Trace fossil ID

[carolinej]

Hi all,

I am hoping to identify a trace fossil found in the NW of Ireland, Lower Carboniferous limestone.

The trace is 24cm in length in view, 2cm in width, and on across bedding plane surface. Any information would be great thanks.

 

 

 

 

[Max-fossils]

Hello!

 

Ichnofossils (fancy for trace fossils) are really not my field, but I would suggest that this is a worm burrow of some kind...

Wait till someone with more knowledge chimes in.

 

Best regards,

 

Max

[carolinej]

Ok great, thanks Max

[Arizona Chris]

This is an invertebrate burrow, a surface bulldozer with nice meniscate back fill structures on the right.  

[piranha]

Taenidium (=Beaconites) barretti  looks like a good match.  This ichnospecies is prolific in the Carboniferous of Ireland.

 

 

Brück, P.M. (1987)

A note on the trace fossil Beaconites barretti in the Old Red Sandstone of County Dublin, Ireland.

Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 98(3):259-263

 

Keighley, D.G., & Pickerill, R.K. (1994)

The ichnogenus Beaconites and its distinction from Ancorichnus and Taenidium.

Palaeontology, 37(2):305-338   PDF LINK

[abyssunder]

Also, there is for example  Parataenidium, which can be close to this.

 

DESCRIPTION: Bedding-parallel burrow that may be straight to curved or gently meandering. Parataenidium are meniscate backfilled, tubular burrows similar to Taenidium, except backfill is separated at two distinct horizontal levels. The backfill levels are separated by a discontinuity and differentiated by composition and/or fabrication; the upper level is composed of globular or barrel-shaped sediment beads while the lower level is structureless. Burrows are oblate in cross section.

BEHAVIOR(S): Repichnia and fodinichnia; the two levels are interpreted to represent distinct behaviors, with the feeding burrow located above the locomotion burrow. The upper feeding burrow is interpreted to represent sediment of fecal origin, while the lower burrow is of locomotory origin.

ENVIRONMENTAL SETTINGS: Shallow marine

POSSIBLE TRACEMAKERS: N/A

GEOLOGIC RANGE: Carboniferous

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES: Uchman, 2006

REMARKS: Parataenidium ichnogenus can be used as a “guide” to the Carboniferous "  -as it is stated here

 

excerpt for here

 

" Parataenidium was produced by an unknown organism, which processed sediment and produced the structure mainly by backfill action (Seilacher 1990). The
lower part is attributed mostly to locomotion and the upper part to feeding (Buckman 2001). This trace fossil was known hitherto only from Paleozoic shallow−marine sediments (e.g. Marintsch and Finks 1982; Lockley et al. 1987; Maples and Suttner 1990; Głuszek 1998; Buckman 2001), except for the problematic Petromonile from the Lower Cretaceous of England (Casey 1961). Thus, the specimen from the Seymour Island shifts its upper stratigraphic range up to the Eocene. " -  Uchman - Gaździcki, 2006

 

 

[carolinej]

Thanks for the all the input. I am not very familiar with trace fossils, but it does look like both suggested, Taenidium and Parataenidium. 

 

So, is it suggested that this is a locomotive burrow, with the organism moving from right to left in photo?