An Insect Boring in an Early Cretaceous Wood from Bornholm, Denmark
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Ichnos An International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces ISSN: 1042-0940 (Print) 1563-5236 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gich20 An insect boring in an Early Cretaceous wood from Bornholm, Denmark Radek Mikuláš, Jesper Milàn, Jorge F. Genise, Markus Bertling & Richard G. Bromley To cite this article: Radek Mikuláš, Jesper Milàn, Jorge F. Genise, Markus Bertling & Richard G. Bromley (2020): An insect boring in an Early Cretaceous wood from Bornholm, Denmark, Ichnos, DOI: 10.1080/10420940.2020.1744587 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10420940.2020.1744587 Published online: 03 Apr 2020. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 14 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=gich20 ICHNOS https://doi.org/10.1080/10420940.2020.1744587 An insect boring in an Early Cretaceous wood from Bornholm, Denmark Radek Mikulasa, Jesper Milanb, Jorge F. Genisec, Markus Bertlingd and Richard G. Bromley† aInstitute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic; bGeomuseum Faxe, Faxe, Denmark; cDivision Icnologıa, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina; dGeomuseum der WWU, Munster,€ Germany ABSTRACT KEYWORDS An insect boring of unique shape is described from a lignitic layer within the Early Wood borings; Cretaceous; Cretaceous (Berriasian) Skyttegård Member of the Rabekke Formation on Bornholm. lignite; beetles; agrichnia Morphologically it cannot be compared to any modern or fossil wood borings, although some structures are reminiscent of Scolytidae, Platypodidae and Lymexylonidae. Most prob- ably, however, the tracemaker was a female fungus-farming beetle, thus producing an agrichnion. Introduction Milan, and Noe-Nygaard 2008), the Berriasian Jydegård Significance of insect borings Formation with lagoonal and backbarrier sediments (Noe-Nygaard and Surlyk 1988), and the barrier to Terrestrial trace fossils such as structures in palaeosols, foreshore Berriasian (Valanginian?) Robbedale wood, plant leaves and bones are of paramount import- Formation (Nielsen, Hansen, and Simonsen 1996). ance in the reconstruction of evolutionary pathways The Rabekke Formation contains two members: the and ecosystem structure (e.g., Labandeira 1998, 2013; fluviatile Homandshald Member and the overlying Wilf et al. 2006; Wappler et al. 2009). Nonetheless, they Skyttegard Member (Gravesen, Rolle, and Surlyk 1982), have received little taxonomic attention until compara- which both have their type localities in the immediate tively recently (e.g.,Wisshak, Knaust, and Bertling 2019). vicinity of the study site. The Skyttegård Member, i.e., Insects have undergone a major radiation following the the stratigraphic level that yielded the borings described success of angiosperms (e.g., Labandeira 2013), a pro- herein, contains a relatively rich vertebrate fauna. It cess at least partly recorded in their trace fossils. comprises crocodilian teeth (Bernissartia, Theriosuchus, Againstthisbackground,theobjectivesofthiscontribu- Goniopholis; Schwarz-Wings, Rees, and Lindgren 2009), tion are to describe a new insect boring in wood and to teeth, scales and jawbone fragments of actinopterygians relate it to possible producers. We are, however, aware and sharks, postcranial remains of amphibians and to erect a new ichnotaxon on the material because at primitive lizards (Rees, Lindgren, and Evans 2005), frag- least one-half of the sample (i.e., possible holotype) is ments of turtle carapaces, teeth of small dromaeosaurid affected by a pyrite weathering which is capable to des- dinosaurs (Lindgren et al. 2008)aswellasatoothofa troy the sample in the horizon of few dozens of years. multituberculate mammal (Lindgren et al. 2004). In addition to the small-sized body fossils, large trace fos- Geologic setting sils are known: Surlyk, Milan, and Noe-Nygaard (2008) have described a trample-ground with abundant cross- Mesozoic sediments of Bornholm are exposed in a ser- sections of dinosaur tracks (up to 70 cm in length) and ies of faulted blocks along the western and southeastern possible lungfish estivation burrows. coasts of Bornholm, with Early Cretaceous sediments cropping out in the coastal cliffs around the town of Material and methods Arnager (Figure 1). The Nyker Group (Gravesen, Rolle, and Surlyk 1982) includes three formations: the domin- The studied specimen was recovered in 2007 as two antly terrestrial Berriasian Rabekke Formation (Surlyk, closely adjacent pieces at the base of low coastal cliffs of CONTACT Radek Mikulas [email protected] Institute of Geology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic †Deceased March 24, 2018 ß 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2 R. MIKULÁŠ ET AL. Figure 1. Geological map of Bornholm, with inset of Denmark (modified after Graversen 2009); locality marked by asterisk. Figure 3. Present (autumn 2018) condition of the two-piece specimen after drying. robust carton/plastic boxes. The pieces of wood were unpacked approximately a year later; then, wood was relatively hard and safe to manipulate. A marcasite/ pyrite fill present on the thinner of the two pieces of wood had remained almost unchanged; in the thicker part, however, the marcasite had disintegrated into iron sulfate(s) (probably halotrichite or rozenite) par- tially coating the surface as microscopic, colourless, needle-shaped crystals. The boring was then inspected visually and compared to descriptions in the relevant literature, focussing on European occurrences. Results Description of the wood specimen The wooden substrate of the boring described below con- Figure 2. A: Low cliff formed by the Berriasian Skyttegård sists of a conifer stem fragment 43 mm long showing well- Member of the Rabekke Formation east of Madsegrav, preserved annual rings and fibres containing some marcas- Bornholm, looking east towards Homandshald (as seen in ite. It is preserved as two parts, which can be matched 2007); position 55.040413 N, 14.850809E. B: Sample location: along a fissure (Figure 3). This is longitudinally tangential The Skyttegård Member of the Rabekke Formation exposing a lignitic layer; condition in 2007. to the wood fibres, and the boring studied is exposed on it. The overall thickness of the sample is approximately Arnager Bay (Figure 2). It originates from the outcrop 25 mm, and it consists of three zones, listed here from studied in great detail by Surlyk, Milan, and Noe- interior to exterior: 7 to 14 mm intact wood; a fissure of 2- Nygaard (2008), which exposes the Berriasian Skyttegård 3 mm width; some 10 mm of unstructured coaly matter, Member of the Rabekke Formation. The location is situ- obviously representing the bark. ated some 500 m east of Madsegrav or 1300 m east of The inner side of the smaller (internal) is slightly the harbour of Arnager, Bornholm (Denmark). convex, bearing a knothole about 40 mm long. The At the time of recovery, the wood consistency was opposite side shows a nearly plain surface with intact mushroom-like. In order to prevent destruction owing wood. Here, the trace fossil described is pronounced to shrinkage, the specimen was slowly air-dried in by the curvature of wood fibres. ICHNOS 3 fissures as partial breaking of the stem may be due to storm damage, or secondly, the split may have occurred during embedment. It is therefore unclear whether a tracemaker took advantage of an accidental situation, or whether this is just a fortunate find facili- tated by a special taphonomic situation. In any way, a series of somewhat radial side branches has arisen from a common longitudinal tun- nel bored close to the bark, parallel to the vascu- lar elements. Systematic position of the producer Figure 4. Schematic sketch of the sample prior to fossilization (part of the thinner piece graphically removed to indicate the Among the numerous modern wood borers of various position of the boring). systematic attribution, few produce a boring pattern containing repeated rectangular branching. These few The inner surface of the larger piece corresponds belong to the Siricidae (wood wasps) and two families to its smaller counterpart just described. The exterior of beetles, the Scolytidae (bark beetles) and exhibits an intensely coalified film, which includes a Platypodidae (pinhole borers, sometimes just consid- larger “knot”. Parts of the exterior lack regular fibres ered a subfamily of Scolytidae, but see e.g., Poinar, and can be interpreted as bark remnant as well. The Vega, and Legalov 2018). knot is rounded, 9.4 mm in diameter; it height is The larvae of some wood wasps (Siricidae: 3 mm. Convexity of the knot out of the stem (Figure Urocerus) produce a pattern similar to the studied 3) suggests that the thinner piece largely represents specimen, i.e. with slightly bent tunnels running radi- inner parts of the wood. If this had contact to the ally at some distance, but they are club-shaped (e.g. bark at all, then only along its thin edge. Schwenke 1974; Brauns 1991) and thus quite different. Despite an overall morphological similarity of the Description of the boring borings, most modern Scolytidae can be excluded, based on the usually tangential orientation as well as The boring resembles a rake or two E letters placed atop details of their boring pattern: Side branches made by of each other (Figures 4 and 5). It is filled with a homo- modern Scolytidae exhibit an elongated club shape genous mass of a coaly substance randomly mixed with instead of the identical diameter seen here, they small pyrite aggregates. A 30 mm long axial tunnel is pre- branch off at a very close distance, and/or they are served on the outer edge of the wood specimen with more or less strongly curved rather than straight (e.g. approximately half its original diameter of 1.6 mm. It Ratzeburg 1837; Vite 1953; Schwenke 1974; Brauns more or less follows the course of the wood fibres, but it is 1991). The diameter of the side branch in these cases irregularly bent and slightly sinuous.