Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:19:18.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Invertebrate ichnology of the nonmarine Lepreau Formation (Triassic), southern New Brunswick, eastern Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Robert B. MacNaughton  and
Ron K. Pickerill
Robert B. MacNaughton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada
Ron K. Pickerill
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5A3, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Alluvial fan and braided fluvial redbeds of the Triassic Lepreau Formation of southern New Brunswick, eastern Canada, contain a moderately diverse and abundant invertebrate ichnofauna. Fourteen formal ichnotaxa are recognized: Ancorichnus coronus, Ancorichnus cf. A. ancorichnus, Aulichnites isp., Cruziana problematica, Fuersichnus isp., Gordia marina, Palaeophycus striatus, Palaeophycus isp., Planolites isp., Rusophycus isp., Skolithos linearis, cf. Skolithos isp., and Taenidium isp. Two vernacular ichnotaxa, “inclined meniscate burrows” and “surface pit structures,” also occur. All these ichnotaxa are figured and briefly described. Collectively, the entire assemblage can confidently be assigned to the Scoyenia ichnofacies that, in the Lepreau Formation, represents a fluvial channel ichnocoenose.

Specimens have been subject to marked taphonomic effects due to weathering and preservation in lithologies showing either insufficient variation in grain size or a grain size too coarse to preserve subtle morphological variations; as a consequence, ichno-taxobases are commonly obscured or obliterated. This may have influenced the apparent diversity of the assemblage, especially with regard to meniscate and simple horizontal burrows. It is proposed that application of “taphoseries,” theoretical series including ichnotaxa that may potentially be mistaken for each other with increasing taphonomic overprint, provides a safeguard against ichnotaxonomic misidentifications.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 160 - 171
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

Aceñolaza, F. G., and Buatois, L. A. 1991. Trazas fosiles del Paleozoico Superior continental Argentina. Ameghiniana, 28:89–108.Google Scholar
Aceñolaza, F. G., and Buatois, L. A. 1993. Nonmarine perigondwanic trace fossils from the late Paleozoic of Argentina. Ichnos, 2:183–201.Google Scholar
Alcock, F. J. 1959. Musquash geology, Charlotte, Kings, and Saint John Counties, New Brunswick. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 1084A with descriptive notes.Google Scholar
Alpert, S. P. 1974. Systematic review of the genus Skolithos . Journal of Paleontology, 48:661–669.Google Scholar
Bandel, K. 1967. Trace fossils from two Upper Pennsylvanian sandstones in Kansas. The University of Kansas, Paleontological Contributions, Paper 18, 13 p.Google Scholar
Belyea, H. R. 1939. The geology of the Musquash area, New Brunswick. Unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanstown, Illinois, 170 p.Google Scholar
Bridge, J. S., Gordon, E. A., and Titus, R. C. 1986. Non-marine bivalves and associated burrows in the Catskill Magnafacies (Upper Devonian) of New York State. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 40:65–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromley, R. G. 1990. Trace Fossils: Biology and Taphonomy. Unwin Hyman, London, 280 p.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. G., and Asgaard, U. 1972. Notes on Greenland trace fossils. I. Freshwater Cruziana from the Upper Triassic of Jameson Land, East Greenland. Grønlands geologiske Undersogelse, Rapport, 49:7–14.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. G., and Asgaard, U. 1979. Triassic freshwater ichnocoenoses from Carlsberg Fjord, East Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 55:39–80.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. G., and Asgaard, U. 1991. Ichnofacies: a mixture of taphofacies and biofacies. Lethaia, 24:153–163.Google Scholar
Buatois, L. A., and Mángano, M. G. 1990. Una asociation de trazas fosiles del Carbonico lacustre del area de Los Jumes, Catamarca, Argentina: su comparacion con la icnofacies de Scoyenia . V Congreso Argentino de Paleontologie y Bioestratigrafia, Tucumán, 1990, 1:77–81.Google Scholar
Buatois, L. A., and Mángano, M. G. 1993. Trace fossils from a Carboniferous turbiditic lake: implications for the recognition of additional nonmarine ichnofacies. Ichnos, 2:237–258.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, C. K. 1975. Recent lebenspurren in nonmarine aquatic environments, p. 431–458. In Frey, R. W. (ed.), The Study of Trace Fossils. Springer-Verlag, New York.Google Scholar
Currie, K. L. 1989. Geological notes on the St. John-St. George area, New Brunswick. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File Report 1974, 23 p. with accompanying maps.Google Scholar
D'Alessandro, A., and Bromley, R. G. 1987. Meniscate trace fossils and the Muensteria-Taenidium problem. Palaeontology, 30:743–764.Google Scholar
Ekdale, A. A. 1988. Pitfalls of paleobathymetric interpretations based on trace fossil assemblages. Palaios, 3:464–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekdale, A. A., Bromley, R. G., and Pemberton, S. G. 1984. Ichnology: Trace Fossils in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Short Course No. 15, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 317 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emmons, E. 1844. The Taconic System: Based on Observations in New York, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island. Caroll and Cook, Albany, 68 p.Google Scholar
Fenton, C. L., and Fenton, M. A. 1937. Burrows and trails from Pennsylvanian rocks of Texas. American Midland Naturalist, 18:1079–1084.Google Scholar
Fillion, D. 1989. Les critères discriminants à l'intérieur du triptyque Palaeophycus–Planolites–Macaronichnus. Essai de synthèse d'un usage critique. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série II, 309:169–172.Google Scholar
Fillion, D., and Pickerill, R. K. 1990. Ichnology of the Upper Cambrian(?) to Lower Ordovician Bell Island and Wabana groups of eastern Newfoundland, Canada. Palaeontographica Canadiana, No. 7, 119 p.Google Scholar
Fillion, D., and Harland, T. L. 1990. Influence de la diagenèse sur la production, la préservation et l'échantillonnage des ichnofossiles au sein des séries carbonatées: l'exemple du bassin intracratonique Ordovicien du Lac-St-Jean et de Chicoutimi (Québec). Geobios, 23:485–511.Google Scholar
Fischer, W. A. 1978. The habitat of the early vertebrates: trace and body fossil evidence from the Harding Formation (Middle Ordovician), Colorado. The Mountain Geologist, 15:1–26.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W., and Chowns, T. M. 1972. Trace fossils from the Ringgold road cut (Ordovician and Silurian), Georgia, p. 25–55. In Chowns, T. M. (compiler), Sedimentary Environments in the Paleozoic Rocks of Northwest Georgia. Georgia Geological Survey Guidebook 11.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W., Pemberton, S. G., and Fagerstrom, J. A. 1984. Morphological, ethological, and environmental significance of the ichnogenera Scoyenia and Ancorichnus . Journal of Paleontology, 58:511–528.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W., and Saunders, T. D. A. 1990. Ichnofacies and bathymetry: a passive relationship. Journal of Paleontology, 64:155–158.Google Scholar
Gierlowski-Kordesch, E. 1991. Ichnology of an ephemeral lacustrine/alluvial plain system: Jurassic East Berlin Formation, Hartford Basin, USA. Ichnos, 1:221–232.Google Scholar
Hakes, W. G. 1977. Trace fossils in Late Pennsylvanian cyclothems, Kansas, p. 209–226. In Crimes, T. P. and Harper, J. C. (eds.), Trace Fossils 2, Geological Journal Special Issue 9. Seel House Press, Liverpool.Google Scholar
Haldeman, S. S. 1840. Supplement to number one of “A monograph of the Limniades, or freshwater univalve shells of North America,” containing descriptions of apparently new animals in different classes, and the names and characters of the subgenera in Paludina and Anculosa . The author, Philadelphia, 3 p.Google Scholar
Hall, J. 1847. Palaeontology of New York, Volume I, Containing Descriptions of the Organic Remains of the Lower Division of the New York System, (Equivalent to the Lower Silurian Rocks of Europe). C. Van Benthuysen, Albany, 338 p.Google Scholar
Hall, J. 1852. Palaeontology of New York, Volume II, Containing Descriptions of the Organic Remains of the Lower Middle Division of the New York System, (Equivalent in Part to the Middle Silurian Rocks of Europe). C. Van Benthuysen, Albany, 368 p.Google Scholar
Häntzschel, W. 1975. Trace Fossils and Problematica, p. W1–W269. In Teichert, C. (ed.), Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, Pt. W, Miscellanea, Supplement 1. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.Google Scholar
Hasiotis, S. T., and Bown, T. M. 1992. Invertebrate trace fossils: the backbone of continental ichnology, p. 64–104. In Maples, C. G. and West, R. R. (eds.), Trace Fossils, Short Course in Paleontology, Number 5. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.Google Scholar
Heer, O. 1876–77. Flora Fossilis Helvetiae. Die vorweltliche Flora der Schweiz. J. Wurster and Company, Zurich, 182 p.Google Scholar
Heinberg, C. 1974. A dynamic model for a meniscus filled tunnel (Ancorichnus n. ichnogen.) from the Jurassic Pecten Sandstone of Milne Land, East Greenland. Grønlands geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport, 62, 20 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, E. 1858. Ichnology of New England. A Report on the Sandstone of the Connecticut Valley, Especially its Footprints. W. White, Boston, 220 p.Google Scholar
Howard, J. D., and Frey, R. W. 1984. Characteristic trace fossils in nearshore to offshore sequences, Upper Cretaceous of east-central Utah. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 21:200–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klein, G. de V. 1962. Triassic sedimentation, Maritime Provinces, Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 73:1127–1146.Google Scholar
Maples, C. G., and Archer, A. W. 1989. The potential of Paleozoic non-marine trace fossils for paleoecological interpretations. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 73:185–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metz, R. 1989. Scoyenia ichnofacies from the Passaic Formation (Upper Triassic) near Milford, New Jersey. Northeastern Geology, 11:212–217.Google Scholar
Miller, S. A. 1889. North American Geology and Palaeontology For the Use of Amateurs, Students, and Scientists. Western Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati, Ohio, 664 p.Google Scholar
Nadon, G. C. 1981. The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Triassic at St. Martins and Lepreau, New Brunswick. Unpubl. M.Sc. dissertation, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 279 p.Google Scholar
Nadon, G. C., and Middleton, G. V. 1984. Tectonic control of Triassic sedimentation in southern New Brunswick: local and regional implications. Geology, 12:619–622.Google Scholar
Narbonne, G. M. 1984. Trace fossils in Upper Silurian tidal flat to basin slope carbonates of Arctic Canada. Journal of Paleontology, 58:398–415.Google Scholar
Narbonne, G. M., and Aitken, J. D. 1990. Ediacaran fossils from the Sekwi Brook area, Mackenzie Mountains, northwestern Canada. Palaeontology, 33:945–980.Google Scholar
Nicholson, H. A. 1873. Contributions to the study of errant annelides of the older Palaeozoic rocks. Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Aberdeen, Publication 1:17–47.Google Scholar
Orbigny, A. d'. 1842. Voyage dans l'Amérique méridionale (le Brésil, la république orientale de l'Uruguay, la république Argentine, la Patagonie, la république du Chile, la république de Bolivie, la république du Pérou) exécuté pendant les années 1826, 1827, 1828, 1830, 1831, 1832 et 1833. Paléontologie, Paris, Pitois-Leverault; Strasbourg, Ve. Leverault. Tome 3, 4e partie, 188 p.Google Scholar
Pemberton, S. G., and Frey, R. W. 1982. Trace fossil nomenclature and the Planolites-Palaeophycus dilemma. Journal of Paleontology, 56:843–881.Google Scholar
Pemberton, S. G., and Wightman, D. M. 1992. Ichnological characteristics of brackish water deposits, p. 141–167. In Pemberton, S. G. (ed.), Applications of Ichnology to Petroleum Exploration, A Core Workshop. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Core Workshop No. 17, Tulsa, Oklahoma.Google Scholar
Pemberton, S. G., MacEachern, J. A., and Frey, R. W. 1992. Trace fossil facies models: environmental and allostratigraphic significance, p. 47–82. In Walker, R. G. and James, N. P. (eds.), Facies Models: Response to Sea Level Change. Love Printing Service, Stittsville.Google Scholar
Pickerill, R. K. 1994. Nomenclature and taxonomy of invertebrate trace fossils, p. 3–42. In Donovan, S. K. (ed.), The Palaeobiology of Trace Fossils. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.Google Scholar
Pickerill, R. K. 1992. Carboniferous nonmarine invertebrate ichnocoenoses from southern New Brunswick, eastern Canada. Ichnos, 2:21–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickerill, R. K., and Peel, J. S. 1990. Trace fossils from the Lower Cambrian Bastion Formation of East Greenland. Grønlands geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport, 147:5–43.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. E. 1981. A comparison between the Triassic trace fossils of Cheshire and South Germany. Palaeontology, 24:555–588.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. E. 1985. Isopodichnus, related arthropod trace fossils and notostracans from Triassic fluvial sediments. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences, 76:273–285.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. E., and Walker, E. F. 1984. Reassessment of sediments and trace fossils from Old Red Sandstone (Lower Devonian) of Dunure, Scotland, described by John Smith. Geobios, 17:567–576.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. E., Steel, R. J., and Undersrud, E. 1982. Facies sequences and trace fossils in lacustrine/fan delta deposits, Hornelen Basin (M. Devonian), western Norway. Sedimentary Geology, 32:63–87.Google Scholar
Sarjeant, W. A. S., and Stringer, P. 1978. Triassic reptile tracks in the Lepreau Formation, southern New Brunswick, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 15:594–602.Google Scholar
Sarkar, S., and Chaudhuri, A. K. 1992. Trace fossils in Middle to Late Triassic fluvial redbeds, Prahita-Godavari Valley, south India. Ichnos, 2:7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindewolf, O. H. 1921. Studien aus dem Marburger Buntsandstein. 1, II. Senckenbergiana, 3:33–49.Google Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1967. Bathymetry of trace fossils. Marine Geology, 5:413–420.Google Scholar
Shone, R. W. 1978. Giant Cruziana from the Beaufort Group. Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa, 81:327–329.Google Scholar
Smith, R. M. H., Mason, T. R., and Ward, J. D. 1993. Flash-flood sediments and ichnofacies of the late Pleistocene Homeb Silts, Kuiseb River, Namibia. Sedimentary Geology, 85:579–599.Google Scholar
Symons, D. T. A., Bormann, R. E., and Jans, R. P. 1989. Paleomagnetism of the Triassic red beds of the lower Fundy Group and Mesozoic tectonism of the Nova Scotia platform, Canada. Tectonophysics, 164:13–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tansathien, W., and Pickerill, R. K. 1987. A giant Rusophycus from the Arisaig Group (Siluro-Devonian) of Nova Scotia. Maritime Sediments and Atlantic Geology, 23:89–93.Google Scholar
Tevesz, M. J. S., and McCall, P. L. 1982. Geological significance of aquatic non-marine trace fossils, p. 257–285. In McCall, P. L. and Tevesz, M. J. S. (eds.), Animal-Sediment Relations. Plenum Publishing Company, New York.Google Scholar
Torell, O. M. 1870. Petrificata Suecana Formation is Cambricae. Lunds Universitet, Årsskrift, 6:1–14.Google Scholar
Vyalov, O. S. 1962. Problematica of the Beacon Sandstone at Beacon Height West, Antarctica. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 5:718–732.Google Scholar
Walker, E. F. 1985. Arthropod ichnofauna of the Old Red Sandstone at Dunure and Montrose, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences, 76:287–297.Google Scholar
Wright, W. J., and Clements, C. S. 1943. Coal deposits of the Lepreau–Musquash district, New Brunswick. Acadian Naturalist, 1:5–27.Google Scholar
Young, F. G. 1972. Early Cambrian and older trace fossils from the southern Cordillera of Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 9:1–17.Google Scholar