The trace fossil Asthenopodichnium lithuanicum isp. nov. from Late Neogene brown-coal deposits, Lithuania

Authors

  • Alfred Uchman Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Oleandry 2a, PL-30-063 Kraków, Poland
  • Algirdas Gaigalas Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Vilnius University, Čiurlionio, 21/27, LT-03101 Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Monika Melesytė Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Vilnius University, Čiurlionio, 21/27, LT-03101 Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Vaidotas Kazakauskas Department of Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geology and Geography, T. Sevčenkos str. 13, LT-03223, Vilnius, Lithuania

Keywords:

Lithuania, Neogene, ichnology, taxonomy, brown coal, stiffground

Abstract

A new freshwater ichnospecies of Asthenopodichnium Thenius, A. lithuanicum, is distinguished by its pouch-like shape with a J-shaped limb that is distinctly wider than the remaining part of the pouch. It was produced in a stiffground at the top of a mineral-rich brown-coal layer of Neogene age by a suspension feeder forming pouch-like domichnial cavities. Mayfly larvae may perhaps be considered as candidates for its tracemaker. Other arthropods (amphipods, isopods) are also possibilities. The brown-coal layer was exposed during the Neogene by river erosion, was colonized by the tracemaker (locally two colonization events took place) and in the Pliocene covered by distal crevasse and river channel sands.

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Published

2010-03-27

Issue

Vol. 51 No. 3 (2007)

Section

Articles

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