Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:18:53.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Arthropod trackways from the Early Devonian of South Wales: a functional analysis of producers and their behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2003

A. SMITH
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
S. J. BRADDY
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
S. B. MARRIOTT
Affiliation:
School of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK
D. E. G. BRIGGS
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Queen's Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK

Abstract

Abundant arthropod trackways, assigned to Diplichnites gouldi, are described from the Lower Old Red Sandstone (Early Devonian; Lochkovian) of Pant-y-Maes quarry, Brecon Beacons, South Wales. The trackways are preserved on bedding planes of finely laminated planar and rippled siltstones. The sedimentology of the succession indicates that these units represent bar top and marginal deposits in a braided fluvial setting. Two trackway types are recognized (Type A and B); comparisons with contemporaneous myriapodous producers favour kampecarid and eoarthropleurid myriapods, respectively. Functional analysis of the trackways indicates that the producers were not using the most efficient, stable, walking techniques, but instead utilized in-phase ‘swimming stroke’-like gaits. Together with their occurrence on rippled surfaces, and lateral displacement of some trackways (attributed to currents), this indicates that they were produced sub-aqueously.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)