Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil

Yochelson, Ellis L.; Fedonkin, M. A.

doi:10.5479/si.00810266.74.1

Cited by 22 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Cambrian shallow wave-and tide-influenced deposits of Laurentia contain a rich trace-fossil record (Summerson, 1951;Yochelson and Fedonkin, 1993;MacNaughton et al, 2002;Dix et al, 2004;Hagadorn, 2008, 2009;Hagadorn and Seilacher, 2009), and rarely, arthropod body fossils (Nelson, 1951;Wahlman and Caster, 1978;Hesselbo, 1992;Collette and Hagadorn, 2010). Both units comprise time-transgressive successions whose ages are only constrained on a regional scale, and both units have a complex nomenclatural history.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Dead in Their Tracks--Cambrian Arthropods and Their Traces From Intertidal Sandstones of Quebec and Wisconsin

Collette

Hagadorn

Lacelle³

2010

PALAIOS

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The large euthycarcinoid arthropod Mictomerus melochevillensis from the middle Cambrian-Furongian Potsdam Group of Quebec occurs as threedimensional casts at the end of Cruziana-and Didymaulichus-like trace fossils. This association provides a rare opportunity to test functional morphological hypotheses about these animals, it provides a framework for understanding how arthropods can be sand-cast in three dimensions, and it suggests that euthycarcinoids may have burrowed into mud as an antidesiccation strategy. In the coeval Elk Mound Group of Wisconsin, the phyllocarid arthropod Arenosicaris inflata occurs on the same beds as Cruziana-like and Rusophycus traces; together with morphologically similar ropelike traces, they are interpreted as having been produced by phyllocarids. These traces preserve the earliest known ethological evidence of phyllocarid crustaceans, and imply that Cambrian phyllocarids employed antidesiccation and possibly feeding strategies still used by modern intertidal leptostracan phyllocarids.

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Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Dead in Their Tracks--Cambrian Arthropods and Their Traces From Intertidal Sandstones of Quebec and Wisconsin

Collette

Hagadorn

Lacelle³

2010

PALAIOS

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“…C limactichnites is the trail of a Late Cambrian (Furongian) animal that lived in coastal palaeoenvironments of Laurentia. It is interesting because it is the largest known Cambrian trace fossil, because it may have been one of the first animals to venture onto land (Yochelson and Fedonkin 1990, 1993) and because it is one of the only abundant and widely distributed trace fossils to go ‘extinct’. Climactichnites is part of a genetically related continuum of trace fossils, Climactichnites wilsoni , Climactichnites youngi and Musculopodus sedentarius (Getty and Hagadorn 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2007). Yochelson and Fedonkin (1993) went further, suggesting Climactichnites was produced by an extinct phylum of animals with lateral and anterior flaps; this hypothesis is falsified later in this treatment.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on trail morphology and the ovoid ‘body’ impressions (i.e. M. sedentarius ), there is widespread agreement that the animal had a soft, ovoid, flexible foot (Todd 1882; Woodworth 1903; Burling 1917) and a flexible anterior (Burling 1917; Yochelson and Fedonkin 1993). Thus, most authors interpret Climactichnites to have been produced by a mollusc or ‘worm’ (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…M. sedentarius ; Burling 1917; Clark and Usher 1948). This work also suggested that its v‐shaped transverse bars opened toward the direction of movement (Clark and Usher 1948), and together with offset and partial transverse bars, suggested that the animal employed a ditaxic movement strategy in which its posterior maintained a constant shape (Yochelson and Fedonkin 1993).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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PALAEOBIOLOGY OF THE CLIMACTICHNITES TRACEMAKER

Getty¹,

Hagadorn

2009

Palaeontology

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Trace fossils such as Climactichnites offer rare insights into the palaeobiology of Cambrian soft-bodied animals, especially those that inhabited emergent sand flats and are not known from body fossils. Analysis of field and museum Climactichnites, together with experiments on the preservation of similar modern trails, indicates that the tracemaker was an elongate, bilaterally symmetrical, dorsoventrally flattened, soft-bodied animal with a muscular foot. These characteristics are consistent with the tracemaker being a primitive mollusc or mollusc-like animal. Unlike most Neoproterozoic and Cambrian molluscs, the tracemaker could reach considerable size; at up to c. 69 cm long, it was one of the largest Cambrian animals of its time. When moving on the sediment surface, locomotion resulted from muscular waves generated along the sole of its flexible foot; the foot was extended and then clamped onto the substrate. Contraction of pedal muscles then pulled the body forward.Sedimentary structures associated with Climactichnites wilsoni, such as polygonal desiccation cracks, raindrop impressions, adhesion structures and gas escape structures demonstrate that the animal inhabited intermittently subaerially exposed environments. The tracemaker's method of locomotion is similar to that employed by modern intertidal gastropods, which make Climactichnites-like trails on exposed sand flats. However, these modern trails are not preserved because of erosion by wind, waves, tides and subsequent bioturbation. Abundant microbial sedimentary structures are associated with C. wilsoni, and together with low levels of vertical bioturbation, intimate that microbial binding may have mediated the preservation of these early mollusc trails.

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Earliest Trace Fossils

Trace Fossil Analysis

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Paleobiology of Climactichnites, an Enigmatic Late Cambrian Fossil

Cited by 22 publications

References 8 publications

Dead in Their Tracks--Cambrian Arthropods and Their Traces From Intertidal Sandstones of Quebec and Wisconsin

Dead in Their Tracks--Cambrian Arthropods and Their Traces From Intertidal Sandstones of Quebec and Wisconsin

PALAEOBIOLOGY OF THE CLIMACTICHNITES TRACEMAKER

Earliest Trace Fossils

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