Hostname: page-component-669899f699-chc8l Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-28T00:22:44.827Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The origin of Chubutolithes Ihering, ichnofossils from the Eocene and Oligocene of Chubut Province, Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Thomas M. Bown  and
Brett C. Ratcliffe
Thomas M. Bown
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225
Brett C. Ratcliffe
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln 68588
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The distinctive trace fossil Chubutolithes gaimanensis n. ichnosp. occurs in Casamayoran (early Eocene) and Colhuéhaupian (late Oligocene) alluvial rocks of the Sarmiento Formation in eastern Chubut Province, Argentina. Though known for nearly 70 years, its origin has remained obscure. Examination of new specimens and comparisons with modern analogs demonstrate that specimens of Chubutolithes represent the fossil nests of a mud-dauber (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Virtually identical nests are constructed today by mud-daubers in areas as disparate as southern Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, and Nebraska, confirming that quite similar trace fossils can be produced by several different taxa in a higher taxonomic clade. No satisfactory ethological term exists for trace fossils that, like Chubutolithes, were constructed by organisms above, rather than within, a substrate or medium. The new term aedificichnia is proposed.

Chubutolithes occurs in alluvial paleosols and is associated with a large terrestrial ichnofauna. These trace fossils include the nests of scarab beetles, compound nests of social insects, and burrows of earthworms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Paleontology , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , March 1988 , pp. 163 - 167
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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bordas, A. F. 1937. El afloramiento de Casamayor. “Gaea” Anales de la Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Geograficos, V:215–220.Google Scholar
Bown, T. M. 1982. Ichnofossils and rhizoliths of the nearshore fluvial Jebel Qatrani Formation (Oligocene), Fayum Province, Egypt. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 40:255–309.Google Scholar
Bown, T. M., and Kraus, M. J. 1983. Ichnofossils of the alluvial Willwood Formation (lower Eocene), Bighorn Basin, northwest Wyoming, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 43:95–128.Google Scholar
Bown, T. M., and Powers, D. W. In press. Paleoenvironments and geologic history of the Sarmiento Formation (Eocene-Oligocene), eastern Río Chubut valley and Pampa de Gan Gan, Chubut Province, Argentina. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.Google Scholar
Bromley, R. G., Pemberton, S. G., and Rahmani, R. A. 1984. A Cretaceous woodground: the Teredolites ichnofacies. Journal of Paleontology, 58:488–498.Google Scholar
Frenguelli, J. 1927. El entrerriense de Golfo Nuevo en El Chubut. Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias Córdoba, 29:191–270.Google Scholar
Frenguelli, J. 1938. Bolas de escarabeidos y nidos de véspidos fósiles. Revista Sociedad Argentino Ciencias Naturales, 12:348–351.Google Scholar
Frenguelli, J. 1939. Nidos fósiles de insectos. Notas del Museo de La Plata, 4:379–402.Google Scholar
Frey, R. W. 1971. Ichnology—the study of fossil and recent lebensspuren, p. 91–125. In Perkins, B. F. (ed.), Trace Fossils, a Field Guide. Louisiana State University School of Geosciences Miscellaneous Publications 71–1.Google Scholar
Ihering, H. von. 1922. (Untitled). Palaeontologisches Zeitschrift, IV:113.Google Scholar
Krombein, K. V. 1979. Superfamily Sphecoidea, p. 1573–1740. In Krombein, K. V., Hurd, P. D. Jr., Smith, D. R., and Burks, B. D. (eds.), Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico, Vol. 2. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Mendia, J. E., and Bayarsky, A. 1981. Estratigrafía del Terciaro en el valle inferior del Río Chubut. VIII Congres Geologia Argentino (San Luis), Actas III:593–606.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, B. C., and Fagerstrom, J. A. 1980. Invertebrate lebensspuren of Holocene floodplains: their morphology, origin, and paleoecological significance. Journal of Paleontology, 54:614–630.Google Scholar
Schiller, W. 1925. Estratigrafía, tectónica y petróleo de Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut). Anales del Museo de La Plata, II:9–56.Google Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1953. Studien zur Palichnologie. I. Über die Methoden r Palichnologie. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologischichte und Paläontologie Abhandlungen, 96:421–452.Google Scholar
Seilacher, A. 1964. Sedimentological classification and nomenclature of trace fossils. Sedimentology, 3:253–256.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1935. Early and middle Tertiary geology of the Gaiman region, Chubut, Argentina. American Museum Novitates, 775:1–29.Google Scholar
Simpson, S. 1975. Classification of trace fossils, p. 39–54. In Frey, R. W. (ed.), The Study of Trace Fossils. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windhausen, A. 1921. Sobre un viaje de reconocimiento geológico en la parte Nordeste del Territorio del Chubut, con referencia especial a la cuestion de la provision de agua de Puerto Madryn. Ministerio de Agricultura de La Nación, Dirección General de Minas, Geológia e Hidrológia, Boletín 24(B):1–72.Google Scholar