|
Invertebrates: Trace Fossil X: Informal classification: "fucoids" |
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
Written by Keith Minor
|
|
"Fucoids" 
Remarks - Picture taken by: Keith Minor
- Formation: Washita Group, Duck Creek Formation
- Location: Tarrant County, Texas
These intriguing features in the Texas Cretaceous have been referred by collectors to everything from plant related structures to "stag horn" coral. -
They look like tree roots, but they're probably some sort of burrow, possibly crustacean in origin. -
Perkins refers to these as "fucoids" and has a brief discussion on the possible origin of these trace fossils (1960, Fort Worth and Duck Creek Formations, ref below). -
Fucoides is actually a catchall genus and includes a wide range of branching trace fossils of varying origin and dimensions, including the Chondrites spp. shown on the site, and is therefore a nonsystematic term. -
We've seen some incredible examples but keep forgetting break out the camera. We'll get more images soon. A grasshopper was kind enough to serve as scale for the image below. Thanks so much!
General Info Synonyms (older names and misidentifications in the literature) Stratigraphic Occurrence - Found throughout the Cretaceous
Age - "Fucoids" are found throughout the Cretaceous
Geographic Occurrence (by no means an all-inclusive list) Remarks For identification and descriptions, see: - Hass, W. H.; Häntzschel, W.; Fisher, D. W.; Howell, B. F.; Rhodes, F. H. T.; Müller, K. J.; Moore, R. C. 1962. "Part W. Miscellanea (Conodonts, Conoidal Shells of Uncertain Affinities, Worms, Trace Fossils, and Problematica)". In: Moore, R. C., ed. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. New York and Lawrence: Geological Society of America and University of Kansas Press, W193.
- Perkins, B. F. 1960. Biostratigraphic Studies in the Comanche (Cretaceous) Series of Northern Mexico and Texas. Geological Society of America, Memoir 83, 26; plate 9, fig's 2 and 3 and plate 10, fig's 1 and 2.
|
|
Last Updated ( Sunday, 13 January 2008 )
|
