Green’s Creek Fossils

For over one hundred and seventy five years fossils have been reported from concretions in the Leda clay deposits at Green’s Creek, principally at the mouth of  Green’s Creek where it flows into the Ottawa River, but also up to three kilometers eastward along the banks of the Ottawa River, along the creek and along tributary streams flowing into Green’s Creek.   The first reported fossil was the entire skeleton of a fossil fish, and it is fossil fish that are the most heralded and widely known, but Green’s Creek is more than just a source of fossil fish, it has produced fossils of vertebrates, invertebrates, trees, shrubs and plants.  It has been said of Green’s Creek by C.R. Harington (1983), a paleontologist with the National Museum of Natural Sciences, that “Of all fossil localities in Canada, none preserves a better record of life as it was about 10,000 years ago than that at Green’s Creek.”

The Leda clay, a marine clay, locally as thick as 200 feet, was deposited in the Champlain Sea which formed when the glaciers withdrew north of the St. Lawrence Lowland and admitted water from the Atlantic Ocean. The sea existed for about two thousand years and covered  the lower Ottawa River valley, much of Eastern Ontario, the St. Lawrence River valley, and modern Lake Champlain.  While most people think of the Leda clay as a homogeneous unit, geologists who study it tend to break it down into at least three units.  Gadd’s (1986) breakdown consists of  1) regularly laminated varves comprising fine silt and silty clay, with colours of shades of grey;  2)  massive to vaguely stratified silt and silty clay ranging from dark gray to reddish gray, the most fossilferous facies;  and  3) rhythmically to cyclically texture and colour banded of the silt-clay range ,  locally  with  sand   layers  near  or  at  the  top. The units are stacked on top of one another with unit 1 being at the bottom.

The whole of Green’s Creek falls in Ottawa’s Greenbelt and is protected federal land.   Bike and walking paths maintained by the National Capital Commission parallel the creek and the Ottawa River.  In addition, residents of Blackburn Hamlet, which adjoins the creek, have cut paths through the woods, fields and marsh adjacent to the creek.  Everyone that  walks along Green’s Creek will note the stratified bluish-gray clay lining the banks of the creek.  If you look closely you will note that some beds contain calcareous concretions, some round, some sausage shaped, many kidney shaped, most two or three times as long as broad, and most being of a size that can easily be picked up, averaging about 10 to 13 cm in their longest dimension.  They are set free from the clay by the erosion of the banks of the creek and the river, and at one time (before the National Capital Commission reinforced the shoreline of the Ottawa River) were plentiful at the mouth of Green’s Creek  in the spring.   A museum curator that I know has commented that by reinforcing the shoreline the N.C.C. destroyed a world class collecting site, and it is hard to argue with that assessment.

Not all of the concretions in the Leda clay contain fossils, and not all of the clay contains concretions.   The bed of clay that has produced the most fossils is at the highwater mark of the Ottawa River.   Most concretions from other layers are destitute of fossil remains.   I can personally attest to that statement. Thirty-five years ago I looked at concretions along one of the tributary streams, but found no fossils in any of them.

The most abundant fossil fish are a species of capeling, still found in the lower  St. Lawrence, and sculpin.    The Perth Museum has a concretion with a fossil fish from Green’s Creek on display.  (It had two, but one walked.)  Other fossil fish include the lump-sucker, stickleback, lake trout, and smelt.  Rare impressions of feathers, bones of birds and ducks, flying insects, tiny crustaceans, starfish, and worms have been reported.   The bones of a young seal were reported and figured by Leidy (1856) while the teeth and jawbone of a  seal were reported and figured by Dawson (1893).   One concretion contained the skull and forelimb of an American Marten, a land mammal; another, a chipmunk.

Concretions have been found that enclose fragments of wood, leaves of trees, seeds of plants, portions of marine plants, grasses, sedges, mosses, and algae.  Among the trees are the sugar maple, alder, birch and poplar.  An analysis of the flora shows that a third or more are wholly aquatic, and therefore deposited in place, a third are a land plants, drifted in by tributary rivers, and the rest represent semi-aquatic and marsh plants from adjacent land areas. The vegetation is identical to that now found in the Ottawa region, suggesting similar climatic conditions.

Besides the small shell Leda arctica (now Yoldia arctica), a marine mollusc, from which the clay gets its name, other marine and freshwater shells have been found.   Greenbelt land south of Blackburn Hamlet and north of Mud Creek (which  flows into Green’s Creek), exhibits intermittent sand deposits on top of the clay.  These sand  deposits also contain fossil shells.

Early Reports of Fossils in Concretions From Green’s Creek

Sir Charles Lyell, an English geologist, is credited with being the first to report on fossils in concretions from Green’s Creek.  Lyell visited North America in 1841-42 and in his book summarizing his visit (1845, at pages 126-127) mentioned “Mr. Logan obtained near Bytown concretions of clay similar to those called fairy stones, which occur without fossils in the clay at Albany, New York, and at Burlington, Vermont, and in Massachusetts, as described by Professor Hitchcock. In the centre of one of these nodules was the entire skeleton of a fossil fish, allied to, if not identical with, that named Mallotus villosus [ a capelin]  by Professor Agassiz, which now lives in the Greenland seas, and is also found fossil in Greenland.”    While “near Bytown” includes Green’s Creek, and Green’s Creek is the site that has produced the most fossil capelin in concretions, capelin have been found in concretions in clay in other areas around Ottawa.   The ‘Mr. Logan’  that Sir Charles Lyell referred to is William Logan, the founder and first director of the Geological Survey of Canada.

I tried to determine the how Logan obtained the concretions from ‘near Bytown’ but was unable to do so.  The most likely source would have been members of The Royal Engineers stationed in Montreal who mapped the Ottawa River and were involved with the construction of Ottawa River Canals and the Rideau Canal, other members of the Natural History Society of Montreal (e.g. Dr. A.F. Holmes), or  fossil and mineral collectors such as Andrew Dickson of Pakenham, Dr. Van Cortlandt of Bytown , Dr. James Wilson of Perth, or Reverend Andrew Bell.  Both Dickson and Van Cortlandt had collections of fossils from Green’s Creek: – see Dawson, 1859; Dawson, 1868; Ami, 1887.  Reverend Andrew Bell had a large collection of fossils, including plants found in the Leda clay at Green’s Creek, that he bequeathed to Queens, which Dawson, 1868, 1893 reports that he looked at.   Logan was friends with each of Dr. Holmes, Dr. Wilson, Dr.  Van Cortlandt, Andrew Dickson and Reverend Bell.

Harrington (1883) reports that Sir William Logan met Sir Charles Lyell in 1841 when by chance both were in New York City.   The following day William Logan  wrote to his brother James, telling him of Lyell's intended visit to Canada, stating "Lyell will be in Montreal some time in the spring, and if you in your leisure walks will make a collection of all the organic remains you can for him, you will not only be serving  him, but also cause of geology.   ...  The shells in the clay should also be collected, and you should endeavour to ascertain as nearly as possible the height of each locality above the level of the water in the harbour."  Harrington does not mention Logan sending concretions to Lyell.

In the Geological Survey of Canada’s Annual report for 1843, Logan describes the geology of the lands abutting the Ottawa River from Montreal to Bytown, and this appears to be based on personal observation, but he does not mention the clay or concretions at Green’s Creek.  In 1845 Logan traversed and mapped the upper Ottawa, starting at Bytown.  In the Geological Survey of Canada’s Annual report of progress for the year 1845-46, Logan describes the ‘Tertiary  [now Quaternary] Deposits’ along the valley of the Ottawa River, noting that “Along the whole valley of the Ottawa, clays, sands, gravels and boulders are met with in many parts.”  He mentions that “At the mouth of the Gatineau, near Bytown, not only marine shells have been obtained, but, in a nodule of indurated clay found in the deposit there, Mr. McNab, of the Crown Lands Office, some years ago, procured a perfect specimen (now in my possession) of  Mallotus villosus, or common capeling, a small fish, which still frequents the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in vast numbers.”   He does not mention the concretions from Green’s Creek.

The first report by the Geological Survey of Canada on the concretions in Green’s Creek was made by Alexander Murray (1852, pages 76-77), who reported: “but clays occur higher on the Ottawa, in the vicinity of By town, at the mouth of the Gatineau on the north, and of "Green's Creek" on the south side, which in addition to marine shells, of the species Saxicava rugosa, yield in the  latter named locality two species of fish, the Mallotus villosus or common capeling, and Cyclopterus lumpus or lump-sucker, both of which are still inhabitants of northern seas; the capeling still frequents the Gulf of St. Lawrence in great numbers, and the lump-sucker, the northern coasts of Scotland and America. Their fossil representatives are always enclosed in nodules of indurated clay of reniform shapes, and they appear to occupy a  bed nearly on a  level with the water of the Ottawa, ...; the same sort of nodules frequently enclose fragments of wood, leaves of trees, and portions of marine plants; among the last is one of the species of littoral algae still found near the coasts of arctic seas.”  

Where to Find Photographs of Specimens from Green’s Creek

Wagner (1984) contains photographs of concretions bearing fossils from Green’s Creek, namely two of fossil fish (figures 25 and 26), the impression of a feather (figure 33A) and a leaf (figure 33B).  Harington (1983) included photographs of concretions containing a Capelin, a sucker,  a Marchfly, a feather impression, the skull and front leg of an American Marten, a twig, and the tail region of a lake trout.  Kindle (1923, Plate 8, Figures 1 and 2) has an exceptionally clear photo of opposite sides of a concretion showing the skull and other parts of the skeleton of a marten, collected from the Ottawa River below Greens Creek.  McAllister et al. (1981) contains photographs of two fossil fish (a lake cisco and a rainbow smelt) from Green’s Creek.  Champagne et al. (1979) contains photographs of a fossil deepwater sculpin in a nodule from Green’s Creek.  Dawson (1893; pages 266, 268b) contains sketches of a fossil fish (the sculpin pictured above) in a concretion and of the jawbone of a seal in a concretion.  Dawson (1869) contains lithographs of concretions from Green’s Creek containing leaves and one containing a  piece of wood.  Gadd (1980) contains photographs of a concretion containing a  capelin, a concretion containing the imprint of a feather and a concretion containing a piece of Willow wood, all from Green’s Creek. Leidy (1856) figured a concretion found by Billings that contained the bones of a young seal. Below are one of Dawson’s lithographs and Leidy’s lithograph:

A spectacular photograph of both parts of a nodule with a fossil fish from Green’s Greek is on the Geological Survey of Canada’s web site at  http://www.science.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/97214.html

The Museum of Nature’s Collection

For over fifty years the Canadian Museum of Nature (the Victoria Memorial Museum at Metcalfe and McLeod Streets, Ottawa) has had on display a few fossils from Green’s Creek, including feather impressions and (if I recall correctly) the American Marten.  The museum provides the ability to search its collections online at http://collections.nature.ca/en/Search/Index
A search for ‘Green’s Creek’ in the Paleobiology Collection reveals over 1,600 specimens, including over 700 specimens of Mallotus villosus, a capelin.  Notably one specimen of Mallotus villosus from Green’s Creek was collected by William Logan and A. Dickson, presumably the Andrew Dickson who founded Pakenham, Ontario. 

The Redpath Museum at McGill in Montreal also has a collection of fossils from Green’s Creek.

Concretion Formation

Various theories have been advanced as to how the concretions at Green’s Creek were formed and why the concretions from Green’s Creek contain fossils but many parts of the Leda clay are devoid of concretions containing fossils.   A number of authors have commented on the topic.   A few are mentioned below.

Logan (1863) commented “About the mouth of Green's Creek, in Gloucester, a bed in the clay, near high-water mark, abounds in nodular masses, which are strewn along the shore of the Ottawa for two miles to the eastward. These seem to have been formed by a process of concretion around various organic remains, which are found on breaking open the nodules.”

Coleman (1901), when discussing concretions from Green’s Creek, suggested that “Similar clay higher up and farther inland seems to be without them, perhaps not containing lime enough to form them.”

Johnston  (1917) and  Kindle  (1923) suggested that the concretions were related to streams cutting the clay as few concretions are found in areas where there are no streams.    Johnston commented: “It is generally held that calcareous clay concretions, such as those found in the marine clay, are formed only in the zone of cementation, above the general permanent level of the ground water, and this appears to be borne out by the mode of occurrence of the concretions in this area.  Hence it is probable that the concretions were formed after the complete withdrawal of the marine waters and largely during the  time since the establishment of the present drainage. The marked oscillations of ground water level in the vicinity of the streams, especially in the lower portion of the Ottawa river owing to the rise and fall of the river, would greatly favour concretionary action and would explain the apparent absence of' the concretions in the clays at some distance from the river courses where the oscillations of ground water level would not be pronounced."  

Kindle (1923) suggested that the difference in temperature between Green’s Creek and the Ottawa River waters favoured the development of concretions, commenting that “These changes of temperature will be transmitted to the ground-waters permeating the clays of the river bank and result in frequent and abrupt changes in the lime-solvent powers of these waters by affecting their CO2 content through increasing or lowering the temperature. Changes of this character, it is believed, would stimulate the development of concretions.” 

Kindle (1923) also suggested that a factor favorable to the formation of these concretions is the diurnal change of temperature of river banks denuded of forests and exposed to the full glare of the sun resulting in the “relatively rapid movement of ground-water toward the exposed section as a result of evaporation and a consequent large transfer of the soluble materials required for the growth of concretions.”

Gadd (1971) found hard, circular, carbonate concretions at the faces of stream-cut banks in Champlain Sea clay along the St. Lawrence river valley, and concretions with a “malleable, putty-like consistency” about 30 inches in from the faces of stream banks.  Gadd (1971) suggested that the induration of carbonate concretions was “related to proximity to the exposure face of the stream-cut banks” and “that evaporation of groundwater at the exposed face of the varved deposits causes crystallization of the carbonates and final hardening of the concretions.”   

Yoshida et al. (2018) studied carbonate concretions from three locations in Japan, some containing well preserved fossils.  They reviewed the generalized conditions of spherical calcium carbonate concretion formation and concluded that concretions form  by reactions between HCO3 - and Ca2+ ions as concretions grow outwards, with carbon supplied by the organic source within the concretion and Ca2+ in the surrounding seawater-derived pore-water. They suggest that concretions “continue to grow until there is no more carbon of organic origin remaining within the concretion.”  They envisage a reaction front at the margin of the concretion characterized by rapid precipitation of CaCO3 due to super saturation and a pH increase at the cementation front.  They suggest that “This front is developed in any kind of carbonate-rich spherical concretion formed syn-genetically during burial of marine sediments with organic carbon sources in the concretions.” 

Assuming that organic decomposition furnished the carbon in the form of HCO3 - while the groundwater furnished the Ca2+ to make the calcium carbonate concretions, then the pH and ions in the water would have been important factors, and Johnston’s  (1917) and  Kindle’s  (1923) suggestion that the formation of  concretions was  related to streams cutting the clay might have been a factor if the streams were higher in Ca2+ or contributed to the adjacent groundwater having a different pH than the groundwater where there were no streams.

A problem with applying Yoshida et al. (2018) study to the Green’s Creek concretions is that there doesn’t appear to be enough organic carbon in many of the concretions (e.g., a concretion containing a leaf)  to generate the volume of carbonate in the concretion.  In addition Gadd’s (1980) report on his examination of numerous concretions does not support Yoshida et al.’s  (2018) suggestion.    In 1961 Nelson R. Gadd of the Geological Survey of Canada made a collection of about 700 concretions from a 30 meter section along the Ottawa River at Green’s Creek.  He split and examined the concretions.  He  reported (1980) that “the largest number of concretions consisted solely of cemented sediment. Fewer than sixty concretions (<10%) had nuclei. Among the nuclei such things as pebbles and mudballs, including till, sand lenses, etc. were common, leaving only about thirty of the concretions that contained organic remains as nuclei. These remains included single marine mollusc shells and groups of typical Champlain Sea shells.... one contained the cast of a feather ... [one] contained a piece of wood large enough for radiocarbon dating.”

Gadd (1962a, b) proposed that  the Champlain Sea clay was deposited in two phases: the original deeper deposit in a brackish or marine environment; the second major deposition or reworking in fresher water, with the freshwater clay outcropping along Green’s Creek from about Montreal Road to the  Ottawa River and along the banks of the Ottawa River (and the marine clay outcropping in the bed of Green’s Creek south of Montreal Road).   Gadd (1980) suggested that the  “Occurrence of complete skeletons of fish and other vertebrates in concretions is related to chemically induced carbonate cementation during early stages of putrefaction of soft-bodied animals. This could preserve skeletal remains through several cycles of erosion. Therefore some concretions carry fossil remains that may be allochtonous to the sediment in which they now occur. “

Christopher Brett
Ottawa, Ontario

Added February 1, 2021:    In 1987 The Geological Survey of Canada branch of Energy Mines and Resources published a brochure with the title ‘Surficial Geology and the Ice Age in the National Capital Region’ which on one side contained a geologic map of the Surficial and Terrain Features of Ottawa-Hull (extracted from GSC Map 1425A), and on the other side contained a synopsis of the Pleistocene Glaciation and the glacial sediments in the National Capital Region.  It also included photographs of five Pleistocene fossils found in glacial sands and clay, plus fossils in three clay nodules from Green’s Creek, plus a separate photograph of a nodule from Green’s Creek and a photograph of the 1971 Castleman landslide in Leda Clay.  The page of fossils is reproduced below in accordance with the permission granted  to reproduce Government of Canada works by Natural Resources Canada.   The reproduction has not been produced in affiliation with, or with the endorsement of the Government of Canada.

 

Fossil 3 is a barnacle.
Fossils 2, 4, 5, and 6 are Pelecypods (clams) with the most famous being 2 Saxicava (now Hiatella arctica) and 6 Leda arctica (now Yoldia arctica).
Fossils 2, 3, 4, 5 were collected in sandpits near the Ottawa airport.
Fossils 1, 7, 8  are concretions from Green’s Creek.  Photograph 1 shows a concretion containing Mallotus villosus, a capelin; 7, a leaf;  8, a feather.

The fossil Hiatella arctica is so common that early investigators of Quaternary geology (including Dawson, Logan, Ami, Coleman, Johnston)  used  the former species name Saxicava rugosa to designate Champlain Sea sand and gravel as Saxicava sand.   The shell Leda arctica (now Yoldia arctica) was common in the clay.   Those marine shells in  'Saxicava Sand' and 'Leda Clay' indicate a sub-arctic climate.

References and Suggested Reading

Ami, H. M., 1878
The great ice age and subsequent formation at Ottawa, Ontario.
Ottawa Naturalist, Volume 1, 65-74 and 81-88
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/15579#page/89/mode/1up

Ami, H. M., 1897
Contribution to the Paleonology of the post-pliocene deposits of the Ottawa Valley.  Ottawa Naturalist 11, 20-26
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/94746#page/26/mode/1up

Ami, H. M.,   1902
List of fossils to accompany report of Dr. R. W. Ells on the City of Ottawa map. Pages 51G-56G In  Ells, R W, Geological Survey of Canada, Annual Report (n.s.) Volume 12 (1899), part G, 77 pages     https://doi.org/10.4095/294885 (Open Access)

Billings, E., 1857
 On the Tertiary Rocks of Canada, with some account of their Fossils.
The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Volume: v.1,  321- 346
 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/32713#page/349/mode/1up

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.,  2014a
Andrew Dickson, a Founder of Pakenham, Sheriff of Bathurst District, and Geologist, Blog posting dated Thursday, 22 May 2014

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

Brett, Christopher P., 2015a
Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt, M.D., (1805-1875) of Bytown and Ottawa, Surgeon, Field Naturalist, Museum Curator and Amateur Geologist. Blog posting dated Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Brett, Christopher P., 2015b
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

Brett, Christopher P.,  2020
Diplocraterion in Dodds and Erwin’s Glacially Polished Sandstone Parking Lot, Lanark County .
Blog Posting dated Friday, 13 November 2020

Champagne, Donald E; C. R. Harington; Don E. McAllister 1979
 Deepwater sculpin, Myoxocephalus thompsoni (Girard) from a Pleistocene nodule, Green Creek, Ontario, Canada.  Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 16 (8): 1621–1628.
https://doi.org/10.1139/e79-147

Coleman, A.P.,. 1901
Sea Beaches of Eastern Ontario,  Ontario Bureau of Mines, 10, 215-227
http://www.geologyontario.mndmf.gov.on.ca/mndmfiles/pub/data/imaging/ARV10/ARV10.pdf

Coleman, A.P.,. 1922
Glacial  and   Post-glacial   Lakes in Ontario. University of Toronto Studies, Publications of the Ontario Fisheries Research Laboratory, No.  10
http://www.harkness.ca/PDFs/OFRL%20Publications/Journal10.pdf

Dawson, J. W., 1857
 On the Newer Pliocene and Post Pliocene Deposits of the Vicinity of Montreal, with notices of
fossils recently discovered in them.  Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. 2, no. 6, p. 401-426   https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/109318#page/507/mode/1up
 
Dawson, J. W., 1859
 Additional Notes on the Post-Pliocene Deposits of the St. Lawrence Valley; Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Volume IV, Article III, at pages 36 and 37

Dawson, J. W., 1869
The evidence of fossil plants as to the climate of the post-pliocene period in Canada.  Canadian Naturalist, New Series, volume 3,  69-76
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31790#page/79/mode/1up

Dawson, J.  W. , 1871
The  post-Pliocene  geology  of  Canada,   Canadian Naturalist,  (n.s.), vol.  6,  p.  116-187,  241-259, 369-416.  

Dawson. J.W. , 1878 
Note on a fossil seal from the Leda clay  of the Ottawa Valley.  Canadian Naturalist,  New Series,  8 , 340-341, Read before the Natural History Society, Oct. 29, 1877.
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/32753#page/364/mode/1up

Dawson. J.W. , 1893
The Canadian ice age. Montreal, William V. Dawson. 301 pages
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/38902#/summary

Gadd, N.R., 1962a.
Surficial Geology of the Ottawa Area. Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Paper 62-16, 4 p.
 https://doi.org/10.4095/121219

Gadd, N.R., 1962b.
Surficial Geology of the Ottawa Area. Map 16-1962, to Accompany Paper 62-16.  Preliminary Series. Geological Survey of Canada,

Gadd, N. R. , 1971
Pleistocene geology of the central St. Lawrence Lowland, Ottawa, Geol. Survey of Canada , Memoir 359.

Gadd, Nelson R. 1980
Maximum age for a concretion at Green Creek, Ontario .
Géographie physique et Quaternaire, volume 34  (2), 229–238.
https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/gpq/1980-v34-n2-gpq1496473/1000400ar.pdf

Gadd, Nelson R. 1986
Lithofacies of the Leda Clay in the Ottawa Basin of the Champlain Sea.  Geological Survey of Canada. Paper 85-21.  44 pages.

Harrington, Bernard J., 1883
Life of Sir William E. Logan. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 432 pages.

Harrington, C.R.,  1972
The Champlain sea and its Vertebrate Fauna. Part I. The History and Environment of the Champlain Sea.    Trail and Landscape, volume 5, No. 5, 137-141    https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/268023#page/19/mode/1up

Harrington, C.R.,  1972
The Champlain sea and its Vertebrate Fauna. Part II,   Trail and Landscape 6, No. 1, 33-39
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/268141#page/35/mode/1up

Harrington, C.R., 1981
Whales and seals of the Champlain Sea. Trail and Landscape 15:32-47.

Harington, C. R. 1983 
Significance of the fossil locality at Green Creek, Ontario, Trail and Landscape 17 (3) 164-168
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/202663#page/62/mode/1up

Johnston, W. A., 1917
Pleistocene and Recent Deposits in the Vicinity of Ottawa, with a Description of the Soil
Geological Survey of Canada, Memoir 101  https://doi.org/10.4095/101671

Kindle, E. M., 1923
Range and distribution of certain types of Canadian Pleistocene concretions,
Bulletin  Geological Society of  America , 34 (3), p.  609-648. 
https://doi.org/10.1130/GSAB-34-609

Kindle, E. M.,  1928
A crustacean new to the Pleistocene fauna of Canada; Can. Field-Naturalist, vol. vol. 42, No. 9, pp. 211 , 2 12. [ east of Ottawa , on the bank of the Ottawa river, a few hundred yards below the rifle range]   https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/89279#page/293/mode/1up
 
Leidy, Joseph, 1856
Note on Fossil Animal Transmitted by Mr. Billings; Notice of the remains of a species of Seal, from the Post-pliocene deposit of the Ottawa River.  Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol 8, pages 62 and 90-91
 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/18246#page/82/mode/1up
Plate III at : https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/18246#page/539/mode/1up

Logan, W.E., 1845
Geological Survey of Canada. Report of progress for the year 1843. Published in 1845
159 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/123553

Logan, W.E., 1847
Geological Survey of Canada. Report of progress for the year 1845-6. 125 pages
 https://doi.org/10.4095/123555

Logan, W.E.,  1863.
The Geology of Canada, Geological Survey of Canada. Report of progress from its commencement to 1863, 983p, Dawson Brothers, Montreal.
https://archive.org/details/reportofprogress00geolrich

Lyell, Charles, 1845
Travels in North America, in the years 1841-2 : with geological observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia.  New-York :Wiley and Putnam,
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/150023#/summary

Lyell, K. M. (Editor), 1881
Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart.  Two Volumes.
Cambridge University Press

McAllister, Don E.. Stephen Cumba, and C. R. Harington, 1981
Pleistocene fishes (Coregonus, Osmerus, Microgadus, Gasterosteus) from Green Creek, Ontario,
Canada , Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (1981) 18 (8): 1356–1364.
https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e81-125

Murray, Alexander, 1852
Report of Alex. Murray, Esq., Assistant Provincial Geologist Addressed to W.E. Logan, Esq., Provincial Geologist. Geological Survey of Canada, Reportof progress for the year, 1851-52.

Sheldon, J.M. Arms, 1900
Concretions from the Champlain clays of the Connecticut Valley. Boston. 45 pages plus 14 plates, with 160 illustrations 

Wagner, F. J.E.,  1967
Published references to Champlain Sea faunas 1837-1966 and list of fossils. Geological  Survey of Canada Paper 67-16, pp. 1-82.    https://doi.org/10.4095/100919

Wagner, F. J. E, 1970
 Faunas of the Pleistocene Champlain Sea.  Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 181, 104 pages (1 sheet),  https://doi.org/10.4095/102325 

Wagner, Frances J. E., 1984
Fossils of Ontario: Part 2: Macroinvertebrates and vertebrates of the Champlain Sea, with a listing of nonmarine Species.   The Royal Ontario Museum
https://archive.org/details/fossilsofontario02bolt
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/6084785.pdf

Yoshida, Hidekazu , Koshi Yamamoto, Masayo Minami, Nagayoshi Katsuta, Sirono Sin-ichi & Richard Metcalfe (2018)
Generalized conditions of spherical carbonate concretion formation around decaying organic matter in early diagenesis | Scientific Reports,  volume 8, Article number: 6308 (2018)
 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-24205-5
 

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

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

 

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.