Trace fossils from the Desejosa Formation (Schist and Greywacke Complex, Douro Group, NE Portugal) : new Cambrian age constraints

Trace fossils from a new locality in the Desejosa Formation, Freixo de Espada a Cinta area, northeast Portugal, are described, including Teichichnus rectus and the first Cambrian record from Iberia of the ichnogenus Rosselia , identified as R. cf. socialis . A literary review of the Cambrian record of Rosselia reveals no occurrences older than Cambrian Age 3. The occurrence of Rosselia in the Desejosa Formation therefore adds evidence to that of earlier reports on trilobite remains from the upper part of the Desejosa Formation for a Cambrian age of this unit. Both Rosselia and Teichichnus are zindicative of the Cruziana ichnofacies, which is representative of a shallow-marine depositional environment, consistent with earlier interpretations for the depositional conditions of the upper part of the Desejosa Formation in this sector, and in the equivalent Cambrian units in Spain.

[1]  J. Gibert,et al.  Bow-shaped, concentrically laminated polychaete burrows: A Cylindrichnus concentricus ichnofabric from the Miocene of Tarragona, NE Spain , 2013 .

[2]  Í. C. D. Silva.  Geología de las zonas Centro Ibérica y Galicia – Trás-Os-Montes en la parte oriental del Complejo de Morais, Portugal/España , 2013 .

[3]  L. Buatois,et al.  Exploring the aftermath of the Cambrian explosion: The evolutionary significance of marginal- to shallow-marine ichnofaunas of Jordan , 2013 .

[4]  R. Hofmann,et al.  Paleoecologic and Biostratigraphic Significance of Trace Fossils from Shallow- to Marginal-Marine Environments from the Middle Cambrian (Stage 5) of Jordan , 2012 .

[5]  L. Lopes,et al.  North-Gondwana assembly, break-up and paleogeography: U–Pb isotope evidence from detrital and igneous zircons of Ediacaran and Cambrian rocks of SW Iberia , 2012 .

[6]  D. Bottjer,et al.  LOWER CAMBRIAN ANEMONE BURROWS FROM THE UPPER MEMBER OF THE WOOD CANYON FORMATION, DEATH VALLEY REGION, UNITED STATES: PALEOECOLOGICAL AND PALEOENVIRONMENTAL SIGNIFICANCE , 2012 .

[7]  M. Chichorro,et al.  The provenance of Late Ediacaran and Early Ordovician siliciclastic rocks in the Southwest Central Iberian Zone: constraints from detrital zircon data on northern Gondwana margin evolution during the late Neoproterozoic , 2012 .

[8]  L. Buatois,et al.  Stratigraphy and sedimentary environments of the Lower Cambrian Gog Group in the southern Rocky Mountains of Western Canada: Transgressive sandstones on a broad continental margin , 2010 .

[9]  Patricio R. Desjardins,et al.  Skolithos pipe rock and associated ichnofabrics from the southern Rocky Mountains, Canada: colonization trends and environmental controls in an early Cambrian sand-sheet complex , 2010 .

[10]  Revised biochronology of the Lower Cambrian of the Central Iberian zone, southern Iberian massif, Spain – CORRIGENDUM , 2010, Geological Magazine.

[11]  S. Jensen,et al.  Revised biochronology of the Lower Cambrian of the Central Iberian zone, southern Iberian massif, Spain , 2010, Geological Magazine.

[12]  S. Jensen,et al.  A new species of Cloudina from the terminal Ediacaran of Spain , 2010 .

[13]  F. Colombo.  Geología de España , 2007 .

[14]  Masakazu Haga,et al.  The youngest record of trace fossil Rosselia socialis: Occurrence in the Holocene shallow marine deposits of Japan , 2007 .

[15]  R. MacNaughton.  The Application of Trace Fossils to Biostratigraphy , 2007 .

[16]  E. Mayoral,et al.  Iconography : Trace and soft body fossils from the Pedroche Formation (Ovetian, Lower Cambrian of the Sierra de Córdoba, S Spain) and their relation to the Pedroche event , 2006 .

[17]  A. A. Sá,et al.  Unidades litoestratigráficas do Ordovícico da região de trás-os-Montes (Zona Centro-Ibérica, Portugal) , 2005 .

[18]  Claudio di Girólamo,et al.  Escala 1:1 , 2005 .

[19]  G. Aceñolaza,et al.  Caracteres estratigráficos e icnológicos de la Formación Candelaria (Cambro-Ordovícico) aflorante en el NE de la Provincia de Tucumán , 2003 .

[20]  W. Gibbons,et al.  The Geology of Spain , 2003 .

[21]  S. Jensen.  The Proterozoic and Earliest Cambrian Trace Fossil Record; Patterns, Problems and Perspectives1 , 2003, Integrative and comparative biology.

[22]  E. Mayoral,et al.  The Cambrian of the Iberian Peninsula: An overview , 2003 .

[23]  P. Donoghue,et al.  Ordovician from the Andes , 2003 .

[24]  C. Coke,et al.  Reappraisal of the Ordovician stratigraphy and paleontology of Trás-os-Montes (Central–Iberian Zone, NE Portugal) , 2003 .

[25]  Michael Schlirf,et al.  Invertebraten-Spurenfossilien aus dem Taunusquarzit (Siegen, Unterdevon) von der "Rossel" nahe Rüdesheim , 2002 .

[26]  C. Coke,et al.  Braquiópodos Linguliformea del Ordovícico Inferior de la Serra do Marão (Zona Centroibérica, N de Portugal) , 2001 .

[27]  A. A. Ekdale.  Trace Fossils from the Lower Cambrian Mickwitzia Sandstone, South-Central Sweden, (Trace Fossils 42), Sören Jensen. Scandinavian University Press, Berlin (1997), paperback, 111 pp., US$32.00, ISBN: 82-00-37665-6 , 1998 .

[28]  J. Moseley,et al.  The Proterozoic–Cambrian transition within the ‘Charnian Supergroup’ of central England and the antiquity of the Ediacara fauna , 1998, Journal of the Geological Society.

[29]  Masakazu Nara.  High-resolution analytical method for event sedimentation using Rosselia socialis , 1997 .

[30]  R. Goldring.  The sedimentological significance of concentrically laminated burrows from Lower Cretaceous Ca-bentonites, Oxfordshire , 1996, Journal of the Geological Society.

[31]  A. Uchman,et al.  Trace fossils from Lower Miocene (Ottnangian) molasse deposits of Upper Austria , 1995 .

[32]  Masakazu Nara.  Rosselia socialis: a dwelling structure of a probable terebellid polychaete , 1995 .

[33]  Teodoro Palacios Medrano,et al.  El Cámbrico Medio de la Sierra de Córdoba (Ossa-Morena, S de España): trilobites y paleoicnología. Implicaciones bioestratigráficas y paleoambientales , 1995 .

[34]  J. E. Viruete,et al.  Tectonothermal evolution associated with Variscan crustal extension in the Tormes Gneiss Dome (NW Salamanca, Iberian Massif, Spain) , 1994 .

[35]  G. Vidal,et al.  Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian geology and palaeontology of Iberia , 1994, Geological Magazine.

[36]  S. Jensen,et al.  Neoproterozoic (Vendian) ichnofossils from Lower Alcudian strata in central Spain , 1994, Geological Magazine.

[37]  R. D. Dallmeyer,et al.  Pre-Mesozoic Geology of Iberia , 1991 .

[38]  S. Orłowski.  Trace fossils in the Lower Cambrian sequence in the Swietokrzyskie Mountains, Central Poland , 1989 .

[39]  T. Crimes.  Trace fossils and correlation of late Precambrian and early Cambrian strata , 1987, Geological Magazine.

[40]  M. A. D. Balda.  El Complejo esquisto-grauváquico, las series paleozóicas y la estructura hercínica al sur de Salamanca , 1986 .

[41]  R. W. Frey,et al.  TRACE FOSSILS FROM THE PANTHER MEMBER, STAR POINT FORMATION (UPPER CRETACEOUS), COAL CREEK CANYON, UTAH , 1985 .

[42]  M. Sousa.  Consideracoes sobre a estratigrafía do complexo Xisto-Grauváquico (CXG) e sua relacao com o paleozoico inferior. , 1984 .

[43]  C. Downie.  Lower Cambrian acritarchs from Scotland, Norway, Greenland and Canada , 1982, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences.

[44]  A. Cooper,et al.  The lower Ordovician stratigraphy of the Dornes - Figueiro dos Vinhos area, central Portugal, with descriptions of Merostomichnites ichnosp. and Rosselia socialis : two previously unrecorded trace fossils , 1982 .

[45]  A. Perejón,et al.  Discovery of an important fossiliferous Precambian - Cambrian sequence in Spain , 1979 .