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GSA Connects 2023 Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Paper No. 260-6
Presentation Time: 2:55 PM

AN EARLY UPLAND LAGERSTÄTTE FROM THE PENNSYLVANIAN (BASHKIRIAN) NARRAGANSETT BASIN OF MASSACHUSETTS, USA


KNECHT, Richard, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138; Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138, SWAIN, Anshuman, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138; Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, BENNER, Jacob, Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Tennessee, 602 Strong Hall, 1621 Cumberland Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37996-1526, AZEVEDO-SCHMIDT, Lauren, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, 168 Univeristy ave., Orono, ME 04469, LABANDEIRA, Conrad C., Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, ENGEL, Michael, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024, DUNLOP, Jason, Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstraße 43,, Berlin, D-10115, Germany, EBLE, Cortland, Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0107, KNOLL, Andrew, Botanical Museum, Harvard Univ, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 and PIERCE, Naomi E., Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138

The Carboniferous is well known for vast lowland swamps that provided the taphonomic conditions for preservation of abundant fossils. Little is known, however, of upland ecosystems and niches, which are seldom preserved due to the low preservational potential of xeric to sub-xeric settings and geologic reworking. Upland flora and fauna are often only recorded as allochthonous deposits in coastal plain depositional settings. We report the discovery of a fully terrestrial, upland ichnofossil Lagerstätte from the Lower Pennsylvanian (Bashkirian) of Massachusetts, USA. Wamsutta Fm. red beds consist of thick cross-bedded sandstone and tabular conglomerate units and discontinuous, thin sequences of centimeter-scale laminated fine sandstone and shale, indicative of distal fan and braidplain environments. Prior floral analysis indicated an Early Pennsylvanian age (~318.5 - 317.0 Ma; Bashkirian) but more recent work suggested a mix of early and mid-Pennsylvanian flora. Fossils recovered from the site include diverse vertebrate tracks and trackways with and without tail drags (amphibians, non-mammalian synapsids, and eureptiles), ~130 species of plant morphotaxa that include in situ tree stumps and evidence of insect damage, megaspores, fungal rhizomorphs, ~2 dozen different ichnospecies of full- and partial-body impressions of living insects representing both pterygotes and apterygotes, including the first fossil examples of vertebrate-insect predation, arachnid full-body impressions (thelyphonid) made in life and while molting (ricinuleid), body impressions and trails of myriapods, limulids, and swimming trails (Undichna and Lunichnium), and other invertebrate ichnotaxa (tracks and trails) including new ichnospecies. The site is temporally and ecologically valuable given the abundance of identifiable interactions among species, and the exceptional preservation of the fossils provide an unparalleled glimpse into Carboniferous upland environments.

Session No. 260

T73. Innovative Ichnology: Recent Advances in the Study of Modern and Ancient Behavior
Wednesday, 18 October 2023: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
303 (David L Lawrence Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-394684
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