Reports of the Trace Fossil Climactichnites found in Central Texas

The title for this posting is based in part on a poster presentation at a recent Geological Society of America Conference:  the South-Central Section - 49th Annual Meeting held on March 19 and 20,  2015.  Lydia G. Roundtree of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin at Odessa, Texas presented a paper entitled “New Locality of the Trace Fossil Climactichnites in Central Texas” in which she noted that “The occurrence of Climactichnites is mostly confined to the north eastern part of North America.” and reported that “A possible new location of the tracks has been found in the central region of Texas. This new location is currently being researched by students at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.”

See: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2015SC/webprogram/Paper254211.html

Unfortunately, she has not uploaded her poster and it is not possible to see the tracks.  Further, the  abstract does not give the rock type, age of the rocks or the exact location.   I am curious to see the results of the promised further investigations.  It will be an exciting development if her tracks are confirmed as Climactichnites. 

Interestingly, Lydia Roundtree  is not the first to report Climactichnites from Texas.   When I researched Cambrian rocks in central Texas I was taken to various publications describing the rocks from the Llano region of Texas.    A quick reading of a few of the publications disclosed that in 1977 Virgil E. Barnes and W. Charles Bell reported, when describing the Cambrian Hickory Sandstone Member of the Riley Formation,  that “Climactichnites(?) trails 4 inches wide are exposed in the bed of the Treadgill Creek (between 237 and 239 feet in line of section); such trails have not been seen elsewhere in the Llano region.”

[Virgil E. Barnes and W. Charles Bell, 1977, The Moore Hollow Group of Central Texas, Report of Investigations No. 88, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, at page 77]

In addition, I believe that there are other references to Climactichnites from Texas in this and earlier reports.   At pages 123 and 124 of  the 1977 publication  Barnes and Bell   refer to “Climactonites” in combination with  Cruziana from the Hickory Sandstone Member.   I believe that they are misspelling Climactichnites as Climactonites.    In two earlier publications by the same authors, when describing the same rocks, they also refer to Climactonites.  See:

“These fossils occur above sandstone which is barren except for lebenspuren, such as Cruziana, Climactonites, and various other forms.”
W. Charles Bell and  Virgil E. Barnes,  1972
Cambrian History, Llano Region, in Virgil E. Barnes, W. Charles Bell, S.E. Clabaugh, P.E. Cloud, Jr., R. V. McGehee, P.U. Rodda and Keith Young, Geology of the Llano Region and Austin Area, Field Excursion, Guidebook Number 13, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, at page 24

“These fossils occur above sandstone which is barren except for Lebenspuren, such as Cruziana, Climactonites, and various other forms.”
W. Charles Bell and  Virgil E. Barnes,  1962
Cambrian History, Llano Region, in Geology of the Gulf Coast and Central Texas, and Guidebook of Excursions, published by the  Houston Geological Society for the 1962 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, Edited by E. H. Rainwater and R. P. Zingula, at page 79
archives.datapages.com/data/hgssp/data/013/013001/pdfs/79.pdf

By far the best reference to the environment of the Hickory Sandstone, and one that confirms that Bell and Barnes were identifying Climactichnites,  is a Masters  thesis submitted to the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 by Frank Gary Cornish entitled “Tidally influenced deposits of the Hickory Sandstone, Cambrian, Central Texas”.   He places the trackway Climactichnites in context with other trace fossils and in an environment that sounds much like that of the Nepean Formation of the Potsdam Group.   Part of his abstract is as follows:

“ The six lithofacies of the Hickory Sandstone were deposited as nonbarred tidally-influenced or estuarine-related equivalents to deposits of Holocene environments. Outer estuarine tidal channel-shoal deposits display abundant channel fills of large-scale foresets, parallel bedded sandstone, and minor siltstone. Trilobite trackways (Cruziana) and resting traces (Rusophycus) occur in these deposits, associated with U-shape burrows (Diplocraterion and Corophioides). Deposits of open coast sandy tidal flats display upward-fining character, medium-to large-scale festoon crossbedding, abundant small-scale ripple bedforms of all types, and mudcracks. These deposits include the U-shape burrows, Corophiodes, and the trackway, Climactichnites. Deposits of inner estuarine tidal channels and tidal flats display upward-fining character, wavy-lenticular bedding, bimodal paleocurrent patterns, and the resting trace, Pelecypodichnus. All of these deposits prograded as a unit until sea level rise shut off sediment supply. Progradation of tidal channel and shoal sediments was renewed. These deposits are festoon crossbedded hematitic sandstone with wavy-lenticular bedding and abundant fossil debris. Storm energy funneled through tidal channels deposited crossbedded sandstone onto the nearshore inlet-influenced shelf. Final Hickory deposits and initial Cap Mountain deposits were storm-dominated, burrowed and laminated calcitic shelf sands.

Frank G. Cornish’s thesis can be downloaded from a link at: http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/20401

A photograph of Climactichnites, a specimen found in Gillespie County, appears at page 43 as Plate II D of his thesis.  It looks very much like Climactichnites to me.  

Mr. Cornish mentions at page 9 of his thesis that “The trace fossils Cruziana and Climactichnites were first recognized by Bell and Barnes (1961).”  This is a reference to the following paper:

Bell, W.C. and Barnes, V.E., (1961), Cambrian of central Texas: Internat. Geol. Cong., 20th, Mexico, 1956, El Sistema Cambrica, su paleogeographic y el problema de su base, Tomo III, p. 484-503.   (I have not yet found that paper.)

I view the identification of Climactichnites from Cambrian rocks of Texas as an exciting find, as Climactichnites has wider range than I had expected and is not just confined to  eastern  North America .

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

Update:  July 23, 2015

I located Frank Cornish in Corpus Christi, Texas where he is the principal of Imagine Resources, LLC, a company that specializes in generating South Texas oil and gas prospects.   Frank has generously  given me permission to reproduce his photo of the trace fossil Climactichnites on my blog.  His photo is reproduced below.

It certainly looks like the surface trace Climactichnites wilsoni Logan 1860– a trackway consisting of lateral ridges between which are undulating transverse bars and furrows.

In the text of his thesis Frank Cornish provides this description for the photo: Portion of the Epichnial trail, Climactichnites, from middle rippled unit of burrowed sandstone facies, section GI-CR, Gillespie County, scale:   bar=5 cm.  

Unfortunately, he no longer has the ichnofossils from his thesis.  However, he does have the original negatives for the photographs appearing in his thesis.

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Added July 30, 2015:

Frank Cornish mentioned that the trace fossil Climactichnites wilsoni was found in the Cambrian Hickory Sandstone of Texas in an article published in Palaios in 1986, where he commented:

“The upper, burrowed unit is usually intensely bioturbated and has a massive if mottled appearance resulting from an extremely high density of Diplocraterion habichi burrows.  Other trade fossils in this facies are Climactichnites wilsoni and Planolites monatus.  No body fossils are present.  The trace fossils are dominated by Diplocraterion, ....  The vertical sequence of sedimentary structures, sedimentary textures, and biogenic structures demonstrates that this lithofacies accumulated on moderate-energy intertidal sand flats and intertidal sand bars...””

Frank G. Cornish, 1986,
The Trace-Fossil Diplocraterion: Evidence of Animal-Sediment Interactions in Cambrian Tidal Deposits, Palaios, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Oct., 1986), pp. 478-491 at page 481

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Those with a  new found  interest in the Hickory Sandstone should look at the following field trip guide:

www.geology.sfasu.edu/TASGuidebook2013.pdf
R. LaRell Nielson and Chris A. Barker, 2013
Geology of the Western Llano Uplift, Fredericksburg to Mason, Texas
Texas Academy of Science, 2013, Field Trip, 36 pages.

Stop 2 covers “Exposures of the Cambrian Hickory Sandstone are seen along Crab Apple Creek...  The Hickory Sandstone at this location contains excellent sedimentary structures such as mudcracks, a wide variety of ripple marks and trough cross bedding.”   Crab Apple Creek is in Gillespie County, and this stop could be at the outcrops that appear as  photographs in Plate II in Frank Cornish’s thesis and are the “middle rippled unit of burrowed sandstone” where he found Climactichnites.

Figure 07 in the field trip guide is a photograph with the caption “ Exposures of the Hickory Sandstone along Crab Apple Creek contain well developed trough cross-bedding, ripple marks and mudcracks deposited during the Cambrian System in a beach environment.”   

Figure 08 in the field trip guide shows “Ripple Marks in Hickory Sandstone along Crab Apple Creek” in Gillespie County  and looks like the outcrop that appears as the photograph in Plate IIG in Frank Cornish’s thesis, which he identified as “slightly sinuous bifurcating current ripples from the middle rippled unit of burrowed sandstone facies, Section G1-CR, Gillespie County."

Figure 09 in the field trip guide shows “Mudcracks in Hickory Sandstone along Crab Apple Creek south east of Enchanted Rock Natural Area.” and looks like the outcrop that appears as the photograph in Plate IIC in Frank Cornish’s thesis, which he identified as“Mudcracks form middle rippled unit of burrowed sandstone facies, section GI-CR, Gillespie County.”

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Not surprisingly, the Dresbachian (late Cambrian) age attributed to the Hickory Sandstone of Texas overlaps the Furongian (late Cambrian) age attributed to the rocks of Ontario, Quebec, New York, Missouri and Wisconsin where Climactichnites has been reported.   (What I find truly interesting is that in the late 1800's Charles Doolittle Walcott identified the sandstones of the Llano area of Texas as Upper Cambrian and called them Potsdam sandstone as he had sandstones in New York, Missouri and Wisconsin.)

Burrows or Not Burrows - Part 2

Below are photographs of three more specimens from the Potsdam Group sandstones.

Specimen 6 -  Same sandstone as produced the Protichnites trackways mentioned in my blog posting from July 9, 2013 - Likely the Nepean Formation of the Potsdam Group

The specimen is about three feet wide and over four feet long.  The photograph was taken using the zoom feature on my camera.

In the upper left corner the chevron pattern and absence of lateral ridges suggest that this could be the burrowing trace fossil Climactichnites youngi as the bars in the photograph  compare favourably with the bar bifurcations  in Figures 11 A & B  in Getty and Hagadorn, 2009, with Figures 23,  41 and 48 in Yochelson and Fedonkin, 1993, and with the photographs of Climactichnites youngi in Figures 3.B and 3.C in Seilacher and Hagadorn 2010.   Another interpretation is that the outcrop records wave interference ripples.   (Interfering waves can make just about any pattern, including chevrons.   See for example figure 3.C in Hagadorn and Belt, 2008 .)   

I expect that most people would want to get a closer look at the specimen before making a positive identification.     Unfortunately this specimen is at the top of an unstable blast pile at an active quarry, doesn’t meet my three basic criteria for collecting (1. Can I lift it; 2. Will it fit in the trunk of a Hyundai Accent; 3. Can I park my car close enough that I can carry it to the car), and will probably be crushed into gravel by the middle of next week. 

Specimen 7 - Greyish, pink and buff sandstone, a loose specimen, found where the Hannawa Falls Member of the Covey Hill Formation of the Potsdam Group outcrops  

 

This is interesting as it looks like a trackway, lacks chevrons, arguably has a ridge at  each edge (but not the prominent ridges for Climactichnites wilsoni), but the rock may not be the Nepean Formation.   It was a loose specimen found in a part of a quarry where only the Hannawa Falls Member of the Potsdam outcrops.  The trackway is consistently 5 inches (12 cm) wide and compares favourably with the photographs of Climactichnites youngi in figure 3.B and 3.C in Seilacher and Hagadorn 2010.   If it is Climactichnites, and the rock is not Nepean Formation, then it is out of time as all previous specimens of Climactichnites from the Potsdam Group have been found in the Nepean Formation or the equivalent Cairnside in Quebec or Keeseville in New York State.   The specimen lacks barred chevrons,  but Getty and Hagadorn 2008 define Climactichnites youngi as “Burrows occurring within beds (may be inclined to and crosscut bedding) or at bed interfaces, consisting of undulating bars and furrows that are often oriented at a high angle to the direction of travel. Lateral ridges absent.” and provide the description “Transverse bars straight, sinusoidal, V-, U-, or stitch-shaped.  Straight bars can be perpendicular or at an angle to direction of travel; V- and U-shaped bars most often open in direction of travel. Bars often exhibit bifurcation  and sometimes have backwards-pointing lateral extensions ....”

Sir William Logan originally proposed that the Climactichnites wilsoni trackway was produced by "some species of giant mollusc" (Logan, 1860) and  "a species of mollusk"  (Logan, 1863); a view that is now commonly accepted.  Most now agree that a molluscan origin appears likely.

Specimen 8 - Greyish purple sandstone, a loose specimen,  the Hannawa Falls Member of the Covey Hill Formation of the Potsdam Group, the same sandstone as Specimens 1 and 2 from my last blog posting

 

 

 

This meandering pattern compares favourably with the meandering burrows of slug-like bulldozers that others have found in the Cambrian.  (Under mat mining?)

Christopher Brett
Perth, Ontario

References and Suggestions for Further Reading:

Ellis L. Yochelson and Mikhail A. Fedonkin, 1993,   
Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil
Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology • Number 74
 Smithsonian Institution Press ,Washington, D.C. 1993
http://www.sil.si.edu/smithsoniancontributions/Paleobiology/pdf_lo/SCtP-0074.pdf

Patrick Ryan Getty  and J. Whitey Hagadorn, 2008,
Reinterpretation of Climactichnites Logan 1860 to Include Subsurface Burrows, and Erection of Musculopodus for Resting Traces of the Trailmaker
Journal of Paleontology 82(6):1161-1172.

Patrick Ryan Getty  and J. Whitey Hagadorn, 2009,
Paleobiology of the Climactichnites Tracemaker, Paleontology, Volume 52, pp. 753-778

James W. Hagadorn and Edward S. Belt (2008),
Stranded in Upstate New York: Cambrian Scyphomedusae from the Potsdam Sandstone, Palaios, v. 23, p. 424–441,  doi:10.2110/palo.2006.p06-104r

Adolf Seilacher and J. Whitey Hagadorn 2010
Early Molluscan Evolution: Evidence from the Trace Fossil Record
PALAIOS, September 2010, v. 25, p. 565-575,
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2110/palo.2009.p09-079r

M. Gabriela Mángano  and Luis A.  Buatois,  2015,
The trace-fossil record of tidal flats through the Phanerozoic: Evolutionary innovations and faunal turnover, in  McIlroy, D., ed., ICHNOLOGY: Papers from ICHNIA III:Geological Association of Canada, Miscellaneous Publication 9, p. 157-177

Sören Jensen,  Luis A. Buatois  and M. Gabriela Mángano , 2013,
Testing for palaeogeographical patterns in the distribution of Cambrian trace fossils, Chapter 5 in  Early Palaeozoic Biogeography and Palaeogeography, Geological Society, London, Memoirs 2013, volume 38, p. 45-58
doi: 10.1144/M38.5

Sir William E. Logan, 1860,
On the Tracks of an Animal lately found in the Potsdam Formation,  read before the Natural History Society of Montreal in June, 1860, published in volume V of The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist,  Pages 279-285

Sir William E. Logan,  1863,
Geology of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress from its commencement to 1863, at pages 107-108,