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Tracking Ancient Life

Tracking Ancient Life. Dr Liam Herringshaw lgh865@hotmail.com. Key terms. Bioturbation Ichnology ( ichnos, Greek: footprint, track, trail) Trace Fossils. 1. What are trace fossils?. Sedimentary structures produced by life - Burrows, borings, tracks, trails, roots. ...and dung!.

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Tracking Ancient Life

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  1. Tracking Ancient Life Dr Liam Herringshaw lgh865@hotmail.com

  2. Key terms Bioturbation Ichnology (ichnos, Greek: footprint, track, trail) Trace Fossils

  3. 1. What are trace fossils? Sedimentary structures produced by life - Burrows, borings, tracks, trails, roots...

  4. ...and dung! The Lloyds Bank coprolite

  5. Why they matter • Fossil record of behaviour • Fossil record of soft-bodied organisms • Organism-environment interactions • Ecological niche creation • Nutrient flux • Taphonomy Luminous lugworm

  6. The present is the key to the past Uniformitarianism

  7. Arthropod trace fossils Ichnological principles 1. Same organism; different traces

  8. Annelid worms Sea anemones Phoronids Ichnological principles 2. Different organisms; same traces

  9. Ichnological principles 3. Same trace; different preservation

  10. What trace fossils does the museum have? 2. Traces of Yorkshire

  11. 3. Common trace fossils (Burrows, trails; mostly marine)

  12. N.B. Names are for trace fossil only, not organism that made the structure Ichnotaxonomy

  13. Planolites

  14. Skolithos

  15. Thalassinoides

  16. Thalassinoides tracemaker?

  17. Chondrites

  18. Ophiomorpha

  19. Ophiomorpha tracemaker?

  20. Rhizocorallium

  21. Rusophycus

  22. Rusophycus tracemaker?

  23. Trace fossil? Impression of a jellyfish? Or a sand volcano?

  24. Not trace fossils Shrinkage cracks

  25. Not trace fossils Flute casts

  26. Hand Specimens: What Have You Got?

  27. 4. The Fossil Record of Behaviour

  28. Earliest animals? 565 Ma locomotion trails, Newfoundland: Liu et al. (2010) http://geology.gsapubs.org/ content/38/2/123.abstract

  29. Ediacaran-Cambrianboundary

  30. Cambrian complexity

  31. The Cambrian Explosion Seilacher & Pfluger (1994)

  32. Onshore to offshore

  33. Colonization of land

  34. Plant Trace Fossils

  35. Becoming upright Trackway analysis shows tetrapods become bipedal in early Triassic Kubo & Benton (2009) http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-4983.2009.00897.x/full

  36. The speed of dinosaurs

  37. 5. The speed of dinosaurs? • Type of footprint? • Footprint size? • Animal size? • Stride length? • Speed? • Behaviour?

  38. Calculating trackmaker speed v = 0.25*g0.5*SL1.67*h-1.17 Or, more simply: Hip height = 4 x footprint length Stride length/ hip height = speed (<2 = walking, >3 = running) Sheffield Geology Group – dinosaur speed calculator: http://www.sorbygeology.group.shef.ac.uk/DINOC01/dinocal1.html

  39. Useful links www.fossilhub.org

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