PALAIOS, 2020, v. 35, 342–357 Research Article DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2110/palo.2020.007 DWELLING IN THE DEAD ZONE—VERTEBRATE BURROWS IMMEDIATELY SUCCEEDING THE END- PERMIAN EXTINCTION EVENT IN AUSTRALIA 1 1 1 2 3 3 STEPHEN MCLOUGHLIN, CHRIS MAYS, VIVI VAJDA, MALCOLM BOCKING, TRACY D. FRANK, AND CHRISTOPHER R. FIELDING 1Swedish Museum of Natural History, Svante Arrhenius v. 9, SE-104 05, Stockholm, Sweden 2Bocking Associates, 8 Tahlee Close, Castle Hill, NSW, Australia 3Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 126 Bessey Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0340, USA email:
[email protected] ABSTRACT: A distinctive burrow form, Reniformichnus australis n. isp., is described from strata immediately overlying and transecting the end-Permian extinction (EPE) horizon in the Sydney Basin, eastern Australia. Although a unique excavator cannot be identified, these burrows were probably produced by small cynodonts based on comparisons with burrows elsewhere that contain body fossils of the tracemakers. The primary host strata are devoid of plant remains apart from wood and charcoal fragments, sparse fungal spores, and rare invertebrate traces indicative of a very simplified terrestrial ecosystem characterizing a ‘dead zone’ in the aftermath of the EPE. The high-paleolatitude (~ 65–758S) setting of the Sydney Basin, together with its higher paleoprecipitation levels and less favorable preservational potential, is reflected by a lower diversity of vertebrate fossil burrows and body fossils compared with coeval continental interior deposits of the mid-paleolatitude Karoo Basin, South Africa. Nevertheless, these burrows reveal the survivorship of small tetrapods in considerable numbers in the Sydney Basin immediately following the EPE.