The Establishment of Continental Ecosystems

Minter, Nicholas J.; Buatois, Luís A.; Mángano, M. Gabriela; Davies, Neil S.; Gibling, Martin R.; Labandeira, Conrad C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9600-2_6

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 295 publications

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“…This find would considerably predate the oldest record of tetrapod footprints from the Middle Devonian (Givetian) (Lucas ), but it does not fulfil the recognition criteria of tetrapod tracks and trackways and probably results from the activity of an arthropod (Minter et al . ). Evidence of early vertebrate burrowing remains scattered and does not seem to be older than Late Devonian (reviewed in Storm et al .…”

Section: Interpretation and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca from the Silurian of Sweden: probably the oldest vertebrate locomotion trace fossil

Knaust

Minter

2018

LET

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The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca is reported from a sandstone block collected from the Upper Silurian (Ludlow) Burgsvik Formation of Gotland, Sweden. It represents the oldest record of a vertebrate trace (apart from coprolites), predating previous finds from the Lower Devonian by at least 10 Ma. A thelodont or acanthodian fish may have produced the sinusoidal trails with the aid of their caudal or anal fins while browsing slowly over the sediment whilst searching for food.

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Section: Interpretation and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The fish swimming trace Undichna unisulca from the Silurian of Sweden: probably the oldest vertebrate locomotion trace fossil

Knaust

Minter

2018

LET

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“…. The null hypothesis is that the trace fossils were made by subaqueously-dwelling animals, because: (1) all known trackways were emplaced onto subaqueously-deposited ash-fall substrates; (2) no trackways are known from demonstrably subaerial Borrowdale facies; and (3) evidence for established subaerial animal communities elsewhere in the world is lacking before the Silurian (Minter et al, 2016).…”

Section: Environmental Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ichnological evidence for established non-marine arthropod communities (e.g., Davies et al, 2010;Minter et al, 2016) and indirect evidence for the oldest terrestrial myriapods (e.g., Wilson, 2006).…”

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confidence: 99%

Death near the shoreline, not life on land: Ordovician arthropod trackways in the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, UK

Shillito

Davies

2018

Geology

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The Borrowdale Volcanic Group of northern England hosts Late Ordovician arthropod trackways that are frequently cited as the earliest unequivocal evidence for animal life on land, and provides a key geological locality for our understanding of global myriapod evolution and terrestrialization. Original fieldwork at the trace fossil site has identified four additional bedding surfaces that yield 121 new trackways at the site (of a total 158 known individuals), and permit better sedimentological and paleoecological contextualization of the trackways. Contrary to published claims, none of the trackways occur in sandstones but are invariably preserved on bedding planes of dacitic tuffs. Trackway morphology comprises either short straight track segments with discernable footprint impressions (Diplichnites), long looping traces suggesting dragging and footprint amalgamation (Diplopodichnus), or transitional forms. Morphometric comparison of the Diplopodichnus with fossil and recent mortichnia (death traces) suggests they record immediate pre-mortem locomotion of dying myriapods, and modern analogue reveals mechanisms by which abundant volcanic ash within the environment would have elevated arthropod mortality rates. Sedimentary structures including wave ripples, bedding sags and detached large-scale ball-and-pillow structures, show that the tuffs were deposited subaqueously. One newly-discovered instance where trackways intermittently traverse 3-5 cm tracts of subaerially-exposed wave-ripple crestlines attests that the tracemakers were capable of surviving out of water over very short distances. However, the low diversity, semi-subaqueous ichnofauna has greater similarity with other Cambrian and Ordovician sites, recording pioneer tracemakers with limited tolerance of subaerial environments, than it does with the oldest preserved fully-terrestrial trace fossil communities from the Silurian and Devonian. TRACKWAYS OF THE BORROWDALE VOLCANIC GROUP The Borrowdale Volcanic Group (BVG) is a 6 km-thick Upper Ordovician (Sandbian-Katian) succession of volcanic and related rocks that crops out in Cumbria, NW England, and which accumulated in an arc setting associated with subduction of the Iapetus Ocean (Barnes et al., 2006). Trace fossils were first discovered within the group by Mitchell (1956, p. 434), who reported "animal-tracks" on bedding planes at Lum Pot; a 150 m-long outcrop along the River Lickle, which exposes a near-continuous 25 m-thick stratigraphic section from the upper BVG (likely within its constituent Wallowbarrow Tuff Formation (Fig. 1; see Appendix)). The trace fossils were later identified as Diplichnites and Diplopodichnus by Johnson et al. (1994), who described them on the basis of 34 trackways on a 1.9 m2 bedding plane at Lum Pot and 3 trackways on the 0.1 m2 surface of a loose clast from Sour Milk Gill, 19 km north of the original locality. Johnson et al. (1994) documented that the trackways occurred in sandstone, which they interpreted as having been deposited in a freshwater lacustrine environment. S...

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“…Arthropod (including trilobites)-produced structures are particularly common in outer-estuarine deposits and the distal reaches of deltaic systems (e.g., Mángano and Buatois, 2003;Mángano et al, 2013). During the Silurian-Devonian, there was extensive colonization of marginal-marine environments (Minter et al, 2016b), but there is still a paucity of ichnologic studies dealing with the fluvial-tidal transition itself. During the Silurian-Devonian, there was extensive colonization of marginal-marine environments (Minter et al, 2016b), but there is still a paucity of ichnologic studies dealing with the fluvial-tidal transition itself.…”

Section: Figure 810mentioning

confidence: 99%