Journal
PALAEOWORLD
Volume 30, Issue 2, Pages 229-232Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.palwor.2020.06.009
Keywords
ichnology; trace fossils; Bighorn Mountains; zoophycoids; fodinichnia
Categories
Funding
- International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) [653]
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This study reports a new occurrence of Zoophycos from the Upper Cambrian Gallatin Formation of the Bighorn Mountains in north-central Wyoming, USA, contributing to the understanding of the paleobiogeographic distribution of lower Paleozoic Zoophycos and supporting the idea that most Cambrian Zoophycos were horizontal and shallow-tier structures.
The ichnogenus Zoophycos is relatively rare in Cambrian-age sedimentary rocks, being far more commonly encountered in post-Devonian, and particularly post-Paleozoic, strata. A new occurrence of Zoophycos from the Upper Cambrian Gallatin Formation of the Bighorn Mountains, north-central Wyoming, USA, is reported herein. Material consists of a single specimen preserved within quartz silt representing the upper surface of a graded quartz arenite bed. The burrow is a relatively wide, curved, horizontally oriented lobe with a poorly visible marginal tube but well-developed internal lamellae. Discovery of this specimen contributes to the paleobiogeographic distribution of lower Paleozoic Zoophycos, adds to the literature suggesting that most Cambrian Zoophycos were horizontal and shallow-tier structures, and provides further support to the notion that relatively complex deposit-feeding behavior evolved earlier in the Phanerozoic than had long been recognized. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. and Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS. All rights reserved.
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