Katbergia gen. nov., a new trace fossil from Upper Permian and Lower Triassic rocks of the Karoo Basin: implications for palaeoenvironmental conditions at the P/Tr extinction event

51 1 January 215 229 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2007.00743.x

GASTALDO, R. A., ROLERSON, M. W. 2008. Katbergia gen. nov., a new trace fossil from Upper Permian and Lower Triassic rocks of the Karoo Basin: implications for palaeoenvironmental conditions at the P/Tr extinction event. Palaeontology, 51, 1, 215–229.

Robert A. Gastaldo and Marcy W. Rolerson A new ichnogenus and ichnospecies of burrow, Katbergia carltonichnus, are described from Upper Permian and Lower Triassic rocks of the Karoo Basin, South Africa, where they are preserved in pedogenically modified overbank deposits that are interpreted as inceptisols subsequently gleysol overprinted. Sigmoidal burrows consist of a long (>= 0.5 m) cylindrical tube, ranging from 1–2 cm in diameter, terminating in a slightly larger living chamber. The burrows are unlined and passively filled, preserving a hierarchy of scratch patterns on the burrow walls. Scratch patterns include longitudinal, transverse, and crescent-shaped markings found around the circumference of the burrow, but which are less densely concentrated on the burrow floor. Calcareous concretions are associated with burrowed siltstone intervals, generally restricted to the lowermost decimetre, with nodules nucleating around burrows. Stable delta 13C and delta18O isotope data on calcite cement in the burrow fill, entombing siltstone, and associated calcareous nodules all cluster together when plotted, indicating that nodule formation occurred following burrow horizon abandonment and a rise in regional water table. Isotopic data reflect calcite precipitation under a semi-closed system in saturated conditions. A model for burrow emplacement, abandonment and infill, and subsequent cementation by calcite is presented demonstrating that previous interpretations of Late Permian and Early Triassic palaeosol types associated with the P/Tr extinction event must be re-evaluated.
  • ALF, R. M. 1968. A spider trackway from the Coconino Formation, Seligman, Arizona. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 67, 125–128.
  • ARISTOV, D. S. 2004. The fauna of grylloblattid insects (Grylloblattida) from the end of the Late Permian to the first half of the Triassic. Paleontological Journal, 38, 514–521.
  • BABCOCK, L. E., MILLER, M. F., ISBELL, J. L., COLLINSON, J. W. and HASIOTIS, S. T. 1998. Paleozoic–Mesozoic crayfish from Antarctica; earliest evidence of freshwater decapod crustaceans. Geology, 26, 539–542.
  • BOWN, T. M. 1982. Ichnofossils and rhizoliths of the nearshore fluvial Jebel Qatrani Formation (Oligocene), Fayum Province, Egypt. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 40, 255–309.
  • BOWN, T. M. and KRAUS, M. J. 1983. Ichnofossils of the alluvial Willwood Formation (Lower Eocene), Bighorn Basin, northwest Wyoming, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 43, 95–128.
  • BRYSON, H. R. 1939. The identification of soil insects by their burrow characteristics. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 42, 245–253.
  • CATUNEANU, O., HANCOX, P. J. and RUBIDGE, B. S. 1998. Reciprocal flexural behaviour and contrasting stratigraphies. A new basin development model for the Karoo retroarc foreland system, South Africa. Basin Research, 10, 417–438.
  • CLARK, G. R., II and RATCLIFFE, B. C. 1989. Observations on the tunnel morphology of Heterocerus brunneus Melsheimer (Coleoptera; Heteroceridae) and its paleoecological significance. Journal of Paleontology, 63, 228–232.
  • CRAIG, H. 1957. Isotopic standards for carbon and oxygen and correction factors for mass-spectrometric analysis of carbon dioxide. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 12, 133–149.
  • CRANDALL, K. A., HARRIS, D. J. and FETZNER, J. W., Jr 2000. The monophyletic origin of freshwater crayfish estimated from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 267, 1679–1686.
  • ERWIN, D. H. 1994. The Permo-Triassic extinction. 20–36. In SCHOLLE, P. A., PERYT, T. M. and ULMER-SCHOLLE, D. S. (eds). The Permian of northern Pangea, Volume 1. Paleogeography, paleoclimates, stratigraphy. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 468 pp.
  • FREY, R. W., CURRAN, H. A. and PEMBERTON, S. G. 1984. Tracemaking activities of crabs and their environmental significance. The ichnogenus Psilonichnus. Journal of Paleontology, 58, 333–350.
  • GASTALDO, R. A. 1992. Regenerative growth in fossil horsetails (Calamites) following burial by alluvium. Historical Biology, 6, 203–220.
  • GASTALDO, R. A., ADENDORFF, R., BAMFORD, M., LABANDEIRA, C. C., NEVELING, J. and SIMS, H. 2005. Taphonomic trends of macrofloral assemblages across the Permian-Triassic boundary, Karoo Basin, South Africa. Palaios, 20, 479–497.
  • GASTALDO, R. A., DEMKO, T. M., LIU, Y., KEEFER, W. D. and ABSTON, S. L. 1989. Biostratinomic processes for the development of mud-cast logs in Carboniferous and Holocene swamps. Palaios, 4, 356–365.
  • GONFIANTINI, R. 1978. Standards for stable isotope measurements in natural compounds. Nature, 271, 534–536.
  • GRAY, S. W., NEVELING, J. and GASTALDO, R. A. 2004. Search for the elusive Permian–Triassic “laminites” in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Program, 36 (5), 74.
  • GROW, L. 1981. Burrowing behaviour in the crayfish, Cambarus diogenes diogenes (Girard). Animal Behaviour, 29, 351–356.
  • HASIOTIS, S. T. 2002. Where is the fossil evidence for Gondwanan crayfish? Gondwana Research, 5, 872–878.
  • HASIOTIS, S. T. and MITCHELL, C. E. 1993. A comparison of crayfish burrow morphologies. Triassic and Holocene fossil, paleo- and neo-ichnological evidence, and the identification of their burrowing signatures. Ichnos, 2, 291–314.
  • JOHNSON, M. R., VAN VUUREN, C. J., VISSER, J. N. J., COLE, D. I., WICKENS, H. de V., CHRISTIE, A. D. M. and ROBERTS, D. L. 1997. The foreland Karoo Basin, South Africa. 169–185. In SELLEY, R. C. (ed.). Sedimentary basins of the World. Elsevier, New York, NY, 394 pp.
  • LAWRENCE, C. S. 2001. Morphology and incidence of Yabby (Cherax albidus) burrows in Western Australia. Fisheries Research Report of Western Australia, 129, 1–26.
  • MACK, G. H., JAMES, W. C. and MONGER, H. C. 1993. Classification of paleosols. Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 105, 129–136.
  • MacLEOD, K. G., SMITH, R. M. H., KOCH, P. L. and WARD, P. G. 2000. Timing of mammal-like reptile extinctions across the Permian-Triassic boundary in South Africa. Geology, 25, 227–230.
  • MACSOTAY, O. 1967. Huellas problematicas y su valor paleoecologico en Venezuela. GEOS, 16, 7–79.
  • MILLER, M. F., HASIOTIS, S. T., BABCOCK, L. E., ISBELL, J. L. and COLLINSON, J. W. 2001. Tetrapod and large burrows of uncertain origin in Triassic high paleolatitude floodplain deposits, Antarctica. Palaios, 16, 218–232.
  • MUNIZ, F. and MAYORAL, E. 2001. Macanopsis plataniformis nov. ichnosp. from the Lower Cretaceous and Upper Miocene of the Iberian Peninsula. Geobios, 34, 91–98.
  • NESBITT, E. A. and CAMPBELL, K. A. 2006. The paleoenvironmental significance of Psilonichnus. Palaios, 21, 187–196.
  • PACE, D. W., DESJARDIN, D., MASTERS, L. B., ROLERSON, M. W., WEEKS, S. S., GASTALDO, R. A. and NEVELING, J. 2005. Characteristics of Early Triassic fluvial systems in the Karoo Basin – Carlton Heights. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Program, 37 (7), 139.
  • PONOMARENKO, A. G. and MOSTOVSKI, M. B. 2005. New beetles (Insecta. Coleoptera) from the Late Permian of South Africa. African Invertebrates, 46, 253–260.
  • RETALLACK, G. J. 1979. Middle Triassic megafossil plants and trace fossils from Tank Gully, Canterbury, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 10, 31–63.
  • RETALLACK, G. J., SMITH, R. M. H. and WARD, P. D. 2003. Vertebrate extinction across Permian-Triassic boundary in Karoo Basin, South Africa. Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 115, 1133–1152.
  • SMITH, R. M. H. 1995. Changing fluvial environments across the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo basin, S. Africa and possible causes of tetrapod extinctions. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 117, 81–104.
  • SMITH, R. M. H. and BOTHA, J. 2005. The recovery of terrestrial vertebrate diversity in the South African Karoo Basin after the end-Permian extinction. Compte Rendu Palevol, 4, 555–568.
  • SMITH, R. M. H. and WARD, P. D. 2001. Pattern of vertebrate extinction across an event bed at the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Geology, 29, 1147–1150.
  • SMITH, R. M. H. ERIKSSON, P. G. and BOTHA, W. J. 1993. A review of the stratigraphy and sedimentary environments of the Karoo-aged basins of South Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 16, 143–169.
  • STEINER, J. B., ESHET, Y., RAMPINO, M. R. and SCHWINDT, D. M. 2003. Fungal abundance spike and the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Supergroup (South Africa). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 194, 405–414.
  • TABOR, N. J., MONTANEZ, I. P., STEINER, M. B. and SCHWINDT, D. 2007. δ13C values of carbonate nodules across the Permian-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Supergroup (South Africa) reflect a stinking sulfurous swamp, not atmospheric CO2. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 252, 370–381.
  • VEEVERS, J. J., COLE, D. I. and COWAN, E. J. 1994. Southern Africa; Karoo Basin and Cape fold belt. 223–279. In VEEVERS, J. J. and POWELL, C. MCA. (eds), Permian–Triassic Pangean basins and foldbelts along the Panthalassan margin of Gondwanaland. Geological Society of America, Memoir, 184, 368 pp.
  • WARD, P. D., MONTGOMERY, D. R. and SMITH, R. M. H. 2000. Altered river morphology in South Africa related to the Permian-Triassic extinction. Science, 289, 1740–1743.
  • WARD, P. D., BOTHA, J., BUICK, R., DEKOCK, M. O., ERWIN, D. H., GARRISON, G., KIRSCHVINK, J. and SMITH, R. H. M. 2005. Abrupt and gradual extinction among Late Permian land vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Science, 307, 709–714.
Wiley Online Library