Jamaican Cenozoic ichnology: review and prospectus

Abstract

Jamaica has the most diverse record of Cenozoic trace fossils of any of the Antillean islands, with over 100 ichnospecies divided among more than 50 ichnogenera. Trace fossils have been identified from both shallow‐ and deep‐water deposits in most major lithostratigraphic divisions, namely the Paleogene Richmond Formation (Wagwater Group), the mid‐Cenozoic White Limestone Group and the Neogene Coastal Group. Persistent ichnogenera in these palaeoenvironments include the burrows Palaeophycus Hall, Planolites Nicholson, Taenidium Heer and Thalassinoides Ehrenberg (deeper water), and the borings/microborings Entobia Bronn, Gastrochaenolites Leymerie and Oichnus Bromley (shallow water). Differences in diversity of ichnotaxa between formations can, in part, be due to differences in lithofacies and absolute water depth. This is recognized in the differences in deeper water lithofacies between the Richmond Formation (siliciclastic turbidites), White Limestone Group (chalks), Lower Coastal Group (submarine mass flow deposits) and Upper Coastal Group (deep fore reef). Intervals and lithofacies still awaiting detailed investigation include Pleistocene red beds and fore‐reef, Pliocene raised reef and shallow siliciclastic shelf, and most of the varied palaeoenvironments represented by the Eocene Yellow Limestone Group. Only crocodile coprolites (Eocene) are attributable to vertebrates; algal microborings apart, the only plant traces are Pleistocene root casts that await description. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Shell-Filled Burrows in the Upper Oligocene Antigua Formation, Antigua, Lesser Antilles

“…Planolites ispp. sensu stricto is well known from the Antilles, particularly from Jamaica, such as the Paleogene Richmond Formation, mid-Tertiary White Limestone Group and Miocene-Pliocene Lower Coastal Group (Donovan et al, 2015, and references therein), and the Middle Miocene Grand Bay Formation of Carriacou . The second morphology of shell-filled burrow is distinct from Planolites?…”

Professor Ron K. Pickerill and the genesis of ichnology in the Antilles (Jamaica and Carriacou)

“…Research on the Richmond Formation mainly occurred in the early 1990s (Fig. 2D), and over the past 25 years has yielded 22 ichnotaxa (Donovan et al 2015, table 1) occurring in two water-depth-related associations (Donovan et al 1990(Donovan et al , 2005Pickerill and Donovan 1991;Pickerill et al 1992Pickerill et al , 1993cPickerill and Mitchell 1999;Fig. 4 herein).…”

“…Trace fossils have been described from both the Bowden and August Town formations. Sporadic studies of the trace fossils of the August Town Formation have concentrated on the particularly well-exposed coastal succession of the Round Hill beds, south-central Jamaica (Donovan and Miller 1999;Donovan et al 2015, table 4). Pickerill et al (1993a) provided the only detailed description of a trace fossil from these beds, namely the rosette-shaped burrow Dactyloidites ottoi.…”

“…A review of the results of the past 25 years of ichnological research in Jamaica is presented elsewhere (Donovan et al 2015). Herein, I aim to record some of the other aspects of this work.…”

Discussion of Jamaican Cenozoic ichnology: review and prospectus: (v. 50, pp. 364–382)

“…We read the paper by Donovan et al . () with great interest, as it represents a very useful summary of the ichnology of Jamaica. However, we feel the audience for the paper would benefit from some discussion and the correction of a probable stratigraphic error.…”