Monday 7 December 2020

Othenio Abel (1875- 1946), First References to the term Lebenspurren and Palaeobiologie, and a Translation into English of Othenio Abel’s 1926 and 1935 Comments on the Trace Fossil Climactichnites

 I have briefly mentioned Othenio Abel (1875- 1946), an Austrian paleontologist, in a few of my earlier blog postings.   While Othenio Abel’s name is seldom mentioned these days he is credited with being one of the founding fathers of paleobiology, and  his 1935  text ‘Vorzeitliche Lebenspuren’  is credited in both Frey (1975) and Knaust and Bromley (2012)  with being the standard text on trace fossils for twenty years.  Richard G. Osgood, Jr., (1975, page 8) mentions that “ The progress in ichnology at that time was synthesized in 1935 by Othenio Abel. His remarkable book, Vorzeitliche Lebenspuren, more than 600 pages long, covers both vertebrate and invertebrate traces as well as coprolites and example of osteological pathology in the fossil record.  It was the standard reference work for more than 20 years.”   Osgood also notes (1975, page 18) that “By the early 1900's, the fucoid debate resolved in favor of Nathorst’s ideas [that not all fucoids were plant or algae fossils but were traces of invertebrate organisms]  as emphatically shown by Othenio Abel, the founding father of paleobiology .”  

Over 260 Papers and Twenty Books


Othenio Abel was a prolific writer, authoring over 260 papers and twenty books.   Many of Othenio Abel’s books– with the notable exception of ‘Vorzeitliche Lebenspuren’ – are available on the web from archive.org.  The links are provided in the references below.  

In the references I have included Ehrenberg’s (1978) article which traces Othenio Abel’s career and lists all of his works.   I have also included Matthias’ (2011) paper which highlights Othenio Abel’s early papers on orchids and Abel’s transition from a biologist into paleobiology.  If the reader looks at the titles of Othenio Abel’s papers in the list of references to this blog posting then one will find  the early papers  on orchids.  Abel then transitioned to paleontology, with early papers on fossil dolphins, toothed whales and flying fish, before switching to fossil vertebrates.    Matthias’ (2011) paper contains two points that one would not expect to see in a biography of a paleontologist: first, a failed assassination attempt on Abel’s life in 1932; second, the suggestion that if Abel had married the head of the Biology department’s daughter, then Abel would have been awarded a Professorship in the Biology department.  Another point worth noting is that Abel published a number of works on ancient animals  myths, customs and popular beliefs.

Summaries of Othenio Abel’s carreer can be found at Https://www.encyclopedia.com
and at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othenio_Abel    Worth noting is that  the oldest university institute for paleobiology was established in Vienna in 1924 on the initiative of O. Abel.   In addition, O. Abel founded the journal "Palaeobiologica" in 1927, which was published from 1928 to 1948.

Othenio Abel Coined the terms  Lebensspurren  and Paleobiology


Häntzschel (1962, page W178) credits Abel (1912) as the first to use ‘Lebensspur’ for trace fossils.   The 1912 reference is to Abel’s textbook entitled ‘ Grundzüge der Palaeobiologie der Wirbeltiere’  [Basic features of the paleobiology of vertebrates] .  Interestingly, this book is also credited as being the first reference to the term ‘Paleobiology’ (see Thenius, 2013) .  

Here are the first references to the terms  Lebensspur and Lebensspuren for trace fossils  (1912, page 65):

“Lebensspuren fossiler Organismen.

     Die Hauptquelle für unsere Kenntnis von der Lebensweise und den Lebensgewohnheiten der fossilen Wirbeltiere ist ihr Skelett, aus dessen Anpassungen wir durch Analogieschlüsse ihre Lebensweise und ihren Aufenthaltsort ermitteln können.
     Immer muß die morphologische Methode in enger Verbindung mit  der ethologischen Analyse die Grundlage derartiger Untersuchungen bilden. In einigen Fällen wird aber unsere Kenntnis von dem Leben der fossilen Wirbeltiere durch verschiedene Lebensspuren vermehrt, die sich in Form von Fährten, Wohnstätten, Fraßspuren, Nahrungsresten in der Leibeshöhle, Koprolithen, Embryonen, Eiern, krankhaften Veränderungen der Knochen, Anzeichen stattgefundener Kämpfe, Spuren  des Todeskampfes usw. entweder an den Kadavern selbst oder in den sie
bergenden Gesteinen finden.  Derartige Lebensspuren sind entweder eine wertvolle Bestätigung der auf morphologisch-ethologischem Wege erzielten Ergebnisse oder sie geben uns Aufschlüsse über Fragen, die mit Hilfe dieser Methode nicht gelöst werden können.”
https://archive.org/details/grundzgederpalae00abel/page/65/mode/1up

And here is Google’s translation (with a few changes) into English:

Traces of Life from Fossil Organisms.
     The main source for our knowledge of the way of life and habits of the fossilized vertebrates is their skeleton, from the adaptations of which we can determine their way of life and their whereabouts by analogy.
      The morphological method in close connection with the ethological analysis must always form the basis of such investigations.  In some cases, however, our knowledge of life of fossil vertebrates is increased by different traces of life,  which can be found in the form of tracks, dwellings, traces of food, food remains in the body cavity, coprolites, embryos, eggs, pathological changes in bones, signs of fights that have taken place, traces agony, etc. either on the cadavers themselves or in the rocks in which they are found.  Such traces of life are either a valuable confirmation of the morphological-ethological results or they give us information about questions that cannot be solved with the help of this method.

Note that ‘Lebensspur’ is a German word that had been used as early as 1842 in a fossil context to mean traces of life (see Anonymous, 1842).   Othenio Abel was the first to use it for trace fossils.

Lebensspuren References in Abel’s (1920) book entitled ‘Lehrbuch der Paläozoologie’


Also worth noting areAbel’s references to Lebensspurren in his (1920) book entitled ‘Lehrbuch der Paläozoologie’ [Textbook of paleozoology] which contains comments such as:

[page 6:] “Wurde die schützende Gesteinsschicht nicht durch eine starke Welle, sondern durch eine sanft verlaufende Woge über die Unterlage gebreitet, auf der die Tierreste oder Lebensspuren derselben, wie Fährten, Bohrgänge usw., lagen, so konnten unter diesen Bedingungen selbst solche Reste oder Lebensspuren fossiler Tiere fossil werden, die an anderen Stellen zerstört zu werden pflegen.”   which translates as: “If the protective rock layer was not spread over the surface by a strong wave, but by a gently moving wave, on which the animal remains or traces of life lay, such as tracks, drill holes, etc., even such remains or traces of life of fossil animals could be found under these conditions become fossil, which are usually destroyed in other places”

 [page 13:]Lebensspuren vorzeitlicher Tiere.
Stellen uns auch die körperlichen Reste der vorzeitlichen Tiere die Hauplquelle zur Erforschung der vorzeitlichen Tierwelt dar, so sind uns doch verschiedene Spuren ihrer Lebenstätigkeit und ihrer Lebensäußerungen erhalten geblieben, die uns in mancher Hinsicht sehr wertvolle Aufschlüsse vermitteln.
Zu solchen Lebensspuren gehören vor allem Fährten, Bohrgänge, Wohnstätten, Fraßspuren, Nahrungsresle in der Leibeshöhle fossiler Tiere, Freßplätze und Sterbeplätze, Koprolithen, Embryonen, Eier, krankhafte Veränderungen und Verletzungen, Spuren stattgefundener
Kämpfe, Anzeichen des Todeskampfes, Reste von Parasiten und Ansiedlern auf fremden Gehäusen, Fälle von Symbiose, kurz, eine große Zahl von Erscheinungen, die erst zum Teil ihre richtige Deu tung gefunden haben.  Die Ermittlung dieser Erscheinungen in Verbindung mit der Erforschung der Lebensweise der vorzeitlichen Tiere und ihrer Anpassungen an die Umwelt bildet eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben der Paläobiologie

Google Translates this as:

Traces of life from ancient animals
     While the physical remains of the prehistoric animals are the main source of research into the prehistoric animal world, we have preserved various traces of their life activity and their expressions of life, which in some respects give us very valuable information.
    Such traces of life include, above all, tracks, bores, dwellings, eating traces, food rests in the body cavity of fossil animals, eating and dying places, coprolites, embryos, eggs, pathological changes and injuries, traces of what might have been struggles, signs of agony, remains of parasites and colonists on foreign housings, cases of symbiosis, in short, a large number of phenomena, only some of which have found their correct meaning. The determination of these phenomena in connection with the study of the way of life of the prehistoric animals and their adaptations to the environment is one of the most important tasks of paleobiology

Awards


In his lifetime Othenio Abel received a number of awards including the Bigsby Gold Medal from the  Geological  Society of  London ( 1911), the Rainer-Medaille of the  Kaiserlich-königlichen zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Vienna  (1921) and the  Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1920), which is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period" (1922).

The Bigsby Medal was awarded to Othenio Abel by the Geological Society of London  in recognition of his contributions to the  knowledge of the Palaeontology of the Vertebrata, more especially of the Cetacea (marine mammals that comprises the whales, dolphins, and porpoises) and Sirenia (sea-cows).

Yochelson and Fedonkin’s (1993) References to Abel


Othenio Abel first came to my attention when I was reading Yochelson and Fedonkin ‘s ( 1993) treatise entitled ‘Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil’.   Y& F noted that “Abel (1935) provided the only photograph heretofore of an actual specimen of the oval impressions from Mooers;”, that “In 1925, Abel (1935:242) visited Albany, New York, and
examined the trails collected from Mooers, New York; he was the first to publish a photograph of one of those oval markings. ...  He then considered in some detail the various notions which had been put forth as to the animal which may have formed the Climactichnites trails. Not only did he then decide that Climactichnites was of molluscan origin, like Raymond (1922), he was firm in his opinion that the trail formed by movement of a gastropod. Indeed, he suggested a shell-less opisthobranch, though he was aware of some of the problems in this interpretation.  ... Abel (1935:247-248) emphasized Bulla-like gastropods forming a ridge on either side of the shell as they crawl forward.”    

Otheno Abel’s Two Publications Mentioning Climactichnites


Otheno Abel mentions Climactichnites in two publications:

Abel, Othenio, 1926
Amerikafahrt : Eindrücke, Beobachtungen und Studien eines Naturforschers auf einer Reise nach Nordamerika und Westindien. [America trip: impressions, observations and studies of a naturalist on a trip to North America and the West Indies.] Jena: Gustav Fischer Verlag,  462 p., with  273 photos
 
Abel, Othenio, 1935
Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren. [Ancient traces of life.] Jena:  Verlag von Gustav Fischer. 644 pages. With  530 figures .

Abel's Comments on Climactichnites in  Amerikafahrt (1926)

 This  is a travel book, recording Abel's visit to America in 1925 to look at body fossils, trace fossils and rock formations.  It contains spectacular black and white photographs of  body fossils and trace fossils (for example, tracks from Connecticut and from the Grand Canyon).

In Amerikafahrt Othenio Abel only briefly mentions Climactichnites, but includes a photograph of the trace fossil  (his figure 244 ) with the caption (my translation): “Fig. 244 Climactichnites wilsoni Logan - Upper Cambrian (Potsdam sandstone), Bidwell's Crossing, Clinton Co., New York.  - Original plate in the New York State Museum in Albany. Photograph after a plaster cast  in the paleobiological institute of the University of Vienna. About 1/9 natural size.”  

 The photograph shows two  resting traces and two trails.  

In Amerikafahrt Othenio Abel’s discussion of Climactichnites is just an aside to his discussion of the Devil’s Corkscrew structures.   These were spiral shaped structures in Miocene age rocks found near  Harrison, Nebraska that were known locally as the as Devil’s Corkscrews and were named Daemonelix by Paleontologists.  They are now considered to be burrows made by the extinct beaver Palaeocaster.  Abel devotes thirteen pages (382-394), seven photographs and one cross-section to the Devil’s Corkscrew structures.  This is how Abel referenced Climactichites [my and Google’s translation]:

“The attempt to relate the stone spirals in the Harrison Beds to the devil is a counterpart to the interpretation of the strange and still not fully clarified Climactichnites (Fig. 244) in the Cambrian Potsdam sandstone from Bidwell's Crossing near Sciota, Clinton County, New York:  On the farm of Mr. B. H. Palmer, a stone slab with these tracks emerged [2], which the owner viewed as Christ's footsteps with which he had trod the heads of giant snakes.  When the paleontologists at the museum in Albany, NY, where the plate is now, tried to give the owner of the property a more natural explanation, the owner saw it as severe blasphemy and it took a long time to convince him that  his Biblical Interpretation would be in serious contradiction with a natural explanation.”   

Abel’s footnote [2] references three well known papers by John M. Clarke, Jay W. Woodworth, and  Lancaster D. Burling on Climactichnites.
 
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Abel's Comments on Climactichnites in 'Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren’

In ‘Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren’ Othenio Abel devotes eight pages (242 - 249) and four  figures (214, 215, 216a, 216b) to Climactichnites.

These are the translations into English of the captions to the three figures.

Fig. 214 Climactichnites wilsoni Logan - section of a large sandstone slab kept in the New York State Museum in Albany, which represents the pouring of the actual track layer, which consisted of a layer of clay.   The elevations of this slab therefore correspond in reality to deepening of the track layer.   At the ends of the two tracks are the oval prints of the dead animals that created the tracks.    Potsdam sandstone (Upper Cambrian) from Bidwells Crossing, Clinton Co., New York.
– The photograph was made in Vienna from a plaster cast.  – About  1/9  natural size.

Fig. 215  Much reduced partial view of the track bearing slab from Bidwell's Crossing (Fig. 214), on which lie numerous tracks which run in different directions and which have been described as Climactichnites wilsoni Logan.  The oval formations represent the footprint of the animal that left the tracks, two of which are shown in Fig. 214.    Four such prints are not related to tracks; I regard these oval prints as the foot-disc prints of those individuals who were thrown on the beach together with the others, but died immediately, while the other conspecifics continued to crawl further  a shorter or longer distance, but then also died.  The strongly pronounced cross beads (see also Fig. 214) stand in the tracks in such a way that the apex of the V-shaped figures formed by the cross beads looks in the direction of movement (in contrast to the arrangement of the ridges in Climactichnites youngi, Fig. 216). (after J.M. Clarke, 1905.)

Fig. 216 Track and imprint of the whole animal of Climactichnites youngi (Chamberlin) from the Upper Cambrian of New Lisbon, Wisconsin, North America.
A. Section of the track to show the peculiar sculpture of the crawl track, which consists of strong, only slightly curved cross beads and very fine, close-standing, more curved grooves.
B. The beginning of the track, which ends at its end (in the illustration above) in an arc shape, was such that the fine, tightly curved lines visible in Fig. A run concentrically to the arcuate end of the track;  in the area of  the upper part of this track there are no transverse beads as they appear in the lower part of the picture and in Fig. A.  Figure  B shows the imprint of the oval base plate of the animal, which moved on (downwards in the figure) from this point.  The animal was probably put on the beach at low tide and crawled on from here; in Fig. 215, on the other hand, the oval ends of the tracks of Climactichnites wilsoni represent the respective ends of the different tracks, not, as in Fig. 216B, the beginning of the same (after L.D. Burling)

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Below is a translation into English of Othenio Abel’s comments on Climactichnites.  Footnotes are indicated by  square brackets surrounding the footnote number and the page number (e.g., [2-243].  I have also included comment in square brackets correcting the location of the first Climactichnites trail to Perth, Ontario from Beauharnois, Quebec.   Abel’s is a different interpretation than that advanced by Getty and Hagadorn (2008, 2009).
 
Climactichnites – Very large, strangely broken tracks have been repeatedly observed in Upper Cambrian sandstones of North America, to which Sir William Logan (1860) drew attention and which he described under the name Climactichnites.  The location of these tracks is at Beauharnais in Canada. [CPB: Should be Perth, Ontario, Canada.]   Later James Hall (1889) reported the discovery of similarly designed tracks in the Upper Cambrian Potsdam sandstone near Porth Henry, Essex Co., New York.   However, greater attention was first aroused by the discovery of a large slab with tracks  in Bidwell's  Crossing near Sciata, Clinton Co., New York, which was laboriously excavated and brought to the State Museum of New York in Albany, where I (1925), with the kind permission of the Director John M. Clarke and the kind support of my dear friend Rudolf Ruedemann was able to investigate this find in depth. [1-242] (Fig. 214.)

 The sandstone slab exposed at Bidwell’s Crossing was 30 feet long by 10 feet wide.   There were 25 tracks on it, the average width of which was 5 inches, and some of which could be followed for 10-15 feet in length until they ended in an oval, bowl-shaped recess (Fig. 215).

Sir William Logan [1- 243] had already tried to unravel the nature of these traces of life, and since then attempts have been made again and again to explain the origin of the climactichnites.   Logan first suspected that these were creep marks from mollusks, and this conjecture, which was recently substantiated by Woodworth [2-243], is, as will be explained below, in fact to be regarded as the only possible explanation.   Sir William Dawson (1862) had thought that it was a special form of trail for the Limulus type of track.  In the same year, Jones expressed the view that Climactichnites should be seen as a flattened walkway of Crustaceans digging in the sand, while Grabau suspected in 1913 that the oval structures at the end of the tracks were collapsed living pits.

Still other researchers, such as Dana (1863), Billings (1870) and Packard (1900), advocated that Climactichnites should be seen as the trail of a large trilobite.

Gratacap had viewed Climactichnites as the trail of a great annelid in 1901 and this opinion was also taken up again by Walcott (1912) when describing a trail from the Upper Cambrian of New Lisbon, Wisconsin, which in its basic features, if not in every detail , matches the type of track from the Potsdam sandstone.   This type of track described by Walcott also ended in an oval, sharply delimited figure.

Todd even drafted a description of the creator of this track and came to the conclusion that the animal must have had a rigid tail shield with bristles or fine spines and that the locomotives that produced the last impressions must be highly flexible and arranged in pairs so that each of the two feet must have been independent of the movements of his companion ...

If we now mention that several authors have assumed that these are traces of Eurypterids, a view that was discussed in 1912 by JM Clarke and R. Ruedemann [1-245], we have pretty much a collection  of all imaginable attempts at explaination.

The first careful analysis of the trail was done by J. B. Woodsworth (1903). He was the first to attempt, based on a suggestion by Professor Walter Faxon,  to establish the theory of the gastropod nature of the Climactichnites track.  However, Faxon had thought that chitonids should be considered as the producers of these tracks.   However, there can hardly be any serious doubt that the oval impressions, which can be observed either alone or at one end of a track on the large plate of Bidwell’s Crossing, must be regarded as the footprints of large gastropods.   It seems incomprehensible that all conceivable attempts have been made to solve the climactichnites mystery, and it is probably only  explainable and understandable   because the tracks that can be seen on the sandy beaches of our flat coasts have not been examined and described with the desired thoroughness.   Above all, the different tracks of the tropical flat coasts have to be described and carefully analyzed in order to create a better basis for comparisons with the many fossil types of tracks than can be the case with the limitation to life trace studies on the European coasts.

Since the discovery, recovery and description of the large track slab with 25 climactichnites in the State of New York in 1902-1903, only the find of Climactichnites youngi Chamb. (1912) described by Walcott and thoroughly discussed by L. D. Burling (l.c. 1917) , in the upper Cambrian of Wisconsin (Fig. 216) , suitable to arouse a special interest, since in this the parallel edge impressions of the footplate of the producer of this track have been preserved particularly clearly and sharply.  It is particularly noteworthy that in this case the oval footplate impression, which L.D. Burling emphatically emphasizes, is not at the end, but at the beginning of the trail. Since Burling had dealt in detail with the question of the direction in which the apex of the V-shaped figure, which is formed by two corresponding transverse strips of the track, and since he had come to the conclusion that Climactichnites wilsoni Logan  from the Potsdam sandstone of Bidwell's Crossing sees the apex of the V in the direction of movement; with Climactichnites youngi Chamberlain, however, the V-shaped transverse strips diverge in the direction of movement, so he saw in this a difficulty of analysis for which he could not find an explanation.

 However, this difficulty does not seem to be unsolvable. Above all, we have to ask ourselves whether we can see a gastropod in the Climactichnites tracker who has a way of life such as B. Bullia, Nassa, Olivia, etc.,  i.e.  whether it was a gastropod that not only used to crawl on the surface of the sandy beach, but also in the sand itself.   Or whether it was a gastropod who led a nectonic way of life and only forced to crawl a distance on the beach, but then, perhaps with a renewed flooding of the beach, continued to swim with the flood again.

First of all, it must be remembered that, according to my observations on the sandy beach on the South African coast, the tracks that have been indented by sea snails are immediately completely blurred and destroyed, if the sandy beach covered by tracks is flooded again.   Such tracks can only survive if they dry and harden with the entire layer of sand on which they were pressed when it was still damp, and if they are later covered by a protective layer of fine dust, blown across the beach by country winds  [1-247]. Therefore, the end of a climactichnites, which is characterized by the oval foot disc impression, cannot be explained by the fact that the animal concerned swam away at the end of a track.

If, however, the animal cannot swim away, it must either have buried itself in the sand, or it has been removed from the surface of the beach by a predator or scavenger, or it has died on the surface of the sandy beach.

Since we now have sufficient knowledge of what places look like where snails have buried themselves in the sand, we can certainly include such a possibility for the end of the Climactichnites trail.     The oval footplate impression, which represents the respective end of the tracks, as can be seen on the large sandstone slab of Bidwells Crossing, corresponds exactly to the extent of the footplate; if the animal had crawled into the sand at the places where the tracks end with the oval figure, a funnel with raised edges would have formed in these places,
but you might not see a recess that was just pushed in flat.   The explanation of the conclusion of a climactichnites by digging in the producer of the track in the beach sand can therefore be out of the question.

However, if the Climactichnites trail had ended by the animals being taken away by predators or scavengers, any traces of these predators should have been visible on the surface of the sandstone slabs.      That is not the case and so this explanation cannot be considered.

On the other hand, solving the whole problem does not seem so difficult when we consider the following.   Let us imagine that at low tide a large number of gastropods were thrown from the waves onto the beach and remained there.   We do not need to assume that they must have been  gastropods with shells.    The shell-less opisthobranchier group is probably very old and we have no compelling reason to believe that their presence in the upper Cambrian is considered impossible or unlikely for phylogenetic reasons.    It is easy to imagine that the Climactichnites trail originates from a shell-less gastropod, which is similar to, for example,  a Pleurobranchus [sea slug] or an Aplysia [sea slug], but without a shell, such as the recent Doridier from the group of Nudiabranchier.  The Doridians are benthonic forms that can swim, but mainly move crawling on the seabed.   Some nudibranchers are known to be able to move very quickly on the floor, e.g. B. Tehys.

If we keep in mind that the crawl trace of such a snail, which has been pulled on the still wet sand at low tide, could only be preserved if the surface of the sand quickly dried out and hardened in the sun's heat when the tide fell rapidly, so this consideration, it seems to me, also provides the answer to the whole Climactichnites question.   If the snails crawled on the ground for a while after stranding, they could not do so when the sand started to dry.

We know that jellyfish that are thrown onto the beach on tropical flat coasts dry up to a thin, gelatinous mass and later dry out even more to a hardened mass after a very short time.  An anologous  process must also have occurred with the jellyfish that ran aground in the area of  the lagoon beaches of the Upper Jurassic  Seas in Bavaria.  These jellyfish themselves have not survived, but the imprints of their bodies, dried on the beach in the heat of the sun, have been preserved in an excellent manner and with many details of the structure.

So it should come as no surprise that the carcasses of such a shell-less Opisthobranchier, which I would like to be the creators of the Climactichnites trail, have not been preserved; but the oval footprints of these animals mark the end of each track on the large sandstone slab from Bidwell’s Crossing.

In contrast, the Climactichnites youngi from the Upper Cambrian of Wisconsin described by Walcott, the beginning of which is indicated by the oval foot disc impression, on Example that a gastropod set on the beach was spreading his foot disk to full size, slowly advancing, whereby the rear edge of the foot disc emerged in concentric, semicircular grooves separated only by very small gaps on the surface of the very fine-grained and homogeneous sand, and when the locomotive continued to move, the foot disc performed contractions that appear on the surface of the sand  through the transverse ridges and are separated by wide transverse channels.  But the fine concentric arch lines remained, caused by the advancement of the rear edge of the oval base plate, preserved alongside the transversal ridges and gutters, so that the peculiar picture emerged that shows us the trail depicted by Walcott.

Climactichnites youngi may have been indented by a different gastropod than Climactichnites wilsoni, since the latter has a median groove in the track; however, we must not forget, that the track forms of the recent Bullia rhodostoma show an extremely large variability, which is due to the different degree of moisture penetration of the sand on which the animals crawl.  It is therefore not absolutely necessary to use the differences mentioned between the two types of tracks  to infer the artificial or generic differences between their producers

Footnotes - Translated

 
[1-242] R. Ruedemann told me the following about finding this tracked slab: When the strange traces on the surface of a sandstone slab appeared in Mr. BH Palmer's farm, the owner thought the large oval traces at the ends of the "ladder-like" tracks were Christ's footsteps with which he had trodden the heads of giant snakes.     When the paleontologists of the museum in Albany, N.Y. tried to give the owner a more natural explanation, the owner saw it as severe blasphemy and it took a long time to convince him that his interpretation of the Bible would be a serious contradiction.  So Jay B. Woodworth finally got permission to lift the slab.  (See also: O. Abel, “Amerikafahrt”.  Jena, G. Fischer, page 382, Fig. 244.)

[1-243]  The literature on Climactichnites has been compiled and published by L.D. Burling in his study ‘Protichites and Climactichnites: A Critical Study of Some Cambrian Trails’ (American Journal of Science (4), Vol. 44 (the whole series 194), New Haven, 1917, page. 396-398).

[2-243] Jay W. Woodworth: On the Sedimentary Impression of the Animal whose Trail is known as Climactichnites.  – New York State Museum, Bull. 63, Paleont. 7, Report for 1902 ( Bull. 314, June 1904, pag. 959-966).  John M. Clarke: Fossil Trails at Bidwell’s Crossing.  – Ibidem, Bull 80, Paleont. 10, Report for 1903, February, 1905 (Bulletin 330), page 18-20, Pt. 2 and 3).

[1-245] John M. Clarke and R. Ruedmann: The Eurypterida of New York. – New York State Museum, Memoir 14, Albany, 1912, Vol. 1, pg. 85, Footnote.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/134207#page/91/mode/1up

[1-247] The fact that the same must also have been the case with the fossil snail tracks in the Greifenstein sandstone is shown not only by the cross-layering clearly perceptible in the transverse fractures of the track plates, but also by the surface of some sandstone plates from the grindstone quarries at Kierling in the Viennese forest (Fig. 208).
 
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I found that the following brief explanations helped my understanding.
 
Bullia rhodostoma  is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk  

Nekton or necton refers to the aggregate of actively swimming aquatic organisms in a body of water. The term was proposed by German biologist Ernst Haeckel to differentiate between the active swimmers in a body of water, and the passive organisms that were carried along by the current, the plankton. (See Wikipedia)

Pleurobranchus is a genus of sea slugs,  marine gastropod molluscs  

Aplysia is a genus of medium-sized to extremely large sea slugs   

Doridoidea -  are a taxonomic superfamily of medium to large, shell-less sea slugs, marine gastropod mollusks

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Christopher Brett
Ottawa, Ontario

References and Selected Reading


[The early references to Othenio Abel’s papers on orchids are from  Matthias, 2011.   For a complete list of Othenio Abel’s papers see Ehrenberg, 1978 ]  

Abel, O. , 1896
Die Befruchtung der Orchideen durch Insecten. [The fertilization of the orchids by  insects]  Der Stein der Weisen, 8, Heft 5 [in Bd . 15]: 129 134.

Abel, O. , 1897a
Die Orchideen in Sage und Geschic hte. [The orchids in legend and history]  Der Stein der Weisen, 9, Heft 12 [in Bd. 17]: 357 360.

Abel,  O. , 1897b
Einige  neue  Monstrositäten  bei  Orchideenblüthen [Some monstrosities in orchid flowers] (Ophrys aranifera  Huds.  und Orchis coriophora  L.).  Verhandlungen der kaiserlich königlichen zool ogisch botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien,  47: 415 420.

Abel, O. , 1897c
Ein Urwald Mitteleuropas zur Tertiärzeit. [A primeval forest in Central Europe during the tertiary period]  Der Stein der Weisen, 9, Heft 17 [in Bd. 18]:
132 138.

Abel, O. , 1897d
Zwei für Niederösterreich neue hybride Orchideen [Two new hybrid orchids for Lower Austria] (GymnadeniaWettsteiniana  m. und Gymnadenia  Strampfii  Aschers.).   Verhandlungen  der  kaiserlich königlich en  zoologisch botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 47: 609 615.

Abel,  O. , 1898e
  Der  Wasserleitungsstollen  der  Stadt  Eggenburg.  Ein  Beitrag  zur  Kenntniss  der Gauderndorfer Schichten. [The city of Eggenburg's aqueduct. A contribution to the knowledge of the Gauderndorf layers]  Verhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt, 1898 (14): 301 312.  https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/SBAWW_109_0859-0924.pdf

Abel, O., 1898f
 Studien in den Tertiärbildungen von Eggenburg. [Studies in the Tertiary  of Eggenburg.] Beiträge zur Paläontologie und Geologie Österreich Ungarns und des Orients, 11: 211 226.   https://docplayer.org/112865827-Den-tertiaerbildungen-von-eggenburg.html

Abel, Othenio, 1898g
Ueber einige Ophrydeen   [About some ideas]

Abel, O. , 1899a
 Einige Worte über die Entstehung der Hochmure des Ferschbachthales im Ober Pinzgau. [A few words about the origin of the floodplain of the Ferschbach Valley in Ober Pinzgau] Verhandlungen der k. k. geologischen Reichsanstalt,  1899 (11/12): 296 297.
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/VerhGeolBundesanstalt_1899_0296-0297.pdf

Othenio Abel, 1899b
 Studien im Klippengebiete zwischen Donau und Thaya: I. Pollau - Schweinbarth; (Aufnahmsbericht) [Studies in the cliff area between Danube and Thaya: I. Pollau - Schweinbarth; (Recording report)] [cephalopods, ammonites, and other fossils in limestones and dolomite] – Verhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt – 1899: 284 - 287.
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/VerhGeolBundesanstalt_1899_0284-0287.pdf

Othenio Abel,  1899c
 Die Beziehungen des Klippengebietes zwischen Donau und Thaya zum alpin-karpathischen Gebirgssysteme [The relationship of the cliff area between Danube and Thaya to the alpine-Carpathian mountain system]– Verhandlungen der Geologischen Bundesanstalt – 1899: 374 - 381.   https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/VerhGeolBundesanstalt_1899_0374-0381.pdf

Abel, O., 1900
 Mittheilung über Studien an Orchis angustifolia  Rchbch. (O. Traunsteineri Saut.) von Zell am See in Salzburg und über einige andere Orchideen  aus dem Pinzgau. [Communication about studies on Orchis angustifolia Rchbch. (O. Traunsteineri Saut.) From Zell am See in Salzburg and about some other orchids from the Pinzgau] Verhandlungen der kaiserlich königlichen zoologisch botanischen Gesellschaft in  Wien, 50: 57 58.

Abel, Othenio,   1901a
Les dauphins longirostres du boldérien (miocène supérieur) des environs d'Anvers  [Longirostra dolphins from the Bolderian period (upper Miocene) around Antwerp]  Bruxelles: Polleunis & Ceuterick, imprimeurs. 95 pages plus 10 plates.
https://archive.org/details/lesdauphinslongi01abel

Abel, Othenio,   1901b
Zwei  neue Menschenaffen aus den Leitha-kalkbildungen des Wiener Beckens [Two new great apes from the Leitha limestone formations of the Vienna Basin]   1171-1207
https://archive.org/details/biostor-222013

Abel, Othenio,   1901c
Die Ursache der Asymmetrie des Zahnwalschädels   [The cause of the asymmetry of the toothed whale skull] 511-526
https://archive.org/details/biostor-221988

Abel, Othenio, 1904
 Über einen Fund von Sivatherium giganteum bei Adrianopel [About a find of Sivatherium giganteum (an extinct genus of giraffids– mammals that share a common ancestor with cervids and bovids)  near Adrianople] 629-651
   https://archive.org/details/biostor-220765

Abel, Othenio, 1905
Les odontocètes du Boldérien (miocène supérieur) d'Anvers. [The odontocetes (toothed whales)  of the Bolderian (Upper Miocene) of Antwerp.]   Bruxelles: Polleunis & Ceuterick, imprimeurs, 155 pages  https://archive.org/details/lesodontoctesd00abel

Abel, Othenio, 1906
 Fossile Flugfische [Fossil flying fish] .  Vienna: Self-published by the author.  88 pages plus plates https://archive.org/details/FossileFlugfisc00n

Abel, Othenio,   1906
 Die Milchmolaren der Sirenen   [The milk molars of the sirenians (Mammalia; Dugongidae- sea cows)].  Separate imprint from Neuen Jahrbuch Für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie.  Stuttgart:  E. Schweizergart’sche  Verlagshandlung,  pages 50-60   https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SFErAAAAYAAJ

Abel, Othenio, 1907
 Die Morphologie der Hüftbeinrudimente der Cetaceen [The morphology of the femoral rudiments of the cetaceans (aquatic mammals)] . Vienna: K.K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei : In Kommission bei A. Hölder . 57 pages
https://archive.org/details/diemorphologiede00abel/page/52/mode/2up

Abel, Othenio, 1907
 Der Anpassungstypus von Metriorhynchus [The adaptation type of Metriorhynchus (an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform that lived in the oceans during the Late Jurassic)]. Separate imprint from Centralblatt Für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie. Stuttgart:  E. Schweizergart’sche  Verlagshandlung,  pages 225 -235
 https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_QSstAAAAYAAJ

Abel, Othenio, 1908
 Angriffswaffen und verteidigungsmittel fossiler Wirbeltiere [Weapons of attack and defensive means of fossil vertebrates], pages 207- 217
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SVErAAAAYAAJ/page/n5/mode/2up

Abel, Othenio, 1908
Neuere Studien über die Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Halbaffen und über den Fund eines angeblichen Vorfahren des menschen in Südamerika [Recent studies on the systematics and tribal history of the half-apes and on the finding of an alleged ancestor of man in South America]
Separate Imprint , “Verhandlungen" der k. k. zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Vienna (1908) pages 35-38   https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_SlErAAAAYAAJ

Abel, Othenio   1909
 Cetaceenstudien. I. Mitteilung: Das Skelett von Eurhinodelphis Cocheteuxi aus dem Obermiozän von Antwerpen [Cetacean Studies. Part I: The skeleton of Eurhinodelphis Cocheteuxi from the Upper Miocene of Antwerp] 241-253
https://archive.org/details/biostor-220834

Abel, Othenio,   1909
 Cetaceenstudien. II. Mitteilung: Der Schädel von Saurodelphis argentinus aus dem Pliozän Argentiniens [Cetacean Studies. Part II: The skull of Saurodelphis argentinus from the Pliocene of Argentina] 255-272
https://archive.org/details/sbaww_118_0255-0272

Abel, Othenio,   1909
Konvergenz und Deszendenz. -  Verhandlungen der zoologisch-botanische Gesellschaft zu Wien  Wien, 1909, Wien.

Abel, Othenio,   1909
Bau und Geschichte der Erde. [Construction and history of the earth] Vienna: F. Tempsky ; 1909. 220 p.   

Abel,  O. , 1910   
Was  ist  eine  Monstrosität?. [What is a monstrosity?]  Verhandlungen  der  kaiserlich königlichen  zoologisch botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 60: (129) (150).
Reviewed: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23652640

Abel, Othenio,  1910
Über die allgemeinen Prinzipien der paläontologischen Rekonstruktion.[About the general principles of paleontological reconstruction] - Verhandlungen der zoologisch-botanische Gesellschaft zu Wien LX (1910): 141–46

Abel, Othenio,   1910
Kritische Untersuchungen über die paläogenen Rhinocerotiden Europas. [Critical studies on the paleogenic rhinocerotids of Europe.] Abhandlungen der Geologische Reichsanstall . Wien, IX. Bd., 20, H. 3, 1-52, 2 Taf., Wien.
  https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/AbhGeolBA_20_0001-0052.pdf

Abel, Othenio,   1910
Die Rekonstruktion des Diplodocus." Abhandlungen der K.K. Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 5 (1910)  https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/AZBG_5_3_0001-0060.pdf

Abel, Othenio,   1910
Die Vorfahren der Vögel und ihre Lebensweise. [The ancestors of birds and their way of life.]- Verh. k. k. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien, 1910, Wien [both Lebens and Spuren but not together]
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/VZBG_61_0144-0191.pdf

Abel, Othenio,  1912
 Grundzüge der Palaeobiologie der Wirbeltiere [Basic features of the paleobiology of vertebrates]
 Stuttgart, E. Schweizerbart .  708 pages
https://archive.org/details/grundzgederpalae00abel

Abel, Othenio, 1914a
 Die vorzeitlichen säugetiere [The ancient mammals].   Jena:  G. Fischer 309 page

Abel, Othenio, 1914b
 Die Tiere der Vorwelt, [The animals of the past]     Leipzig, Berlin:  B.G. Teubner, 88 pages  https://archive.org/details/dietieredervorw00abelgoog

Abel,   O. , 1914c
  Atavismus.   [Atavism: a tendency to revert to something ancient or ancestral.] Verhandlungen   der   kai serlich königlichen   zoologisch botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien, 64: (31) (50).   

Abel,  O. ,  1914d
  Orimente  und  Rudimente. [Oriments and rudiments; an early work on paleobiology ]  Mitteilungen  des  naturwissenschaftlichen  Vereines  an  der Universität Wien, 12 (4/6): 79 82.   https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/MNVUniWien_12_0079-0082.pdf

Abel, Othenio,    1916
 Paläobiologie der Cephalopoden aus der Gruppe der Dibranchiaten [Paleobiology of the cephalopods from the group of the Dibranchiaten]
 Jena : Gustav  Fischer , 281 pages    https://archive.org/details/palobiologiede00abel

Abel, Othenio,  1919
Die Stämme der Wirbeltiere   [The Vertebrate Classes]
Berlin und Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter & Co. 896 pages
https://archive.org/details/diestmmederwir00abel

 Abel, Othenio,   1920
Lehrbuch der Paläozoologie [Textbook of paleozoology]  Jena:  G. Fischer.   500 pages https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_rCBCAAAAIAAJ

Abel, Othenio, 1921
Allgemeine Paläontologie  [General paleontology] Walter de Gruyter, 1921 -  149 pages

Abel, Othenio, 1921
Lebensbilder aus der Tierwelt der Vorzeit. Jena 1921 doi:10.5962/bhl.title.61701

Abel, Othenio,   1922
 Lebensbilder aus der Tierwelt der Vorzeit [Life pictures from the animal world of the past]
 Jena: Verlag von G. Fischer . 643 pages
https://archive.org/details/lebensbilderausd00abel/page/414/mode/2up

Abel, Othenio,   1923
Die vorweltlichen Tiere in Märchen, Sage und Aberglauben [The pre-world animals in fairy tales, sagas and superstitions]   Baden: G. Braun.  66 pages plus plates
https://archive.org/details/vorweltlichentier00

 Abel, Othenio,   1925
Geschichte und Methode der Rekonstruktion vorzeitlicher Wirbeltiere. [History and method of reconstruction of ancient vertebrates] Jena 1925

Abel, Othenio, 1926
Amerikafahrt : Eindrücke, Beobachtungen und Studien eines Naturforschers auf einer Reise nach Nordamerika und Westindien.
Jena: Gustav Fischer Verlag,   462 p., mit 273 Fotos

Abel, Othenio, 1928
Allognathosuchus, ein an die cheloniphage Nahrungsweise angepaßter Krokodiltypus des nordamerikanischen Eozäns. - Paläont. Z., 9.

Abel, Othenio,   1929
Paläobiologie und Stammesgeschichte. [Paleobiology and Tribal History.] Jena 1929, 423 pages

Abel, Othenio,   1931
Die Stellung des Menschen im Rahmen der Wirbeltiere. [The position of man in the context of vertebrates] 1931

Abel, Othenio, 1935
Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren. [Prehistoric Traces of Life]  Jena:  Verlag von Gustav Fischer. 644 pages.  With 530 illustrations, photographs, figures

Abel, Othenio,   1939
Die Tiere der Vorzeit in ihrem Lebensraum. [The animals of the past in their habitat] Jena 1939 335 pages

Abel, Othenio,   1939
Vorzeitliche Tierreste im Deutschen Mythus, Brauchtum und Volksglauben. [Ancient animal remains in German myths, customs and popular beliefs.]  Jena 1939

Anonymous, 1842
Einleitungsrede des zweiten Geschäftsführers. [Introductory speech by the second managing director]  Amtlicher Bericht über die Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte. [Official report on the gathering of German natural scientists and doctors] Vol 18, 19, 1842     https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/41163#page/310/mode/1up
Page 29  Unzähliges, was man noch vor wenigen Jahrzehn den todt nannte, worin man eine Lebensspur weder vergangen noch gegenwärtig zu entdecken vermochte, was man dem Reiche beizählte, in welchem jedes Leben, jede Organisation vermifst wird, besteht aus Myriaden thierischer Geschöpfe,  deren Entdeckung anderen Untersuchungen, als den bisherigen der Chemiker aufbehalten war. . So hat denn Alles gelebt und lebt theiis noch, was uns als Fels umgiebt, oder als loses Gestein und Erd' und Mergel noch so unscheinbar sich unseren Blicken entzieht; nichts giebt's, was nicht selbstsländig gewirkt, ja es wird  vielleicht nichts mehr die Zukunft für unorganisch erklären, sondern im ganzen Weltall ein Leben, ja ein reges Leben, oder doch ein überstandenes, wahrneh-men und betrachten
[Translation:] Countless things that a few decades ago were called death, in which a trace of life was neither past nor present to be discovered, what was attributed to the realm in which every life, every organization is missing, consists of myriads of animal creatures,  the discovery of which was reserved for other investigations than the chemists' previous ones.  So everything has lived and still lives, what surrounds us as rock, or as loose rock and earth and marl, however inconspicuously hidden from our view; There is nothing that has not worked independently, yes, perhaps nothing will declare the future to be inorganic anymore, but a life in the whole universe, indeed a lively life, or at least a survived, men and consider

Anonymous, 2020
Abel, Othenio, in encyclopedia.com
Https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/abel-othenio

Brett, Christopher,  2013a
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 1: Specimens Collected from a Quarry near Perth, Ontario.  Blog Posting dated 31 January 2013.
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/01/on-trail-of-climactichnites-wilsoni.html

Brett, Christopher,  2013b
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 2: References to the Quarry Near Perth in the Scientific Literature, and the Geologic Mapping of Lot 6.  Blog posting dated February 11, 2013

Brett, Christopher,  2013c
On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 3: A quarry about a mile from Perth as the town existed in 1859 .  Blog posting dated 6 May 2013
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/05/

Brett, Christopher, 2020
Reports of Trace Fossils from the Potsdam Group Sandstones of Ontario, Quebec and New York State.  Blog posting dated 13 October 2020
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2020/10/

Ehrenberg, Kurt, 1978
Othenio Abels  Werden  und Wirken.   Eine Rückschau zu seinem 100. [Othenio Abel’s development  and works. A look back at his 100th birthday]  Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft der Geologie- und Bergbaustudenten in Österreich , volume  25. s. 271-295 , Vienna
https://opac.geologie.ac.at/ais312/dokumente/Mitteilungen_Band25_271_A.pdf

Frey, R.W., 1975  (Editor)
The Study of Trace Fossils: A Synthesis of Principles, Problems, and Procedures in Ichnology
Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1975, 562 pages

Getty, Patrick R., 2007
 Paleobiology of the Climactichnites Trackmaker: An Enigmatic Late Cambrian Animal Known Only from Trace Fossils . Master's thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst.  https://scholarworks.umass.edu/theses/19/

Getty, Patrick R. and James W. Hagadorn, 2008
Reinterpretation of Climactichnites Logan 1860 to Include Subsurface Burrows, and Erection of Musculopodus for Resting Traces of the Trailmaker.  Journal of Paleontology,  Vol. 82, No. 6 (Nov., 2008), pp. 1161-1172 (12 pages)    https://www.jstor.org/stable/20144280

Getty, Patrick R. and James W. Hagadorn, 2009
Palaeobiology of the Climactichnites Tracemaker. Palaeontology, Volume 52, Issue 4, July 2009, Pages 753-778   https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00875.x

Häntzschel, W., 1962
Trace Fossils and Problematica. 177-245, Part W, Miscellanea, in Moore, Raymond C., editor, Treatise on invertebrate Paleontology. Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press.  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015000388606

Knaust, Dirk and Richard G. Bromley, 2012 (Editors)
Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments . Amsterdam, Oxford, etc.: Elsevier,  960 pages

Osgood, Richard G. ,Jr., 1975,
The History of Invertebrate Ichnology, chapter 1 in The Study of Trace Fossils: A Synthesis of Principles, Problems, and Procedures in Ichnology edited by R.W. Frey 1975.  Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1975, 562 pages

Rieppel, Olivier, 2012
Othenio Abel (1875–1946): the rise and decline of paleobiology in German paleontology
Historical Biology, An International Journal of Paleobiology, Volume 25, 2013 - Issue 3
Pages 313-325 |  https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2012.697899
“Othenio Abel is widely acclaimed as the founder of paleobiology; of the journal Palaeobiologica and of the Paleobiological Society in Vienna.”

Romer, Alfred Sherwood , Nelda E. Wright, Tilly Edinger, and Richard Van Fran, 1962
Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates Exclusive of North America, 1509-1927.  Geological Society of America, Memoir 87, volume 1, A-K, Abel at page 1

Svojtka, Matthias, 2011
Das botanische Frühwerk des Paläobiologen Othenio Abel  (1875 -1946):  Persönliche Netzwerke und fachliche Prädisposition . [ The early botanical work of the paleobiologist Othenio Abel  (1875 -1946): Personal networks and professional predisposition]    Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt, [Includes photo of O. Abel from 1901]
https://www.zobodat.at/biografien/BerichteGeolBundesanstalt_89_0052-0066.pdf

Thenius, Erich, 2013
100 Jahre Paläobiologie an der Universität Wien – die Jahre 1912 bis 1973.  [100 years palaeobiology at the University of Vienna, 1912–1973.]   Schriften Verein zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse 151–152  (2013): 7–37
https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/SVVNWK_151_152_0007-0037.pdf

Watts, W.W., 1911
Report of the Council for 1910. President’s Address .  Award of the Bigsby Medal [to Othenio Abel.]  The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London. Volume 67, 1911, pages x  and xlvii  https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/122849#page/977/mode/1up

Yochelson, Ellis L and Fedonkin, Mikhail A., 1993
Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil.  Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology. 74 (74): 1–74
DOI: https

Friday 13 November 2020

Diplocraterion in Dodds and Erwin’s Glacially Polished Sandstone Parking Lot, Lanark County

 Dodds & Erwin has been serving the agricultural community of Lanark County for over 100 years. Established in 1918 they supply feed and farm supplies to local farms, sell wild life feeds and pet foods, and in the summer operate a landscape supply depot, all from their outlet one kilometer south of Perth at 2870 Rideau Ferry Road/County Road 1.   

What is particularly interesting is that Dodds and Erwin’s parking lot (and the parking lot for adjoining businesses)  is a glacially polished, and highly striated, flat outcrop of Nepean (Keeseville) sandstone that displays thousands of examples of the trace fossil Diplocraterion (U shaped burrows with spreite between the two limbs) .   The parking lot is about the size of four football fields.  

The vast majority (over  98%) of the glacial striae trend roughly perpendicular to Rideau Ferry Road, suggesting the glacier was moving in a southwesterly direction.  Most incise the sandstone to a depth of 2 to 3 mm, but some striae are a centimeter deep.   Below are two photographs of these glacial striae.  The ruler, a meter stick, is oriented parallel to the direction of the glacial striae.



 

 

 In a few places a second direction of glacial striae is visible. Here is photograph of striae at an angle to those trending in the predominant direction.  The ruler in the photograph is oriented parallel to the prominent direction of the glacial striae on the outcrop (namely the striae pictured in the above two photos).

 

Glacial striae are fairly common in eastern Ontario and have been reported from Eastern Ontario since the Geological Survey of Canada was formed.  Johnson (1917) noted that “There  are at least  two distinct sets of glacial striae in the [Vicinity of Ottawa] .  One set, which is  the more pronounced, trends nearly south; the other, which is the later, trends nearly southeast. This shows, at least, a marked change in direction of movement of the ice-sheet during the closing stage of glaciation.”    Hill and Billings (1985) reported glacial striae and crescent marks on Nepean sandstone outcrops along the Queensway in Kanata, Ontario.  They reported and included photographs of two sets  of glacial striae: “The main set, indicating ice flow toward the south-southwest across the Ottawa Valley, is transacted by short, deep, west-east striations indicating a late and final ice flow down valley to the east.”  They also reported and figured crescent marks.  Crescent marks (chatter marks) are also present on the outcrop that is Dodds and Erwin’s parking lot, but I could not find them to photograph when I dropped over this week.

An interesting feature visible in sandstone in the parking lot is a ‘stream’ of angular pieces of rock in the sandstone.   Here are two photographs of this feature.



Here is Dr. Bill Arnott’s comment on this feature: “As the sea encroaches it extensively erodes and reworks (i.e. redistributes) sediment along the surface being flooded.  Particles that are difficult to move (i.e. big ones) typically become stranded on the surface, where they often become segregated into discrete clusters --- which would seem to be similar to the condition in your photos.”

 Here are two photographs of the Diplocraterion burrows visible in the parking lot.


The parking lot exhibits thousands, and perhaps even tens of thousands, of Diplocraterion burrows.   While Skolithos burrows are visible at other locations in the Nepean (Keeseville) sandstone in Lanark County, it is questionable whether they are present at this outcrop.   Further,  Diplocraterion is by far the dominant trace fossil that I have observed in the Nepean sandstones of Lanark County.   This accords with observations made by others.  Bjerstedt  and Erickson (1989) reported that the   intertidal habitats preserved in the upper Potsdam of New York State  and Nepean Formation of Ontario “contain a Skolithos Ichnofacies of low-level suspension feeders dominated by Diplocraterion. ... Skolithos forms only a minor component in the Potsdam Skolithos Ichnofacies.”   Bjerstedt  and Erickson (1989) also commented that “The principle of competitive exclusion  states that single-species dominated trophic groups are more common than not.  The mutual exclusion of Skolithos and  Diplocraterion in Cambrian tidal facies has been noted by the many authors in Cornish (1986, p.484).”

Frank Cornish (1986) makes the following additional points: “Diplocraterion Terrell 1870 is a U-shaped, spreitten-bearing  burrow that is always perpendicular to bedding.  A spreite is a biogenic  sedimentary structure composed of the remains of the tunnel walls of dwelling structure  produced successively as a burrower shifts through the substrate... [T]he spreite represent upward and downward motions of the Diplocraterion-producing organism in response to repeated  episodes of deposition and erosion of sediment.... [as the]  Diplocraterion-producing organism attempted to maintain a constant burrow depth while sand was being dumped and scoured away from the substrate... Diplocraterion [is] found in the high energy intertidal and upper-most tidal zone.   ..  Perhaps the greatest significance of trace fossils..., and of Diplocraterion in particular, is we can use them to identify the marine origin of this sandstone without body fossils.”   

[At the end of the blog posting is a photograph showing the cross-sections of three closely spaced Diplocraterion burrows, all of differing burrowing depth, obtained from an outcrop of Nepean sandstone off Stanley  Road, about eight kilometers southwest of Dodds and Erwin’s  Parking Lot.   The top of the specimen is to the right.]

Trace Fossils in Sandstone Outcrops Along Wildlife Road


Various outcrops of Nepean Sandstone occur along Wildlife Road, approximately one kilometer due south of Dodds and Erwin’s parking lot.  These outcrops display predominantly Skolithos burrows.  Here is a photograph of them.


In addition I noticed some bedding parallel burrows (possibly Treptichnus pedum):


Diplocraterion at the Intersection of Powers Road and Narrows Lock Road, South of Perth


Here are two photos of the trace fossil Diplocraterion in the Nepean sandstone outcrops  at the intersection of Powers Road and Narrows Lock Road, Lanark County,  about ten kilometers due south of Dodds and Erwin’s parking lot.



Christopher Brett
Ottawa

References and Suggested Reading

Bjerstedt, Thomas W.  and  J. Mark Erickson,  1989
 Trace Fossils and Bioturbation in Peritidal  Facies of the Potsdam-Theresa Formations
(Cambrian-Ordovician), Northwest Adirondacks. PALAIOS, 1989, V. 4, p. 203-224

Brett, Christopher P.,  2013
Glacial Erratics and Eskers in the Township of Lanark Highlands, Lanark County, Ontario
Blog Posting dated Thursday, 18 April 2013

Brett, Christopher P.,  2014
Lake Iroquois and the Glaciofluvial Deltaic Deposit at Joes Lake, Lanark Highlands, Ontario.
Blog posting dated Wednesday, 17 September 2014.

Brett, Christopher P., 2015
Hunting for Whales in Eastern Ontario.  Blog posting dated Friday, 24 April 2015

Brett, Christopher P., 2016
Fluvio-glacial Sculpted Forms in Outcrops Near Newboro, Eastern Ontario.  Blog posting dated
Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Brett, Christopher P.,  2018
A Glacial Sand and Clay Deposit in the Basement of St. Paul's United Church on Gore Street in Perth, Ontario.  Blog posting dated Tuesday, 20 March 2018


Cornish, Frank G.,  1986 
The trace-fossil Diplocraterion; evidence of animal sediment interactions in Cambrian tidal  deposits: PALAIOS, v. 1, p. 478-491. 
https://doi.org/10.2307/3514630
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3514630?seq=1

Hill, Patrick Arthur and Dennis Billings, 1985
Glacial Striae and Crescent Marks in Nepean Sandstone near Ottawa.   Geoscience Canada, Volume 12, Number 3, 105-109
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/GC/article/view/3420

Johnson, W. A.  1917
Pleistocene and Recent Deposits in the Vicinity of Ottawa, with a Description of the Soils
Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 101

 Martin, Anthony J.,  M. Blair, B. F. Dattilo, S. Howald & J.  O. Farlow (2016)
The ups and downs of Diplocraterion  in the Glen Rose Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Dinosaur Valley State Park, Texas (USA), Geodinamica Acta, 28:1-2, 101-119,
DOI:  10.1080/09853111.2015.1037151
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09853111.2015.1037151

 



Wednesday 11 November 2020

New Diplichnites Trackway From the Sloan Quarry south of Washburn Road , North of Kingston

 I suspect everyone who is interested in trace fossils from the Potsdam Group sandstones is familiar the specimens of Protichnites and Diplichnites that have been reported from eolian (wind blown) sandstones of the Sloan quarry that is south of Washburn Road, about 20 kilometers northeast of Kingston, Ontario.  The trackways were made famous by the article ‘First steps on land: Arthropod trackways in Cambrian-Ordovician eolian sandstone, southeastern Ontario, Canada’ that was authored by R.  MacNaughton, J. Cole, R.  Dalrymple, S.  Braddy, D.  Briggs and T. Lukie, and published in 2002 in Geology, volume  30, pages  391–394.  In that article Dr. MacNaughton and his co-authors  reported on arthropod tracks found in the eolian (wind blown) sandstones. The tracks are important because they were made on eolian sandstones in an eolian dune field (rather than on tidal flats), possibly in a marginal-marine setting, and record one of the first creatures to walk on land.   They reported three types of tracks: (1) a repeated series of  7 or 8 circular to tapered tracks with a medial impression; (2) trackways with no series structure , with a medial impression; (3) two parallel rows of tracks with  no medial impression.   Types (1) and (2) are  Protichnites while type (3) is Diplichnites.   They commented  that the trackways were made by arthropods with at least eight pairs of walking legs, with at least some of the tracemakers possessing a telson (tail spine).  They suggested euthycarcinoids as the creature that made the Protichnites tracks.

The eolian (wind blown) sandstones at the Sloan quarry where the Protichnites and Diplichnites  tracks were found are now called the Hannawa Falls Formation of the Potsdam Group.   Those rocks are now thought to be middle Cambrian in age (about  510 million years old) - See Lowe (2016) and Lowe et al. (2017).

The trackways found at the Sloan quarry have been featured in other articles.   For example, Sandford and Arnott (2010, Figure 49, page 49) includes  a photograph of a Protichnites trackway from the Hannawa Falls sandstones at the Sloan quarry on Washburn Road.   In addition, Krapovickas,  Mangano, Buatois, and Marsicano, (2016, Figure 2, b,  c and d) include Dr. MacNaughton’s photographs of Protichnites and Diplichnites trackways  from the Sloan quarry.   Hagadorn, Collette,  and Belt (2011) reported similar trackways from the eolian Middle Cambrian Potsdam Group sandstones of Upper New York State.

Yesterday, November 10th, I dropped in at Rideau Contracts’  Lansdowne Quarry  at Ellisville, Ontario.  (The forecast was for a sunny day with an unseasonable high of 23 degrees Celsius.)   There are three operations at the quarry.  First, Tackaberry has sublet part of  the quarry and is busy crushing rock into gravel.  Second, Rideau Contracts quarries  rock at the quarry which it slabs, cuts and tumbles.  Third, Rideau Contracts operates a cutting and trimming facility where it brings in rock (limestone, granite and sandstone) that is quarried elsewhere and cuts and trims it for resale.

When I dropped in at the quarry Wayne Jackson was good enough to tell me that this past winter he had quarried 50 cubic meters of sandstone from the quarry on Washburn Road and that he and his father had noticed tracks on a few of the blocks of sandstone.   Wayne mentioned that his father was in possession of a slab showing the clearest track, but thought there might be tracks on another specimen.  Below are two photographs of a Diplichnites trackway on a block of eolian sandstone from the Sloan quarry, that I took while at the Lansdowne Quarry  at Ellisville, Ontario. 


The trackway is about 4 inches (10 cm) wide.  The ruler in the photographs is a meter stick.

Wayne said that he would try to save the trackway when the block is trimmed.   I suggested donating it to the geological museum at Queen’s University.
 
Christopher Brett
Ottawa

References and Suggested Reading

Hagadorn, James W.,  Joseph H. Collette,  and Edward S. Belt, 2011
Eolian-aquatic deposits and faunas of the Middle Cambrian Potsdam Group
Palaios 26(5):314-334  May 2011 DOI: 10.2307/25835633

Krapovickas, V., Mangano, M.G., Buatois, L. A. And Marsicano, C., 2016.
Integrated Ichnofacies models for deserts: recurrent patterns and megatrends.  Earth-Science Reviews, 157, 61-85

Lowe, David G., 2016 
Sedimentology, Stratigraphic Evolution and Provenance of the Cambrian – Lower Ordovician Potsdam Group in the Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin;
Doctoral Thesis, University of Ottawa,
http://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/35303

Lowe, David G. , R.W.C. Arnott, Godfrey S. Nowlan,  A.D. McCracken, 2017
Lithostratigraphic and allostratigraphic framework of the Cambrian–Ordovician Potsdam Group and correlations across Early Paleozoic southern Laurentia
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 2017, 54(5): 550-585, https://doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2016-0151

MacNaughton, Robert B; Jennifer M. Cole; Robert W. Dalrymple; Simon J. Braddy; Derek E.G. Briggs; Terrence D. Lukie, 2002
First steps on land: Arthropod trackways in Cambrian-Ordovician eolian sandstone, southeastern Ontario, Canada.  Geology, volume  30, Issue 5, pages  391–394.
https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2002)030<0391:FSOLAT>2.0.CO;2

Mcnamara, K. J., 2014
Early Paleozoic colonisation of the land: evidence from the Tumblagooda Sandstone, Southern Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia. In: Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia
Volume 97,  Issue 1, Pages: 111--132 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/58073791#page/119/mode/1up

McNamara, K.J., and Trewin, N.H., 1993,
A euthycarcinoid arthropod from the Silurian of Western Australia: Palaeontology, v. 36, p. 319–335.
https://www.palass.org/sites/default/files/media/publications/palaeontology/volume_36/vol36_part2_pp319-335.pdf

Sanford, B. V. and  Arnott, R. W. C., 2009
Stratigraphic and structural framework of the Potsdam Group in eastern Ontario, western Quebec, and northern New York State; by Sanford, B V; Arnott, R W C; Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin no. 597, 2009, 1 sheet;,
https://doi.org/10.4095/247673

Wolf, R.R., and Dalrymple, R.W., 1985,
Sedimentology of the Cambro-Ordovician sandstones of eastern Ontario, in Milne, V.G., ed., Geoscience Research Grant Program, summary of research 1984–1985: Ontario Geological
Survey Miscellaneous Paper 127, p. 112–118.


Tuesday 13 October 2020

Reports of Trace Fossils from the Potsdam Group Sandstones of Ontario, Quebec and New York State

 Trace fossils have been reported from the Potsdam Group sandstones of Quebec, Ontario and New York State for over one hundred and seventy years, some from rocks considered littoral, some from eolian dunes, and some from rocks deposited in shallow marine waters.  The most famous trace fossils are undoubtedly the trackway Protichnites and the trail Climactichnites, both of which were brought to the attention of the scientific world by W. E. Logan of the Geological Survey of Canada.  It is interesting to note the change in thinking surrounding trace fossils through time.  Initially, the textures in the rock (e.g. wind ripples, wave ripples) were used to identify the facies of deposition of the trace fossils.   After about 1970 the trace fossils in combination with the textures were used to identify the facies.

For the purposes of this blog posting I am assuming that the reader is aware that the upper Potsdam is now called the Keeseville formation in New York State, called the Cairnside formation in Quebec and called the Nepean (or Keeseville) formation in Ontario.  I am also assuming that the reader is aware that at one time the Potsdam Group included what is now called the Theresa Formation in New York State and Quebec,  and is called the March formation or Theresa formation in Ontario.  The Theresa/March includes many of the same trace fossils as are found in the Keeseville -  Cairnside -  Nepean formation.  I have edited many of the early reports on trace fossils in the Potsdam by deleting references to rocks that  would now be the Theresa - March formation.  

I have tried to keep the reports in chronological order, but fail miserably to do this is a few places as I have tried to group reports under subheadings.  I have not listed all references to Skolithos.  

Protichnites


W. E. Logan  reported on the trace fossil Protichnites from Lower Canada in papers written in 1851 and 1852 and  read before the Geological Society of London, in various annual reports of the Geological Survey, and in his book the Geology of Canada published in 1863.  In a paper also read before the Geological Society of London, Professor Owen (1852) described and named six of Logan’s tracks:

1.  Protichnites septem-notatus    
2.  Protichnites  octo-notatus      
3.  Protichnites  latus      
4.  Protichnites  multinotatus   
5.  Protichnites  lineatus                       
6.  Protichnites  alternans     

The plates of the named tracks that accompanied Owen’s (1852) paper are shown below.

Owen (1852) also included a lithograph showing part of a 12 and ½ foot specimen that Logan had brought to London.

The tracks at Beauharnois, Quebec  were originally reported in 1847 in an article in the Montreal Gazette written by  Mr. Robert Abraham, Editor of the Montreal Gazette, who compared them to the track of a tortoise.   Owen (1851) was of the view that “the foot-prints accord best with those of the Chelonian reptiles ... [and] that the species was a fresh-water or estuary tortoise rather than a land-tortoise.”   Owen (1852) had changed his mind and commented that “I have now the  conviction that they were not made by a Chelonian reptile, nor by any vertebrated animal.   ... [T]he creatures which have left these tracks and impressions on the most ancient of known seashores belonged to an articulate and probably crustaceous genus,  ... and it is evident that the animal of the Potsdam sandstone moved directly forwards ... and not sideways” .  Logan (1863) noted that in view of the “various differences in the tracks, Professor Owen has given separate specific provisional names to several of them, not for the purpose of indicating a positive specific difference in the animals which have impressed them, but for the convenience of reference.”

Logan (1851) first reported tracks  from a quarry on the left bank of the river St. Louis, at the village of Beauharnois, Lower Canada.   Logan (1852) reported five new localities for  tracks: (i) in the field of Mr. Henault, a half mile west of the quarry in which the first impressions were discovered; (ii)  two and a half miles further west at the mouth of the Beauharnois Canal; (iii)  in the vicinity of Point Cavagnol (about 15 miles west of the first locality); (iv) on the  Island of St. Généviève in the St. Lawrence River, south of Montreal Island (about 7 miles north of the village of Beauharnois); and (v) on the Riviere du Nord, at Lachute,  in the Seignory of Argenteuil (about 35 miles north east of the first locality).  Five of Logan’s named tracks came from Mr. Henault’s field.  The sixth,  Protichnites  multinotatus, came from the quarry on the St. Louis River at the village of Beauharnois. 

Subsequent to giving his talks in London, Logan provided other localities where Protichnites tracks were found:
 - St. Ann, Presqu'ile, and St. Elizabeth, Quebec (Logan, 1860)
-  at Perth, Ontario in association with Climactichites (Logan, 1860);
- in Lansdowne and Bastard township, Ontario (Logan, 1852b, page 10)
- about a mile N. W. of Cuthbert's mills on the Chicot in an exposure of fine grained white sandstone  (Logan, 1863, page 93);
 -  on a peninsula on the north side of the Ottawa River, about seven miles below the mouth of the Petite Nation, (Logan, 1863, page 94);
- in the vicinity of Pointe du Grand Detroit in Vaudreuil, Quebec twelve miles west of the locality at the Beauharnois canal (Logan, 1863; Murray, 1852);.

First Report of Diplichnites


Murray (1852, page 67) provides a description of  the tracks from near Pointe du Grand Detroit, Quebec noting they are  “similar to the tracks occurring at Beauharnois, ... [However,t]he groove in the middle between the footprints on each side, so frequently seen at Beauharnois, occurs only in one of the smaller trails.”   The majority of Murray’s tracks from Pointe du Grand Detroit would likely now be identified as Diplichnites.  Pointe du Grand Detroit is now known as Quarry Point and falls in Hudson, Quebec.

Skolithos: Worm Burrows


The trace fossil Skolithos has been widely reported from the Potsdam sandstone in New York state, Quebec and Ontario.    Hall (1847, page 2, Plate 1) reported on the first occurrences of Scolithus linearis from the Potsdam sandstone, noting occurrences in the valley of Lake Champlain and in the eastern part of New York.    Haldeman (1840) had given it the name Skolithos linearus:  James Hall (1847) modified the spelling to Scolithus linearis, changing the spelling from the Greek (Skolithos) to the Latin (Scolithus).   Both Haldeman and Hall considered Skolithos to be a plant–a Fucoid.   

William E. Logan  (1852a ) was the first person to suggest that Skolithos was a worm hole.    Logan  (1852, at page 200) commented that the Potsdam sandstones of Beauharnois county were “abundantly marked over considerable surfaces by what the geologists of New York have called Scolithus linearis,  which consists, where the rock is weathered, of straight, vertical, cylindrical holes, of about an eighth of an inch in diameter, descending several inches, and, where the rock is unweathered, of corresponding solid cylinders, composed apparently of grains of sand, cemented by a slightly calcareous matrix, more or less tinged with peroxide of iron.   Mr. Hall and other American geologists include them among the Fucoids of the rock, but they appear to me more like Worm-holes.”

Logan (1852, 1863) included a measured section from Beauharnois with 23 identifiable sandstone beds (each from two inches to five feet in thickness), two bearing tracks and eleven bearing Scolithus.
 

Climactichnites and Littoral Sandstone


W.E. Logan (1860)  reported on and named the trace fossil Climactichnites wilsoni,  based on specimens collected near Perth, Ontario, suggesting that it was likely the trail of a mollusc.   Below are two photographs of the type specimen of Climactichnites wilsoni from Perth, Ontario that is in the collection  of the Geological Survey of Canada. The slab is a sole marking.   Both photographs are from the collection of the Geological Survey of Canada. The first photograph has T.C. Weston as a scale and was taken in 1880 by J. B. Tyrrell before the specimen was broken on being taken down from the wall for the move of the GSC from Montreal to Ottawa.  The second photograph shows the specimen as it exists today.  The second photograph was taken by  B. J. Botte in about 1960. 




Interestingly, it was in his paper naming Climactichnites wilsoni that Logan (1860) reported that on thinning a large specimen bearing Protichnites tracks from Beauharnois, “it was ascertained that the surface on which the traces were impressed must have been subject to the ebb and flow of a tide.  The surface on which the tracks are impressed and the one immediately beneath, shew ripple-mark ; the next in succession which is about an eighth of an inch below, shews wind-mark, in a number of sharp and straight parallel ridges from two to four inches long and an eighth or a quarter of an inch wide.  These characterize a  considerable surface, and are precisely similar to the marks so familiar to every person who has examined blown sand. The surface must thus have been alternately wet and dry, and the organic remains of the formation being marine, we have thus pretty clear evidence of a tide. ... [Accordingly] The crustacean which impressed the tracks at Beauharnois must have been a litoral animal...” 

Logan (1852) had earlier commented that at Beauharnois  “The ripple marks, which occur on surfaces so close in succession among the track-beds, run in different direction on each surface, as if they had been caused not by a current in deep water, running in one general direction, but by a tide ebbing and flowing... On one surface was observed the natural edge or termination of the ripple-ridges, with a track coming up to it and then ceasing, as if the wave had reached no farther, and one part of the surface had been dry while the water, operating on another close by, had obliterated the track in producing the ripple-mark”.  

Intriguingly, both Logan’s identification of wind ripples and his comment that the Potsdam sandstones at Beauharnois are littoral sandstones were referred to in papers published for over forty years,  but then disappeared from the literature for a number of decades.

W.E. Logan (1860)  also reported Protichnites tracks from Perth and suggested that Climactichnites trails were in the same sandstone as at Beauharnois.   (A Protichnites track is on the giant slab shown above.)

Billings (1865) named a new species of  Scolithus Canadensis from the Potsdam, differentiating it from Scolithus  linearis .
 

Marsh: Protichnites loganus - now Diplichnites


In 1869 Prof. O. C. Marsh described and figured a trackway from Potsdam sandstone on the western shore of Lake Champlain  a short distance north of the village of Port Kent, New York, naming it Protichnites loganus, which was much smaller than most Protichnites tracks  that Logan had reported from Canada and lacked a  median groove.  Marsh described the tracks as follows: “The impressions obtained ...were in two portions, on the same surface, ... [and were] a series of footprints, about six feet in length, consisting of two parallel rows of impressions, separated from each other by a space of about one and three fourth inches, and having an extreme width between their outer edges of two and a half inches.”   Today the track would be called Diplichnites rather than Protichnites.   Below is an extract from the plate that accompanied


Plaster Casts of Protichnites


The Protichnites tracks and Climactichnites trails were viewed as important finds.  By 1882 Queen’s University’s museum in Kingston, Ontario had on display casts of Protichnites found at Beuharnois that had been donated by the Geological Survey, Ottawa.   By 1882  the Redpath Museum in Montreal also had on display specimens of Climactichnites and Protichnites from Perth and casts presented by the Geological Survey.  In 1884 and 1907 Laval university reported that it had on display a collection of plaster moulds of prints of Protichnites from the Potsdam sandstone given by the Geological Survey of Canada.  Similarly, Amherst College of  Massachusetts Plaster had casts of Protichnites donated by William Logan.   As well, in 1888 Walcott attended at the Geological Survey’s Museum in Ottawa to take casts of the Protichnites specimens for the Smithsonian.  

 The plaster casts of Logan’ specimens of Protichnites at Amherst College were reported on by MacNaughton and Hagadorn (2006) and Hoxie (2005).

The Protichnites tracks were also visited on outings by both the Natural History Society of Montreal and the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club (See Ami, 1892, 1893, 1899).

First Report From Ausable Chasm


In 1883, Mr. W. F. Ferrier reported tracks on the Potsdam sandstone at Rainbow Falls,  Ausable Chasm in Essex County, New York.   One track consisted of “two narrow furrows about a quarter of an inch apart, with a rim of punctiform impressions about an inch distant at either side. ...   Another is a trail about an inch in width, marked with transverse furrows and ridges, perfectly simple, and without any median ridge.” 

 While Ferrier’s tracks were found in sandstone, it is possible that ‘Potsdam sandstone’ of Ferrier might be Theresa sandstone as he noticed  the gastropod “Ophileta (probably O. compacta, Salter)” in some beds, and because in 1891 the Potsdam included what we know call the Theresa.   That said, David Lowe has told me that he found gastropods in outcrops of  Nepean/Keeseville sandstone a few kilometers east of Perth, Ontario;  Liberty (1971) reported Ophileta compacta from Potsdam sandstone near Kingston, Ontario;  Wolf and Dalrymple (1985, p.115) report rare fragments of gastropods in the Potsdam; and  Hagadorn and Belt (2008) reported finding traces in the Potsdam sandstones of the Au Sable Chasm similar to those reported by Ferrier.

Ontario and Quebec (1888-1914) - Mainly By Ells and Ami

 
Numerous papers and  reports issued by paleontologists and geologists (primarily associated with the Geological Survey of Canada) in the period from 1888 to 1914 include reports of Scolithos, Protichnites and Climactichnites in the Potsdam sandstones of Eastern Ontario and Quebec, including:

- Ami and Sowter (1888) reported collecting specimens of Scolithus Canadensis, Billings and Scolithus linearis, Hall from the Potsdam formation on an excursion to Buckingham, Quebec, with Mr. Ami opining “that  that the main difference existing between these two species lies principally in the preservation, S. Canadensis B, occurring as hollow tubes or burrows, whilst Hall's species is found as casts of the interior of the burrow or hole. ... In comparing the form S. linearis, Hall with the species recorded from the Potsdam formation of L'anse au Loup, Que. (See Pol. Foss. Billings, Vol. 1, P. 2), they are found to be exactly similar and cannot be differentiated.”

- Marcou (1889) reported that “near St. Cuthbert [, Quebec, the Potsdam sandstone] is seen to be represented by a white sandstone, as at Keeseville, containing marks of Protichnites”.

- Dawson (1890) figured two slabs of Potsdam sandstone collected near Perth, Ontario that had been collected by Mr. James Richardson  in about 1882. The large slab  bears both Climactichnites and Protichnites  and  was, and still is, on display at the Peter Redpath Museum in Montreal.   Below is the plate from Dawson’s paper.  The large slab is about seven feet  ( over 2 meters) high. The large slab represents the bed sole, while the small slab on Dawson’s plate is from the bed surface. 

Below is a photograph of the actual specimen taken at the Redpath Museum.

Dawson (1890) also figured the upper surface and a sectional view of a slab of Potsdam sandstone from Perth, Ontario showing Scolithus, and commented that Scolithus  is very abundant in the Potsdam of St. Anne's on the Island of Montreal. 

- Ami (1893) reported that on a geological excursion  to  Montebello he had observed on the Presqu'ile north of Squirrel Island “an interesting exposure of the Potsdam terrane, showing rippled-marks in abundance, besides the tracks and trails of marine animals (Protichnites septemnotatus, Owen)” noting that the “exposure of the Potsdam presents a bold bluff of from ten to twenty-five feet front in height.”

- Ami, (1894) commented “The higher beds of the [Potsdam] formation in the Ottawa Valley are finer grained, and have the grains of quartz in the sandstone less coherent, and the beds them-
selves are less massive and reduced in thickness, often presenting the well known tracks of Protichnites as at Montebello, Papineauville and above that again, eight miles below the mouth of the South Indian River.”

- Ells (1895), when discussing the Potsdam formation of  Quebec and eastern Ontario, commented that “in fact the whole of the sandstone formation proper, is entirely destitute of organic remains in so far as yet known, with the exception of the peculiar marking called scolithus concerning the origin of which nothing has yet been definitely ascertained, and certain tracks or impressions regarded as produced by some species of crustacean, the remains of which have, however, never as yet been found in the rock mass. In the upper portion the scolithus markings are rather better defined.”

- Ami (1896) commented that “The characteristic fossils of the Potsdam formation in the Ottawa Palaeozoic Basin comprise the following tracks or trails of marine organisms : — Climactichnites Wilsoni, Logan, Protichnites octo-notatus, Owen, P. lineatus, Owen, Scolithus Canadensis, Billings.”

- Ami (1901), from a quarry in Potsdam sandstone, between Papineauville and Montebello, along the Ottawa river, reported both Protichnites lineatus, Owen, or a closely allied form, and Protichnites septem-notatus, Owen, while in an accompanying report Ells (1901) noted  “the peculiar fossil known a Scolithus” while Ami (1902) noted that many of the surfaces show “ripple marks and other phenomena of wind and wave action.”

-Ells (1902) reported Scolithus in an outcrop of  Potsdam sandstone in March Township while mapping the City of Ottawa and vicinity stating that “the sandstones are filled with Scolithos markings which are the only fossils yet recognized in this part of the formation in this district.” 
(The sandstones in this district were the ones that became Alice Wilson’s ‘Nepean Formation’.)

- Ells (1903),when reporting on the Kingston, Ontario district, mentions (a) for the Potsdam sandstone at Gildersleeve's quarry that “ No fossils are found in the sandy beds, with the exception of Scolithus markings”; and (b) “About the village of Battersea ... The sandstones are frequently penetrated by cylindrical markings which are probably the Scolithus linearis of Hall”.   (Gildersleeve’s quarry is now known as the Hughes quarry and is famous for the cylindrical forms now generally considered to be water expulsion features. Interestingly, the sandstone at the Hughes quarry is mainly eolian.)

- Woodworth (1903, page 966) reported that “Small partly effaced trails of Climactichnites were seen on the glaciated surface of the Potsdam sandstone in the road gutter on top of Covey hill, in [Quebec,] Canada, about two miles west of the Covey Hill postoffice. ”


- Ami (1904) provided a list of fossils from the Potsdam sandstones in the  Perth area of Eastern Ontario, noting the specimens of (A)  “1. Protichnites, sp. A form allied to P, septem-notatus Owen. 2. Climactichnites Wilsoni, Logan” collected by Sir W. E. Logan and Dr. James Wilson from near Perth; (B) “1. Fucoids, 2. Scolithus Canadensis, Billings, 3. Lingula acuminata” from the Township of Bastard, north of Beverly, Ontario; and  Scolithus Morrini, Dawson from Perth, Ontario.

Walcott (1914 at pages 259 - 277), collected specimens of Protichnites (plates 46 and 47) and Climactichnites  from Rogier’s farm just west of the town of Beauharnois, including a very large, three ton, slab of Climactichnites (with Protichnites) a photograph of which  is the frontispiece to Yochelson and Fedonkin’s (1993) paper.   

 Walcott (1914) included two plates, 46 and 47, of trifid footprints on either side of a median furrow on two slabs of Potsdam sandstone from Beauharnois, Quebec.  Walcott identified the trail as Protichnites septemnotatus Owen.   Below are Walcott’s plates 46 and 47:


Early Reports of Climactichnites and Protichnites from New York State


Others have reported on Climactichnites and Protichnites trackways from the Potsdam sandstone.


- Walcott (1891, page 344) reported Protichnites in a section at Keeseville,  in Au Sable Chasm, New York State,
- Hall (1889) reported Protichnites trails from Port Henry, New York .  (Port Henry of about 40 miles south of Port Kent.)
- Van Ingen (1902, page 539) reported finding Climactichnites wilsoni in sandstone at the top of the Birmingham fall at the head of the Ausable chasm in the Keeseville (Lake Champlain) region of New York State and reported (1902, page 544) “numerous irregular, unidentified worm borings and trails"  .
- Woodworth (1903, Plates A and B) and Clarke (1905)  reported on Climactichnites from Bidwell's Crossing in Mooers township, Clinton County, New York, where the Climactichnites trails show terminal oval impressions and the trail lacked the medial furrow of Logan’s specimens.   Woodworth suggested that the trail had been created by the flexible muscular foot of a crawling mollusk.  Clarke reported on collecting a large slab (30 feet long by 10 feet wide)  from Bidwell’s Crossing, Mooers township.  Below is an extract from Clarke’s (1905) plate showing the terminal oval impressions on the large slab from Bidwell’s Crossing, Mooers township.


- Clarke (1903, p. 539) reported Climactichnites in Potsdam sandstone in the Keeseville region, in the Ausable Chasm between Devil’s Oven and Alice Falls and “numerous unidentified worm borings and trails.”

- Cushing et al. (1908), in their report on the Geology of the Thousand Islands Region,  mentioned that “With the exception of the long trails of an unknown animal, to which have been found in the sandstone 1 mile west of Theresa, no fossils  have been found in the formation”, citing  Woodworth’s (1902) report of Climactichnites.

- Chadwick (1920) in his report on the Paleozoic rocks of the Canton Quadrangle,  New York State mentions that “Just south of the white ledge [on the south bank of the Grass river] lies a large rectangular block that shows a few sinuous worm trails, the only fossil seen in the ‘Potsdam’ rocks of our area.”   [Based on his map this is 4 miles south of Canton]

- Walcott (1914) reported that he collected in the Ausable Chasm  from near the type locality     where Marsh had collected  Protichnites loganus   and found “several slabs of the sandstone with many tracks on them. Some of these have a median trail or furrow ... . That some series of tracks are without the median trail indicates that the animal that made the tracks kept well up from the sand, while others that may have been heavier or weaker touched and dragged some portion of the median dorsal surface or the caudal furca along on the sand.”   While Walcott identified the specimens as Protichnites loganus in the text accompanying plates 48 and 49, it is clear that this is not the Protichnites loganus of Marsh.  Here is one of Walcott’s plates showing part of one slab that he collected from the Ausable Chasm.  At least six trackways, all with a median groove, are present.





- Fisher (1956) reported on the geology of the Lake Champlain area and commented that the Potsdam has yielded the “enigmatic Climactichnites, probably an arthropod trail” but did not otherwise comment on the trace fossils in the Potsdam. 

Comments on the Origin of Climactichnites and Protichnites

 
Clarke and  Ruedmann (1912) suggested Eurypterida as possible tracemakers for  Climactichnites traces in  New York State, noting that Packard (1908) had also suggested this.
 
Grabau (1913, page 1091) commented  “At the end of a peculiar trail on the Potsdam sandstone of New York, known as Climactichnites, Woodworth  has discovered an oval impression which he considers to have been made by the animal in resting.   This may possibly represent the collapsed burrow.”

Burling (1917) looked at Protichnites (Figure 1) and Climactichnites (Figures 4, 5)  trails from the Potsdam sandstones of Ontario and New York, and concluded that “That Protichnites was made by a short, low-lying, and more or less heavy set, approximately 12-legged crab-like animal, and
that Climactichnites was made by the snail-like creep of a flexible slug-like animal which was frequently stranded at low tide, but was able to swim in the waters of the full tide.”

In 1925 Othenio Abel (an Austrian Paleontologist)  visited North America and examined the large slab of Potsdam sandstone bearing Climactichnites  from Bidwell's Crossing, Clinton County, New York [see: Abel 1926, pages 382-383, Figure 244; Abel, 1935, pages 244-249,  Figures 214, 215].   Abel (1935) concluded [my translation] “However, there can hardly be any serious doubt that the oval impressions, which can be observed either alone or at one end of a track on the large plate of Bidwell’s Crossing, must be regarded as the footprints of large gastropods. ...The oval footplate impression, which represents the respective end of the tracks, as can be seen on the large sandstone slab of Bidwell’s Crossing, corresponds exactly to the extent of the footplate...It is easy to imagine that the Climactichnites trail originates from a shell-less gastropod.”  

Interestingly, Abel (1935, page 252) proposed that a Silurian Protichnites trackway from Norway was made by an Eurypterid, relying on a Norwegian paper by Johan Kiaer (1924).

Reports from Quebec (1944 - 2016)


Clark (1944)  for the Potsdam in Quebec reported that “The sandstone is, on the whole, a `barren' rock. The giant trails Climactichnites and Protichnites are to be seen in a dozen localities. The  smaller burrow, Scolithus, is present in probably half the exposures. Actual remains are restricted to small brachiopods, of which only Lingulella acuminata  has been reported from Quebec.” ...  “The sands of the Potsdam formation were the playthings of the waves and currents of the Upper Cambrian sea. The ever-present cross-bedding indicates not only the mobility of the sand grains but the vacillation of the waters. Possibly the tides ebbed and flowed over a wide off-shore platform, where one day's deposit of sand could be shifted from its resting place to another on the following day. Exceptionally high tides would build up bars, behind which orderly sedimentation could go on unimpeded by tidal fluctuations. And, too, in such sheltered lagoons, the organisms responsible for Climactichnites, Protichnites, and Scolithus could pursue their lives and leave behind them a permanent record of their existence.”

Clark and Usher (1948) reported abundant Climactichnites trails at a quarry in Potsdam sandstone at Melocheville, which is about 3 km to the west of the original quarry at Beauharnois where Abraham (1847, 1851)  and Logan (1852, 1853) had observed Protichnites and west of where Walcott had collected Climactichnites and Protichnites specimens.  However, Clark (1972) reported that the quarry floor was “covered by stockpiles of crushed stone”   while  Yochelson and Fedonkin (1993) comment that “the floor is now covered with debris and part of the quarry has been refilled with slag from a nearby aluminum reduction operation.”

In a thirty year period dating from 1952  the Province of Quebec’s geology branch mapped the Potsdam Group (and other Paleozoic) rocks in Quebec and reported on its trace fossils:
-  Clark (1952, 1972a) reported the trace fossils Scolithos, Climactichnites and Protichnites in the Potsdam in the Montreal region, commenting that “Protichnites can be seen on Dowker Island. Skolishos is common throughout. ... On the sandstone flats immediately below the Buisson Point dam both Climactichnites and Protichnites have been reported (Clark 1963, pp. 99-101).”
- Clark (1966) reported the trace fossils Climactichnites wilsoni, Protichnites, Arenicolites, Scolithus and Gyrichnites in the Cairnside formation of the Potsdam Group in the Chateauguay region;
- Globensky (1981) reported Arenicolites (Figures 13,14) in the Cairnside formation in Huntingdon,Quebec;
- Globensky (1986) reported Arenicolites (Figures 77, 78, 103, 111), Scolithos  (Figures 79), Climactichnites wilsoni  (Figure 119), and Protichnites in the Cairnside formation of the Potsdam Group in the region of Saint-Chrysotome and Lachine;
- Globensky (1982a) reported Protichnites (figure 10) and Climactichnites (figure 9) in the Cairnside formation in Lachute, Quebec;

-Globensky (1982) reported poorly preserved Skolithos sp. (figure 14) for  the Cairnside formation in Vaudreuil, Quebec; while
-Globensky (1987) reported Arenicolites (Plate 2-C and -D), Scolithos, Climactichnites wilsoni (Plate 1-A and -B), Protichnites octonotatus (Plate 2-A),  Gordia (Plate 2-B) and Palaeophycus   in the Cairnside formation of the Potsdam Group in Basses Terres du Saint-Laurent.

Yochelson and Fedonkin (1993) state that  “Globensky (1987,  pl. 1) reported and illustrated several large trails of Climactichnites on outcrops about 45 km west-northwest of Montreal, Quebec, approximately 2 km north from the village of St. Hermas . We were able to examine those specimens, and found another nearby bedding plane, no more than a meter different in stratigraphic level, upon which were additional examples; Protichnites is also abundant at this locality.”

Salad Hersi  and Lavoie (2000b) for Cairnside formation sandstone south of Montreal, Quebec report “vertical (Skolithos sp.) burrows (Fig. 4C) , ? Climatichnitessp.  trace  fossils   . ...  Some beds show pervasive biogenic reworking of the sediment, producing a densely packed burrow  network  similar  to  the Ophiomorpha ichnofabric  of Bottjer and Droser (1994)”

Hoxie (2005) reported on Protichnites trackways near Melochville, Quebec at Les Carrieres Ducharmes and La Carriere Sud-Ouest, two active Potsdam sandstone quarries, and provided a photomozaic (Figure 9A) of a  surface  from Les Carrieres Ducharme  covered with exceptionally long Protichnites tracks.

Hofmann and Chartier (2006) in a geological field trip guidebook for the Montreal area have stops at Melocheville, Pointe-Du-Boisson and the Beuaharnois Locks to look at Climactichnites, Protichnites, Arenicolites, Skolithos, Palaeophycus in Cairnside orthoquarztites.

Lacelle, Groulx and Racicot (2009) in a geologic field trip guide describe a number of localities of Potsdam sandstone at Melocheville (Beauharnois), Québec which display the trace fossils Arenicolites, Climactichnites, Cruziana, cf. Didymaulichnus, Diplichnites, Gordia, Palaeophycus, Phycodes, Planolites, Protichites, Rusophycus, Skolithos, cf. Teichichnus,

Collette and Hagadorn (2010) and Collette, Hagadorn, and Lacelle (2010) reported on a large slab of Potsdam sandstone which contained 28 well-preserved specimens of an euthycarcinoid which they named Mictomerus melochevillensis preserved along with their trace fossils, cf. Didymaulichnus traces – gently curved, meandering, or arcuate, weakly bilobate surface furrows, peserved in convex hyporelief .  The slab was collected at  Melocheville, Quebec (now part of the city of Beauharnois) .   They suggest that the slab represents stranding of arthropods by high water as the tide receded or a storm surge.

Hagadorn, Lacelle,  and Groulx (2012) reported on Climactichnites, Diplichnites and Protichnites  trackways; small, bed-parallel furrows, cf. Archaeonassa; and shallow bed-penetrating non-spreiten cf. Teichichnus burrows (all figured); in sands “consistent with deposition in emergent to extremely shallow sandy marine settings”  in the upper  Potsdam Group sandstone at Mirabel, Quebec.  They concluded that “ that large euthycarcinoid arthropods, soft-footed molluscs, and perhaps other animals inhabited the intermittently emergent sand flats of southern Quebec”.

Lacelle, Hagadorn and Groulx (2012b) reported  Protichnites, Climactichnites, Archaeonassa, Arenicolites, Didymaulichnus, Diplichnites, Gordia, Musculopodus, Nenoxites-Scalarituba, Phycodes and cf. Teichichnus traces in the Cambrian Keeseville Formation (Potsdam Group) at Beauharnois, Quebec, and suggested that the trace “fossils  were produced in shallow marine to intermittently emergent sand-dominated coastal environments.”

Splawinski,  Patterson and  Kwiatkowski (2016) reported Diplichnites trackways  (figure 7A), “Phycodes (Figure 7 C, D) traces show horizontal feeding burrows with broom-like branches radiating from the central burrow” and “Unidentified horizontal burrows (Figure 7 E, F)”, in the Cairnside formation of the Potsdam sandstone at Beauharnois,  Québec, noting that they found  “sedimentary structures and trace fossils indicative of supratidal, intertidal, and shallow-marine lithofacies.”

Back to Ontario

Keith (1946) when describing the Potsdam sandstones of Frontenac, Leeds, and Lanark counties, Ontario, mentions that “Many of the calcareous beds [of the Potsdam sandstone] are filled with
fossil-worm burrows about 2 mm. in diameter; these have a nearly vertical attitude and are probably Scolithus linearis.   Calcareous sandstones of the overlying March formation have a blue-grey colour, weather to brown, and contain predominant dolomite rather than calcite.”   In a section of Potsdam sandstone from the Newboro area he reports “The sandstone exposed here is mostly a white quartzitic variety, except for a 12-inch "scolithus" bed near the top of the section.”   He also reports a 2.4 foot layer of “Buff-weathering sandstone with vertical worm-burrow casts”in Potsdam sandstone south of Lyndhurst.
 
Intriguingly, Alice E. Wilson’s (1946) only mentions of trace fossils in her description of the Nepean formation are the sentences (at page 12 and 16)  “There are also a number of tracks, some having a width of 3 to 4 inches, made presumably by some animal. ... As indicated previously, the fossils are limited to the tracks of some unknown creatures and to a linguloid form, Lingulella acuminata.  Most of the tracks occur near Beauharnois, Quebec. One, near Perth, Ontario, and a very few from New York are also cited.”    Wilson (1937) in an unpublished report on the Paleozoic rocks of the Ottawa area, when discussing the Nepean sandstone, mentions that “basal layers, exposed at one locality only, are from one to two feet in thickness, very closely cemented, almost quartzitic in their denseness, and riddled in places with the peculiar perforations generally called Scolithus canadensis.”    Wilson (1956) in her field trip guide to the Ottawa District includes as Plate 1, Figure 1 a photograph she described as “Scolithus canadensis (Billings), supposed to be a worm boring, occurring in some places in the Nepean sandstone”, and in the text of her guide notes that “The Nepean sandstone ... is riddled with these burrows in some places.”  She directs one to an outcrop south of Eagleson’s Corners (west of Ottawa) for “Nepean sandstone outcrops filled with these ‘worm’ holes.”

Wynne-Edwards (1967, page 121) when describing the Nepean sandstone formation of the Westport, Ontario area notes that “vertical tubular structures, 1/8 to 1/4  inch in diameter and about 1 inch long, which occur at several horizons in dolomitic layers in the sandstone, are believed to represent worm burrows or tubes built by phoronids, and are referred to as Scolithus.”

Lewis (1971) postulated that “Cairnside  seas  in  Quebec and Ontario were probably very shallow.  Structures and textures are compatible  with beach and tidal environments. Tidal influence, originally  inferred by Logan (1860, p. 208 ), is indicated  in  places by herringbone  cross  bedding and various tracks and trails (Logan 1860;  Burling 1917; Clark and  Usher 1948). The presence of Skolithos (Clark 1966) in this quartz sandstone may also be indicative;  such  associations  have  previously been found in transitional (nonmarine to marine) and littoral sequences”. [Some references omitted]

Greggs and Bond (1972) reported for the Nepean sandstones of Eastern Ontario that “The dominant expression of organic activity is the bioturbation developed in many of the beds. At some horizons, excellent burrows of Skolithos sp. and Diplocraterion sp . are preserved (Fig. 2). Skolithos sp. is the more  abundant, expressed as infilled burrows ~2 cm long and 2-4 mm in diameter. This form becomes most abundant near the top of the  Nepean Formation, and throughout seems to be virtually restricted to the upper few inches of each sandstone bed.  In some of the thinner  beds, evidence is available for several phases of burrowing activity; only the most recent of these burrows are moderately well-formed.  The less abundant burrow form, Diplocraterion sp., demonstrates apparently exclusively, the protrusive Spreite form; the absence of retrusive Spreite would seem to suggest that sedimentation was discontinuous and that the supply of sediment and the hydrodynamical intensity were variable ... The restriction of burrowing activity to the upper few inches of sandstone beds suggests rapid deposition of sand, followed by a lull in sedimentation which permitted widespread colonization and development of the burrowing organisms.”

Bond and  Greggs (1973) looked at the Nepean Formation of the Potsdam Group west and  north of Brockville, Ontario and reported that “The upper beds of the Nepean  show well developed burrowing and bioturbation; in some beds, excellent Diplocraterion sp. burrows are preserved.” 
 
Greggs and Gorman (1976) assigned the Nepean sandstones of the 1000 Islands region  a shallow water deposition environment and reported that “The bioturbation of many of the sandstone beds is generally so extensive as to obliterate individual burrows, but at some horizons excellent burrows of Skolithos sp. and Diplocraterion sp., are preserved. (Plate 3) Skolithos sp. is the more abundant, and is expressed as infilled burrows approximately 2 cm long and 2-3 mm in diameter. These burrows become much more common near the top of the formation.”

Wolf and Dalrymple (1984, 1985) divided the Potsdam Group in the Kingston-Brockville-
Big Rideau Lake area of Eastern Ontario into various facies.  In an eolian facies characterized by sandstone with very large-scale crossbeds  they reported Protichnites.    In a tide-dominated marine facies characterized by alternating crossbedded and bioturbated sandstone they  reported (A) discrete vertical burrows (Skolithos, Diplocraterion, Arencolites and Monocraterion) in the crossbedded part, and (B) in the bioturbated portion “Where discrete burrows can be identified, they are primarily horizontal types (Palaeophycus, Phycodes, and Teichichnus), except in a small number of pipe-rock beds situated near the top of the formation which contain abundant Arenicolites.”   In a storm-dominated, shallow marine facies “characterized by repeated, parallel sided beds with thicknesses from a few centimetres to approximately 0.2 m.” they reported that “Both Diplocraterion, and Bergaueria burrows are present within this interval, and horizontal Treptichnus traces have been seen on the bases of some beds.”   For a cross-bedded, braided fluvial, deposit they reported sporadic Skolithos burrows.

Harding and Risk’s (1986) electron microprobe scans across Skolithos burrows collected from the Nepean Formation near Kingston, Ontario revealed a zone of concentrations of iron, aluminum, copper and nickel at the burrow margins.

Bjerstedt  and  Erickson (1989) identified an interesting burrow in Nepean sandstone at  Browns Bay Provincial Park, which is west of Brockville, Ontario.  They reported that the outcrop “contains abundant large escape burrows identical to those illustrated by Frey and Pemberton (1984, Fig. 2G).”  [Added Aug. 7, 2021:] I was able to purchase  a copy of Frey and Pemberton’s paper. Their figure 2G  shows a V shaped trace fossil, and is not at all similar to a large burrow reported by Lowe (2016) from the Keeseville/Cairnside at Gatineau, Quebec.

Williams (1991, OFR5770) provides  numerous measured sections of Paleozoic rocks for outcrops and quarries  in Eastern Ontario, and for three of the sections (Hughes Quarry, North Elmsley, Lanark County; Forfar quarry, Township of Rideau Lakes; Philipsville roadcut) identifies beds where he observed Skolithos burrows in the Nepean Formation quartz sandstone.

Yochelson and Fedonkin (1991, 1993) describe a Climactichnites trail from near Battersea, Ontario, specimens of which are on display at the Miller Museum in Kingston, Ontario.  The trails are outlined in dark purple, in contrast to the light tan sandstone matrix.  Below is a photograph of the slab on display in the Miller Museum.  The trails are about 5 inches (12 1/2 cm) wide.


MacNaughton, Cole, Dalrymple,  Braddy, Briggs and Lukie (2002) reported arthropod trackways in an eolian dune facies of Potsdam sandstone at a quarry 20 km  northeast of Kingston, Ontario,  probably in a marginal-marine setting.  They reported three morphological types of tracks: (1) a repeated series of 7 or 8 circular to tapered tracks with a medial impression; (2) trackways with no series structure , with a medial impression; (3) two parallel rows of tracks with no series structure and no medial impression.    They suggested that types (1) and (2) are similar to Protichnites while type (3) is comparable to Diplichnites, and that the trackways were made by arthropods with at least eight walking legs, with at least some of the tracemakers possessing a telson (tail spine),  possibly euthycarcinoids.   Prophetically, Dr. MacNaughton noted that the same rocks occur in Northern New York and that examination of those rocks might yield discoveries of tracks (Broad, 2002).

Sanford and Arnott (2010) reported “a variety of vertical and commonly large trace fossils, including Arenicolites, Skolithos and Rosselia” from the Cairnside (Nepean) formation sandstone in Lac Beauchamp Park in Gatineau, Quebec, suggesting that the strata “were deposited in a high-energy, marine influenced, possibly tidally influenced sedimentary environment.   They included a photograph of a Protichnites track from the eolian sandstone at the Sloan Quarry north of Kingston, Ontario  (Figure 48) – the quarry where MacNaughton et al. (2002) reported Protichnites.

In blog postings dated July 9 and August 12, 2013  I reported finding Protichnites and Diplichnites traces in the Nepean (Keeseville) formation at the Ellisville Potsdam Sandstone Quarry.  In my October 31, 2016 and September 14, 2017 blog posting I reported on Climactichites traces found at that quarry.   Below are photographs of three slabs of Protichnites and a Climactichnites specimen from Ellisville.



New York State (1971 to the Present)


Trace Fossil have  been reported from the Potsdam Sandstone of  northwest New York by numerous authors in the latter half of the twentieth century and into this century  (Including field trip guides by  Kirchgasser and Theokritoff, 1971; VanDiver, 1976; Selleck, 1978, 1984, 2008; Erickson, 1993. Erickson and Bjerstdt, 1993, Erickson. Connett, and Fetterman, 1993, Dawson, 2002, Lowe, 2014 ; and articles by Bjerstedt  and  Erickson 1989; Hagadorn and  Belt , 2008; Hagadorn, Collette  and Belt, 2011 ).   In the interest of brevity I won’t refer to all of them.

Kirchgasser and Theokritoff (1971) included a stop at Chippewa Bay to look at the “Vertical U- shaped organismal burrows (Diplocraterion?)” in Potsdam sandstone (figure 8) made by a suspension feeder.   VanDiver (1976, page 64) has a stop at the Chippewa Bay outcrop where in the Potsdam sandstone he describes “Vertical, U-shaped organismal (probably worm) burrows near the base of the section”.   Selleck (1978, 1989) reported Diplocriterion YoYo  in the Potsdam at Chippewa Bay in a tide dominated environment, made by a wormlike filter feeding organism.

Bjerstedt  and  Erickson (1989) studied the Potsdam sandstone  in the St. Lawrence Lowlands on
the northwest edge of the Adirondack Massif on both U.S. and Canadian sides of the St. Lawrence River, focusing on the Chippewa Bay exposure in New York State.     They reported
“The intertidal habitats preserved in the upper Potsdam and Nepean Formations contain a Skolithos Ichnofacies of low-level suspension feeders dominated by Diplocraterion.   D. parallelum is abundant, whereas D. helmerseni is rare. Escape burrows resembling Monocraterion  are very common in one thick upper Potsdam bed . At the Chippewa Bay exposure, Skolithos forms only a minor component  in the Potsdam Skolithos Ichnofacies, ...  Elsewhere, shallow Skolithos and Monocraterion burrows (-3 to -6 cm) occur at most locations exposing the upper Potsdam in the Thousand Island region, but Skolithos generally does not occur with Diplocraterion.   At Chippewa Bay, medium to thick beds of clean quartz sandstone containing abundant D. parallelum ... They are, however, entirely restricted to the upper 6 m of the Potsdam. High population densities of D. parallelum in single thickbedded sandstones are exposed at the unit 1 location.  These beds approach "pipe-rock" burrow density , and indicate periods of relative substrate immobility, and probable diastems.” [citations and references to figures omitted]

Yochelson and Fedonkin (1993) reviewed all published occurrences of Climactichnites, visited most of them, noted a few new ones, provided details of older occurrences in Potsdam sandstones,and included  photographs of many of them (including slabs from Perth and Battersea, Ontario;  Port Henry, Mooers and Keeseville, New York State;  Beauharnois, Rogier's Farm, and St. Hermas, Quebec).  For example:
- “In New York, at the Minna Anthony Common Nature Center on Wellesley Island (11), near Alexandria Bay, a slab bearing Climactichnites is part of a "geological wall" just outside the
building. Apparently it was collected from a site on the island”
- “we were able to examine a large number of specimens exposed on one bedding plane at Au Sable Chasm, Keeseville, a locality reported by Van Ingen”.

Selleck’s (1993) field trip guide has stops to look at the sandy tidal flat environment of the upper Potsdam and  the u-shaped burrow Diplocraterion in southwestern St. Lawrence Valley of upper New York State.

Erickson, Connett and   Fetterman (1993) report an  unusual  bedding  plane  exposure  of  the  Potsdam  Sandstone  near  Champlain,  New  York, that “displays  cross-strata  and asymmetrical  ripple  marks  that  are  indicative  of  complex  tidal  settings  associated  with  am  inlet  or  gut  between  large  sand  bodies  or  barrier  bars.  Associated  with  these  high  energy  deposits  are  the  trace  fossils  Diplocraterion( ?)  sp . and  Phycodes(?)  sp.  which  colonized  the  cross-stratified  deposits  after deposition.”   They also report an area displaying a densely  burrowed  bed “which  shows  Planolites  beverlyensis , Phycodes  sp.,  Teichichrms(?)  sp.,  and  possible  Skolithos  sp.”

Dawson’s (2002) field trip guide has stops to look (A) trace fossils in Keeseville Sandstone  at the Clinton Farm Supply, Champlain, and (b) Climactichnites trails, Protichnites trackways and other traces in Keeseville sandstone at the Gaston Preserve of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy,  New York State.

Burton-Kelly (2005) and Burton-Kelly and  Erickson (2010)  provided an analysis of three  trackways of Protichnites Owen, 1852,  from the Potsdam Sandstone on  a single bedding-plane exposure of flat-lying, thinly bedded, fine-grained Potsdam Sandstone in Clinton County, New York displaying “at least eleven distinctive trackways of multi-legged nelson-bearing individuals”. (The site is part of the Galway Pine Barrens Reserve of the Adirondack Nature Conservancy.)   They conclude that the animal that made the tracks was “an invertebrate animal with seven pairs of walking legs, with the possibility of additional limbs held out of contact with the substrate.”  The trackways “are assigned to Protichnites septemnotatus based on their comparison with Owen’s original description.”   Earlier Erickson (2004) had reported this bedding-plane exposure  and suggested one trackway was made by a male and another by a female, with the interaction between the trackways interpreted as evidence of mating behavior.

Landing et al. (2007) provide a stratigraphic column of rocks in the Ausable Chasm, noting the trace fossils,  and for the upper Potsdam report that “Trace fossils at this site are dominated by horizontally-oriented forms, such as the probable mollusk trails Aulichnites and Climactichnites, the arthropod trackways Diplichnites and Protichnites, and a burrow compared to Teichichnus. A few shallow, vertically oriented trace fossils, such as Arenicolites and Skolithos, are present. Many of the best exposures of the large traces are immediately below the spillway or on bedding planes... An exceptional specimen of Protichnites ...  was collected  about 100-200 m lower in the section ..., and is remarkable because it is not an undertrack, yet preserves the delicate bifid nelson impressions of the trackmaker.”   Landing et al. (2007) also have stops to look at Phycoids (figure 14) and Arencolites or Diplocraterion.  As well, Landing et al. (2007) also report that at the Galway Pine Barrens in New York State “The Keeseville Member at this location (Figure 12) is composed of thinly bedded, light gray, medium- to fine-grained quartz arenite. ... . Arthropod trackways (predominantly Diplichnites and Protichnites at Stop 3.8A), as well as the probable mollusk trackways Climactichnites and Plagiogmus (Stop 3.8B), are well preserved on some bedding surfaces (Figure 13).”

Selleck (2008) in a field trip guide on the Potsdam Formation, Southern Lake Champlain Valley, New York noted that “Horizontal burrows (Rusophycos, Teichichnus) and vertical burrows (Diplocraterion, Skolithos)  are  present” in the upper stratified unit and that “The upper Potsdam Formation (=Keeseville Member) in the study area were deposited in shallow marine
shoreface, foreshore, offshore subtidal shelf and tidal flat settings.”   He also noted that “The large trace  fossil Climactichnites  has been described from quarried slabs of the Potsdam Formation from Port Henry,  New York.   Although no specimens have been observed in place, older quarries in the Port Henry area are within the upper stratified unit of the Potsdam, and the slabs bearing  Climactichnites at Port Henry most closely resemble the upper stratified unit.”

Hagadorn and  Belt (2008) looked at the Potsdam sandstone in the Ausable Chasm, New York  and reported Arenicolites, Skolithos - Monocraterion (figure 4C) and trackways that include Climactichnites (figure 4A), Diplichnites (figure 4F) , cf. Plagiogmus, Protichnites (figure 4G), cf. Teichichnus (figures 4B,  4E), a bilobate trail Aulichnites (figure 4H), unilobate trails similar to Neonereites uniserialis, Phanolites (figure 10C1, D), concluding that the trace fossil assemblages are consistent with a mixed Cruziana-Skolithos ichnofacies.  They also reported  body fossils consisting of scyphomedusae impressions, and noted that “Diplocraterion- and Skolithos-piperock facies... are common only in the top strata of Potsdam sandstone near the base of the burrow-riddled Theresa (Bjeerstedt and Erickson, 1989; Selleck, 1993) or where mud is present.”

Getty and Hagadorn (2008, 2009) examined field and museum specimens of Climactichnites, concluded that it is restricted to shallow tide- and wave-influenced marine facies of the strata, restrict Climactichnites wilsoni to a surface trace, resurrect Climactichnites youngi as a burrowing trace (which lacks lateral ridges) , and erect Musculopodus to encompass body traces of the trailmaker, concluding that “Annelids and molluscs are the most likely candidates to have produced Climactichnites.”.  Musculopodus is the ovoid body impression discussed by Woodworth (1903), Clarke (1905), Abel (1935) and others.  Getty and Hagadorn (2008) also give field localities for Climactichnites including Hammond, New York and Réserve Ecologique, du Pin-Ridge, Quebec.

Hagadorn, Collette and Belt (2011) reported and figured various trace fossils found in interfingering eolian to brackish-marine sequence of the Potsdam sandstone in upper New York State (two in the Burke area  –  the Rainbow and Adirondack Quarries – and two in the Potsdam
area at Hannawa Falls that include a section downriver from the spillway and a section at the Parmeter Quarry).  They found (A) several distinct kinds of arthropod trackways, including Diplichnites, Protichnites and unusual Diplopodichnus-like trackway, on eolian dunes, and (B) Arenicolites (U-shaped burrows) in a subaqueous Potsdam facies.  Collette and Hagadorn (2010) remarked that “Eolian arthropod trackways from the Potsdam of Ontario and New York show no evidence of body impressions other than intermittent drag marks interpreted as having been made by a nelson. Sediment push-up mounds located posterior to limb imprints preclude an undertrack origin for these trackways; thus, the limbs of the tracemakers must have been both robust enough and long enough to have held these fairly large arthropods off  the surface as they were climbing dune faces.”

David Lowe’s (2014) field trip guide covers select outcrops of Keeseville sandstone in the St. Lawrence valley of upper New York State.   It does not cover the aeolian erg and tidedominated
marine facies described from previous work in the Potsdam by  Bjerstedt and Erickson (1989)
Selleck (1993) and  Hagadorn et al (2011).  Instead it focuses on Keeseville sandstone outcrops exhibiting ephemeral fluvial and  perennial (braided) fluvial facies structures.  Dave notes that  braided fluvial deposits are recognized in part by a “lack of trace fossils” and “by a dominance of coarse-grained trough cross-stratified sandstone, locally with tractional conglomerates, as well as the presence of lateral, downstream and upstream accreting architectural elements and channel elements.”   He mentions no trace fossils in ephemeral fluvial or perennial (braided) fluvial facies structures.

David Lowe’s Doctoral Thesis


David Lowe’s (2016)  doctoral thesis involved looking at the sedimentology, stratigraphic evolution and provenance of the Cambrian – Lower Ordovician Potsdam Group in the Ottawa Embayment and Quebec Basin.  He  recognized: six siliciclastic paleoenvironments: (a) braided fluvial, (b) ephemeral fluvial, c ) aeolian, (d) coastal sabkha, (e) tide-dominated marine and (f) open-coast tidal flat.  He also made  reports of, and observations on, trace fossils.  Here are a few of his comments:


 - “[I]t was notable that Protichnites, Diplichnites and Climactichnites most commonly occur on bedding planes of coastal sabkha strata (e.g., localities 190, 207, 210, 295) and in coastal plain ephemeral fluvial strata, which based on stratigraphic correlation may have been perhaps ~5 – 50 km from a coeval coastline or intertidal zone (e.g., localities 148, 152, 200 – 203). However, comparatively rare but seemingly larger Protichnites and Diplichnites were also present in aeolian and ephemeral fluvial strata farther removed from any possible nearby coastal environment (likely ~ 50 km or more; e.g. localities 27, 28, 68, 166).”

- He reported and figured a unique and enigmatic trace fossil from the Keeseville formation at an outcrop in a park near Lac Beauchamp in Gatineau, Quebec which displays large-scale compound dunes, a high energy setting.  The  “Traces are elliptical tube-shaped features that are 2 – 17 cm wide and at least ~10 – 60 cm long with massive fills and mm-thick lining. Individual burrows are commonly curved and variably angled, ranging from essentially vertical   to horizontal ...Most burrows also show variations in morphology along their length from elliptical to circular” ... [T]hese burrows occur as solitary forms or are clustered .  Clustered burrows commonly cross-cut one-another and commonly merge into a single large composite burrow (Figs 3.13a, 3.14). Typically burrows increase in width from the base the top of large-scale compound cosets, and many burrows in the lower part of a coset are truncated by downcurrent migrating dune sets. ... [T]he diameter of the burrows (~2 – 17 cm) suggest that the trace maker was relatively large, and variations in burrow shape and bending and coiling of the burrow suggest it had the ability to conform to different shapes, and thus was likely a soft-bodied organism (rather than an arthropod, for example) and probably a large polychaete worm,”   Here are Dave’s drawings of the burrows, which are provided with Dave’s permission.


- Dave’s table 3.1 summarizes the lithofacies associations and gives a brief overview of the trace fossils associated with each facies.

- In his discussion of  his facies FA5 – Bioturbated cross-stratified sandstone– Dave mentions that “A sparse to moderate intensity (BI of 1 – 3) assemblage of relatively small (~1 – 3 mm diameter and ~0.5 – 3.5 cm long) Skolithos, Arenicolites, Phycodes and/or rare Fugichnia traces commonly occur near the base of medium-scale compound cosets (Fig. 3.10), whereas a moderate to high intensity (BI of 2 – 4) assemblage of robust (~1.5 – 4 cm wide and ~3 – 22 cm long) protrusive Diplocraterion and/or Monocraterion usually occurs at the tops (Fig. 3.11c).”

Further Comments


A number of authors have looked at animals moving from the water to the land during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods and have used Protichnites and Climactichnites  trace fossils to construct their models (including Dunlop et al. 2013, Mcnamara, 2014, Mángano and Buatois, 2004 Jennsen, Buatois and Mángano, 2013, Buatois and Mángano, 2011, Mángano and Buatois, 2015, Krapovickas et al., 2016).  They have looked at Protichnites trackways when looking at animal incursions into coastal dune fields and have looked at Climactichnites trails and Protichnites tracks on tidal flats.

Numerous authors have recognized that the eolian facies of the Potsdam where MacNaughton et al. (2002) and where Hagadorn et al. (2011) reported Protichnites is a different facies than the littoral facies of the Potsdam where Logan (1851, 1852, 1863) and Walcott (1891, 1914)  reported Protichnites.  It is also worth noting that the eolian facies at those locations  is older than the littoral facies, probably by at least a million years and perhaps by tens of millions of years, as the eolian Hannawa Falls Formation where MacNaughton et al. (2002) and  Hagadorn et al. (2011) reported Protichnites is unconformably overlain by the Keeseville- Nepean Formation of Logan’s Protichnites.  The unconformity  is expressed in most places as an erosional disconformity, but locally as an angular unconformity (See Lowe, 2016; Sanford and Arnott, 2010).)    The difference in facies and the difference in age may account for why the tracks look quite different.  

Unfortunately the only body fossils found thus far in the Potsdam are the euthycarcinoid  Mictomerus melochevillensis, a few trilobites, gastropods,  molluscs and brachiopods.   None represent the animals that likely made the Protichnites or Diplichnites traces.  

Almost all Protichnites and Diplichnties tracks in Potsdam sandstone are comprised of series of circular punctuate marks, or straight or crescent marks.  Walcott (1914) included two plates of trifid footprints. Burton-Kelly (2005) reported “Some individual tracks appear to be bifid or trifid in form.”  A few of the footprints on Logan’s specimens of Protichnites Septemnotatus and Protichnites Alternans are arguably bifid and trifid in form.  The only trifid footprints that I have seen in Eastern Ontario were in a thin shale layer in sandstone in Leeds County, and it was not clear whether the outcrop was Nepean or March Formation.  

Keighley and Pickerill (1998) attempted to introduce some order into the discussion of Protichnites and Diplichnites trackways, while both Hoxie (2005) and  Burton-Kelly (2007) analysed the variability in Protichnites morphology and took a restricted view of what it should encompass .  In contrast to Owen (1852, 1860) whose Protichnites encompassed much variation, Burton-Kelly (2007) defined Protichnites as “a trackway possessing the following characteristics: paired imprints across the midline, medial structure (groove(s) or ridge(s)), and a countable (i.e., generally unchanging) number of tracks in each repeating trackset” and didn’t include all of Owen’s variations.   Burton-Kelly (2007) proposed that his tighter redefinition of Protichnites would not cover  three of the species Owen described as P. multinotatus, P. lineatus, and P. alternans.  He proposed that these ichnofossils would be better placed under other genera.

[Added May, 2023:]  Rose, Harris and Milner (2021) suggest that Protichnites traces “comprise thick, often segmented medial impressions (sometimes absent except on trackway turns) flanked by oppositely arranged, subcircular to ellipsoidal to irregularly shaped tracks with varying orientations to the trackway axis” following Burton-Kelly & Erickson, 2010.

[Added May, 2023] Braddy, Gass and Gass (2022) commented on the Logan’s trackways from Beauharnois, Quebec and MacNaughton et al. (2002)’s trackways from Ontario:  “Some of the oldest trackways on land are from the Late Cambrian (500Ma) of Ontario, Canada. Trackways up to 13 cm wide with repeated patterns up to 11 tracks (Diplichnites) and similar trackways with a central tail drag (Protichnites) were found in ancient windblown (aeolian) dune deposits. ...  Similar trackways from Cambrian tidal flats in Quebec, Canada discovered in the mid-nineteenth century...  These trackways were clearly made by an arthropod with at least 11 pairs of similar walking legs and a tail-spine. ... They were eventually attributed to euthycarcinoids, the ancestors (stem-group) of the myriapods, based on a shared similar ‘pre-oral cavity’, resembling a 30-cm-long woodlouse with a tail spine, but their body fossils are missing in these strata.   ... The trackways from Ontario, which were probably made by euthycarcinoids, show that they lunged awkwardly in-phase across the dunes, suggesting that they were not fully land-going.” 

Logan’s Specimens of Protichnites Were Found

It is worth noting that Logan’s original specimens of Protichnites were located in the collection of Canada’s National Museum of Nature and await re-examination (see MacNaughton, Brett, Coyne and Shepherd, 2017).  The lithographs that appeared in Owen’s (1852) paper show only parts of the trackways.    Below is a photograph of Logan’s original specimen of Protichnites octo-notatus with a copy of the lithograph from Owen’s (1852) paper, as photographed at the Canadian Museum of Nature's Research and Collections  facility  in 2014.  The blue ruler is 12 inches long.  The silver ruler is a meter stick.



The Glen Quarry That Was the Source for the First Specimens of Climactichnites Was Likely Found in 2013

The type locality for Climactichnites wilsoni is a small quarry about a mile from the town of Perth, Ontario as it existed in 1859.  The original specimens were located by Dr. James Wilson of Perth who sent them to William Logan at the Geological Survey of Canada in Montreal.  In December, 1859 Logan sent James Richardson to Perth where he quarried a specimen of about seventy-six square feet that is shown in the second and third photographs of this posting.  In 1881 the Geological Survey of Canada and its rock, mineral and fossil collections were moved to Ottawa.   In 1882 James Richardson returned to Perth and collected the large specimen of  Climactichnites featured in Dawson’s (1890) paper that is on display at the Redpath Museum in Montreal and is shown above.   Other specimens from the quarry near Perth are in the collections of the Perth Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum, and were presumably collected by Dr. James Wilson.  

Yochelson and Fedonkin (1993) reported that they had visited Perth and that the quarry “cannot be located with any certainty and might now be covered by buildings.”  Others have tried to find the quarry. I believe that I located the quarry where James Richardson collected the first specimens of Climactichnites that were described by W. E. Logan.   See my following blog postings.

On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 1: Specimens Collected from a Quarry near Perth, Ontario. Blog Posting dated   January 31 2013.   http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/01/

  On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 2: References to the Quarry Near Perth in the Scientific Literature, and the Geologic Mapping of Lot 6.  Blog posting dated   February 11, 2013  http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/02/

On the trail of Climactichnites wilsoni - Part 3: A quarry about a mile from Perth as the town existed in 1859.  Blog posting dated  May 6, 2013. http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-trail-of-climactichnites-wilsoni.html

Christopher Brett
Ottawa

Addendum (April, 2023): I have added the part dealing with finding the type quarry for Climactichnites near Perth.

Selected References and Suggested Reading

There were a number of references that I could not locate or could not access the libraries where they can be found because of COVID-19 restrictions.  These are indicated below by ‘[not available]’.


Abel, Othenio, 1926
Amerikafahrt : Eindrücke, Beobachtungen und Studien eines Naturforschers auf einer Reise nach Nordamerika und Westindien.  Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena  462 p., mit 273 Fotos

Othenio Abel, 1935
Vorzeitliche Lebensspuren.  Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer. 644 pages. Mit 530 Abbildungen im text.  Climactichnites at pages 242-247

Abraham, Robert,  1847
Montreal Gazette [not available]

Abraham, Robert,  1851
Tracks of a Chelonian Reptile in the Lower Silurian formation, at Beauharnois.  The British American Medical & Physical Journal, Volume 7, No. 5,  pages 195-200
https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.8_05181_17/6?r=0&s=1

Ami, Henry M., 1893
Additional notes on the geology and palaeontology of Ottawa and its environs. The Ottawa Naturalist, Volume 6,  Pages 73-78

Ami, Henry M., 1894
Notes on the geology and paleontology of the Rockland Quarries and vicinity, in the county of Russell, Ontario, Canada.   The Ottawa Naturalist, Volume 7, 138- 143

Ami, Henri M., 1896
Notes on some of the Fossil Organic Remains comprised in the Geological Formations and Outliers of the Ottawa Palaeozoic basin.   Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 2nd ser., Vol. II sec. 4, pp.151 -158     https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/40727#page/991/mode/1up

Ami, Henry M., 1901
Lists of fossils obtained from the several formations Along the Ottawa River pertaining to the Report on Sheet no. 121, Quebec and Ontario (Grenville Sheet).  In Report on the geology of Argenteuil, Ottawa and part of Pontiac counties, province of Quebec, and portions of Carleton, Russell and Prescott counties, province of Ontario, By R. W. Ells. Geological Survey of Canada Report 739

Ami, Henry M., 1904
Preliminary list of fossil organic remains from the Potsdam-Utica and Pleistocene Formations Comprised within the Perth Sheet (No. 119) in Eastern Ontario. Pages 80-89,  Appendix to Report on the Geology of a Portion of Eastern Ontario by R. W. Ells,  Geological Survey of Canada Annual Report 14, Part J, 

Ami, Henry M. And Sowter, T. E. W., 1888
Report of the geological branch  - To the Council  of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club.  The Ottawa Naturalist, Volume 1, 93-97
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/15579#page/104/mode/1up

Billings,  Elkanah, 1865
Palæozoic Fossils, Volume 1. Geological Survey of Canada; Montreal: Dawson brothers. 426 pages   https://archive.org/details/cu31924003872862   Scolithus Canadensis p. 96  

Bjerstedt, T. W. and J. M. Erickson. 1989.
Trace fossils and bioturbation in peritidal facies of the Potsdam-Theresa Formations (Cambrian-Ordovician), Northwest Adirondacks. Palaios, 4:203–224.

Bernstein L., 1992.
A revised lithostratigraphy of the Lower–Middle Ordovician Beekmantown Group, St. Lawrence Lowlands, Quebec and Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 29: 2677-2694

Bond, I.J., and Greggs, R.G., 1973,
Revision of the March Formation (Tremadocian) in southeastern Ontario, Canadian Journal of Earth Science, v. 10, p. 1140-1155.
https://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/10.1139/e73-098#.X3aKZbj6iE8

Braddy. Simon,   Kenneth Gass, Todd C. Gass, 2022   Fossils of Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin, USA: the first animals on land, 500 Ma . Geology Today 38(1):25-31  DOI:10.1111/gto.12379

Brand,Uwe  and Brian R. Rust, 2011

The age and upper boundary of the Nepean Formation in its type section near Ottawa, Ontario
February 2011Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14(9):2002-2006
DOI: 10.1139/e77-171

Brett, Christopher P., 2013a
A New Occurrence of Protichnites in Potsdam Group Sandstone near Kingston, Ontario
Blog posting dated Tuesday, 9 July 2013
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/07/

Brett, Christopher P., 2013b
The Trace Fossil Diplichnites – A New Occurrence in Eastern Ontario
Blog posting dated  12 August 2013

Brett, Christopher P., 2013c
Abraham, Logan and Owen: The Discovery of the First Protichnites trackways – Part 1
Blog posting dated   29 August 2013
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2013/08/

Brett, Christopher P., 2017
Abraham, Logan and Owen: The Discovery of the First Protichnites trackways – Part 2
blog posting dated  September 4, 2017
http://fossilslanark.blogspot.com/2017/09/abraham-logan-and-owen-discovery-of.html

Braddy, S. J., 2004,
Ichnological evidence for the arthropod invasion of land, in Webby, B.D., Mangano, M.G., and Buatois, L.A., eds., Trace fossils in evolutionary palaeoecology: Fossils and Strata Special Issue, v. 51, p. 136–140

Buatois, Luis A. And Gabriela Mangano, 2011
The Trace-fossil Record of Organism-Matground Interactions in Space and Time.  Pages 15-28 SEPM Special Publication No. 1001

Burling,  Lancaster D. , 1917
Protichites and Climactichnites: A Critical Study of Some Cambrian Trails.  American Journal of Science. Series 4, Vol. 44 pages 396-398
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/124901#page/420/mode/1up

Burton-Kelly, Matthew E., 2005
An analysis of multiple trackways of Protichnites Owen, 1852,  from the Potsdam Sandstone (late Cambrian), St. Lawrence Valley, NY.  A Bachelors Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the  Department of Geology of St. Lawrence University.  71 pages

Burton-Kelly, Matthew E., 2007
Analysis of variability in Protichnites morphology and a standardized method of identification
Conference: Ichnological Applications to Sedimentological and Sequence Stratigraphic Problems, SEPM Research Conference, May 20 - 26, 2007, Price, Utah, USAAt: Price, Utah, USA

Burton-Kelly, M. E,  and J Mark Erickson, 2010
A New Occurrences of Protichnites Owen, 1852, in the Late Cambrian Potsdam Sandstone of the St. Lawrence Lowlands.  The Open Paleontology Journal, https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOPALOJ-3-1
 10.2174/1874425701003010001

Chadwick, G. H., 1920,
The Paleozoic rocks of the Canton Quadrangle: New York State  Museum Bulletin Nos. 217-218, 60 p

Clark, T.H., 1939
The St. Lawrence Lowlands of Quebec; Geologie der Erde: Geology of North America, Vol. 1, pp. 579-588, Berlin, 1939. [Not Available]

Clark, T. H.,  1944
Unfolded Palaeozoic Rocks of St-Lawrence Lowlands, pages 250-291 in Dresser, John A., and Denis, T.C., 1944   The Geology of Quebec Vol. II: Descriptive Geology, Que. Dept. Mines, Geol. Rept. 20, 630 pages

Clark, T.H., 1947
Summary Report on the Saint-Lawrence Lowlands South of the Saint-Lawrence
River; Que. Dept. Mines, P.R. 204, 

Clark, T.H.,  1952
Montreal area, Laval and Lachine Maps Areas.  Quebec Geological Report 46

Clark, T. H., 1963
Field Trip 10- Breccia localities.  In: T. H. Clark (editor) Guide Book. Geological Association of Canada, 16th Annual Meeting, Montreal, pp. 95-104 [ not available]

Clark, T.H., 1966
Chateauguay Area; Quebec Department of Natural Resources, Geological Report 122, 63p.

Clark, T. H..  1972
Région de Montreal Area, Quebec Geological Report 152, 244 pages

Clark, T. H.  1972a,
Stratigraphy and structure of the St. Lawrence Lowland of Quebec; 24th  International Geological Congress, Field Excursion C52 Guidebook, 82p [Not Available]

Clark, T. H. and Stearn, C.W. , 1963
Ordovician stratigraphy of the St. Lawrence Lowlands: Geological Association of Canada, 16th Annual Meeting, Guide Book pp 39-52 [Not available]

Clark, T. H. and Usher, J. L. 1948.
The sense of Climactichnites. American Journal of Science, 246, 251–253.

Clarke, J. M., 1903
Report of the State Paleontologist, New York Museum Bulletin 5, 55th Annual Report
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofr551901newy/page/538/mode/2up

Clarke, J. M., 1905
Fossil Trails at Bidwell’s Crossing.  Bulletin New York State Museum, No. 80, page 18-20, pl. 3
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/108530#page/26/mode/1up

Clarke, John M. and R. Ruedmann, 1912
The Eurypterida of New York. – New York State Museum, Memoir 14, Albany, 1912, Vol. 1, p  85-86, Footnote.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/134207#page/91/mode/1up

Collette, J.H. and Hagadorn, J.W., 2010
Three-dimensionally preserved arthropods from Cambrian Lagerstatten of Quebec and Wisconsin
J. Paleont., 84(4), 2010, pp. 646–667
 
Collette, J.H., Hagadorn, J.W., and Lacelle, M.A., 2010,
Dead in their tracks: Cambrian arthropods and their traces from intertidal sandstones of Quebec and Wisconsin: Palaios, 475–486.   cf. Didymaulichnus traces

Conway Morris, S. , 1977
Fossil Priapulid Worms. The Palaeontological Association, Special Papers in Palaeontology, 20: 95 pages plus 65 pages of plates
https://www.palass.org/sites/default/files/media/publications/special_papers_in_palaeontology/number_20/spp20_pp1-155.pdf

Cushing,  H. P. 1908.
Lower portion of the Paleozoic section in northwestern New York. Geological Society of America Bulletin 19: 155-176

Cushing, H. P., H. L. Fairchild, R. Rudemann and C. H. Smyth, 1910,
Geology of the Thousand Islands Region (Alexandria Bay, Cape Vincent, Clayton, Grindstone and Theresa Quadrangles): N.Y. St. Mus. Bull., No. 145, 177 p.

Dawson, James C., 2002
Early paleozoic continental shelf to basin transition rocks: Selected classic localities in the lake champlain valley of New York State.  New York State Geological Association field trip A3

Dawson, J. W., 1883
 Impressions on Potsdam sandstone. Science, vol. 1, 1883, p. 177.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/97767#page/193/mode/1up

Dawson, J. W., 1890
On burrows and tracks of invertebrate animals in Paleozoic rocks, and other markings. Geological Survey of London Quarterly Journal, 46:595–617.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/112396#page/693/mode/1up

Dix, G.R., Salad Hersi, O., Molgat, M., and Arnott, R.W.C. 1997:
Lithostratigraphy and sequence stratigraphy of the Lower Paleozoic succession in the Ottawa Valley; Field Trip A2 Guidebook, Geological Association of Canada–Mineralogical Association of Canada, Joint Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Ontario, 48 p. [not available]

Dzik, Jerzy, 2005
Behavioral and Anatomical Unity of the Earliest Burrowing Animals and the Cause of the "Cambrian Explosion"  Paleobiology Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 503-521
 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4096949

Ells, R. W.  1895
The Potsdam and Calciferous formations of Quebec and eastern Ontario: Royal
Soc. Can. Proc. Trans., 12, IV, 21-30, 1895. 

Ells, R. W., 1901
Report on the geology of Argenteuil, Ottawa and part of Pontiac counties, province of Quebec, and portions of Carleton, Russell and Prescott counties, province of Ontario, Geological Survey of Canada Report 739  https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100300823

Ells, R. W., 1902
Report on the geology and natural resources of the area included in the map of the City of Ottawa and vicinity, Geological Survey of Canada, Annual Report (new Series), Volume XII,
The Potsdam at the contact is  tilted and dips S. 50'' E. <15̊-20\ In the vicinity the sandstones
are filled with Scolithos markings which are the only fossils yet recognized in this part of the formation in this district   https://doi.org/10.4095/294885 

Ells, R. W., 1903
Notes on some interesting contacts in the Kingston district. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., 2nd ser., Vol. IX, sec. 4, pp. 97-108, 1903.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/41836#page/817/mode/1up

Ells, R. W., 1907
Report on the geology and natural resources of the area included in the northwest quarter-sheet, number 122, of the Ontario and Quebec series comprising portions of the counties of Pontiac, Carleton and Renfrew,  Geological Survey of Canada Report 977
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001039015
 
Erickson, J.M., 1993
 Cambro-Ordovician Stratigraphy, Sedimentation, and Ichnobiology of the St. Lawrence
Lowlands-Frontenac Arch to the Champlain Valley of New York. Trip A-3( I). New York Geological  Association Field Trip Guidebook, pages 68 - 95.

Erickson, J. M., 2004.
Earliest evidence of invertebrate sexual behavior, or a tidal flat traffic jam in the Potsdam Fm, (Late Cambrian)? Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 36(5):66.

Erickson, J. M. and T. W. Bjerstedt. 1993
Traces Fossils and Stratigraphy in the Potsdam and Theresa Formations of the St. Lawrence Lowland;~New York. Trip A-3(2). New York State Geological Association Field Trip Guidebook, pages 97 - 119. 1 .

Erickson , Mark; Peter Connett and Andrew R. Fetterman, 1993
TRIP A3(4) Distribution of trace fossils preserved in high energy Deposits of the Potsdam Sandstone, Champlain, New York .  New York State Geological Association,

Ferrier, Walter F., 1883
Notes on a fossil track from the Potsdam sandstone of northern Now York State. Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Journal of Science, new series, vol. 10, pp. 466, 467.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31810#page/494/mode/1up

Fisher, D. W., 1956, The Cambrian system of New York State; Cambrian Symposium, 20th International Geological Congress, Mexico City, p. 321-351.  El sistema Cámbrico, su paleogeografía y el problema de su base : symposium [Not available]

Fisher, D.W. 1968.
Geology of the Plattsburgh and Rouses Point, New York–Vermont, quadrangles. Special Bulletin 1, Vermont Geological Survey, Burlington, Vermont.

Flower, R.H. 1964.
The nautiloid order Ellesmeroceratida (Cephalopoda). New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources Memoir 12, Socorro, New Mexico.

Frey, R.W., and Pemberton S,. G., 1984,
Trace fossil facies models, in Walker, R.G., ed., Facies Models: 2nd edition, Geoscience Canada, p. 189-207.  And American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, 189-207. Not available

Getty, Patrick Ryan and James W. Hagadorn, 2008
Reinterpretation of Climactichnites Logan 1860 to include Subsurface burrows, and erection of Musculopodus for Resting traces of the trailmaker. J. Paleontology., 82(6), 2008, pp. 1161–1172

Getty, Patrick Ryan and James W. Hagadorn, 2009
Palaeobiology of the Climactichnites trackmaker. Palaeontology,  Volume: 52,  Part: 4  Publication Date: July 2009 Pages 753 – 778.  DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00875.x

Globensky, Y. 1981
Region de Huntingdon; Ministere de L'Energie et des Ressources, Service des Leves
Geologiques, Rapport Geologique 198. 53p.
http://gq.mines.gouv.qc.ca/documents/examine/RG198/RG198.pdf

Globensky, Y. 1982a
Région de Lachute, Rapport Géologique 200, Quebec, Ministère de l'énergie et des Ressources
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