Ichnotaxonomy of the Eocene Green River Formation
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Ichnotaxonomy of the Eocene Green River Formation, Soldier Summit and Spanish Fork Canyon, Uinta Basin, Utah: Interpreting behaviors, lifestyles, and erecting the Cochlichnus Ichnofacies By © 2018 Joshua D. Hogue B.S. Old Dominion University, 2013 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Geology and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. Chair: Dr. Stephen T. Hasiotis Dr. Paul Selden Dr. Georgios Tsoflias Date Defended: May 1, 2018 ii The thesis committee for Joshua D. Hogue certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Ichnotaxonomy of the Eocene Green River Formation, Soldier Summit and Spanish Fork Canyon, Uinta Basin, Utah: Interpreting behaviors, lifestyles, and erecting the Cochlichnus Ichnofacies Chair: Dr. Stephen T. Hasiotis Date Approved: May 1, 2018 iii ABSTRACT The Eocene Green River Formation in the Uinta Basin, Utah, has a diverse ichnofauna. Nineteen ichnogenera and 26 ichnospecies were identified: Acanthichnus cursorius, Alaripeda lofgreni, c.f. Aquatilavipes isp., Aulichnites (A. parkerensis and A. tsouloufeidos isp. nov.), Aviadactyla (c.f. Av. isp. and Av. vialovi), Avipeda phoenix, Cochlichnus (C. anguineus and C. plegmaeidos isp. nov.), Conichnus conichnus, Fuscinapeda texana, Glaciichnium liebegastensis, Glaroseidosichnus ign. nov. gierlowskii isp. nov., Gruipeda (G. fuenzalidae and G. gryponyx), Midorikawapeda ign. nov. semipalmatus isp. nov., Planolites montanus, Presbyorniformipes feduccii, Protovirgularia dichotoma, Sagittichnus linki, Treptichnus (T. bifurcus, T. pedum, and T. vagans), and Tsalavoutichnus ign. nov. (Ts. ericksonii isp. nov. and Ts. leptomonopati isp. nov.). Four ichnocoenoses are represented by the ichnofossils—Cochlichnus, Conichnus, Presbyorniformipes, and Treptichnus—representing dwelling, feeding, grazing, locomotion, predation, pupation, and resting behaviors of organisms in environments at and around the sediment-water-air interface. A new Cochlichnus Ichnofacies is established to represent continental assemblages of traces produced in environmental conditions at and around the sediment-water-air interface. The Cochlichnus Ichnofacies can be identified in deposits from as old as the Carboniferous. The Cochlichnus Ichnofacies replaces the Shorebird Ichnofacies and usage of the Mermia Ichnofacies for ephemeral water bodies, and restricts the Mermia Ichnofacies to traces in deeper, perennial water bodies. A new ichnospecies of Aulichnites is proposed, A. tsouloufeidos. Three new ichnogenera with four ichnospecies are established: Glaroseidosichnus gierlowskii, Midorikawapeda semipalmatus, and Tsalavoutichnus (Ts. ericksonii, Ts. leptomonopati). This is the first detailed ichnotaxonomic study of the Soldier Summit and Spanish Fork Canyon localities of the Eocene Green River Formation. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to the Gunther family for their donation of the slabs used in this study to the University of Kansas (KU), without which this research could not have been conducted. Thank you, also, to Mr. Ronald Voelkel for assistance with the German translation of Walter (1985) for the diagnosis of Glaciichnium liebegastensis. Thanks to KU IchnoBioGeoScience (IBGS) Research Group for their assistance in the early stages of the formulating of this manuscript. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 GEOLOGIC SETTING.....................................................................................................2 BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................3 MATERIALS AND METHODS ......................................................................................5 SYSTEMATIC ICHNOLOGY .........................................................................................7 PLANTS ............................................................................................................................................. 7 RHIZOLITHS ............................................................................................................................ 7 INVERTEBRATES ........................................................................................................................... 9 Ichnogenus ACANTHICHNUS Hitchcock, 1858 ...................................................................... 9 ACANTHICHNUS CURSORIUS (Hitchcock, 1858) ...........................................................10 Ichnogenus AULICHNITES Fenton & Fenton, 1937a .............................................................11 AULICHNITES PARKERENSIS Fenton & Fenton, 1937a ..................................................12 AULICHNITES TSOULOUFEIDOS new ichnospecies .......................................................13 Ichnogenus COCHLICHNUS Hitchcock, 1858 ........................................................................14 COCHLICHNUS ANGUINEUS (Hitchcock, 1858) .............................................................15 COCHLIHCNUS PLEGMAEIDOS new species ..................................................................18 Ichnogenus CONICHNUS (Männil, 1966) ................................................................................20 CONICHNUS CONICHNUS (Männil, 1966) .......................................................................21 Ichnogenus GLACIICHNIUM Walter, 1985............................................................................22 GLACIICHNIUM LIEBEGASTENSIS Walter, 1985 ...........................................................23 Ichnogenus GLAROSEIDOSICHNUS new genus ...................................................................24 GLAROSEIDOSICHNUS GIERLOWSKII new species ......................................................24 Ichnogenus PLANOLITES Nicholson, 1873 .............................................................................25 PLANOLITES MONTANUS (Richter, 1937).......................................................................26 Ichnogenus PROTOVIRGULARIA (McCoy, 1850) ................................................................28 PROTOVIRGULARIA DICHOTOMA (McCoy, 1850) .......................................................28 vi Ichnogenus SAGITTICHNUS Seilacher, 1953 .........................................................................29 SAGITTICHNUS LINCKI Seilacher, 1953 ..........................................................................30 Ichnogenus TREPTICHNUS (Miller, 1889) .............................................................................31 TREPTICHNUS BIFURCUS (Miller, 1889) ........................................................................33 TREPTICHNUS PEDUM (Seilacher, 1955a) .......................................................................34 TREPTICHNUS VAGANS (Ksiażkiewicz, 1977) ................................................................35 VERTEBRATES ..............................................................................................................................36 Ichnogenus ALARIPEDA Sarjeant & Reynolds, 2001 ............................................................36 ALARIPEDA LOFGRENI Sarjeant & Reynolds, 2001 .........................................................37 Ichnogenus AQUATILAVIPES (Currie, 1981) ........................................................................38 c.f. AQUATILAVIPES isp. ..................................................................................................39 Ichnogenus AVIADACTYLA (Kordos, 1985) ..........................................................................39 c.f. AVIADACTYLA isp. .....................................................................................................41 AVIADACTYLA VIALOVI (Kordos in Kordos & Prakfalvi, 1990) ....................................42 Ichnogenus AVIPEDA (Vyalov, 1965) ......................................................................................43 AVIPEDA PHOENIX (Vyalov, 1966) ..................................................................................44 Ichnogenus FUSCINAPEDA (Sarjeant & Langston, 1994) .....................................................46 FUSCINAPEDA TEXANA Sarjeant & Langston, 1994 .......................................................47 Ichnogenus GRUIPEDA (Panin & Avram, 1962) ....................................................................48 GRUIPEDA FUENZALIDAE Covacevich & Lamperein, 1970 ............................................49 GRUIPEDA GRYPONYX (Sarjeant & Reynolds, 2001) ......................................................50 Ichnogenus MIDORIKAWAPEDA new genus ........................................................................52 MIDORIKAWAPEDA SEMIPALMATUS new species .......................................................53 Ichnogenus PRESBYORNIFORMIPES (Yang & others, 1995) .............................................55 PRESBYORNIFORMIPES FEDUCCII Yang & others, 1995 ..............................................56 Ichnogenus TSALAVOUTICHNUS new genus .......................................................................58