Fluvial and eolian ichnofaunas from the Lower Permian of South America (Patquía Formation, Paganzo Basin)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/105.000001582Keywords:
Scoyenia ichnofacies, Eolian ichnofacies, Tetrapod footprints, Early Permian, Patquía, FormationAbstract
The Lower Permian Patquía Formation is the youngest unit of the Paganzo Basin, western Argentina. The lower section consists of red mudstones, and fine- and coarse grained sandstones deposited in fluvial systems with extensive and thick floodplain deposits. These rocks contain a low-diversity and relatively abundant association of trace fossils suggesting the activity of a sub-superficial to superficial fauna. The association is characterized by Rusophycus carbonarius (Cubichnia), Cruziana problematica (Repichnia), and Palaeophycus tubularis (Domichnia) of the Scoyenia ichnofacies. Disarticulated fish remains are also present. The upper section is dominated by red, cross-bedded, medium- to fine-grained sandstones deposited in eolian systems that host a lowdiversity and low-abundance association of trace fossils that indicates the activity of a mainly superficial fauna. Tetrapod footprints (Chelichnus duncani, oval digit imprints, short parallel grooves, and sinusoidal grooves), horizontal to vertical burrows (Palaeophycus tubularis and Skolithos isp. respectively), and arthropod trackways are the typical components of these deposits. The association shows elements of the three presently proposed eolian ichnofacies (Chelichnus, Octopodichnus and Entradichnus ichnofacies) suggesting the necessity of revision and the possible integration of these separate ichnofacies into a single model. The record of fossil vertebrate tracks is uncommon in Lower Permian strata of South America. Therefore, the ichnologic record of the Patquía Formation is a significant contribution to the understanding of Lower Permian South American ichnofaunas.
References
Aceñolaza, F.G., Buatois, L.A., 1991. Trazas fósiles del Paleozoico Superior continental Argentino. Ameghiniana, 28(1-2), 89-108.
Aceñolaza, F.G., Buatois, L.A., 1993. Nonmarine perigondwanic trace fossils from the late Paleozoic of Argentina. Ichnos, 2, 183-201.
Alpert, S.P., 1974. Systematic review of the genus Skolithos. Journal of Paleontology, 48, 661-669.
Azcuy, C.L., Morelli, J.R., 1970. Geología de la Comarca de Paganzo - Amaná. El Grupo Paganzo, formaciones que lo componen y sus relaciones. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina, 25(4), 405-429.
Azcuy, C.L., Valencio, D.A., Vilas, J.F., 1979. Estratigrafía de la comarca de Amaná - Talampaya. Neuquén, 1978, VII Congreso Geológico Argentino, 1(Actas), 243-246.
Bertling, M., Braddy, S.J., Bromley, R.G., Demathieu, G.R., Genise, J., Mikuláš, R., Nielsen, J.K., Nielsen, K.S.S., Rindsberg, A.K., Schlirf, M., Uchman, A., 2006. Names for trace fossils: a uniform approach. Lethaia, 39(3), 265-286.
Bodenbender, G., 1911. Constitución geológica de la parte meridional de la provincia de La Rioja y regiones limítrofes. República Argentina. Córdoba, Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias, 19(1), 2-211.
Bodenbender, G., 1912. Parte meridional de la provincia de La Rioja y regiones limítrofes. Constitución geológica y productos minerales. Buenos Aires, Anales del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, Sección Geología, Mineralogía y Minería, 7(3), 1-161.
Bown, T.M., 1982. Ichnofossils and rhizoliths of the near shore fluvial Jebel Qatrani Formation (Oligocene), Fayum Province, Egypt. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 40, 255- 309.
Bromley, R.G., Asgaard, U., 1972. Notes on Greenland trace fossils: freshwater Cruziana from the Upper Triassic of Jameson Land, east Greenland. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport, 49, 7-13.
Bromley, R.G., Asgaard, U., 1979. Triassic freshwater ichnocoenoses from Carlsberg Fjord, east Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 28, 39-80.
Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., 1995. The paleoenvironmental and paleoecological significance of the lacustrine Mermia ichnofacies: an archetypical subaqueous nonmarine trace fossil assemblage. Ichnos, 4, 151-161.
Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., 2004. Animal-substrate interactions in freshwater environments: applications of Ichnology in facies and sequence stratigraphic analysis of fluvio-lacustrine successions. In: McIlroy, D.M. (ed.). The Application of Ichnology to Palaeoenvironmental and Stratigraphic Analysis. London, Geological Society, 228(Special Publications), 311-333.
Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., 2007. Invertebrate ichnology of continental freshwater environments. In: Miller, W. III (ed.). Trace Fossils. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 285-323.
Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., 2008. Continental Ichnology: Conceptual Framework and Prospects. 33rd International Geological Congress. Oslo (Norway), Abstract in CD-ROM.
Buatois, L.A., Jalfin, G., Aceñolaza, F.G., 1997. Permian nonmarine invertebrate trace fossils from southern Patagonia, Argentina: Ichnologic signatures of substrate consolidation and colonization sequences. Journal of Paleontology, 71(2), 324-336.
Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., Aceñolaza, F.G., 1996. Icnofaunas paleozoicas en sustratos firmes no marinos: evidencias del Pérmico de la Cuenca Paganzo. Ameghiniana, 33(3), 265-270.
Caselli, A.T., 1998. Estratigrafía y Sedimentología de las Formaciones Patquía (Pérmico) y Talampaya (Triásico Inferior), en las Sierras Pampeanas Noroccidentales y Precordillera Central (Provincias De La Rioja Y San Juan). Doctoral Thesis. Universidad de Buenos Aires, 437pp.
Caselli, A.T., Arcucci, A.B., 1999. Huellas de tetrápodos en eolianitas de la Formación Patquía, Cuenca Paganzo, Provincia de La Rioja. I Simposio Argentino del Paleozoico Superior. Ameghiniana, 36(4), 30.
Caselli, A., Limarino, C.O., 2002. Sedimentología y evolución paleombiental de la Formación Patquía (Pérmico) en el extremo sur de la sierra de Maz y cerro Bola, provincia de La Rioja, Argentina. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina, 57(4), 415-436.
Cei, R.L., Gargiulo, J., 1977. Icnitas de tetrápodos Pérmicos del sur de Mendoza. Ameghiniana, 14, 127-132.
Cisterna, G.A., Simanauskas, T., 2000. Brachiopods from the Río del Peñón Formation, Río Blanco Basin, Upper Paleozoic of Argentina. Revista Española de Paleontología, 15(2), 129-151.
Dawson, J.W., 1864. On the fossils of the genus Rusophycus. Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, 1, 363-367.
Debriette, P., Gand, G., 1990. Stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental results from new paleontological observations made in the Permian of the western part of the Lodève basin (South Massif Central). Géologie de la France, 19-32.
d’Orbigny, A., 1842. Voyage dans l’Amerique méridionale (le Bresil, la Repúblique argentine, le Patagonia, le Repúblique de Chile, le Repúbliique de Bolivie, le Repúblique de Perou) executé pendant les anées 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832 et 1833. París, Paleontologie, 3(4), 1-188.
Ekdale, A.A., Bromley, R.G, Loope, D.B. 2007. Ichnofacies of an ancient erg: A climatically influenced trace fossil association in the Jurassic Narvajo Sandstone, Southern Utah, USA. In: Miller, W. III (Ed.). Trace Fossils: Concepts, Problems, Prospects. Amsterdam, Elsevier, 562-574.
Fornós, J.J., Bromley, R.G., Clemmensen, L.B., Rodríguez-Perea, A., 2002. Tracks and trackways of Myotragus balearicus Bate (Artiodactyla, Caprinae) in Pleistocene aeolianites from Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 180, 277-313.
Frenguelli, J., 1949. Acerca de un nuevo descubrimiento de plantas en los Estratos del Arroyo Totoral, en la sierra de Los Llanos, La Rioja. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina, 4(3), 153-164.
Frey, R.W., Pemberton, S.G., Fagerstron, J.A., 1984. Morphological, ethological and environmental significance of the ichnogenera Scoyenia and Ancorichnus. Journal of Paleontology, 58, 511-528.
Gand, G., 1994. Isopodichnus furcosus nov. ichnosp. Ichnocoenoses from the Permian Lodève basin (Massif Central, France). Geobios, 27, 73-86.
Genise, J.F., Mángano, M.G., Buatois, L.A., Laza, J., Verde, M., 2000. Insect trace fossil associations in paleosols: the Coprinisphaera ichnofacies. Palaios, 15, 33-48.
Geuna, S.E., Escosteguy, L.D., Limarino, C.O., 2010. Paleomagnetism of the Carboniferous-Permian Patquía Formation, Paganzo basin, Argentina: implications for the apparent polar wander path for South America and Gondwana during the Late Palaeozoic. Geologica Acta, 8(4), 373-397.
Gierlowski-Kordesch, E., 1991. Ichnology of an ephemeral lacustrine alluvial plane system. Jurassic East Berlin Formation, Hartford Basin, U.S.A. Ichnos, 6, 221-232.
Gilmore, C.W., 1926. Fossil footprints from the Grand Canyon. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 77(9), 1-41.
Haldeman, S.S., 1840. Supplement to Number One of “A monograph of the Limniades, or fresh-water univalve shell of North America”, containing descriptions of apparently new animals in different classes, and the name and characters of the subgenera in Paludina and Anculosa. Philadelphia, J. Dobson, 3pp.
Hall, J., 1847. Palaeontology of New York. Volume I. Containing descriptions of the organic remains of the Lower Division of the New York System (Equivalent to the Lower Silurian rocks of Europe). Albany (New York), C. van Benthuysen, 338pp.
Hall, J., 1852. Palaeontology of New York, vol. 2. State of New York, Albany, 362pp.
Häntzschel, W., 1975. Trace fossils and problematica. In: Teichert, C. (ed.). Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, W (Supplement 1). Lawrence (Kansas), University of Kansas Press, 1-269.
Haubold, H., 1996. Ichnotaxonomie und Klassifikation von Tetrapodenf¨ahrten aus dem Perm. Hallesches Jahrbuch für Geowissenschaften, 18(B), 23-88.
Haubold, H., Lucas, S.G., 2003. Tetrapod footprints of the Lower Permian Choza Formation at the Castle Peak, Texas. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 77(2), 247-261.
Hunt, A., Lockley, M., Lucas, S.G., Haubold, H, Braddy, S.J., 1995. Tetrapod ichnofacies in early Permian red beds of the American Southwest. In: Lucas, S.G., Heckert, A.B. (eds.). Early Permian footprints and facies. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 6, 295- 301.
Hunt, A., Lucas, S.G., 2007. Tetrapod ichnofacies: a new paradigm. Ichnos, 14, 59-68.
Jardine, W., 1850. Note to Mr. Harness’s paper “On the position of the impressions of footsteps in the Bunter sandstones of Dumfriesshire”. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 6, 208-209.
Keighley, D.G., Pickerill, R.K., 1996. Small Cruziana, Rusophycus, and related ichnotaxa from eastern Canada: the nomenclatural debate and systematic ichnology. Ichnos, 4, 261-285.
Krapovickas, V., Mángano, M.G., Mancuso, A. Marsicano, C.A., Volkheimer, W., 2008. Icnofaunas triásicas en abanicos aluviale distales: evidencias de la Formación Cerro Puntudo, cuenca cuyana, Argentina. Ameghiniana, 45(2), 463-472.
Limarino, C.O., Césari, S.N., 1985. Primer registro paleoflorístico de la Formación La Colina (Paleozoico Superior), Cuenca Paganzo, República Argentina. Universidade de Sâo Paulo, Boletim Instituto de Geociençias, 15, 32-37.
Limarino, C.O., Césari, S.N., Net, L.I., Marenssi, S.A., Guitierrez, R.P., Tripaldi, A., 2002. The Upper Carboniferous postglacial transgression in the Paganzo and Río Blanco basins (northwestern Argentina): facies and stratigraphic significance. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 15, 445-460.
Linck, O., 1942. Die Spur Isopodichnus. Senckenbergiana, 25, 232-255.
Lockley, M.G., Hunt, A.P., Meyer, C., 1994. Vertebrate Tracks and the Ichnofacies Concept: Implications for Paleoecology and Palichnostratigraphy. In: Donovan, S. (ed.). The Paleobiology of Trace Fossils. New York, Wiley & Sons, 241-268.
Lockley, M., 2007. A tale of two ichnologies: the different goal and potential of invertebrate and vertebrate (Tetrapod) ichnotaxonomy and how they relate to ichnofacies analysis. Ichnos, 14, 39-57.
Loope, D.B., 2006. Dry-season tracks in dinosaur-triggered grainflows. Palaios, 21, 132-142.
Lucas, S.G., 1998. Toward a tetrapod biochronology of the Permian. In: Lucas, S.G., Estep, J.W., Hoffer, H. (eds.). Permian Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Robledo Mountains, New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Naturial History and Science Bulletin, 12, 71-91.
Mancuso, A.C., 2008. Tafonomía de peces y su relación con los paleoambientes de depositación: dos ejemplos de Argentina. Buenos Aires (Argentina), XII Reunión Argentina de Sedimentología, Abstract, 104.
McKeever, P.J., Haubold, H., 1996. Reclassification of vertebrate trackways from the Permian of Scotland and related forms from Arizona and Germany. Journal of Paleontology, 70, 1011-1022.
Melchor, R.N., 2000. Stratigraphic and biostratigraphic consequences of a new 40Ar/39Ar date for the base of the Cochicó Group (Permian), Eastern Permian Basin, San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina. Ameghiniana, 37(3), 271-282.
Melchor, R.N., 2001. Permian tetrapod footprints from Argentina. Hallesches Jarbuch für Geowissenschaften, 23(B), 35-43.
Melchor, R., Cesari, S., 1991. Algunos elementos paleoflorísticos de la Formación Carapacha (Pérmico Inferior), Prov. de La Pampa, Rep. Argentina. Ameghiniana, 28(3-4), 347-352.
Melchor, R.N., Sarjeant, W.A.S., 2004. Small amphibian and reptile footprints from the Permian Carapacha Basin, Argentina. Ichnos, 11, 57-78.
Melchor, R.N., Bedatou, E., De Valais, S., Genise, J.F., 2006. Lithofacies distribution of invertebrate and vertebrate tracefossil assemblages in an Early Mesozoic ephemeral fluviolacustrine system from Argentina: implications for the Scoyenia ichnofacies. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 239, 253-285.
Milner, A.R., 1993. The biogeography of salamanders in the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic: a cladistic-vicariance model. In: Sims, R.W., Price, J.H., Whalley, P.E.S. (eds.). Evolution, Time and Space: The Emergence of the Biosphere. London, Academic Press, 431-468.
Minter, N.J., Krainer, K., Lucas, S.G., Braddy, S.J., Hunt, A.P., 2007. Palaeoecology of an Early Permian playa lake trace fossil assemblage from Castle Peak, Texas, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 246, 390-423.
Morrissey, L.B., 2006. The ichnology of terrestrial palaeoenvironments: Old Red Sandstone, British Isles. Doctoral Thesis. Bristol, University of the West of England, 399pp.
Olson, E.C., 1989. Problems of Permo-Triassic terrestrial vertebrate extensions. Historical Biology, 2, 17-35.
Osgood, R.G., 1970. Trace fossils of the Cincinnati area. Palaeontographica Americana, 6, 281-439.
Pemberton, S.G., Frey, R.W. 1982. Trace fossil nomenclature and the Planolites Palaeophycus dilemma. Journal of Paleontology, 56, 843-881.
Piñeiro, G., Marsicano, C., Lorenzo, N., 2007. A new temnospondyl from the Permo-Triassic Buena Vista Formation of Uruguay. Palaeontology, 50(3), 627-640.
Pollard, J.E., 1981. A comparison between the Triassic trace fossils of Cheshire and south Germany. Palaeontology, 24, 555-588.
Pollard, J.E., 1985. Isopodichnus, related arthropod trace fossils and notostracans from Triassic fluvial sediments. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 76, 273-285.
Ratcliffe, B.C., Fagerstrom, J.A., 1980. Invertebrate lebensspuren of Holocene floodplains: their morphology, origin and palaeoecological significance. Journal of Paleontology, 54, 614-630.
Richter, M., Langer, M., 1998. Fish remains from the Upper Permian Rio do Rastro Formation (Paraná Basin) of southern Brazil. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 27, 158-159.
Sadler, C.J., 1993. Arthropod trace fossils from the Permian de Chelly Sandstone, Northeastern Arizona. Journal of Paleontology, 67(2), 240-249.
Schindewolf, O.H., 1928. Studien aus dem Marburger Buntsandstein III–VI. Senckenbergiana, 10, 16-54.
Schlirf, M., Uchman, A., Kümmel, M., 2001. Upper Triassic (Keuper) non-marine trace fossils from the Haßberge area (Franconia, southeastern Germany). Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 75, 71-96.
Seilacher, A., 1955. Spuren und Lebensweise der Trilobiten. In: Schindewolf, O.H., Seilacher, A. (eds.). Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Kambriums in der Salt Range (Pakistan). Abhandlungen der Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftlichen Klasse, Mainz, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, 10, 342-372.
Seilacher, A., 1964. Biogenic sedimentary structures. In: Imbrie, J., Newell, N. (eds.). Approaches to paleoecology. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 296-316.
Seilacher, A., 1967. Bathymetry of trace fossils. Marine Geology, 5, 413-428.
Seilacher, A., 1970. Cruziana stratigraphy of “non-fossiliferous” Palaeozoic sandstones. In: Crimes, T.P., Harper, J.C. (eds.). Trace fossils. Geological Journal, 3(Special Issue), 447-476.
Seilacher, A., 1985. Trilobite palaeobiology and substrate relationships. Royal Society of Edinburgh Transactions: Earth Sciences, 76, 231-237.
Seilacher, A., Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G. 2005. Trace fossils in the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition: Behavioral Diversification, Ecological turnover and Environmental Shift. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 227, 323-356.
Siano, C.A., 1990. Últimos eventos depositacionales de la Formación La Colina (Patquía), sierra de Los Llanos, La Rioja, Argentina. San Juan, 11° Congreso Geológico Argentino, 2(Actas), 187-191.
Sinito, A.M., Valencia, D.A, Vilas, J.F., 1979. Palaeomagnetism of a sequence of Upper Palaeozoic-Lower Mesozoic red beds from Argentina. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 58, 237-247.
Smith, N.D., Hein, F.J., 1971. Biogenic reworking of fluvial sediments by staphylinid beetles. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 41, 598-602.
Spalletti, L.A., Limarino, C.O., Colombo Piñol, F., 2010. Internal anatomy of an erg sequence from the aeolian-fluvial system of the De La Cuesta Formation (Paganzo Basin, northwestern Argentina). Geologica Acta, 8(4), 431-447.
Tedesco, A., Ciccioli, P., Suriano, J., Limarino, C., 2010. Changes in the architecture of fluvial deposits in the Paganzo Basin (Upper Paleozoic of San Juan province): an example of sea level and climatic controls on the development of coastal fluvial environments. Geologica acta, 8(4), 463-482.
Thompson, R., Mitchel, J.C., 1972. Paleomagnetic and radiometric evidence for the age of the lower boundary of the Kiaman magnetic interval. London, Geophysics Journal, 27, 207-214.
Trewin, N.H., 1976. Isopodichnus in a trace fossil assemblage from the Old Red Sandstone. Lethaia, 9, 29-37.
Tverdokhlebov, V.P., Tverdokhlebova, G.I., Minikh, A.V., Surkov, M.V., Benton, M.J., 2005. Upper Permian vertebrates and their sedimentological context in the South Urals, Russia. Earth-Science Reviews, 69, 27-77
Valencio, D.A., 1972. International correlation of Late Paleozoic South American rocks on the basis of their magnetic remanences. Anais de Academia Brasilera de Ciencias, 44, 357-364.
Valencio, D.A., Mitchell, J.G., 1972. Edad Potasio-Argón y paleomagnetismo de rocas igneas de las formaciones Quebrada del Pimiento y Las Cabras, Provincia de Mendoza. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina, 27(2), 170-178.
Valencio, D.A., Vilas, J.F. Mendia, J.E., 1977. Palaeomagnetism of a sequence of red beds of the middle and upper sections of Paganzo Group (Argentina) and the correlation of Upper Paleozoic-Lower Mesozoic rocks. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 51, 59-74.
Zhang, G., Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., Aceñolaza, F.G., 1998. Sedimentary facies and environmental Ichnology of a ? Permian playa-lake complex in western Argentina. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 138, 221-243.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright
Geologica Acta is the property of the UB, GEO3BCN, IDAEA and UAB. Geologica Acta must be cited for any partial or full reproduction. Papers are distributed under the Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License. This license allows anyone to reproduce and disseminate the content of the journal and even make derivative works crediting authorship and provenance and distributing possible derivative works under the same or an equivalent license.
Author Rights
Authors retain the copyright on their papers and are authorized to post them on their own web pages or institutional repositories. The copyright was retained by the journal from the year 2003 until 2009. In all cases, the complete citation and a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the article must be included.
The authors can use excerpts or reproduce illustrations of their papers in other works without prior permission from Geologica Acta provided the source of the paper including the complete citation is fully acknowledged.
