D. G. 1965. Fossil burrows on the coast of Kenya. Nature, 207:850–851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tate, M. W. and Clelland, R. C. 1957. Nonparametric and Shortcut Statistics. Interstate Printers and Publishers, Danville, Illinois, 171 p.Google Scholar
Winkler, Robert L. and Hays, William L. 1975. Statistics; Probability, Inference, and Decision, 2nd edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 986 p.Google Scholar