Cold feet: Trackways and burrows in ice-marginal strata of the end-Ordovician glaciation (Table Mountain Group, South Africa) ...
Abstract New observations from an outcrop of Upper Ordovician Table Mountain Group strata (Matjiesgoedkloof, Western Cape Province, South Africa) have revealed an unexpected ichnofauna that is hosted within diamictites and sandstones that were deposited by a retreating low-latitude (∼30°S) ice sheet...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Geological Society of America
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.54674 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/307585 |
| Summary: | Abstract New observations from an outcrop of Upper Ordovician Table Mountain Group strata (Matjiesgoedkloof, Western Cape Province, South Africa) have revealed an unexpected ichnofauna that is hosted within diamictites and sandstones that were deposited by a retreating low-latitude (∼30°S) ice sheet during the Hirnantian glaciation. The locality provides a rare window onto animal-sediment interactions in an early Paleozoic ice-marginal shallow-marine environment and contains a trace fossil community with a surprising ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity of burrows, trackways, and trails (Archaeonassa, Diplichnites, Heimdallia, Metaichna, ?Multina, Planolites, Protovirgularia, Skolithos). Exceptional phenomena preserved in the strata include evidence for direct colonization of glacial diamictites by deep-burrowing Heimdallia infauna, and interactions between trackways and dropstones on substrates. Observations from the newly recognized outcrop dramatically expand our understanding of deep-time glacial habitats, ... |
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