Trace fossils are recorded from eight localities within Upper Cambrian (Ffestiniog Stage) strata in North Wales. Trilobite furrows (Cruziunu), resting impressions (Rusophycus), walking and striding tracks (Dipfichnites), sideways grazing tracks (Dimorphichnus) and swimming grazing marks (Monomorphichnus, gen. nov.) are described, largely on the basis of over 500 collected specimens, and are figured together with examples of other trace fossil genera including Rouuultiu, Phycodes and Monocruterion. The trilobite traces are used to investigate the varied methods of locomotion of the animals. They also indicate the morphology of some of the trilobite hard and soft parts from which it is inferred that most of these traces were probably made by a population consisting of a small number of closely allied species of trilobites belonging to the Olenid family.

Trace fossils became relatively diverse in shallow-water clastic seas in the late Proterozoic (Vendian), with a further significant increase in abundance, diversity and complexity in the Tommotian and Atdabanian. Little change followed in the remainder of the Lower Palaeozoic. Traces typical of deeperwater facies evolved in shallow water during the Vendian and early Cambrian, and may have slowly migrated into the deep ocean during the remainder of the

The most extensive ichnofauna yet recorded from a deep water Lower Palaeozoic sequence occurs within the distal turbidites of the Lower Silurian Aberystwyth Grits Formation of Central Wales.The strata contain an abundant assemblage comprising 25 ichnogenera: Asteriacites, Bergaueria, Chondrites, Cochlichnus, Cosmorhaphe, Glockerichnus, Gordia, Helicolithus, Helminthopsis, Helminthoida, Hormosiroidea, Lorenzinia, Megagrapton, Monomorphichnus, Neonereites, Nereites, Palaeophycus, Paleodictyon, Planolites, Protopaleodictyon, Spirorhaphe, Spirophycus, Squamodictyon, Subphyllochorda, Taphrhelminthopsis; 36 ichnospecies are described, three of which (Asteriacites aberensis. Helminthopsis regularis, Cosmorhaphe elongata) are new.The inorganic sedimentary structures and trace fossils of some 418 sandstone beds were examined in detail; 16 per cent of the beds commence with Divisions A or B and 84 per cent with Division C of the turbidite sequence. This indicates a relatively distal environment, mainly receiving low velocity turbidity currents, and favouring trace fossil preservation. The most common traces were Helminthopsis, Paleodictyon, and Squamodictyon which were found on 46 per cent, 34 per cent, and 19 per cent of the beds examined.Data from this, and other recently described sequences, confirms that there was a gradual increase in trace fossil diversity in the deep oceans throughout the Lower Palaeozoic, in contrast to the situation in shallow water shelf seas where a peak was reached as early as the Lower Cambrian.

Body and trace fossils of Ediacaran affinity are described from strata of the late Neoproterozoic Longmyndian Supergroup exposed near Church Stretton, Shropshire, UK. The almost spherical soft-bodied Ediacaran fossil Beltanelliformis brunsae Menner occurs rarely in the Burway Formation, but much smaller, simpler, discoidal structures are common in both the Burway and Synalds formations and are referred to Beltanelliformis minutae sp. nov. Similar discoidal structures, but with a distinct central depression, are included in Intrites punctatus Fedonkin and are common at several horizons. Two blocks with numerous examples of Medusinites aff. asteroides (Sprigg) Glaessner & Wade were recovered from the Burway Formation. The purported Ediacaran body fossil ‘Arumberia’ Glaessner & Walter is common at several horizons but its biogenicity is not accepted herein. ‘Arumberia’ is thus treated along with evidence for microbially bound sediment surfaces or matgrounds that have been suggested by several authors to be necessary for some types of Ediacaran preservation. The assemblage of simple trace and body fossils along with matgrounds is typical of latest Neoproterozoic time, though some elements range into the Phanerozoic.

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