THE "LOCHNESS MONSTER" AS AN EXEMPLARY PSEUDOFOSSIL, MANCHURIOPHYCUS

Transitional braidplain facies of ~1760 Ma Lochness Formation at Seymour River, Northern Territory, Australia expose sinuous sedimentary structures resembling sand-filled burrow casts or redeposited fecal trails, in positive epirelief and negative hyporelief occupying interference ripple troughs. We refer these to the seudofossil, Manchuriophycus, of purported syneresis-crack origin. Subcrop mapping of spatially heterogenous lithologies asssociates Manchuriophycus with normal dessication cracks as well as in situ, trellis-structure syneresis cracks, adjacent to sand-stromatolites on the beach of a playa lake margin. The Lochness outcrops at Seymour River present an unusually good opportunity to track pervasive microbial binding in Precambrian siliciclastics from inference to exposure.