Lower carboniferous Zoophycosfrom the Tournai area (Belgium): Environmental and ethologic significance

New insights on Tournaisian–Visean (Carboniferous, Mississippian) athyridide, orthotetide, rhynchonellide, and strophomenide brachiopods from southern Belgium

“…They are from the base to the top: the Crampon, Allain, Providence, Pont-à-Rieu, Vaulx, and Vignobles members (see description in Poty et al, 2002) (Figure 4). Where the lenticular Vignobles Member is not developed as represented in Figure 4, the Vaulx Member, extends up to a thin clay marker probably of volcanic origin (Gaillard et al, 1999) known as the 'Gras Délit' (Poty et al, 2002), which marks the top of the formation. The limestones (mudstones, wackestones, and sometimes packstones [see Hennebert, 1996]) of the Tournai Formation are still intensively quarried for the production of cement, aggregate, and building stone and exposed in large and deep quarries.…”

“…The limestones (mudstones, wackestones, and sometimes packstones [see Hennebert, 1996]) of the Tournai Formation are still intensively quarried for the production of cement, aggregate, and building stone and exposed in large and deep quarries. The Tournai Formation represents the nearly in situ accumulation of remains from a crinoid-brachiopod-bryozoan community with associated tabulate and solitary rugose corals, gastropods, bivalves, nautiloids, and trilobites; plurilocular foraminifers are very scarce and algae are almost absent (Hennebert, 1996 (see also for sedimentological and bathymetric interpretation); Gaillard et al, 1999). The biostratigraphical range of this formation, in terms of the Mississippian Foraminifer Zones (MFZ) of Devuyst and Hance (in Poty et al, 2006), spans the interval MFZ4 to MFZ5 (top of the Hastarian and lower part of the Ivorian) according to Hance et al (2006a).…”

Temporal variations of the trace fossil Zoophycos in a 425 ka long sediment record from the South China Sea: implications for the ethology of the Zoophycos producer

“…The late Quaternary deep-sea Zoophycos typically consists of a helically coiled, continuous, lobate spreite surrounded by a marginal tube that is connected to the sediment surface through a vertical shaft (Fig. Alpert, 1977;Wetzel & Werner, 1981;Kotake, 1989;Bromley, 1991;Ekdale & Lewis, 1991;Fu & Werner, 1995;Locklair & Savrda, 1997;Gaillard, Hennebert & Olivero, 1999;Miller & D'Alberto, 2001;Löwemark & Schäfer, 2003;Olivero, 2003). Although the trace fossil is present in Cambrian to Quaternary strata, the producer of this enigmatic trace is still unknown and the behavioural explanations much debated (e.g.…”

Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Upper Viséan Paprotnia Beds (Bardo Unit, Polish Sudetes) deposition on the ichnological and palaeontological investigations

“…-Zoophycos from the Paprotnia Beds clearly cor re sponds to the con struc tional model of Gaillard and Olivero (1993). It is sim i lar to Tournaisian forms from Bel gium (Gaillard et al, 1999), whose sec ond ary lamellae are not vis i ble, and to the Lower De vo nian spec i mens from Bolivia (Gaillard and Racheboeuf, 2006), though mostly smaller. The dis tance between two sub se quent pri mary lamellae and the size of ax ial tun nel are very com pa ra ble to those from the mid dle Penn sylva nian Zoophycos of Nova Sco tia (McIlroy and Fal con-Lang, 2006).…”

“…The bathymetric range of this ichnotaxon has in creased since the Ju rassic Seilacher, 1986;Bottjer et al, 1988;Kotake, 1989Kotake, , 1997Miller, 1991;Bromley, 1996;Olivero, 2003;Wetzel et al, 2007;Knaust, 2009). Pa leo zoic Zoophycos was com monly rec og nized from shal low-wa ter de pos its (Osgood and Szmuc, 1972;Yurewicz, 1977;Frey and Pem berton, 1984;Miller, 1991;Ekdale and Lewis, 1991), but also oc cur in deeper ma rine en vi ron ments (e.g., Bur ton and Link, 1991; Gaillard et al, 1999;Zapletal and Pek, 1999;Mikuláš et al, 2004;Gaillard and Racheboeuf, 2006). This ichnogenus is usually re lated to most of ten dysoxic en vi ron ments and with low phys i cal en ergy (e.g., Olivero, 2003;Mikuláš et al, 2004;Buatois and Mángano, 2011).…”