Possible trackway?

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

Formation: Thaynes Fm. NOT Nugget Sandstone.

Age: Early to Middle Triassic 

I’ve got a real brain puzzler here. I believe it is a trackway given the regular spacing and exact same prints but I don’t know what would have made it. I’ve put the north arrow to point out a third partial track. What do you think?

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

[westcoast]

Certainly looks like a partial trackway.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

8 minutes ago, westcoast said:

Certainly looks like a partial trackway.

It looks too regular to be a coincidence of water or wind movement...

[Rockwood]

49 minutes ago, DeepTimeIsotopes said:

It looks too regular to be a coincidence of water or wind movement...

Tool (object in current) marks ? 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

Just now, Rockwood said:

Tool (object in current) marks ? 

Maybe... but there isn’t many tools in this environment TO make marks.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

1 hour ago, DeepTimeIsotopes said:

Formation: Nugget Sandstone

Slightly off-topic but that's an amazing formation name

[Rockwood]

16 minutes ago, DeepTimeIsotopes said:

Maybe... but there isn’t many tools in this environment TO make marks.

Over a thousand feet of sand and no tools got in the way ?

[Pemphix]

Might be tracks, but maybe just something geologic - i'm not sure here.

Not obvious from just the photos...

 

See here:

https://books.google.de/books?id=qeRM16ndBx4C&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=nugget+sandstone+fährten&source=bl&ots=W5Kn-5vd-A&sig=ACfU3U2Y4S9ysOmwi99a4kgqqC4uGdFF1w&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXnqKugqfpAhWOy6QKHbhUC0oQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=nugget sandstone fährten&f=false

 

https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/component/content/category/410-617

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289489694_The_alluvial_to_eolian_transition_of_the_Chinle_and_Nugget_Formations_in_the_Southern_Uinta_Mountains_Northeastern_Utah

[Mark Kmiecik]

6 hours ago, DeepTimeIsotopes said:

Maybe... but there isn’t many tools in this environment TO make marks.

It only takes one.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

It appears my stratigraphy is mistaken, it is actually from the Thaynes Fm. Which is Early Triassic and it’s from East of Heber City, Utah

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

7 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Over a thousand feet of sand and no tools got in the way ?

I mean I’ve got my hammer and that certainly got in the way 

 

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

It only takes one.

and I’m the lucky person that found it!

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

My stratigraphy was correct and this is the Nugget Sandstone mined from the American Stone Quarry in Heber City, Utah.

For future posterity, this "trackway" is indeed a trackway NOT tool marks. The ichnogenus is either Paleohelcura or Octopodichnus and is made by arachnids walking on dry to mildly damp sand dunes. Whether this is a scorpion or spider, it is not clear as they can make similar enough tracks to be indistinguishable.

From Sadler, (1993), my track appears to be Octopodichnus but the lack of a tail drag or evidence of a bifurcated foot makes it hard to pin a specific ichnogenus (Paleohelcura being the scorpionid track and Octopodichnus as the more general spider/scorpion trace). The number of legs varies per trace depending on how many legs the little critter had at the time of trace-making. Paleohelcura and Octopodichnus have been documented in the Nugget Sandstone from the American Stone Quarry (where this rock was collected from) as shown by Chure et al. (2014). and Good and Ekdale (2014).

A FORGOTTEN COLLECTION OF VERTEBRATE AND INVERTEBRATE ICHNOFOSSILS FROM THE NUGGET SANDSTONE (?LATE TRIASSIC-?EARLY JURASSIC), NEAR HEBER, WASATCH COUNTY, UTAH.pdf

Arthropod Trace Fossils from the Permian De Chelly Sandstone, Northeastern Arizona.pdf

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

I cannot get the Sadler paper uploaded so here is the link.

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1305992

 

PM me for the full pdf.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

Here is the Good and Ekdale (2014) link

https://www.academia.edu/10929271/PALEOECOLOGY_AND_TAPHONOMY_OF_TRACE_FOSSILS_IN_THE_EOLIAN_UPPER_TRIASSIC_LOWER_JURASSIC_NUGGET_SANDSTONE_NORTHEASTERN_UTAH

 

or the DOI here

https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2014.013

 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

And here is the Chure et al (2014) link

https://www.academia.edu/6348664/A_FORGOTTEN_COLLECTION_OF_VERTEBRATE_AND_INVERTEBRATE_ICHNOFOSSILS_FROM_THE_NUGGET_SANDSTONE_LATE_TRIASSIC-_EARLY_JURASSIC_NEAR_HEBER_WASATCH_COUNTY_UTAH

and the source for it

https://nmdigital.unm.edu/digital/collection/bulletins/id/7282/

[GeschWhat]

Octopodichnus raymondi looks spot on IMHO. Very cool! 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

11 hours ago, GeschWhat said:

Octopodichnus raymondi looks spot on IMHO. Very cool! 

That’s what I thought. I didn’t want to pin mine to a specific species as I am not a arachnid trace fossil expert but it’s incredibly similar. 

[GeschWhat]

If you want to pin things down more, and are interested in ichnology, I recommend joining the Ichnology Facebook Group. It is made up of ichnologists and paleontologists from around the world. I have found them to be extremely knowledgeable and helpful.

[Rockwood]

On 5/12/2020 at 6:55 PM, DeepTimeIsotopes said:

For future posterity, this "trackway" is indeed a trackway NOT tool marks.

Who shall we say is qualified to inform posterity ?

[Rockwood]

37 minutes ago, Rockwood said:

Who shall we say is qualified to inform posterity ?

Not that I disagree with the ID. I just prefer that posterity speak for itself.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

Not that I disagree with the ID. I just prefer that posterity speak for itself.

Sorry my wording is a little weird. I was trying to find a precise but concise way to say ‘readers of this post who find markings that appear to be identical to the ones I found, it is currently understood that these structures are the tracks of arachnids rather than tool marks which they can be easily confused with.’ Is that better?