HELMINTHOPSIS AND CYLINDRICHNUS ICHNOGUILDS FROM MIOCENE THIN-BEDDED TURBIDITES, TIERRA DEL FUEGO, ARGENTINA

Abstract

Miocene thin-bedded turbidites from Tierra del Fuego record scarce graphoglyptids and two unusual ichnoguilds composed of diminutive elite trace fossils. The first, a monoichnospecific Cylindrichnus ichnoguild, consists of crowded, post-depositional burrows formed in surface sediments during the final phase of turbidite deposition. The second, a pre-depositional Helminthopsis ichnoguild, consists of dense aggregates of simple trails, mainly Helminthopsis and Helminthoidichnites, occupying a very shallow tier in organic-rich mud covering the sea floor prior to turbidite deposition. The trace makers of Cylindrichnus were opportunistic suspension/detritus feeding organisms, probably polychaetes, which bloomed during high flux of labile organic matter brought to internal and external levees by turbidity currents. The trace makers of Helminthopsis and Helminthoidichnites were probably nematodes that grazed on organic-rich muddy sediments with abundant disseminated pyrite associated with Kinneyia-like and other problematic wrinkle structures, suggesting sulfur-cycling chemosynthetic microbial communities originated during interturbidite phases. The rhythmical alternation of the Cylindrichnus and Helminthopsis ichnoguilds clearly differentiate the thin-bedded turbidites of the Viamonte Formation from channel-levee complexes elsewhere, stressing the point that ichnoassemblages reflect sets of environmental parameters and not necessarily particular depositional settings.